oble method of these writers was said to have a classic style.
Later the term was enlarged to cover the great literary works of other
ancient nations; so that the Bible and the Avestas, as well as the Iliad
and the Aeneid, are called classics. (2) Every national literature has at
least one period in which an unusual number of great writers are producing
books, and this is called the classic period of a nation's literature. Thus
the reign of Augustus is the classic or golden age of Rome; the generation
of Dante is the classic age of Italian literature; the age of Louis XIV is
the French classic age; and the age of Queen Anne is often called the
classic age of England. (3) The word "classic" acquired an entirely
different meaning in the period we are studying; and we shall better
understand this by reference to the preceding ages. The Elizabethan writers
were led by patriotism, by enthusiasm, and, in general, by romantic
emotions. They wrote in a natural style, without regard to rules; and
though they exaggerated and used too many words, their works are delightful
because of their vigor and freshness and fine feeling. In the following age
patriotism had largely disappeared from politics and enthusiasm from
literature. Poets no longer wrote naturally, but artificially, with strange
and fantastic verse forms to give effect, since fine feeling was wanting.
And this is the general character of the poetry of the Puritan Age.[185]
Gradually our writers rebelled against the exaggerations of both the
natural and the fantastic style. They demanded that poetry should follow
exact rules; and in this they were influenced by French writers, especially
by Boileau and Rapin, who insisted on precise methods of writing poetry,
and who professed to have discovered their rules in the classics of Horace
and Aristotle. In our study of the Elizabethan drama we noted the good
influence of the classic movement in insisting upon that beauty of form and
definiteness of expression which characterize the dramas of Greece and
Rome; and in the work of Dryden and his followers we see a revival of
classicism in the effort to make English literature conform to rules
established by the great writers of other nations. At first the results
were excellent, especially in prose; but as the creative vigor of the
Elizabethans was lacking in this age, writing by rule soon developed a kind
of elegant formalism, which suggests the elaborate social code of the time.
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