English Literature: Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking WorldLong, William J. (William Joseph)
History
English Literature: Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World
Long, William J. (William Joseph)
English literature -- History and criticism
This hind is a symbol for the Roman Church; and the Anglicans, as a
panther, are represented as persecuting the faithful. Numerous other
sects--Calvinists, Anabaptists, Quakers--were represented by the wolf,
boar, hare, and other animals, which gave the poet an excellent chance for
exercising his satire. Dryden's enemies made the accusation, often since
repeated, of hypocrisy in thus changing his church; but that he was sincere
in the matter can now hardly be questioned, for he knew how to "suffer for
the faith" and to be true to his religion, even when it meant misjudgment
and loss of fortune. At the Revolution of 1688 he refused allegiance to
William of Orange; he was deprived of all his offices and pensions, and as
an old man was again thrown back on literature as his only means of
livelihood. He went to work with extraordinary courage and energy, writing
plays, poems, prefaces for other men, eulogies for funeral occasions,--
every kind of literary work that men would pay for. His most successful
work at this time was his translations, which resulted in the complete
_Aeneid_ and many selections from Homer, Ovid, and Juvenal, appearing in
English rimed couplets. His most enduring poem, the splendid ode called
"Alexander's Feast," was written in 1697. Three years later he published
his last work, _Fables_, containing poetical paraphrases of the tales of
Boccaccio and Chaucer, and the miscellaneous poems of his last years. Long
prefaces were the fashion in Dryden's day, and his best critical work is
found in his introductions. The preface to the _Fables_ is generally
admired as an example of the new prose style developed by Dryden and his
followers.
From the literary view point these last troubled years were the best of
Dryden's life, though they were made bitter by obscurity and by the
criticism of his numerous enemies. He died in 1700 and was buried near
Chaucer in Westminster Abbey.
WORKS OF DRYDEN. The numerous dramatic works of Dryden are best left in
that obscurity into which they have fallen. Now and then they contain a bit
of excellent lyric poetry, and in _All for Love_, another version of
_Antony and Cleopatra_, where he leaves his cherished heroic couplet for
the blank verse of Marlowe and Shakespeare, he shows what he might have
done had he not sold his talents to a depraved audience. On the whole,
reading his plays is like nibbling at a rotting apple; even the good spots
are affected by the decay, and one ends by throwing the whole thing into
the garbage can, where most of the dramatic works of this period belong.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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