EXAM - English literature 2
The virtues he was seen to
extol (ülistas) were those considered the essence of any true-born Englishman. Campaign to commemorate
him in Westminster Abbey.
28. The Augustan attempts of canon formation
Putting together literary heritage. The Temple of British Worthies: Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Chaucer,
Spenser. Abandoning long held classical criteria of judgement, replaced with criteria judging the works of
their own merits. This movement summed up in the magisterial editions of Samuel Johnson, Prefaces
Biographical and Critical to the Works of the English Poets – milestone of literary history, poets placed into
political and social context of their age, attempting to relate their private lives to work. Had begun as
antiquarian quest into early literature, had major implications to contemporary writing, in effect loosening
and finally demolishing the Augustan canon.
29. The English landscape garden and the Augustan reappraisal of Nature