Augustan Age (in English literature)

The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms - Ross Murfin 2018

Augustan Age (in English literature)

Augustan Age (in English literature): Once commonly used to refer to the literary age of Virgil, Horace, and Ovid (all of whom wrote during the reign of the ancient Roman Emperor Augustus, 27 B.C.—A.D. 14), a term primarily used now to refer to the second of three literary eras within the Neoclassical Period in English literature. Writers most commonly associated with the English Augustan Age, which is generally said to span the first half of the eighteenth century, include Joseph Addison, Alexander Pope, and Jonathan Swift. These English “Augustans” modeled themselves after their classical precursors, emphasizing the importance to society of order, balance, propriety, civility, and wit.