Caroline and Cromwellian Literature

Caroline and Cromwellian Literature

The turbulent years of the mid-17th century, during the reign of Charles I and the 

subsequent Commonwealth and Protectorate, saw a flourishing of political literature 

in English. Pamphlets written by sympathisers of every faction in the English civil 

war ran from vicious personal attacks and polemics, through many forms of 

propaganda, to high-minded schemes to reform the nation. Of the latter type, 

Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes would prove to be one of the most important works of 

British political philosophy. Hobbes's writings are some of the few political works 

from the era which are still regularly published while John Bramhall, who was 

Hobbes's chief critic, is largely forgotten. The period also saw a flourishing of news 

books, the precursors to the British newspaper, with journalists such as Henry 

Muddiman, Marchamont Needham, and John Birkenhead representing the views 

and activities of the contending parties. The frequent arrests of authors and the 

suppression of their works, with the consequence of foreign or underground printing, 

led to the proposal of a licensing system. The Areopagitica, a political pamphlet by 

John Milton, was written in opposition to licensing and is regarded as one of the 

most eloquent defenses of press freedom ever written.

Specifically in the reign of Charles I (1625 – 42), English Renaissance theatre

experienced its concluding efflorescence. The last works of Ben Jonson appeared on 

stage and in print, along with the final generation of major voices in the drama of the 

age: John Ford, Philip Massinger, James Shirley, and Richard Brome. With the 

closure of the theatres at the start of the English Civil War in 1642, drama was 

suppressed for a generation, to resume only in the altered society of the English 

Restoration in 1660.

Other forms of literature written during this period are usually ascribed political 

subtexts, or their authors are grouped along political lines. The cavalier poets, active 

mainly before the civil war, owed much to the earlier school of metaphysical poets. 

The forced retirement of royalist officials after the execution of Charles I was a good 

thing in the case of Izaak Walton, as it gave him time to work on his book The 

Compleat Angler. Published in 1653, the book, ostensibly a guide to fishing, is much 

more: a meditation on life, leisure, and contentment. The two most important poets 

of Oliver Cromwell's England were Andrew Marvell and John Milton, with both producing works praising the new government; such as Marvell's An Horatian Ode 

upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland. Despite their republican beliefs they escaped 

punishment upon the Restoration of Charles II, after which Milton wrote some of his 

greatest poetical works (with any possible political message hidden under allegory). 

Thomas Browne was another writer of the period; a learned man with an extensive 

library, he wrote prolifically on science, religion, medicine and the esoteric