英国文学Ⅱ.docx

12.Eighteenth-Century Literature istorical backgroundThe period we are studying is included between the English Revolution of 1688 and the beginning of the French Revolution of 1789. Historically, the period begins in a remarkable way by the adoption of the Bill of rights in 1689. (One of the fundamental instruments of constitutional law. It incorporated by statute the Declaration of rights accepted by William III and Mary II, and registered the results of the struggle between the Stuart kings and parliament. The Bill of rights stated that no Roman Catholic would rule England; it gave inviolable civil and political rights to the people and political supremacy to parliament. It was supplemented by the Act of Settlement(1701)).This famous bill was the third and final step in the establishment of constitutional government, the first step being the Great Charter (1215, the most famous document of British constitutional history, issued in 1215 by King John under compulsion by the barons. Its purpose was to insure feudal rights and to guarantee that the king could not encroach on baronial privileges. It also guaranteed the freedom of the church and the customs of the towns; implied laws protecting the rights of subjects and communities; vaguely suggested guarantees of trial by jury and Habeas Corpus),and the second the Petition of Right (1628, statement by the English Parliament to Charles I. It laid down four principles: no taxes without the consent of Parliament; no imprisonment without cause; no quartering of soldiers in the citizenry; and no martial law in peacetime).The modern form of cabinet government was established in the reign of George I (1714—1727). The foreign prestige of England was strengthened by the victories of Marlborough on the Continent (John Churchill, first duke of, 1650-1722, in the war of Spanish succession 1701-14, general European war fought for the succession to the Spanish empire, won such major victories as Blenheim); and the bound