John Dryden
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
I am as free as Nature first made man, "Great wits are sure to madness near alli'd"--Absalom and Achitophel (1681) by John Dryden |
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John Dryden (August 19 1631 – May 12 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.
Latin translations
Dryden translated works by Horace, Juvenal, Ovid, Lucretius, and Theocritus, a task which he found far more satisfying than writing for the stage. In 1694 he began work on what would be his most ambitious and defining work as translator, The Works of Virgil (1697), which was published by subscription. The publication of the translation of Virgil was a national event and brought Dryden the sum of ₤1,400. His final translations appeared in the volume Fables Ancient and Modern (1700), a series of episodes from Homer, Ovid, and Boccaccio, as well as modernized adaptations from Geoffrey Chaucer interspersed with Dryden’s own poems. The Preface to Fables is considered to be both a major work of criticism and one of the finest essays in English. As a critic and translator he was essential in making accessible to the reading English public literary works in the classical languages.
Selected works
- Astraea Redux, 1660
- The Wild Gallant (comedy), 1663
- The Indian Emperour (tragedy), 1665
- Annus Mirabilis (poem), 1667
- The Enchanted Island (comedy), 1667, an adaptation with William D'Avenant of Shakespeare's The Tempest
- Secret Love, or The Maiden Queen, 1667
- An Essay of Dramatick Poesie, 1668
- An Evening's Love (comedy), 1668
- Tyrannick Love (tragedy), 1669
- The Conquest of Granada, 1670
- The Assignation, or Love in a Nunnery, 1672
- Marriage à la mode, 1672
- Amboyna, or the Cruelties of the Dutch to the English Merchants, 1673
- The Mistaken Husband (comedy), 1674
- Aureng-zebe, 1675
- All for Love, 1678
- Oedipus (heroic drama), 1679, an adaptation with Nathaniel Lee of Sophocles' Oedipus
- Absalom and Achitophel, 1681
- The Spanish Fryar, 1681
- MacFlecknoe, 1682
- The Medal, 1682
- Religio Laici, 1682
- The Hind and the Panther, 1687
- A Song For St.Cecilia, 1687
- Amphitryon, 1690
- Don Sebastian, 1690
- Creator Spirit, by whose aid, 1690. Translation of Rabanus Maurus' Veni Creator Spiritus
- King Arthur, 1691
- The Works of Virgil, 1697
- Fables, Ancient and Modern, 1700
- The Art of Satire