Gourt > Arts > Literature > Drama > 17th Century > Dryden, John
John Dryden (August 9, 1631 – May 12, 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic and playwright, who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known as the Age of Dryden.
Early life
Dryden was born in the village rectory of Aldwinkle near Oundle in Northamptonshire, where his maternal grandfather was Rector of All Saints. He was the eldest of fourteen children born to Erasmus and Mary Dryden, Puritan landowning gentry who supported the Puritan cause and Parliament. As a boy Dryden lived in the nearby village of Titchmarsh where it is also likely that he received his first education. In 1644 he was sent to Westminster School as a King’s Scholar where his headmaster was Dr Richard Busby, a charismatic teacher and severe disciplinarian.Hopkins, David, John Dryden, ed. by Isobel Armstrong, (Tavistock: Northcote House Publishers, 2004), 22 Recently re-founded by Elizabeth I, Westminster at this time embraced a very different religious and political spirit encouraging royalism and high Anglicanism, not yet having absorbed the moderating influence of Dryden's contemporary John Locke . Whatever Dryden’s response to this was, he clearly respected the Headmaster and would later send two of his own sons to school at Westminster.
As a humanist grammar school, Westminster maintained a curriculum which trained pupils in the art of rhetoric and the presentation of arguments for both sides of a given issue. This is a skill which would remain with Dryden and influence his later writing and thinking, as much of it displays these dialectical patterns. The Westminster curriculum also included weekly translation assignments which developed Dryden’s capacity for assimilation. This was also to be exhibited in his later works. His years at Westminster were not uneventful, and his first published poem, an elegy with a strong royalist feel on the death of his schoolmate Henry, Lord Hastings from smallpox, alludes to the execution of King Charles I, which took place on 30 January 1649.
In 1650 Dryden went up to Trinity College, Cambridge where he would have experienced a return to the religious and political ethos of his childhood. The Master of Trinity was a Puritan preacher by the name of Thomas Hill who had been a rector in Dryden’s home village.John Dryden The Major Works, ed. by Keith Walker, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987),ix-x Though there is little specific information on Dryden’s undergraduate years, he would have followed the standard curriculum of classics, rhetoric, and mathematics. In 1654 he obtained his BA, graduating top of the list for Trinity that year. In June of the same year Dryden’s father died, leaving him some land which generated a little income, but not enough to live on.Ibid, x
More on [ John Dryden ]
Authors and Composers :: Hymns
Reason to rule but mercy to forgive The first is the law, the last prerogative. -John Dryden #quote
mobilewhackcom (MobileWhack.com) Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:55:05 -0000
Reason to rule but mercy to forgive The first is the law, the last prerogative. -John Dryden #quote
Your text reminds me of the wise quote - "Honor is but an empty bubble." (John Dryden)
Loggia17 (Ortensia Loggia) Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:18:24 -0000
Your text reminds me of the wise quote - "Honor is but an empty bubble." (John Dryden)
John Dryden~ You see through love and that deludes your sight As what is straight seems crooked through the water.
jigsawbiz (Morten Stenbaek) Thu, 24 Dec 2009 23:00:33
All for Love - E-text of Dryden's adaptation of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra.
Meta Description: [ Bibliomania e-text: All for Love by John Dryden ]
All for Love - Plain text file at Project Gutenberg.
Meta Description: [ Download the free eBook: All for Love by John Dryden ]
Catholic Encyclopedia: John Dryden - A helpful introductory biography.
Meta Description: [ Visit New Advent for the Summa Theologica, Church Fathers, Catholic Encyclopedia and more. ]
Discourses on Satire and on Epic Poetry - Plain text file at Project Gutenberg.
Meta Description: [ Download the free eBook: Discourses on Satire and on Epic Poetry by John Dryden ]
Dryden's Translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses - Essay on Book 11, the story of Ceyx and Alcyone.
Meta Description: [ A critical analysis of John Dryden's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 11, the story of Ceyx and Alcyone ]
John Dryden - Biography of English dramatist John Dryden, plus links to all of his works currently in print.
Meta Description: [ Biography of English dramatist John Dryden, plus links to all of his works currently in print. ]
John Dryden - From the syllabus of Arnie Sanders at Goucher College: includes short summaries of selected works, research questions.
John Dryden - A biography of the English poet, dramatist, and critic.
Meta Description: [ A biography of Restoration dramatist John Dryden. ]
John Dryden (1631-1700) - A biography of English dramatist John Dryden; includes a list of related links.
Meta Description: [ A biography of English dramatist John Dryden; includes a list of related links. ]
John Dryden: Poems - An index of poems by John Dryden, including 'Mac Flecknoe' and 'One Happy Moment.'
Meta Description: [ An index of poems by John Dryden. ]
404
Lecture Notes: John Dryden - From the syllabus of instructor Perry Cumbie at Durham Tech. Includes a timeline of historical events, biographical notes, and comments on Dryden's poetry.
Selected Poetry and Prose of John Dryden (1631-1700) - Texts from Representative Poetry On-line at the University of Toronto.
Virgil's Aeneid - Internet Classics Archive - Text of Dryden's translation.
Meta Description: [ The Aeneid by Virgil, part of the Internet Classics Archive ]
| where's turturro? | |
| Next Video | |
