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Dryden and the Idea of a Literary Tradition

Richard Terry

in Poetry and the Making of the English Literary Past: 1660-1781

This chapter discusses two related conceits that express how literature is passed down between generations. In the first, tradition is viewed as a process of filiation: a great writer of an earlier ... More

This chapter discusses two related conceits that express how literature is passed down between generations. In the first, tradition is viewed as a process of filiation: a great writer of an earlier time stands to one of a later era as a father to his son, and a great work of a previous age can be seen as a sort of familial heirloom passed down from one generation to the next. In the second, the later writer is linked to the former not through figurative parentage, but through the Pythagorean transmigration of souls. Specifically as regards English literature, an influential metaphor has long been one in which the unfolding of tradition is figured as a paternal-filial nexus: the earlier writer uses his influence, as it were, to sire the later one. The conceit of literary paternity has become a standard way of imagining the relations of influence and emulation obtaining between writers in the literary tradition. The popularity of the parental metaphor may still owe much to the particular use made of it by one writer alone: John Dryden.Less

‘Dreams of Men Awake’: India

Ros Ballaster

in Fabulous Orients: Fictions of the East in England 1662–1785

This chapter argues that fictions claiming to derive from and about India repeatedly trope India as a dream, but not always in the positive sense of a space to be possessed by the imagination. ... More

This chapter argues that fictions claiming to derive from and about India repeatedly trope India as a dream, but not always in the positive sense of a space to be possessed by the imagination. Equally, the dream can be a kind of consoling or duplicitous fiction. India generates illusions and illusionists; the fakirs and Brahmans of ethnographic report are represented as master tricksters while Islam is, as in the case of Ottoman and Persian accounts, denounced as a gross imposture. The chapter addresses three principal areas of fiction that relate to India: John Dryden's theatrical representation of the court of Aurangzeb; collections of oriental tales relating to India by Thomas–Simon Gueullette, James Ridley, and Alexander Dow; and ‘translations’ derived from the 3rd-century Sanskrit collection of animal and human fables, known to 17th-century Europe as the Fables of Pilpay.Less

Heroic drama on the commonwealth and Restoration stage

Rachel Willie

in Staging the Revolution: Drama, reinvention and history, 1647-72

Chapter four demonstrates how Davenant’s first protectorate entertainment, The Siege of Rhodes (1656 and 1663), was revised at the Restoration as a heroic drama to make it suitable for the changing ... More

Chapter four demonstrates how Davenant’s first protectorate entertainment, The Siege of Rhodes (1656 and 1663), was revised at the Restoration as a heroic drama to make it suitable for the changing times. In chapter four, I turn to examine how the text was made fit for a Restoration audience. The chapter also addresses John Dryden’s epic ten-act The Conquest of Granada (1670 and 1671) to show how early Restoration heroic dramas appropriated and reworked ideas of kingship that had circulated over the previous twenty years. By relocating war and usurpation to another land, these plays endeavour to create a neutral territory through which to question notions of sovereignty. Yet the brief fashion for heroic drama was not without its critics: a response to The Conquest of Granada, but also to the brief fashion for heroic drama, the Duke of Buckingham’s burlesque of the heroic genre, The Rehearsal (1672), brings questions of governance back to England through figuring the trials and tribulations of the two kings of Brentford.Less

Dryden, Behn, and what is ‘secretly in the poet’

Matthew Reynolds

in The Poetry of Translation: From Chaucer & Petrarch to Homer & Logue

In his Preface to Ovid's Epistles, Dryden advocates translation‐as‐paraphrase, in which the ‘sense’ is allowed to ‘amplified’ but not ‘altered’—though he admits that, in the translations themselves, ... More

In his Preface to Ovid's Epistles, Dryden advocates translation‐as‐paraphrase, in which the ‘sense’ is allowed to ‘amplified’ but not ‘altered’—though he admits that, in the translations themselves, he has ‘transgressed’ these ‘rules.’ I show that, in his version of Ovid's ‘Canace to Macareus’, Dryden's transgressions as a translator echo Canace's sexual transgression with her brother even while apparently holding it up for disapproval: this creates an intensely conflicted poetry of translation. Other contributors to the same volume adopt related practices of ‘opening’, due in part to the cultural circumstances in which they were working. I discuss in particular Aphra Behn's polemical expansions of ‘Oenone to Paris’.Less

