Augustan drama refers to the plays of Great Britain in the early 18th century, a subset of 18th-century Augustan literature. King George I referred to himself as "Augustus," and the poets of the era took this reference as apropos, as the literature of Rome during Augustus moved from historical and didactic poetry to the poetry of highly finished and sophisticated epics and satire. In poetry, the early 18th century was an age of satire and public verse, and in prose, it was an age of the developing novel. In drama, by contrast, it was an age in transition between the highly witty and sexually playful Restoration comedy, the pathetic she-tragedy of the turn of the century, and any later plots of middle-class anxiety. The Augustan stage retreated from the Restoration's focus on cuckoldry, marriage for fortune, and a life of leisure. Instead, Augustan drama reflected questions the mercantile class had about itself and what it meant to be gentry: what it meant to be a good merchant, how to achieve wealth with morality, and the proper role of those who serve.
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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1099: The First Crusade concluded with the Battle of Ascalon, and Fatimid forces under Al-Afdal Shahanshah retreating to Egypt. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ascalon)
1121: Forces led by David the Builder (pictured) decisively won the Battle of Didgori, driving Ilghazi and the Seljuk Turks out of Georgia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_IV_of_Georgia)
1851: Isaac Singer was granted a patent for his sewing machine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Singer)
1877: Asaph Hall discovered Deimos, the smaller of the two moons of Mars. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deimos_%28moon%29)
1953: History of nuclear weapons: The first Soviet thermonuclear bomb, Joe 4, was detonated at Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_atomic_bomb_project)
_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:
"The world is given to me only once, not one existing and one perceived. Subject and object are only one. The barrier between them cannot be said to have broken down as a result of recent experience in the physical sciences, for this barrier does not exist." -- Erwin Schrodinger (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Erwin_Schrodinger)