Read complete books and articles on: John Dryden

Dryden, John - 1631–1700, English poet, dramatist, and critic, b. Northamptonshire, grad. Cambridge, 1654. He went to London about 1657 and first came to public notice with his Heroic Stanzas (1659), commemorating the death of Oliver Cromwell. The following year, however, he celebrated the restoration of Charles II with Astraea Redux. In 1662 he was elected to the Royal Society, and in 1663 he married Lady Elizabeth Howard. His long poem on the Dutch War, Annus Mirabilis, appeared in 1667. The following year he became poet laureate. He had a long and varied career as a dramatist. His most notable plays include the heroic dramas, The Conquest of Granada (2 parts, 1670–71) and Aurenz-Zebe (1675); his blank-verse masterpiece, All for Love (1677), a retelling of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra; and the comedy Marriage à la Mode (1672). His great political satire on Monmouth and Shaftesbury, Absalom and Achitophel, appeared in two parts (1681, 1682). It was followed by MacFlecknoe (1682), an attack on Thomas Shadwell, and Religio Laici (1682), a poetical exposition of the Protestant layman's creed. In 1687, however, Dryden announced his conversion to Roman Catholicism in The Hind and the Panther. The preceding poems, as well as his Pindaric odes, "Alexander's Feast" and "Ode to the Memory of Mrs. Anne Killigrew," place him among the most notable English poets. With the accession of the Protestant William III, Dryden lost his laureateship and court patronage. Throughout his life he wrote brilliant critical prefaces, prologues, and discourses, dealing with the principles of literary excellence. The best example is his Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668). The last part of his life was occupied largely with translations from Juvenal, Vergil, and others. A 21-volume edition of his complete works was begun in 1956 under the general editorship of E. N. Hooker and H. T. Swedenberg.

See biography by C. E. Ward (1961); studies by L. I. Brevold (1953), M. Van Doren (1920, repr. 1969), J. and H. Kinsley, ed. (1971), A. C. Kirsch (1965, repr. 1972), E. Miner, ed. (1973); J. M. Hall (1984).

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15 of the Best Books and Articles on: John Dryden

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1.

John Dryden » Read Now
by David Nichol Smith. 93 pgs.

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2.

John Dryden: A Critical Biography » Read Now
by Kenneth Young. 242 pgs.

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3.

John Dryden (1631-1700): His Politics, His Plays, and His Poets » Read Now
by Claude Rawson, Aaron Santesso. 301 pgs.

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4.

The Poetry of John Dryden (literary criticism) » Read Now
by Mark Van Doren. 364 pgs.

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5.

Literary Criticism of John Dryden » Read Now
by Arthur C. Kirsch. 174 pgs.

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6.

The Nobler Pleasure: Dryden's Comedy in Theory and Practice » Read Now
by Frank Harper Moore. 264 pgs.

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7.

Time to Begin Anew: Dryden's Georgics and Aeneis » Read Now
by Tanya Caldwell. 264 pgs.

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8.

Gender, Theatre, and the Origins of Criticism: From Dryden to Manley (Chap. 1 "Equal to Ourselves: John Dryden's National Literary History" and Chap. 2 "Staging Criticism, Staging Milton: John Dryden's The Style of Innocence") » Read Now
by Marcie Frank. 175 pgs.

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Marcie Frank explores the theoretical and literary legacy of John Dryden to a number of prominent women writers of his time. Frank examines the pre-eminence of gender, sexuality and the theater in Dryden's critical texts that are predominantly rewritings of the work of his own literary...
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Marcie Frank explores the theoretical and literary legacy of John Dryden to a number of prominent women writers of his time. Frank examines the pre-eminence of gender, sexuality and the theater in Dryden's critical texts that are predominantly rewritings of the work of his own literary precursors--Ben Jonson, Shakespeare and Milton. She proposes that Dryden develops a native literary tradition that is passed on as an inheritance to his heirs--Aphra Behn, Catharine Trotter, and Delarivier Manley--as well as to their male contemporaries.
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9.

The Sources of John Dryden's Comedies » Read Now
by Ned Bliss Allen. 302 pgs.

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10.

John Dryden's Imagery » Read Now
by Arthur W. Hoffman. 172 pgs.

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11.

The Poets Laureate (Chap. 2 "The First Laureate: John Dryden") » Read Now
by Kenneth Hopkins. 295 pgs.

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12.

Dryden and Pope in the Early Nineteenth Century: A Study of Changing Literary Taste 1800-1830 » Read Now
by Upali Amarasinghe. 246 pgs.

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13.

Men of Letters and the English Public in the Eighteenth Century, 1660- 1744: Dryden, Addison, Pope » Read Now
by Alexandre Beljame, Bonamy Dobree, E. O. Lorimer. 492 pgs.

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14.

Marriage a la Mode » Read Now
by John Dryden, Mark S. Auburn. 144 pgs.

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15.

Dryden and the Traces of Classical Rome » Read Now
by Paul H. Hammond. 305 pgs.

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This book examines the uses which Dryden makes of Latin in his poetry and his critical writing, firstly through quotation and allusion, and secondly through formal translation. The first half explores the paradox that Dryden's sense of himself as a modern English writer is often articulated by means...
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This book examines the uses which Dryden makes of Latin in his poetry and his critical writing, firstly through quotation and allusion, and secondly through formal translation. The first half explores the paradox that Dryden's sense of himself as a modern English writer is often articulated by means of a turn to classical Latin, while the contemporary English nation is conceptualized through references to ancient Rome. The second half offers readings of Dryden's translations from Horace, Juvenal, Lucretius, Ovid, and Virgil, culminating in a long essay on Dryden's Aeneis. Dryden used translation from the Latin poets as a way of exploring new territory: in the public sphere, to engage with empire and its loss, and in the private world, to contemplate selfhood and its dissolution. In following the varied traces of Rome in the texture of Dryden's writing, and by emphasizing his continual engagement with mutability and metamorphosis, this book argues the case for Dryden as a thoughtful, humanistic poet.
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