routledge+history+of+literature+in+english

Malory and Skelton
53
The use of subordinating conjunctions such as because and so that enabled
more explicit description of reasons and of cause and effect. Such a style
was regarded as the proper style for serious expository prose. The following
extract from Francis Bacon’s The Advancement of Learning illustrates the
length and complexity of sentence structure which resulted:
And so to Seneca, after he had consecrated that Quinquennium Neronis to
the eternall glorie of learned governors, held on his honest and loyall
course of good and free counsell, after his maister grew extreamly corrupt
in his government; neither can this point otherwise be: for learning endueth
mens minds with a true sence of the frailtie of their persons . . . so that it
is impossible for them to esteeme that any greatnesse of their owne fortune
can bee, a true or worthy end of their being and ordainment; and therefore
are desirous to give their account to God . . .
Other equally complex structures are to be found in Milton’s writings,
both poetry and prose. The opening sixteen lines of Milton’s Paradise
Lost comprise just one sentence. However, it would be inaccurate to
suggest that one stylistic pole implies the absence of another; for
example, Bacon and Milton both exhibit a simultaneous command of
everyday, speech-based rhythms, plain vocabulary and paratactic
concision where they judged that the subject matter required it.
By the end of the sixteenth century a general reaction against
elaborate prose structures began to be felt. The Royal Society, founded
in 1660, gave final authority to the rejection of more elaborate syntax
and associated rhetorical patterns and encouraged a return to essentially
Anglo-Saxon sentence structure. Further related stylistic issues are
discussed in the Language note on page 182.
(It will be seen that in this section quotations have been given sometimes in the
original and sometimes in modern translation, and sometimes words and phrases
have been glossed. The aim is to offer both accessibility and contact with the
original text.)