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8. Literature of the Age of Anne.—The latter part of the 17th century, and the beginning of the 18th, are rich in great poets and prose writers. We have already mentioned Milton and Bunyan; but, besides these, there were Addison, Steele, and Swift, satirists and essayists; Bishop Burnet, the historian of his own times; Locke and Hobbes, great writers on philosophy and politics; the poets Cowley, Dryden, Pope, and Butler; De Foe, the author of Robinson Crusoe; and Pepys, the author of a Diary, which tells us what was going on in London at the court and among the people. These writers, excepting Milton, were not so great as those of the age of Elizabeth; but they wrote in simpler language and in plainer sentences, because their writings were read by people many of whom were not scholars, whereas, in the time of Elizabeth, few read much except educated men and women.

 

1. George I.—The first king of the line of Hanover, was past middle age when he came to the throne, and cared much more for Hanover and its people than for his English crown. As a man he had few good and no great qualities; but as a king he did fairly well, because he left the government of the country much in the hands of his ministers. He knew little or no English, and brought his companions and associates with him from Germany; some of them as gross and licentious as the favourites of Charles II.

Almost his first act was to dismiss the Tory ministers, and appoint Whigs in their stead. Bolingbroke, Oxford, and Ormond were impeached for treason, and for their share in the Treaty of Utrecht. Bolingbroke and Ormond fled to France; Oxford stood his ground, and after an imprisonment of two years was released.

2. The Rebellion of 1715.—The year after George’s accession, the Jacobites in Scotland and in the north of England rose in rebellion. The Earl of Mar raised an army in the Highlands, but he was defeated by the Duke of Argyle at Sheriffmuir, on the same day that