Temporality and Subjectivity: Dryden's “Dedication of the Aeneis”

in Translation, Subjectivity, and Culture in France and England, 1600-1800

John Dryden's translations, including those of Ovid and Juvenal, his own versions of Persius, the complete works of Virgil, and the Fables, allowed him to explore and extend poetic subjectivity as ... More

John Dryden's translations, including those of Ovid and Juvenal, his own versions of Persius, the complete works of Virgil, and the Fables, allowed him to explore and extend poetic subjectivity as well as combine other voices with his own. Aside from leaving his mark on the poetry, drama, satire, and criticism of his age, Dryden's reflections on translation synthesized earlier commentary and at the same time took it to a new level, just as his practice established a new standard for poetic translation. In his “Dedication of the Aeneis,” Dryden reflects on the complexities of his own role as a translator, reaching back to Virgil and to his previous translators John Denham and Jean de Segrais to confront time, change, and the contradictory status of the translator-author. The “Dedication” is not only a political reading of the Aeneid, but also a comparison between Virgil's life and career and Dryden's.Less

Classical Translations of the Classics: The Dynamics of Literary Tradition in Retranslating Epic Poetry

Richard H. Armstrong

in Translation and the Classic: Identity as Change in the History of Culture

This chapter discusses the retranslation of Greek epic poetry and argues for its importance in understanding how literary traditions shape the translation scenario. First, it treats the epic ... More

This chapter discusses the retranslation of Greek epic poetry and argues for its importance in understanding how literary traditions shape the translation scenario. First, it treats the epic adaptations and translational practices of Roman authors, with particular focus on Ennius and Virgil. It also treats lesser-known translations of Greek epic from Roman times, and outlines the continuing history of Latin translation during the Renaissance, which was very influential for the burgeoning literatures of Western Europe. Then it details how this Latin tradition still informs the ‘classic’ English translations of George Chapman, John Dryden, Alexander Pope, and William Cowper, who still read their Greek under the strong influence not only of Latin literary values, but also of Latin translational practices. While the Latin tradition was highly influential in shaping European retranslation of Greek epic, that tradition itself effectively produced no translation on a par with Chapman's Homer or Dryden's Virgil.Less

Politics, Epistemology, and Public Theater

Lauren Shohet

in Reading Masques: The English Masque and Public Culture in the Seventeenth Century

Chapter 5 traces masques' representations of political alternatives throughout the seventeenth century, masques' prominently varied epistemological investments, and their deployment in creating an ... More

Chapter 5 traces masques' representations of political alternatives throughout the seventeenth century, masques' prominently varied epistemological investments, and their deployment in creating an adaptive theatrical history that spans the full century. Self‐consciously inheriting both the elite dramatic tradition of the court masque and more popular traditions associated with other kinds of masquing, the seventeenth‐century masque engages multiple aspects of public culture. Case studies in masques that taxonomize political alternatives include Campion's royal Caversham entertainment, Middleton and Rowley's public The World Tossed at Tennis, Thomas Jordan's Interregnum Fancy's Festivals, and Anthony Sadler's Restoration Subjects Joy. Case studies exploring how masque sponsors epistemological reflection include Milton's Ludlow masque Comus, Kynaston's Corona Minervae, Nabbes's Microcosmus, and John Sadler's Mascarade du ciel. The chapter closes by tracing how masques, and masque adaptations of earlier plays, attempt to construct an account of English theater across the Stuart, Interregnum, and Restoration eras, when masques persist as a distinctively English form of early opera. Case studies here include Jonson (The Masque of Augurs), Shirley (Cupid and Death, The Triumph of Beauty), John Crown (Calisto), Davenant's Shakespearian adaptations, and Dryden (The Secular Masque).Less

Wordsworth’s Aeneid (1974)

Willard Spiegelman

in Imaginative Transcripts: Selected Literary Essays

This chapter looks at English Romantic poet William Wordsworth's translation of Virgil's Aeneid. It mentions the temperamental affinities of Wordsworth with Virgil, his similar appreciation of a ... More

This chapter looks at English Romantic poet William Wordsworth's translation of Virgil's Aeneid. It mentions the temperamental affinities of Wordsworth with Virgil, his similar appreciation of a universal sorrow which touches and colors all mortal affairs, and his own tender heart and lofty sense of moral dignity. It also discusses Wordsworth's criticism on John Dryden's 1697 translation of Virgil's epic poem.Less

