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John Dryden |
Arriving in London at the time of Cromwell, John Dryden switched his loyalties when Charles II was restored to the throne and rose to become the leading literary figure of the new Augustan age. When the theaters opened again after the Puritan ban, he offered plays, accompanied by little essays full of classical allusions, satire, and instruction.
When King James II ascended to the throne in 1685, Dryden, fifty-four, converted to Catholicism and became the country’s Poet Laureate. But when the Protestant King William took the throne three years later, Dryden declined to change his faith for the third time. He lost his government post and retired to translate the classics.
He disdained emotional poetry, writing that a man may be “cheated into passion” but must be “reasoned into truth”. It was said of Dryden at the end that he was more admired than enjoyed.
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Immortal Poets: Their Lives and Verse, by Christopher Burns |