DRYDEN. Joirs 1G:31-1 7110). An English dramatist, poet, and critic, born at Aldwinekle, a village of Northamptonshire. His father. Eras mus 1)riden, was the third son of Sir Erasmus 1)riden, baronet. 1)ryden received the rudiments of his education at •i•hmarsh, and was after wards admitted to ;1 seholarship \VesDninster School. under Dr. Itn-by. in ItIt he contributed all elegy to the T. ars of th.• 1111w-s. a collection of thirty-three poems on the death of llenry, Lord Hastings. The poem, 'written in the 'meta style, was a poor performance even for a schoolboy. lee "May. he was elected to a scholarship in Trinity C'ollege• Cambridge. where he wrote, the 511111e year, it few commend atory verses to the Sion of John lloddesdon; he graduated DA. in 1(154. llis father died in I 11.; 1, and left him a small estate estimated at a year, of which stun his mother had life interest in a third. It is thought that he remained at Cambridge till 1 1;57. and then took up his residence in London. Like the rest of his family, he was an adherent of Cromwell. In HMS; he published his first poet' of importance. entitled "Heroic Stanzas to t414. .\leitiory of (Inver The restora tion of Charles I I. he celebrated in two poems it'etitur (1 IiIi4)) and Paneyyrie On the ('oronalimt (11;1111. There is no reason for doubting the sineerit• of Dryden in these poems. 111s was the joyful English people on the return of their Ding. 111 December, 1111;3. 1)ryden married Lady Elizabeth Howard, sister of Sir Ih011•rt 110W:1rd. ihe had already begun his career's dramatist. his first play, the II lid (;afloat. haying been performed at the Theatre ill l'ehruary. 1(36:3. 1)nring the next twenty years he produced many successful plays. although the comedies are coarse, and the trage dies still'. The best is .111 for 1.01•1, founded on .Irlimy mid ornf•a. written in blank verse, while his other tragedies are in heroic. couplets. In the meantime he had pro. 11111'451 Inc its (161;71. the subject of NN bleb is the 011iell war nrid the tiro. in London. In 11;711 he was appointed poet da rea t e and historiographer with a salary of i200 a year. In I1;; 1 the Itlike of Ituckingltain produced a fa n-ions alt on the English heroic drama, of NN bleb 14y(lon was the head. Till: satirical piec• was e 'tided The nehenrgal, and when it \vas brought on the stage till' town NV:1(4 Althoin.(1, personally satirized, Dryden endured in silence, and, awaiting his op portunity. immort•illy revenged himself oil the
and ptut1lg,1r inks in .11tsfilo0y and I eh ilo plo / ( lirst part. 11;311. This magnificent satire arose out of 111c political commotion: of the times, and is an elahora le defense of the King rwainst the 11 ('arty. Charles II is 1)avid: Alonmonth...\ ( ham, Zimri; and Shaftesbury, Achitophel. success was amazing. The neNt appeared The dal, .11(1C i'tecknor. and the second part of .1 ',mama and Achitophi/ Otte!' in rollabo.
1.1(1011 with Nahum Tate). enemies HMV ern:died, Dryden became the undisputed king and lawgiver of English literature iu his da. in I 11s2 he stated and maintained the of the Church of England in a poem entitled l:c1iylo Laid.
Alter the (heath of l'harles 11., 1)ryden beeanie a convert to the Roman Catholic faith, This event was announced by the publication of 7'h, Hind owl l'anther (11i57). For this change of faith he has been much abused. \Meaulay calls him 'an illustrious renegade.' (niters strenit ott.dy defend his sincerity. At the Revolution he was deprived of his laureateship. and. some 'that st ra it oiled in ei rcilinsta nee.. he turned again to the stage. Ilis translation of Vergil„ begun in 169 1, was published in 1 1;97. To the same year belong: his best lyric, the Ode on Naint rt cilia's flay, often caned .1 it xander's long. In 1t;W1 he published, under the title of labb 5, ver sions of Ovid.. Itoreaecio, and Chauwer, to which added one of his great prefaces. Ile was buried itt \Vestminster Abbey.
Althougn the great hulk of 1)ryden's work eotisists of plays which are, for the most part, devoid of character, feeble in sentiment, false to nature, and exaggerated in expression, he must always remain a prominent figure in English literature. Ills ..'4'atirts are mil,terpicei..... In these he is masculine and natural, and his vet. si tien ion flows broad. deep, and majestie. Nor is it only as a poet that he excels; his preface. and 1:S.qa11 011 I )1'11111111 ir Poesy prove him to he a master of 'that other harmony of Ills %\ ere edited, with a I.if•, by Walter Scott in eighteen volumes (Edinburgh, lsaN ; reprinted 1321. and revised by Saint...bury. : the l'oefieal 11 (irks With :I Life, by (London. I3701: and a critical edition of edited by. Ker, was published in Oxford in 190o. t'onsull. also: I:arnett. .190 of brpficn (London, 1 S95 ; rind for his biOgra ( London, 13A I.