Augustan Age
Quick Summary
The Augustan Age in English literature, primarily the 18th century, is characterized by a focus on classical ideals, reason, and order, drawing inspiration from the Roman Augustan Age. Writers like Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison, and John Dryden flourished during this period. Their works often explored themes of satire, wit, and social commentary, emphasizing clarity, balance, and decorum in style. This era valued reason and restraint over intense emotion, reflecting a broader cultural shift towards Enlightenment principles. The period is also noted for its significant contributions to prose and poetry, shaping the course of English literary history.1
Ask Britannica AI about this topic
Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.
Sir Richard SteeleEarly life and works.…he published in 1701 a moralistic tract, “The Christian Hero,” of which 10 editions were sold in his lifetime. This tract led to Steele’s being accused of hypocrisy and mocked for the contrast between his austere precepts and his genially convivial practice. For many of his contemporaries, however, its polite…
Read More…he published in 1701 a moralistic tract, “The Christian Hero,” of which 10 editions were sold in his lifetime. This tract led to Steele’s being accused of hypocrisy and mocked for the contrast between his austere precepts and his genially convivial practice. For many of his contemporaries, however, its polite…
Read More
Edmund Waller…century along with that of Augustan poetry in general. His technical achievement in leading away from the dense verse of the Metaphysical poets lies in his incorporation of wit more related to rational judgment and in his replacement of Metaphysical poetry’s dramatic immediacy, argumentative structure, and ethical seriousness with generalizing…
Read More…century along with that of Augustan poetry in general. His technical achievement in leading away from the dense verse of the Metaphysical poets lies in his incorporation of wit more related to rational judgment and in his replacement of Metaphysical poetry’s dramatic immediacy, argumentative structure, and ethical seriousness with generalizing…
Read More
- Augustan Age
…from the creation to the Augustan Age, was the last great writer of the Golden Age; his death in exile in ad 17 marked the close of the period.
Read More…from the creation to the Augustan Age, was the last great writer of the Golden Age; his death in exile in ad 17 marked the close of the period.
Read More 
fable, parable, and allegoryModern period…of the Enlightenment in the 18th century could be expressed coolly and without ambiguity—and thus there was little need for spiritual allegory in the period’s literature. Oblique symbolism was used mainly for satiric purposes. John Dryden and Alexander Pope were masters of verse satire, Jonathan Swift of prose satire. Voltaire…
Read More…of the Enlightenment in the 18th century could be expressed coolly and without ambiguity—and thus there was little need for spiritual allegory in the period’s literature. Oblique symbolism was used mainly for satiric purposes. John Dryden and Alexander Pope were masters of verse satire, Jonathan Swift of prose satire. Voltaire…
Read More
biography17th and 18th centuriesThe last half of the 18th century witnessed the remarkable conjunction of these two remarkable men, from which sprang what is generally agreed to be the world’s supreme biography, Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. (1791). Dr. Johnson, literary dictator of his age, critic and lexicographer…
Read MoreThe last half of the 18th century witnessed the remarkable conjunction of these two remarkable men, from which sprang what is generally agreed to be the world’s supreme biography, Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. (1791). Dr. Johnson, literary dictator of his age, critic and lexicographer…
Read More
comedySentimental comedy of the 17th and 18th centuriesThe next step in the process came when Sir Richard Steele, bent on reforming comedy for didactic purposes, produced The Conscious Lovers (1722) and provided the English stage with an occasion when the audience at a comedy could derive its chief pleasure not from laughing but…
Read MoreThe next step in the process came when Sir Richard Steele, bent on reforming comedy for didactic purposes, produced The Conscious Lovers (1722) and provided the English stage with an occasion when the audience at a comedy could derive its chief pleasure not from laughing but…
Read More
literatureLiterary language(The so-called Augustan plain style in literature became popular in the late 17th century and flourished throughout the 18th, but it was really a special form of rhetoric with antecedent models in Greek and Latin.) The first person to write major works of literature in the ordinary…
Read More(The so-called Augustan plain style in literature became popular in the late 17th century and flourished throughout the 18th, but it was really a special form of rhetoric with antecedent models in Greek and Latin.) The first person to write major works of literature in the ordinary…
Read More- prosodyThe 18th century
Early in the 18th century, Pope affirmed in his Essay on Criticism (1711) the classic doctrine of imitation. Prosody was to be more nearly onomatopoetic; the movement of sound and metre should represent the actions they carry:
Read MoreEarly in the 18th century, Pope affirmed in his Essay on Criticism (1711) the classic doctrine of imitation. Prosody was to be more nearly onomatopoetic; the movement of sound and metre should represent the actions they carry:
Read More