Life of JOHN DRYDEN

 UNIT 23 JOHN DRYDEN  

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The Age of Dryden (1660-1700) is so named because it was dominated by him. He was the most important poet, satirist, critic, dramatist, translator, and prose writer of his time. The personality of a poet, however, is greater than his poems.

Dryden began his poetic career during the civil war. His elegy on the death of the 'Protector', Oliver Cromwell, in 1658, is one of his earliest poems. His 'public' spirit gave his poetry public themes, and his greatest work is political satire. The shifting loyalties of his life as a person and poet have caused much critical confusion.His religious conversion to Romanism towards the end of his poetical career has been a controversial topic. 

The expansion of British colonialism had emerged. The East India company brought wealth to England. Another significant fact of social life was the separation of religion and politics during Dryden's lifetime, the power of the British parliament had been rising. The Civil War, the regicide and the 'glorious' Revolution, are all symptoms of the rise of the common man. But the class cleavage also became more marked. 

The heroic couplet or rhymed decasyllabic verse is Dryden's major contribution to English prosody. Pope said: 'I learned versification wholly from Dryden's works'. We show that Dryden and Pope are the greatest masters of the heroic couplet in the English poetic tradition. Blank verse, the most important verse form in English poetry, was nearly completely replaced by rhymed verse for more than half a century during 1680-1750

Dryden believed, and Dr. Johnson agreed, that the language of poetry was improved and refined by him. But Wordsworth and hold described the language of Dryden's and Pope's poetry as unpoetical or prosaic. T,S. Eliot described the difference in Dryden’s poetry: The earlier complexity of vision and language was lost. The rise of science, the stress on the clarity and simplicity of expression, made the language of poetry in English less connotative. 

BIO DATA-

Birth and The Family: John Dryden, the son of Erasmus Dryden, was born of puritan stock at Aldwinckle in Northamptonshire on August 9, 163 1. : In 1650 Dryden entered Trinity college, Cambridge on a Westminster scholarship.

: After four years at Cambridge, Dryden Came to London. He became .

secretary to Sir George Pickering, his maternal cousin, who enjoyed Cromwells's .favour. In November 1662, Dryden became a member of the newly founded Royal Society.

Marriage: Dryden married Lady Elizabeth Howard the sister of Sir Robert Howard,

in 1663. He had three sons, Charles, John and Henry.

He had started writing poems while still at school. He started writing plays in the year of his marriage, 1663. For about ten years, he wrote poems, plays, prefaces to plays and poems, and critical essays. He became popular and famous as the writer of heroic plays in which he chose to use the decasyllabic couplet.

Beginning of the satirical age-

But in 167 1, a burlesque, The Rehearsal, was staged. It satirised Dryden as Bayes. Dryden was made poet Laureate in place of Sir William Davenant. He was also made Historiographer Royal soon after, in 1670. He was already a member of the Royal Society. Thus, he was well-known, and the travesty of his talent not only hurt him deeply but also affected his reputation.  The running commentary of Bayes reveals the weakness of Dryden's critical attitude in respect of heroic drama. He glories in the worthless character of Drawcansir. Dryden's defence of heroic plays and his satirical portrait of Zimri in Absalom and Achitophel(1681) were his revenge. 

One of the replies, The Medal of John Bayes, was attributed to Shadwell, his former associate. Dryden replied with Mac Flecknoe, or a satyr upon the True-Blue-Protestant Poet, T.S in 1682. But Dryclen's literary opponents who had concocted the Rehearsal in 167 1 were active, and Elkanah Settle wrote an amusing parody of Absalom and Achitophel. Its title was Absalom Senior, or Achitophel Transposed. But it was ineffective, whereas Shadwell's The Medal of John Bayes was a brutal and repulsive attack. Dryden's reply was of course great poetry and satire. 

His influence was greater after his death. The story of Dryden's religious conversion has been a topic of debate among his biographers. Dryden was a poet, not a saint. Charity and compassion were not easy for him to achieve. After the Revolution of 1688, Shadwell was made the Poet Laureate, replacing Dryden. 

