ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts that are discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book argues that writings of exile in the English Revolution and Restoration are not only intrinsically important but also contribute significantly to a wider understanding of the political and cultural climate of the period. It illustrates that exilic writing in this period inevitably confronts the perennial balance to be struck between passive and active reactions to disempowerment, between whether to draw on inner or external resources. Like most literary forms of the period, however, we have witnessed that the Psalms are not the sole preserve of royalist exiles, nor are they employed purely for propagandist purposes; Edward Hyde himself constantly navigates between private and public concerns in quoting the Psalms, and the Bible more generally. The demands imposed by exile, then, ensure that neat categorization of these responses is ultimately chimerical.
