John Dryden (9 August 1631 – 12 May 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic,

translator, and playwright who dominated 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.

John Dryden, (1631-1700), English poet, literary critic, dramatist and leader in Restoration comedy
wrote the comedic play Marriage A-la-Mode (1672), and the tragedy All for Love (1678).

John Dryden, (1631-1700), English poet, literary critic, dramatist and leader in Restoration comedy
wrote the comedic play Marriage A-la-Mode (1672), and the tragedy All for Love (1678).

John Dryden was born in Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire, England, the eldest of fourteen children of
Erasmus Dryden (c.1602–1654) and Mary Pickering (d. 1676).

Dryden was a King's scholar studying the classics at Westminster. He contributed to the collection
of tributes to honour Henry, Lord Hastings, an elegy in Lachrymæ Musarum (1649). He entered
Trinity College, Cambridge in 1650, graduating in February of 1654, the same year his father died.
While living in London in 1657 Dryden started working with the civil service and began in earnest
writing plays of heroic tragedy and satires of varying success. Heroic Stanzas (1658), on the death
of Oliver Cromwell is his first important work. With the protectorate crumbling, Dryden sought
other work including writing for a bookseller. With the return of Charles II he celebrated the King's
divine right with, among other works, his poem Astræa Redux (1660). To His Sacred Majesty, a
Panegyrick on his Coronation (1661) came next, Dryden courting favour with the new regime
which would later bring allegations of insincere and self-serving allegiance.

On 1 December 1663 Dryden married the daughter of the Earl of Berkshire, Lady Elizabeth Howard
(c.1638–1714), with whom he would have three sons. His first play The Wild Gallant was first
staged in 1662. The Rival Ladies (1663) also had Spanish influences. Attached to it is one of his
famous Prefaces where he describes his principles of dramatic criticism. His first successful play,
written in heroic couplets was The Indian Emperor (1665). The same year of the Great Fire in
London, Annus Mirabilis (1666) celebrates the English Navy's victory over the Dutch. Dryden had
retired to the country with the plague threat, where his first son was born, and he continued to write.
The Maiden Queen composed in blank verse, rhyming couplets and prose and The Assignation, or
Love in a Nunnery were produced in 1667. An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668) was written two
years after the Restoration with the reopening of the theatres. Dryden entered into a contract in 1668
with the King's Theatre Company in which he would produce three plays a year. For his efforts the
Archbishop of Canterbury awarded him an M.A. in 1668. The same year he became Poet Laureate
and in 1670 Royal Historiographer which would provide a stable income for him.

The play Marriage A-la-Mode (1672) was followed by his unsuccessful work on the theme of
Paradise Lost, The State of Innocence, staged in 1674. After 1676, he began to use blank verse, and
he produced his best play, All for Love in 1678. It is Dryden's most famous masterpiece based on
Anthony and Cleopatra. He had mastered the art of comparative criticism, using prose and dialogue
for debate, and wit and satire to illustrate disparities between church and state. A year later Dryden
was beaten by thugs, an attack that had been ordered by the Earl of Rochester when Dryden was
suspected of collaboration on An Essay upon Satire, which vilified various prominent figures, of
which the real author was never realised.
The well-known political satire of Shaftesbury under the transparent guise of the Old Testament, Absalom
and Achitophel, Dryden's allegorical poem appeared in 1681 and his didactic poem Religio Laici (1682)
followed, which argues the case for Anglicanism. Threnodia Angustalis (1685) is an ode to Charles II. The
Hind and the Panther (1687) marked Dryden's final conversion to Roman Catholicism.

After the Revolution of 1688 he lost his Laureateship with the accession of William III. Refusing to take an
oath of allegiance, his politics and religion left him out of favour with the court, and his sole source of
income was from his plays and translations of poetry from Latin and Greek. The tragi-comedy Don Sebastian
(1690) was on a par with All for Love. Another tragi-comedy Love Triumphant (1694) would be his last play.
Included in his ensuing critical essays was A Discourse concerning the Original and Progress of Satire.
Dryden would also take on the massive task of translating the works of Virgil to prose.

John Dryden died on 12 May 1700 from inflammation caused by gout. He is buried in the Poet's Corner of
Westminster Abbey, London, England, nearby to his longtime friend William Congreve.

"Genius must be born, and never can be taught." ~ John Dryden

Biography written by C.D. Merriman for Jalic Inc. Copyright Jalic Inc 2005. All Rights Reserved.