Works-

Absalom and Achitophel (1681) happens to be the greatest political poem in English not by chance. The Hind and the Panther, the two beasts, represent ' a variety of people' positions and postures' as well as' the conflicting tendencies in Drydell himself. s essay of Dramatic Poesy (1 168), an early english classic of criticism Dryden's ambition to write an English epic remained unreleased. But if he could not write an epic, he could translate one of the two greatest European epics, Virgil's Latin epic, Aeneid. Drydm translated, together with Virgil's Aeneid, satires and 'fables' from Ovid, Juvenal and Boccaccio.  The Discourse on Satire, The Song for St. Cecilia's Day, Alexander's Fcast and The Secular Masque

1. In the sixties and seventies, Dryden experimented with the art of drama, and wrote excellent drama criticism. 

2. During the eighties, his satires were written, which made him immortal as a great English poet. 

3. The nineties were the decade of translations. 

Mind of Dryden-

Dryden had an open and thinking mind. He said: Thoughts, such as they are, come crowding in so fast upon me, that my only difficulty is to choose or to reject, to run them into verse, or to give them the other harmony of prose. 

He was also believed to be more imitative than original. He himself believed that a poet should have comprehensive learning and experience. 

THE DRAMATIST 

Comedies : Principle and Practice 

Though Dryden forced his genius to write comedy, he thought he was not 'so fitted by nature to write comedy' He regarded comedy as 'inferior to all sorts of dramatic writing', but he admitted that his disgust' with 'low' comedy was not so much from my judgement as from my temper'. comedy was low because the persons in comedy are of a lower quality (than in tragedy) the action in little, and the faults and viccs are but the sallies of youth, and the frailties of human nature, and not premeditated crimes' but while Comedy presents the imperfection of human nature, farce entertains us with what is monstrous and chimerical.

Drama by Dryden-

• 1. The Wild Gallant (1663) is a comedy in prose. It did not succeed in the theatre. 

• 2. Sir Martin Marall (1667) is also a comedy in prose, Its subtitle is 'Feigned Innocence'. It is influenced by Moliere's comedy.

•  3. An Evening's Love or the Mock Astrologer (1671). 

• 4. Marriage a la Mode used both blank verse and prose. It was successfully staged in 1673 and was popular. 

• 5. The Assignation or Love in a Nunnery (1672) is a comedy in prose. The Neoclassical Poets 

• 6. Amboyne (1673) mingled verse and prose and was written at the time of the second Dutch war Dryden's patriotic and political sentiment was reflected.

•  7. Limberham, or The Kind Keeper (1678), a comedy in prose, was prohibited as toolindecent for the stage. 

• 8. Amphitryon (1690) mixes verse and prose.  

Tragi-Comedies : Principle and Practice 

Tragi-comedies suited Dryden's genius better than comedies. .About the use of comic relief in the tragedy of the last age, Dryden said: A continued,gravity keeps the spirit too much bent and 'why should we imagine the soul of man more heavy than his senses?

• 1. The Rival Ladies (1664). Rhymed verse was used for the serious part and prose for the less serious. 

• 2. Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen (1 667). 

• 3. The Spanish Friar (1 680), or the Double Discovery. The comic effect predominates in the play. The friar reminds of Chaucer's friar. It is a satire against the papists. Dryden was soon to become a papist himself. 

• 4. Love Triumphant (1 694), or Nature will prevail.

Heroic Drama : Principle and Practice 

The English heroic play adopted the technique of musical and recitative spectacle. An amalgam of passion drama, melodrama, romance and opera, it was at its most glorious in Dryden's experiment: It urged the themes of love, honour and civic virtue, in high places

• 1. The Indian Emperor (1665) dealt with the conquest of Mexico by Cortcz. It used rhymed verse and was popular. 

• 2. Tyrannic Love, or the Virgin Martyr (1668) has Maximill as its 11ei.o who defied gods. 

• 3. The Conquest of Granada, Parts I and I1 (1669-70) deals with incredible love I . and impossible valour. The romantic heat of the wildest flights of imagination made the astonishing ridiculous. 

• 4. Aureng Zebe (1676) in the most important of the heroic tragedies of Dryden, particularly to the Indian student. The contemporary Indian Mughal emperor, Aurang Zebe, is the hero.

The play is interesting for another reason. Dryden said in the prologue that hc grew 'weary of his long-lived mistress, rhyme'. He complained of the indifference of the audience or people to drama. He described himself as between two ages cast, The first of this, and hindmost of the last. The poor income from his plays saddened him. And he feared more 'their votes who cannot judge, than theirs who can' because he boasted. 

