John Dryden

The Restoration and Enlightenment Drama

In 1642, by closing the theatres, the Puritans did shatter a tradition of play-making and play-acting. When King Charles II granted permission to Thomas Killigrew (1612-1683) and Sir William Davenant (1606-1668) to set up acting companies, they had to build anew. However, the demands were different, as well as the actual state of the drama. There were only two dramatic companies in London, and only two indoor theatres, the King's Players and the Duke's Players, and they were bigger, not so friendly as the old Globe. In the new theatres, the Elizabethan platform-stage gradually grew smaller, and the action was thrown back, behind the proscenium. That was the beginning of the modern stage, reminding us what we lost: acting is carried out far behind, and there is no personal intimate contact between actors and audience. Another Restoration novelty was the engagement of women players.

Charles ll's devotion to music and fine arts brought continental composers, musicians, and painters largely from the Netherlands. The newly opened theatres at first relied on revivals of earlier plays of Shakespeare, Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher. By the mid-1660s, the dramatic triad of comedy, tragedy, and heroic play developed more towards comedy. Sir George Etherege (ca 1635 — ca 1691) made his successful presentation with The Comical Revenge (1664), but his later masterwork was The Man of Mode (1676). Both show the influence of Moliere and Racine in their careful representation of manners, satirical characterizations, and witty sayings. Dryden, active in all genres of drama, created notable comedies, including his best Marriage a la Mode (1671). Richard Brinsley Sheridan brought in unforgettable laughter in The Rivals (1775) and The School for Scandal (1777), meant for pure entertainment. Dryden's masterpiece was his blank- verse tragedy All for Love (1677), similar to the story of Antony and Cleopatra.

The heroic play, evolving as a dramatized version of epic poetry, usually presents characters confronted by love and honour. The plots are melodramatic, the language is elevated, and the ruling metrical form is the rhyming pentameter couplet, or heroic couplet, the prevailing metre of Augustan poetry. Its great master was Dryden, with his principal heroic plays The Conquest of Granada (1670) and Aureng-Zebe (1675).

Dryden is the most authoritative literary figure of the Restoration. He put very little of his personal self into his writings, yet every significant political, philosophical, religious or artistic event was mirrored in his works. He is a worldly author of public concerns, least preoccupied with his inner subjectivity.

Though a son of a country gentleman, John Dryden (Aug. 19, 1631, Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire — May 12, 1700, London) received a good education at Westminster School, went on to Trinity College, Cambridge and graduated in 1654. At about 1657, he went to London as clerk to the chamberlain to the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell. In his first notable poem, Heroic Stanzas (1959), Dryden commemorated Cromwell's death, although the following year, in Astraea Redux, and Panegyric on the Coronation (1661), he rejoiced with the others in welcoming Charles II to the throne, and ever since sided with the royalists. In 1663, he married Lady Elizabeth Howard, sister of his patron, the courtier and playwright Sir Robert Howard.

In 1662, Dryden began to write plays for a living. His first attempts, including the comedy The Wild Gallant (1663), were unsuccessful, but The Rival Ladies, a tragicomedy written in 1664, was well received. Over the next 20 years, he turned into the most outstanding dramatist in England. His comedies, including An Evening's Love; or, the Mock Astrologer (1668), Ladies a la Mode (1668), and Marriage a la Mode (1672), are rather vulgar, but that was what theatrical business then demanded.

Throughout his literary career, Dryden usually wrote occasional verse dedicated to a particular public event, e.g. a coronation, a victory, or a crisis. Such ceremonial and publicly directed poems culminate in Annus Mirabilis (1667), which glorifies the English victory over the Dutch navy and the courage of Londoners during the Great Fire in 1666. In 1668, he produced his most significant work of English literary criticism, Of Dramatick Poesie, an Essay, which broke the ground for the genre.

Between 1664 and 1681, Dryden concentrated on writing plays to help the new theatres with their repertoire. In step with his time, Dryden wrote heroic plays in heroic couplets and placed his noble heroes in extremely difficult situations; he wrote witty, intrigue-packed comedies, and was the first to have turned to operatic libretti. The great tragedy All for Love (1667) adapts Shakespeare's metre and plot of his Antonius and Cleopatra to the new time's tastes, and is thought to be the greatest masterpiece of Restoration tragedy. For his poetic and dramatic achievements, King Charles II appointed Dryden poet laureate and royal historiographer, and rewarded him with a substantial stipend.

Already in his fifties, Dryden revealed a gift for verse satire. His first mock-heroic writing was Mac Fleknoe (1679), which was prompted by a quarrel with another playwright. Two political satires followed - Absalom and Achitophel (1681) and The Medal (1682), which show the highest mastery over the heroic couplet.

When the Catholic James II came to the throne in 1685, Dryden converted to Catholicism. He remained loyal to it even when the Protestant William and Mary were crowned. But this devotion cost him his high offices and his much-needed stipend. Falling out of royal grace and having a family to support, Dryden, aged almost 60, engaged in translations and went on to write more plays. The year 1693 saw his interpretation of some of the works of the Roman satiric poets Juvenal (AD 34-62) and Persius (AD 55-127), and 1697, the writings of Virgil. Two months before death he still worked on Fables Ancient and Modern, containing translations of Ovid, Boccaccio and Chaucer.

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