HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

JOHN DRYDEN
(1631-1700)

John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and

playwright who was made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668.
He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such
a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the ‘Age of
Dryden’. Walter Scott called him "Glorious John”. He was also called “
the father of modern prose” or “the father of English criticism”.
His work reflected both; good and evil tendencies of that age.

“ He was the lock by which the waters of the English poetry were
let down from the mountains of Shakespeare and Milton to the
plains of Pope.”

His life was a long one. It was in addition, an exceedingly fruitful one.
For forty years, he continued to produce an abundance of literary works
of every kind—poems, plays, and prose works. The quality was almost
unfailingly good, and at the end of his life, his poetry was as fresh and
vivacious at it had been in the prime of his manhood.

His earliest work of any importance is pre-Restoration(1659), and

consists of a laudation of the recently dead Oliver Cromwell. At the
Restoration, his views changed, attaching himself to the fortunes of
Charles || and to the church of England. This loyalty brought Dryden lots
of rewards in the form of pensions and honours; hence Dryden was
easily the most considerable literary figure in the land. Yet his career
was not without its thrones. On the accession of James || in 1685,
Dryden changed his faith and political persuasion, becoming a Roman
Catholic due to which he had to face problems. He lost his powers and
posts.
Dryden retired with dignity to sustain his last years with his literary
presents. He died in 1700 and with his death a literary epoch came to an
end.

Dryden’s Works :
Dryden’s literary significance is threefold, and is expressed in his prose,
his dramas and his verse.

He was a representative poet of his age.Dryden published his first poem

in 1649. His heroic stanzas (1659) was a series of heroic stanzas on the
death of Oliver Cromwell. In 1660, Dryden celebrated the regime of King
Charles II with ‘Astraea Redux’; a royalist panegyric in praise of the
new king. In that poem, Dryden apologises for his allegiance with the
Cromwellian government. Though Samuel Johnson excused Dryden
for this, writing in his ‘Lives of the Poets’ (1779) that
"If he changed, he changed with the nation.”
He also notes that the earlier work was “not totally forgotten” and in fact
“raised him enemies.”

In 1667, he became more widely known and popular by his ‘Annus

Mirabilis’ a narrative poem describing the terrors of the great fire in
London. Then Dryden turned to his stage play “All For Love” written in
blank verse, was based upon the story of Antony and Cleopetra.

Following the death of William Davenant in April 1668, Dryden became

the first official Poet “Laureate of England”, conferred by a letters patent
from the king. The royal office carried the responsibility of composing
occasional works in celebration of public events. Dryden, having
exhibited that particular dexterity with his earlier panegyrics, was a
natural choice. Though the position was most often held for life, Dryden
was the lone exception. He was dismissed by William III and Mary II in
1688 after he refused to swear an oath of allegiance, remaining loyal to
James II.

In 1678, Dryden wrote Mac Flecknoe (1682), a work of satiric verse

attacking Thomas Shadwell, one of Dryden's prominent contemporaries,
for his “offences against literature." Other works of satire, a genre for
which Dryden has received significant praise, include Absalom and
Achitophel (1681) and The Medal (1682). Absalom is his best known
and a masterpiece; it is also one of the most powerful political satire in
our language. He also wrote an ode ‘Alexander’s Feast’ in 1697 which is
also one of the best and the most enduring in our language
Though his early work was reminiscent of the late metaphysical work of
Abraham Cowley, Dryden developed a style closer to natural speech
which remained the dominant poetic mode for more than a century. He
is credited with standardising the heroic couplet in English poetry by
applying it as a convention in a range of works, including satires,
religious pieces, fables, epigrams, prologues, and plays.
Dryden died on May 1, 1700, and was initially buried in St. Anne's
Cemetery. In 1710, he was moved to the Poets' Corner of Westminster
Abbey, where a memorial has been erected.
DRYDEN AS A POET

