English Literature in the Restoration Age

William C. Harmon and C. Hugh Holman provide us with this definition of the term “neoclassicism”: “The term for the classicism that dominated English literature in the Restoration Age and in the eighteenth century ... Against the Renaissance idea of limitless human potentiality was opposed a view of humankind as limited, dualistic, imperfect; on the intensity of human responses were imposed a reverence for order and a delight in reason and rules; the burgeoning of imagination into new and strange worlds was countered by a distrust of innovation and invention ... Artistic ideals prized order, concentration, economy, utility, logic, restrained emotion, accuracy, correctness, good taste, and decorum. A sense of symmetry, a delight in design, and a view of art as centered on humanity, and the belief that literature should be judged according to its service to humanity resulted in the seeking of proportion, unity, harmony, and grace in literary expressions that aimed to delight, instruct, and correct human beings, primarily as social animals. It was the great age of the essay, of the letter and epistle, of satire, or moral instruction, of parody, and of burlesque. The play of mind mattered more than the play of feeling, with the results that a polite, urbane, witty, intellectual art developed. Poetic diction and imagery tended to become conventional, with detail subordinated to design. The appeal to the intellect resulted in a fondness for wit and the production of satire in both verse and prose. A tendency to realism marked the presentation of life with stress on the generic qualities of men and women. Literature exalted form and avoided obscurity and mystery ... Didactic literature flourished.” (Definition excerpt taken from Dr. Kaufman’s Final Essay Syllabus.)
The works of Dryden, Pepy, Swift, and Behn exhibit qualities of order, clarity, and stylistic creations that were formulated in the major critical writings of the time period, which represents the Neoclassical