and ends up (adventures later) prosperous and penitent. Colonel Jack’s career has a
similar pattern. Less prosperous is the end of Roxana, a courtesan who refuses
marriage. Captain Singleton is a mercenary whose chaotic adventures make him a
fortune. Pluck plus penitence leads to success.Cross-currents
The Christianity of 18th-century literature may go unnoticed. Pope hid his
Catholicism, but Nonconformity could be expressed unequivocally, as in Isaac Watts
(1674–1748), author of such excellent hymns as ‘O God our help in ages past’ and
‘When I surve y the wondrous cross’. Congregational hymn-singing was adopted by
the Anglican John Wesley (1703–1791) in his mission to the unchurched poor; his
Methodists eventually left the established Church. Wesley was much influenced in
youth by A Serious Call to a Dev out and Holy Life by William Law (1686–1761), who
re fused the oath of allegiance to George I and resigned his Cambridge fellowship,
becoming tutor to the father of Edward Gibbon. Law’s emphasis on private prayer
also influenced Samuel Johnson.
Johnson was to include Watts in the Lives of the Poets:hymns are poems.
Literature included religion, ancient history and other non-fiction. Despite the
fictional fireworks of the 1740s, the novel long remained a low form of the
romance, given to indecorum and realism. Ladies might write romances, as in The
Fe male Quixote (1752) by Charlotte Lennox (1720–1804), but no lady wrote a
novel before Evelina (1778) by Fanny Burney (1752–1840). Her friend Hester
Thrale, an omnivorous reader, owned thousands of books, but few novels. Once,
when depressed, she wrote: ‘No books would take off my attention from present
misery, but an old French translation of Quintus Curtius – and Josephus’s History
of the Siege of Jerusalem. Romance and novels did nothing for me: I tried them all
in vain.’Samuel Richardson
Samuel Richardson (1689–1761) was a printer -publisher-bookseller-author.
Courtesy books on how to behave in society included letter-writing: the thank-you
letter, the condolence. Richardson wrote sample ‘familiar letters’ for more complex200 6 · AUGUSTAN LITERATURE: TO 1790
Events 1745–89
1746 Jacobites crushed at Culloden, near Inverness, in the north of Scotland
1752 Britain changes to the Gregorian Calendar
1756 William Pitt becomes Prime Minister. The Seven Years War with France begins
1760 Accession of George III
1763 The Seven Years War ends, with Britain victorious. Wilkes freedom riots
1773 The Boston Tea Party
1775 American War of Independence begins
1776 American Declaration of Independence
1780 Anti-Catholic Gordon Riots
1783 Britain recognizes American independence. Pitt the Younger becomes Prime Minister
1789 French Revolution