Our poet writes a hundred years too soon. 

This age comes on too slow, or he too fast; 

And early springs are subject to a blast. 

The audience liked songs and dances, spectacle and violence but the poet offered French civility, courtly wit and civilized manners.  

THE CRITIC 

The function of criticism in Dryden's time was social, and not merely academic or professional as now. Dr. Johnson described Dryden as 'the father of English criticism, as the writer who: first taught us to determine upon principles the merit of composition: At the right moment in the history of English literature, Dryden asserted the value and importance of the native element in the national heritage, particularly drama.

Dryden's critical insight was greater than his creative imagination. He defended poetic licence, blit he could not go beyond rhetoric in his own poetry. His epic ambition was thwarted, his experiment with the heroic form of drama did not outlive his age.

His practical experience of creative writing led him to emphasise the importance of the art of characterisation. Round characters are better than flat. A round character consists of a blend of qualities which are not incompatible. Thus a man cannot be a miser and extravagant at once, but he can be generous and valiant. 

THE TRANSLATOR 

Dryden devoted his later poetic career to the work of translation, thus introducing his readers to ancient classics. Both inspiration and financial stress were among the causes.

He translated Ovid's Epistles (1680), Satires of Juvenal and Persius (1 693), the French Paititer Du Fresnoy's De Arte Graphica (1695), Virgil's Eclogues, Georgics and Aeneid (1697), and selections Homer, Ovid, Boccaccio and Chaucer published under the title of Fables (1700). 

Dryden's experiment with the tragedy failed, and his dream of writing an epic remained unfulfilled. But not altogether. His mock-epic or mock-heroic poetry, which is his original contribution to English poetry, is partly a fulfilment of that dream. In fact, Absalom and Achitophel, the greatest political satire in English

Dryden's translation of Virgil was great, but the deficiency of Dryden's own poetic imagination in contrast with Virgil's comes out in the process. E.M.W. Tillyard pointed out that with the less public and lllore individual sides of Virgil Dryden was unable to cope. Virgil's account of Venus revealing herself to Aeneas in the first book of his epic was distorted in Dryden's translation. Dryden had, said Tillyard (1954) 'a positive genius for making nasty every aspect of the passion of love that was not already nasty, and he transformed a goddess into a competitor in a beauty competition.' 

Dryden's version, first: Thus having said, she tum'd and made appear Her Neck refulgent, and disheveled Hair; Which, flowing from her shoulders, reach'd the ground And widely spread Ambrosial scent around: In length of Train descends her sweeping gown, And by her graceful walk, the Queen of Love is known. 

The more faithful prose version is as follows:

She ended and turning away she flushed over her rosy neck, and her immortal hair breathed forth a divine fragrance from her head; her robe dropped flowing to her feet and by her gait she was revealed a true goddess. 

THE MAN OF LETTERS

His poems on the death of Cromwell(1659) and on the death of Charles I1 (1685), and other elegies like To the Memory of Mr. Oldham (1684) and his first published poem, an elegy on the death of Lord Hastings (1649), written while he was still at school, do all show his lifelong interest in the public theme. These were all great public figures. But the superficial ornateness of the ode, To the Pious Memory of the accomplish'd young lady, Mrs. Anne Killigrew (1685) reveals his coarse taste and insensitivity. Its melodramatic artificiality and comic exaggerating of pathos betray the ingrained flatterer in the poet or the rant and bombast of his heroic tragedy, the rhetor as poet.

The prefaces, prologues and epilogues of Dryden are also interesting. His essay on the

dramatic poetry of the last age appeared as a defence of the epilogue. In the prologue

to Aurengzebe (1 676) he declared his weariness of his long loved mistress.

