The 18th Century in England

A typical full dress coat and waistcoat on the 18th Century

The first half of the 18th century was remembered as “the Augustan age”, because classical outlook and imperial pretensions were modelled on those of ancient Rome under the Emperor Augustus. They like Romans for their Emperor and they tried to follow this style. British ruling class felt themselves as the true heirs of the Roman Empire and the British Parliament was considered the counterpart of the ancient Roman Senate. In poetry, architecture, painting and in other fields, Neoclassicism became a lifestyle. Artists such as Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift(the author of “Gulliver’s travels”) and William Hogarth shared a belief in reason as capable of imposing new orders in different fields. In architecture, an example of Neoclassicism is the “Chiswick House”, near London, that recall Palladio’s Villa Rotonda in Vicenza. It represents the feelings of that time: the man who controls and dominates nature, the man who is becoming a ruler, a sort of God and the man who is in the centre. It’s a great dream and the Romanticism will be the destruction of this dream. It recalls classical art for its perfection and its classical proportions. It has regularity(order), modularity(repetition of the same structure), symmetry, simplicity, perfection, harmony and equilibrium. It is a product of Calvinism(simplicity, work).
The 18th century in England was also characterized by modern phenomena such as the diffusion of diaries, newspapers, epistolary novels and novels. Novel became the most innovative genre of the century. In this period, a new idea of man spread: the idea of gentleman. This new kind of man followed the old Roman virtues, such as fortitude, perseverance and self-control. He was formed of some tracts typical of the aristocracy and some tracts typical of the Upper middle-class. No longer Whig or Tories, but a new kind of man. This man usually went to coffee house. This new man has new interests and he is a mix between cavaliers and round heads. With regard to women, upper-class women came to acquire a more central role. In fact, literary salons were important meeting places where ideas, literature and politics were discussed. Middle-class women were interested in education, in pressing books. Some women were merchants, some other were artisans, some other had a shop of oriental products(goods). Women received domestic education.

Fonte: Pavi92 https://myenglish.blogfree.net/