• Satiric Power
Dryden is one of the greatest English satirists. He is the first practitioner
of classical satire which after him was to remain in vogue for about one
hundred and fifty years. From the very beginning of his literary career
Dryden evinced a sharp satiric bent. He translated some of the satires of
the Roman writer Persius when he was only a pupil at Westminster.
Further, in his comedies he produced numerous passages of sparkling
satire. He keenly studied the satirical traditions of Rome and France and
whatever satire England had to offer.
Dryden himself was aware of it when he said that the satirist should
make a man “die sweetly,” call him a fool or a rogue without using these
“opprobrious terms.” He distinguished between the “slovenly butchering”
done by a bad satirist and the dexterous stroke which severs the head
but leaves it standing. Seldom does Dryden indulge in open
denunciation or invective, but he often uses such indirect techniques as
irony, sarcasm, and above all his exuberant wit. It is what primarily
distinguishes him from his predecessors who were always open and
direct in their attacks. His satire is indirect and, therefore, smooth,
urbane, and without angularities or harshness. The same-is the case
with his versification. He found a good satiric vehicle in the heroic
couplet and chiselled and planed it to brilliance. His versification avoids
the harshness deliberately cultivated by his young friend Oldham who
also employed the heroic couplet. Observes Hugh Walker:  “It is this
combination-smoothness of verse, lucidity of style, urbanity of manner-
which makes Dryden’s satire so strikingly original. In English there had
hitherto been nothing comparable to it.”
‘Absalom and Achitophel’ and ‘Mac Flecknoe’ reveal him at his best as a
satirist.
•His Craftsmanship
He was master of select and polished words. His facility of placing
words, both, in poetry and prose is wonderful.
Dr. Jonson wrote;
“ Dryden found out English brick and left it a marble”
Dryden is also credited to have perfected the heroic couplet. His use of
couplet proved its capability and assured it success. He invented
nothing but perfected the crude inventions of other men.

•Dryden’s Limitations
He was a poet of reasons and good sense. His poetry was prosaic in
character. What Dryden achieved in his poetry was neither the
emotional excitement of the early nineteenth-century romantics nor the
intellectual complexities of the metaphysicals. His subject matter was
often factual, and he aimed at expressing his thoughts in the most
precise and concentrated manner. Although he uses formal structures
such as heroic couplets, he tried to recreate the natural rhythm of
speech, and he knew that different subjects need different kinds of
verse. In his preface to Religio Laici he says
“The expressions of a poem designed purely for instruction ought to
be plain and natural, yet majestic... The florid, elevated and figurative
way is for the passions; for (these) are begotten in the soul by showing
the objects out of their true proportion.... A man is to be cheated into
passion, but to be reasoned into truth.”

•Dryden’s Place in Poetry

As a poet Dryden cannot be placed in the highest rank amongst

Shakespeare and Milton. But he deserves an eminent place in the
second order of poets. Dryden provided a pattern of neoclassical poetry,
having a classical pattern for the perfection of form.
He also perfected the heroic couplet.
DRYDEN AS A CRITIC

John Dryden was a major essayist of the English literary tradition. His
works are so praiseworthy that Samuel Johnson, a contemporary of
Dryden and himself a major critic, called him ‘the father of English
criticism” along with commenting that English prose starts with
Dryden’s 'Essay on Dramatic Poesy.’

He was the first to teach the English people to determine the merit of
composition upon principles. With Dryden, a new era of criticism began.
Before, Dryden, there were only occasional utterances on the critical art.
(E.g. Ben Jonson and Philip Sidney) Though Dryden’s criticism was of
scattered nature; he paid attention to almost all literary forms and
expressed his views on them.

He had rather a dogmatic bent. Most of his critical interpretations are

found in the prefaces to his own works. In Dryden we find an interest in
the general issues of criticism rather than in a close reading of particular
texts. We call Dryden a neoclassical critic, just as Boileau. Dryden puts
emphasis on the neoclassical rules.

Dryden carried out his critical thoughts effectively, stating his own ideas
but leaving some room for difference of opinion. When his
contemporaries were all praised for ben Jonson and Fletcher, and when
Thomas Rymer was busy hunting faults in Shakespeare’s plays, Dryden
showed remarkable courage of conviction an boldly asserted :
“ I admire Ben Jonson but I love Shakespeare”

Dryden is the first English critic to practice comparative criticism. For

example, his best-known critical work, An Essay on Dramatic Poesy,
partly reflects this tension in Dryden's commitments, in which he
compares modern writers with the ancient writers.

Dryden is also the first English poet to practise Descriptive Criticism. His
comments on individual poets and writers were similarly descriptive.

Dryden also demonstrates historic sense as a critic when he insists that

literature of different nations and times should not and cannot be
measured by same standards.