Dryden had been friendly to Shadwell during the first decade of their acquaintance as dramatists fi-om 1668 to 1679. He had praised Shadwell's genius in an Epilogue to The Volunteers, a play by Shadwell, written a Prologue to another play by him, A True Widow. They had worked together in preparing the critical comments on Settle's Empress of Morocco. But, during this same period, Dryden had I I also been engaged in a literary dispute or debate with Shadwell on rhyme, wit, 1 humour and other issues, In Dryden's view Shadwell had no understanding of true wit or the merit of Ben Jonson whom he professed to imitate. 'I Know', said Dryden, I 'I honour Ben Jonson more than my little critiques, because without vanity I may own, I understand him better'. Secondly, professional rivalry between Dryden and the younger Shadwell is easy to imagine. Dryden's appointment as Poet Laureate in 1668 may have made Shadwell envious. Ironically, Shadwell succeeded Dryden as the Poet Laureate in 1685.

But the Exclusion Bill of 1679 brought about a change in social life. The revelry and entertainment of the Restoration court and society which had lasted for about two decades ceased. And, the political turmoil that ensued with the Bill divided society and separated friends and turned them into enemies as in the case of Dryden and Shadwell. Absalom and Achitophel(1681) was published a week before Shaftesbury (Achitophel) was released. The whigs felt triumphant, and struck a medal in his honour. Dryden made a second attack in The Medal which he subtitled 'A Satire against Sedition'. One of the immediate replies was The Medal of John Bayes. This was attributed to Shadwell. Mac Flecknoe, Dryden's reply, is for greater poetry. John Bayes, by the way, is the satirical name associated with Dryden's. It is the name of the satirical character in the Rehearsal (1671). Shadwell is believed to have contributed to this concoction as well. Moreover, he had criticised rhyme in Dryden's plays and the Tories including Dryden (their champion). Thus, literary and political provocations infuriated Dyden known for his calm reserve. 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF DRYDEN

1. Juvenilia and Early Poetry: (1649- 1667) 

2. A Blind Alley - Heroic Drama: (1668-1680) 

3. A Short Bloom: (1 68 1-86) 

4. The Mellowed Transcultural Poet: (1 687-1 700)

 Juvenilia and Early Poetry 

The first published poem of Dryden (written at the age of eighteen, while he was still at school), an elegy on the death of Lord Hastings, is at once characteristic and immature. The decasyllabic couplets and the 'public' theme of this poem were going to bear the stamp of his genius, but the diction reminiscent of the metaphysical decadence and the mechanical verse betray immaturity. His Heroic quatrains on the death of Cromwell (1659) reflect his tendency to use public occasions as poetic themes. His poems on the Restoration and the Coronation of Charles II, and a poem written in honour of Clarendon on New Year's Day 1662, are all in the decasyllabic couplet, for which his love becomes manifest. 

 In Dryden, the man who suffered and the artist who created were inseparable. 

The most important poem of this phase, Annus Mirabilis (1667), is 'historical'. It describes 1666 - the year of Wonders.The Anglo-Dutch naval war and the defeats at sea, the plague and the Great Fire are the main themes. The poet views the events as temporary interruptions in England's advance to power and prosperity. The poems end on a prophetic note of the future glory of England. Dryden's hero possesses active and passive virtues derived from Christian and Roman traditions.

A Blind Alley (1668-1681) 

The early poetry of Dryden is non-dramatic and non-satirical. It expresses a vigorous public spirit and the desire to write an epic.He wrote his first play in 1663 and kept writing plays for three decades. Comedies, tragedies and tragi-comedies - he attempted all these forms of dramatic composition. Regarding comedies.

First, he introduced rhyme in the speeches, for he believed rhyme to be "as natural and more effectual than blank verse" and 'the noblest kind of modern verse'. 

Secondly, a serious play was to represent nature 'wrought up to a higher pitch'. This betrayed a love for romance beyond realism. And, 

thirdly, love and honour were to be the main themes. 'Love is the passion which most predominates in our souls'

The Rehearsal (1672) ridiculed John Bayes, who was Dryden in a thin disguise. Tke resemblance of this author in the Skit with John Diyden in voice, dress, habit of taking snuff, personal gestures and favourite oaths made the identification unmistakable. The Satire was directed against the exaggeration of the poetic and dramatic technique. The rant and bombast, the harping on the theme of love and honour, the overreaching tendency was made to appear ridiculous and absurd. The satire was highly effective, and the heroic drama lost its popularity.  

 A Short Bloom (1681-86)  

The first half of Dryden's long poetic career was spent in experimentation. He had been appointed Poet Laureate and Historiographer Royal In 1670, and, before that, nominated a member of the Royal Society. But his experiment with drama did not succeed.

