JACOBEAN & CAROLINE (prose) 

  1. This period was rich in prose. The great writers were Bacon, Burton, Milton, Sir Thomas Browne, Jeremy Taylor and Clarendon.

  2. English prose had been formed into a harmonious and pliable instrument by the Elizabethans.

  3. Now Prose began to be needed in various ways.

  4. It was used as a narrative and as a vehicle for philosophical speculation and Scientific knowledge.

  5. For the first time, the great scholars began to write in English rather than Latin.

  6. The Authorised Version of the Bible (English Translation of the Bible) had a great influence during this period.

  7. As a result, the scholars wrote in a forceful, simple and pure Anglo-Saxon tongue.

  8. They avoided all that was rough and affected.

  9. The Bible became a supreme example of Earlier English Prose-style - simple, plain and natural. 

A - Francis Bacon

  1. Francis Bacon (1561-1628) Bacon belongs both to the Elizabethan age and Jacobean periods.

  2. He was a lawyer possessing great intellectual gifts 

  3. Ben Jonson wrote of him, "No man ever coughed or turned aside from him without a loss."

  4. As a prose writer, he is the master of aphoristic style.

  5. He had the style of compressing his wisdom in epigrams. 

  6. It contains the quintessence of his rich experience of life in a most concentrated form.

  7. His style is clear, and lucid but terse. This is why one has to make an effort to understand his meanings.

  8. It lacks spaciousness, case and rhythm. The reader has always to be alert, because each sentence is packed with meaning.

  9. Bacon is best known for his Essays! In his Essays, he has given his views about the art of managing men and getting on successfully in life.

  10. They may be considered as a kind of manual for Statements and princes.

  11. The tone of the Essay is that of a worldly man, who wants to secure material success and prosperity.

  12. Besides the Essays, Bacon wrote Henry III. This was the first piece of scientific history in English. Language.

  13. His Advancement of Learning is a brilliant popular exposition of the cause of scientific investigation

  14.  He popularized science through his writing.

B - Robert Burton

  1. Robert Burton (1677-1640) Burton was known for his work, "The Anatomy of Melancholy."

  2. It is a book of its own type in the English Language. In it, he has described and analyzed human melancholy.

  3. He has also described its effect and prescribed its cure. 

  4. This book deals with all the ills that Flash has.

  5. The author draws his material from writers, ancient and modern 

  6. It is written in a straightforward, simple, and vigorous style. This is marked with rhythm and beauty.

C - Sir Thomas Browne

  1. (1605-1682) Browne belonged entirely to a different category.

  2. With him, the manner of writing is more important than Substance.

  3. Therefore he is considered to be the first deliberate stylist in the English Language.

  4. He was the forerunner of Charles Lamb & Stevenson. 

  5. He wrote 'Religio Medici. He was a physician In this book, he wrote down his beliefs and thoughts, the religion of the medical man. This is written in an amusing style.

  6. The conflict between the author's intellect and his religious beliefs gives it a peculiar charm.

  7. Every sentence has the charm of Browne's individuality 

  8. The other important work is "Hydrio taphia' or 'Urn Burial'.

  9. There meditating on time and ambiguity, Browne reached the height of rhetorical splendor.

  10. He is greater as an artist than a thinker.

  11. His prose is highly complex in its structure and almost poetic in the richness of language. 

D - Other writers 

  1. Other writers of this period were all masters of prose.

  2. Milton, Jelency Taylor, and Clarendon were all great writers of prose.

E - John Milton

  1. Being a champion of freedom in every form, Milton wrote, "On the Doctrine and Discipline in Divorce! 

  2. There he strongly advocated Divorce.

  3. His famous work is Areopagiticia, where Milton vehemently criticized the bureaucratic control over genius. There is an inherent sublimity in his prose.

  4. When he touches a noble thought, the wings of his imagination lift him to majestic heights.

F - Earl of Clarendon 

  1. Earl of Clarendon (1609-1674) The prose of Clarendon is stately.

  2. But he wrote with a bias which is rather offensive. This is been in his "History of Rebellion and Civil was in England!

G - Jeremy Taylor

  1. Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) Taylor was a Bishop. He made himself famous through his sermons.'

  2. His language had a gentle charm, and the richness of his images, and profound human imagination. His best prose was, "Holy Living and Holy Dying"!

H - Conclusion:-

  1. Thus we find that in this age English Prose was developing into a grandiloquent and rich means.

  2. This made Prose capable of expressing all types of ideas- scientific, religious, philosophic, poetic, and personal.