Lecture 5 The beginning of Modern English literature. Restoration period in English literature (1660-1700) plan

 
John Dryden (1631-1700) 
John Dryden was the outstanding English poet from the Restoration in 1660 to 
the end of the 17th century. He was born to a Puritan family in London and 
graduated from Cambridge University in 1654.
Dryden wrote verse in several forms: odes, poetic drama, biting satires, and 
translations of classic authors. His early poem “Heroic Stanzas on the Death of 
Cromwell” was published in 1659. A year later it was followed by “Astraea 
Redux”, which celebrated the Restoration of the Stuart line to the throne. 
In 1667 Dryden published “Annus Mirabilis”, a poem commemorating three 
events of the previous year: the end of the plague, the Great Fire of London, and 
the Dutch War. This is a most unusual feat in transferring almost immediately 
contemporary events into poetry.
Dryden wrote notable prose as well, including literary criticism of Shakespeare, 
Chaucer, and others. His venture into political satire began in 1681, with the 
publication of “Absalom and Achitophel”, written after an unsuccessful attempt 
by Charles’ illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, to seize the throne. In 1682 
he wrote another literary satire “Mac Flecknoe”. 
Dryden was a talented translator too. His translation of Virgil’s “Aeneid”, 
published in 1697, was extremely popular. As a translator, he also rendered 
Juvenal, Ovid and Chaucer, and the best of his prose in the preface of 1700 to the 
“Fables”, in which, in the year of his death, he introduced some of his translations 
to the public. His range cannot be estimated without a consideration of his 
criticism and his plays in verse. 
Restoration literature
is the English literature written during the historical 
period commonly referred to as the English Restoration (1660–1689), which 
corresponds to the last years of the direct Stuart reign in England, 
Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. In general, the term is used to denote roughly 
homogeneous styles of literature that center on a celebration of or reaction to the 
restored court of Charles II. The dates for Restoration literature are a matter of 
convention, and they differ markedly from genre to genre. Thus, the "Restoration" 
in drama may last until 1700, while in poetry it may last only until 1666 (see 1666 
in poetry) and the 
Annus mirabilis
; and in prose it might end in 1688, with the 
increasing 
tensions 
over 
succession 
and 
the 
corresponding 
rise 
in journalism and periodicals, or not until 1700, when those periodicals grew 
more stabilized. 
When Charles II became king in 1660, the sense of novelty in literature was 
tempered by a sense of suddenly participating in European literature in a way that 
England had not before. One of Charles's first moves was to reopen the theatres 
and to grant letters patent giving mandates for the theatre owners and managers. 

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Poetry 
The Restoration was an age of poetry. Not only was poetry the most popular form 
of literature, but it was also the most 
significant
form of literature, as poems 
affected political events and immediately reflected the times. It was, to its own 
people, an age dominated only by the king, and not by any single genius. 
Throughout the period, the lyric, Ariel, historical, and epic poem was being 
developed.