The full range of literary traditions comes to life in the Twayne Critical Essays Series. Volume editors have carefully selected critical essays that represent the full spectrum of controversies, trends and methodologies relating to each author's work. Essays include writings from the author's native country and abroad, with interpretations from the time they were writing, through the present day. Each volume includes: -- An introduction providing the reader with a lucid overview of criticism from its beginnings -- illuminating controversies, evaluating approaches and sorting out the schools of thought -- The most influential reviews and the best reprinted scholarly essays -- A section devoted exclusively to reviews and reactions by the subject's contemporaries -- Original essays, new translations and revisions commissioned especially for the series -- Previously unpublished materials such as interviews, lost letters and manuscript fragments -- A bibliography of the subject's writings and interviews -- A name and subject index

This authoritative edition was originally published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode. It brings together a unique combination of Dryden's poetry and prose - all the major poems in full, literary criticism, and translations - to give theessence of his work and thinking.John Dryden (1631-1700) was the leading writer of his day and a major cultural spokesman following the restoration of Charles II in 1660. His work includes political poems, satire, religious apologias, translations, critical essays and plays. This anthology includes all the major poems such asMacFlecknoe and Absalom and Achitophel as well as Dryden's classical translations; his versions of Homer, Horace, and Ovid are reproduced in full. There are also substantial selections from Dryden's Virgil, Juvenal, and other classical writers. Fables, Ancient and Modern, taken from Chaucer, Ovid,Boccaccio, and Homer, his last and possibly greatest work, also appears in full.

Reproduction of the original.

John Dryden, Poet Laureate to Charles II and James II, was one of the great literary figures of the late seventeenth century. This Companion provides a fresh look at Dryden s tactics and triumphs in negotiating the extraordinary political and cultural revolutions of his time. The newly commissioned essays introduce readers to the full range of his work as a poet, as a writer of innovative plays and operas, as a purveyor of contemporary notions of empire, and most of all as a man intimate with the opportunities of aristocratic patronage as well as the emerging market for literary gossip, slander and polemic. Dryden s works are examined in the context of seventeenth-century politics, publishing and ideas of authorship. A valuable resource for students and scholars, the Companion includes a full chronology of Dryden s life and times and a detailed guide to further reading.

Excerpt from John Dryden: The Poet, the Dramatist, the Critic Has - the importance of his influence. It is this nice ques tion of influence that I wish to investigate first, in relation to what I may call the filjmternawrymglmipwta tor, that is, in our history, we to say that poets like Shakespeare and Milton 'were without influence? Certainly not, but in fluence, in the sense in which we can cope with the term, is something more limited. The dis proportion between Shakespeare and his imme diate followers, among the dramatists, is so great that the influence of Shakespeare is a triflingthing in comparison with Shakespeare himself; and as for Milton, that was so peculiar a genius that although he had plenty of mimics during the eighteenth century, he can hardly be said to have any followers. For influence, as Dryden had influence, a poet must not be so great as to overshadow all followers. Dryden was followed' by Pope, and a century later, by Samuel John son; borh men of great original genius, who developed the medium left them by Dryden, in ways which cast honour both on them and on him. It should seem then no paradox to say that Dryden was the great influence upon English verse that he was, because he was not too great to have any influence at all. He was neither the consummate poet of earlier times, nor the eccen tric poet of later. He was happy both in his predecessors and in his successors. A hundred years rs a long time for the stamp of one man to remain upon a literature 5 poets' influence and reputation cannot last so long in our days; and 6' that makes Dryden a central, a typical figurein English letters. He is in himself the Malherbe, the Boileau, the Corneille and almost the Moliere (almost, because Congreve refined and surpassed him in comedy) of the seventeenth century in England; and to him, as much as to any indi vidual, we owe our civilisation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.