Plan of the lecture english literature of the XVII century

 
SIGNIFICANT WORKS AND LITERARY HERITAGE OF JOHN DRYDEN 
 
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. 
Regarded by many scholars as the father of modern English poetry and 
criticism, John Dryden dominated literary life in England during the last four 

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KHILOLA RAKHIMOVA, senior teacher, URSU 
17 
decades of the seventeenth century. Although initially famous for his plays, 
Dryden is today highly regarded for his critical writings as well as his satirical 
and didactic poems. 
Throughout his lengthy, varied career, Dryden fashioned a vital, concise, 
and refined language that served as a foundation for the writers of English prose 
and verse who followed him 
Dryden next began a career as a playwright. In 1663, the same year that he 
married Lady Elizabeth Howard, Dryden’s first play, The Wild Gallant, was 
produced, followed by The Rival Ladies (perhaps acted in 1663), and The Indian-
Queen (performed in 1664), a collaboration with his brother-in-law, Sir Robert 
Howard. The Indian Emperour (1665), Dryden’s sequel to The Indian Queen, 
represents his first entirely original play and was written wholly in rhymed 
couplets. It was extremely popular. 
A few weeks after The Indian Emperor opened, the Second Anglo-Dutch 
War began (a conflict between England and Holland over commercial interests 
in Africa, eventually won by the Dutch but with the English gaining the American 
territory that would become New York). The bubonic plague (a then common 
infectious bacterial disease that attacks the lungs and lymph nodes and is spread 
by overcrowding and poor sanitation), which had begun to spread during the same 
winter, also ravaged London the following spring. Because of these situations, 
theaters were closed by royal order in June 1665, and they remained so until 
December of 1666. 
Dryden’s first important piece of criticism, Of Dramatick Poesie, was 
published in 1667, but probably written in 1665–1666, when he moved with his 
family to the country to avoid the plague. Dryden’s essay, which examines and 

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KHILOLA RAKHIMOVA, senior teacher, URSU 
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challenges theatrical notions, remains the best-known example of his prose, 
primarily because it is his only freestanding essay not written to commemorate a 
specific occasion. He soon returned to writing plays and also took on an important 
post for his country. 
Dryden was an influential poet and playwright in his time, and his works 
often reflected the tumultuous period in British history in which he lived. His 
most long-lasting contribution, however, may be in his criticism, as he played a 
key role in developing the modern English process of examining literature. In all 
his literary productions, Dryden is both the conservative, ever concerned with the 
past, and the innovator, looking ahead to the future of English literature.