His fascination with the heroic, the romantic, the uncommon was over. He mocked heroes as 'a race of men who can never enjoy quiet in themselves, till they have taken it from all the world'.

He traced the etymology of the English word Satire to the RomaS.cvord 'Satura' 'which signifies full, and abundant; and full also of variety, in which nothing is wanting to its due perfection'.

The personal drama of Dryden is enacted in The Hind and the Panther (1686). Humility and Charity - the Christian virtues - confront pride and malice. A belligerent and proud poet finds, and states, how difficult it is to live a religious life in the world. The sects of Christianity - Puritan, Protestant and Roman Catholic - were hostile to each other in Dryden's England.

 The Mellowed Trans-cultural Poet (1687-1700)  

The glorious Revolution of 1688 was followed by the beginning of the Hanoverian Rule of England. Dryden must have approved of the triumph of the British Parliament. But Shaclwell succeeded him as the Poet Laureate in 1688, and all other I expressions of royal favour were withdrawn from Dryden, mainly because he was a Roman Catholic, a Papist. Religion, Politics and Poetry were mixed up in Dryden's life and the result was nothing short of a mess. 

Some of the best non-satirical poems of Dryden were written during this phase. Apart from the two songs for St.Cecilia's Day in which the music is striking harmony of numbers, Threnbdia Augustalis (1685), written on the death of Charles, and the Britannia Rediviva (1688), on the birth of the prince, the poems 'To the Pious Memory of the Accomplish Young lady, Mrs. Anne Killifgrew, the best of his lyrics, To the Memory of Mr. Oldham, are most important. In the elegy on Anne Killigrew

CAN SATIRE BE GREAT POETRY 

The poetry of Dryden at its best is satirical, and it is generally held that satire cannot be great poetry. Literary Satire, of which Mac Flecknoe is the first example in English, is judicial and demonstrative. The satirist protests in public, addressing an audience and trying to persuade it to accept his point .of view. Dryden had acquired the art of declamation from his school teacher Richard Busby at Westminster. He regarded rhetoric as an art. Dryden claimed for the poet the liberty of poetic licence, the licence to use tropes and figures. 'Imaging', according to him, is 'the very light and life of poetry'. 

Pope said : Satire 'heals with Morals what it hurts with Wit'. But Comedy is different. The writer of Comedy accepts the imperfections, follies and vices of life.  The comic poet tolerates, even accepts, while the satirist judges and punishes. He wishes to restore balance, correct errors. His intention is to expose or deride. The satirist deliberately distorts, for he sees only one aspect of the truth, not the whole truth. 

The comic imagination of Dryden created, in Mac Flecknoe, a mock-heroic fantasy. Shadwell is almost an excuse for the poem. Mac Flecknoe is one of the best verse-satires in English, 'and the first literary satire. His political satire has 'public' themes, but Mac Flecknoe is personal satire which the poet wrote to please himself. 

Pope had hinted at Dryden's carelessness as a poet, but Dr. Johnson was the first to start or suggest, a critical debate on Dryden which is still going on. Generally, the eighteenth century critics valued Dryden very highly, but the nineteenth century romantic critics depreciated his poetry as unpoetic or prosaic.

Summary of Dryden’s life-

John Dryden born - 9aug 1631 in north amptonshire

Poetic career started during the civil war with the elegy on death of cromwell in 1658.

Not so happy marriage with Elizabeth Howard in 1663 had 3 sons.

The rehearsal in 1672 affected his reputation so he wrote Absalom and Achitophel in response in 1681.

21 plays in his lifetime. 

Poet laureateship was offered to him and bcz of all the name and fame he had many jealous contemporaries. 

The Duke of Buckingham made fun of Dryden. 1692 he wrote The Meddle which was a satirical work on Shadwell. 

Society in 2 - 1.-Torry who supported monarchy and 2- Whigs who supported parliament.

Dealt with extreme criticism regarding his change of faith to roman catholicism. Also wrote The Hind and the Panther-1687 depicting the same.

Shedwell was made Poet Laureate after the revolution of 1688.

He wrote - drama, comedies, tragi-comedies, heroic tragedies, essays, translation of epics and poems.

In his last days he stayed quiet and worked to earn money for his daily bread.

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