1660–1700 Faint Meaning: Dryden and Restoration Censorship

Thomas Keymer

in Poetics of the Pillory: English Literature and Seditious Libel, 1660-1820

This chapter uses Dryden’s poetry as a case study through which to explore the practical dynamics and literary consequences of censorship across the Restoration period (1660–1700). Though normally ... More

This chapter uses Dryden’s poetry as a case study through which to explore the practical dynamics and literary consequences of censorship across the Restoration period (1660–1700). Though normally seen as a securely established Stuart loyalist—the right place to start, though too crude a category for a poet of his agility, complexity, and irony—Dryden had to navigate political conditions of great instability throughout his career, and was in opposition at key points. Genres considered include elegy, panegyric, mock panegyric, topical application tragedy, fable, and classical translation; texts considered include Heroic Stanzas, Astraea Redux, Mac Flecknoe, The Duke of Guise, The Hind and the Panther, and Dryden’s translation of Juvenal with his discourse on satire. Contexts include the operation of Restoration censorship under Roger L’Estrange, clandestine printing and scribal publication, the significance of the 1679–85 licensing lapse, and the emergence of Jacobite satire from 1689.Less

Scene Changes

Claire M. L. Bourne

in Typographies of Performance in Early Modern England

Chapter 5 studies the impact of moveable scenes on playbook typography. Play quartos published after 1660 began to use pared-down “place-markers” that simply named the place for readers to “mark” ... More

Chapter 5 studies the impact of moveable scenes on playbook typography. Play quartos published after 1660 began to use pared-down “place-markers” that simply named the place for readers to “mark” (that is, acknowledge) where the action was situated. Focusing on a series of debates between Dryden and fellow playwrights, this chapter shows how Dryden’s preference for place-markers, which effectively untethered the act of reading from the material contingencies of theatrical performance, eventually won out over more elaborate accounts of scenery. The combination of a single generic place-marker at the beginning of the book and specific place-markers throughout became so prevalent in printed plays that Rowe used them in Shakespeare’s Works (1709) to harness the frequent geographical shifts in plays like Antony and Cleopatra. The strategy solved part of the problem of Shakespeare’s so-called flagrant disregard for dramatic decorum and helped to reframe his reputation as the English heir to a classical tradition.Less

How John Dryden read his Milton: The State of Innocence reconsidered

Matthew C. Augustine

in Texts and readers in the Age of Marvell

This chapter reconsiders John Dryden’s dramatic adaptation of Paradise Lost, The State of Innocence. Not exactly neglected, neither has Dryden’s opera been much appreciated by modern critics. ... More

This chapter reconsiders John Dryden’s dramatic adaptation of Paradise Lost, The State of Innocence. Not exactly neglected, neither has Dryden’s opera been much appreciated by modern critics. Focusing on the relation between text and paratext, this chapter brings into focus not only Dryden’s ambivalence about Milton but also about the nature and direction of his own art by the middle of the 1670s. Suspended daringly between the heroic and the mock-heroic, Dryden’s opera detunes the antithesis between Milton’s ‘strenuous liberty’ and Restoration libertinage even as it accommodates Milton’s anti-Augustan poetics to Dryden’s mature Augustan vision.Less

‘Priests of all Religions are the same’: Dryden and the Politics of Irreligion

Philip Connell

in Secular Chains: Poetry and the Politics of Religion from Milton to Pope

This chapter begins with some consideration of the libertine anti-clericalism of court wits such as Rochester, but its principal points of focus are the career of John Dryden in the 1670s and 1680s, ... More

This chapter begins with some consideration of the libertine anti-clericalism of court wits such as Rochester, but its principal points of focus are the career of John Dryden in the 1670s and 1680s, the Exclusion Crisis of 1679–81, and the rhetoric of atheism and religious imposture to which both whigs and tories resorted at this time. The structure of contemporary political argument provides the basis for new readings of Dryden’s anti-exclusionist satires, Absalom and Achitophel and The Medall, although some consideration is also given to the former poem’s allusions to the writings of John Milton, along with Dryden’s Miltonic adaptation, The State of Innocence. The chapter concludes with a discussion of Religio Laici and The Hind and the Panther in their relation to the rapidly shifting ecclesiastical politics of the 1680s.Less