John Dryden wiki, biography,books,novel, age, works,early life, education, childhood, family, wife ,children,quotes,facts

John Dryden 

John Dryden  is known and loved all over the world for his poems,He is one of the greatest literary figure of  in the history of the English literature .if we can think for a moment of Literature as a canal of water ,we may appreciate the  figure that Dryden is the "Lock by which the waters of English poetry were let down from the mountains of Shakespeare and milton to the plain of "Pope" .John Dryden wiki, biography,books,novel, age, works,early life, education, childhood, family, wife ,children,quotes,facts is all we are going to discuss today.

                  John Dryden (1631-1700)

Was an famous English poet,dramatist,literary critic, translator, playwright and he was the first   Poet Laureate of England in 1668.He is the greatest literary figure of the Restoration,Age of restoration is also known as "Age of Dryden".

BIRTH
19th August 1631 Aldwincle ,Thrapston Northamptonshire, England.

DIED
12 may 1700 London, England (aged 68)

Occupation
Poet,literary critic, playwright

NOTABLE WORKS
Mac Flecknoe,The panther

FAMILY
Erasmus Dryden(Father),  Mary Pickering(Mother)

WIFE
Lady Elizabeth

CHILDREN
Charles ,John ,Erasmus Henry

       

 

          John Dryden EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

John Dryden was Born in village named Aldwinkle , Northamptonshire in 1631,He was the eldest of fourteen children born to Erasmus Dryden and  Mary Pickering.His family were prosperous people,who brought him up in the strict puritan faith ,and in 1644 he was sent  to the famous Westminster school and then to Cambridge in 1650. He made excellent use of his opportunities and studied eagerly,becoming one of the best educated men of his age .By his training and family connections he was allied to the puritan party.First important poem " Heroic Stanzas" of Dryden was published in the year 1658 it was written on the death of Cromwell:

The poem "Heroic Stanzas" goes like this

His grandeur he derived from heaven alone,
    For he was great ere fortune made him so;
And wars ,like mists that rise against the sun,
   Made him but greater seem not greater grow.

     John Dryden WIFE AND CHILDREN

At the age of 32 on 1 december 1663 Dryden married  the royalist sister of Sir Robert Howard, Lady Elizabeth. They had three sons Charles ,John ,Erasmus Henry

           Later Life And Carrier of Dryden

Dryden "Astrea Redux ," a poem of welcome to Charles II and his "Panegyric to his sacred Majesty," breathe more devotion to "the old goat" as the king was known to his courtiers,than had his earlier poems to puritanism.

Poem "Heroic Stanzas" made dryden popular and he was in a fair way to become the new poet of puritanism,when the Restoration made a complete change in his methods.in 1667 he became more widely known and popular by his "Annus Mirabilis," .It is a narrative poem describing the terrors of the great fire in London and some events of the disgraceful war with Holland.Dryden gave himself up to  unfortunate work for nearly 20 years.Dryden both by nature and habit seems to have been clean in his personal life but the stage demanded unclean plays and Dryden followed his audience this was proved from some of his later work ,the play like "All for Love " is the evident which was written in blank verse,most of the others being in timed couplets.

During this time Dryden had become the best known literary man of London ,his work , meanwhile was rewarded by large financial returns and by his being appointed poet laureate and collector of the port of London.

At the age of 50 ,Dryden turned from dramatic work to throw himself into the strife of religion and politics ,writing at this period his numerous prose and poetical treatises.in 1682 appeared his Religio Laicia (Religion of a Layman ) , defending the Anglican church against all other sects especially the Catholics and presbyterian.the most famous religious poem of Dryden is "The hind and the panther,".At the Revolution of 1688 he refused allegiance to William of orange,due to which he was deprived of all his pensions and as an old man was again thrown back on literature as his only means of livelihood.Dryden last work "Fables" contains poetical paraphrases of the tales of Boccaccio and Chaucer.The preface of the fables is generally admired as an example of the new prose style developed by Dryden and his Followers.

                     DRYDEN's POETIC STYLE

Dryden  uses formal structures such as heroic couplets, he tried to recreate the natural rhythm of speech, and he knew that different subjects need different kinds of verse.His subject matter was characterized by or consistings of facts .

      DRYDEN'S INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE

Dryden had a tremendous influence on the succeeding age of classicism.This influence of may be summed up by noting the three elements which he brought into our Literature.

These are
(1) His development of a direct ,serviceable prose style such as we still cultivate ,
(2) the establishment of the heroic couplets as the fashion for Satiric , didactic and descriptive poetry.

(3) His development of the art of literary criticism in his essays and in the numerous prefaces to his poems .

Without doubt we can say it is a large work for one man to accomplish and Dryden is worthy of honor,though comparatively little of what he wrote is now found on our bookshelves.

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               NOTABLE WORKS OF DRYDEN

Dramatic works of Dryden includes -
(1)The wild gallant
(2)The Indian king
(3)The Indian emperor
(4)An evening's love
(5)The tempest
(6) The mistaken husband
(7) Oedipus
(8)King Arthur

Other works of Dryden are
Mac Flecknoe,Astrae redux,Absalom achitophel,the hind and the panther,Fables etc.

                  John Dryden Quotes

Some of the most popular quotes of John Dryden are -
(1) "Beware the Fury of a patient man"
(2)"we first make our habits then our habits make us"
(3)secret guilt is by silence
(4)it is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.