English Literature: Week 16

Absalom and Achitophel, sel., pp. 321-2.
"Mac Flecknoe", sel., p. 322. This poem, as you will discover, is a scathing personal attack on one of Dryden's contemporaries and rivals, Thomas Shadwell. If you're interested, you can read more of "Mac Flecknoe" here at the Poetry Archives site or in a linked edition here at the University of Toronto.
"To the Memory of Mr. Oldham" (Read this here from the Poetry Archives site.)

Those who come to this course by way of Western Literature to Dante (formerly English I) might also be interested to know that John Dryden was also highly regarded as a translator. His translation of Vergil's Aeneid (available here in several formats through the University of Pennsylvania) was the standard English version for many generations, and his translation of Plutarch's Parallel Lives, available here at the MIT Classics Archive, is still commonly in use.

Samuel Pepys, Diary, sel., pp. 325-331.

Jonathan Swift:

"A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General", p. 334.
"A Description of a City Shower", pp. 335-6.
"A Modest Proposal", pp. 337-343.
A Voyage to Brobdignag, from Gulliver's Travels, pp. 344-356. For those who would like to read all or more of this remarkable book, a complete (and very well annotated) text of Gulliver's Travels is available here.

Daniel Defoe:

"The Education of Women", p. 372-375.
A Journal of the Plague Year, p. 414-418.

Defoe's books have not invariably won a lot of critical acclaim, but they have been extremely popular with readers since they were first published. Here you may read:

Richard Steele, from The Spectator, p. 358-361.

Joseph Addison, from The Spectator, p. 365-370.

Addison and Steele produced The Spectator from 1711 to 1712. Think of it as a kind of ancestor of the blogs. Both were extraordinary writers and superb stylists, though personally I like Addison a bit better. Here is the whole of The Spectator, with original formatting and capitalization, footnotes, and translation helps. Number 10 is one of my favorites, published after about two weeks of daily issues: you need to read carefully to catch the irony Addison is using, but it's worthwhile.

Macaulay, "The London Coffeehouses", pp. 361-364.

"Themes in English Literature: London", p. 371.

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