Biography of John Dryden

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19 August 1631
12 may 1700
John Dryden was born in Aldwincle (Northamptonshire, England) on 19 August 1631. Poet, playwright, literary critic and translator English was the eldest of fourteen children of Erasmus and Mary Dryden, belonging to the Puritan gentry. As a boy, John Dryden lives in the village of Titchmarsh. At the age of 15 years old he was sent to study at the Westminster School where the headmaster is Richard Busby, a charismatic teacher and severe discipline. Refounded by Elizabeth I, Westminster embraces religious and political spirit that encourages the continued attachment to the monarchy and the Church of England. Dryden will send to the same school two of his future children. From the perspective of humanistic Westminster prepares its pupils in the art of rhetoric and dialectic, skill who find themselves so strong in the works and thought of Dryden.
His first published poem is an elegy of monarchic character on the death from smallpox of his schoolmate Henry, Lord Hastings, and alludes to the execution of King Charles I, which takes place on 30 January 1649. In 1650 Dryden studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he experiences a return to political and religious ethics of his childhood. The Rector is Thomas Hill, a Puritan clergyman who was Rector in Dryden's hometown. Although there is little information about the life of Dryden before graduating, is thought to have followed classic studies, rhetoric, and mathematics. In June 1654 Dryden's father dies leaving a small annuity which, however, was not enough to live on.
Arrived in London during the protectorate, Dryden gets a job at John Thurloe, Cromwell's Secretary of State. He published his first important poem, Heroique Stanzas "in 1658, therefore whose theme is the death of Cromwell. In 1660 Dryden celebrated the restoration of the monarchy and the return of Charles II with the "Astraea Redux, an authentic royalist panegyric. In this work the period of interregnum is described as the realm of anarchy, and Charles is seen as the Restorer of peace and order. With the accession of Charles II Dryden becomes the most important critic and poet of his time, demonstrating loyalty to the new Government. Welcome to the new regime is manifested by two more panegyrics: "To His Sacred Majesty: A Panegyric on his Coronation (1662), and" To My Lord Chancellor "(1662). In November 1662 Dryden was elected into the Royal Society, of which however ignores completely until it is expelled in 1666, for not paying taxes.
Day 1 December 1663 Dryden married the sister of Sir Robert Howard, Lady Elizabeth, with whom he has three children. With the reopening of the theatres after the Puritan ban, Dryden is responsible for the composition of plays. Although his first play "The Wild Gallant", published in 1663, don't get immediate success, later Dryden becomes a playwright enjoyed that from 1668 writes three dramas annually for the King's company, of which he was also a shareholder. Between 1660 and 1670 the theatrical production is his principal means of livelihood. Opens the way to restoration comedy with the famous "Marriage A-la-Mode (1672), but also to the heroic tragedy and tragedy with" All for Love "(1678). Then decides to try to get success as a poet: in 1667 he published "Annus Mirabilis", a historical poem about the events of 1666, the English defeat of the Dutch fleet and the great fire of London.
This modern epic poem in quatrains of iambic-leads him to become the most important poet of his generation, and it is crucial for his election as poet laureate (1668) and as historiographer royal (1670). In 1665 the great plague of London closed the theatres and Dryden retires in Wiltshire where he writes "Of Dramatick Poesie (1668), probably the best and the longest of his essays. Written in the form of a dialogue, debate about the merits of classical literature in English and French. Dryden's greatest achievements come with satirical verses: the heroic poem "MacFlecknoe", a pamphlet that circulated in manuscript in the years when Dryden was poet at Court, is a satire attacking the writer Thomas Shadwell.
Is not a form of satire that belittles those who object, indeed makes it bigger unsuspected ways, transferring the comedian in poetry. This type of satire continued with "Absalom and Achitophel (1681) and" The Medal "(1682). During this period he also writes religious poems Religio Laici "Dryden" (1682), and "The Hind and the Panther (1687) which celebrates his conversion to the Roman Catholic Church. When King James II is deposed, because of its moral and religious ideas Dryden loses the post of poet laureate at Court, and was replaced by Thomas Shadwell. From that moment on, Dryden has to live with what they earn by writing. Translate Horace, Juvenal, Ovid, Lucretius, and Theocritus. In 1694 he began work on his most ambitious work as a translator, "The Works of Virgil (1697).
The publication of the translation of Virgil is a national event that fruit in Dryden the sum of £ 1,400 well. The latest translations appear in the book "Fables Ancient and Modern" (Fables, ancient and modern, 1700) which collects a series of poems taken from Homer, Ovid, Boccaccio's modern adaptations from Geoffrey Chaucer interspersed with poems written by Dryden. The preface of the book is considered one of the greatest literary criticism. As a critic and as a translator in Dryden you have the merit of having made publicly available literary Greek and Latin Classics. Dryden died on 12 may 1700 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The influence of Dryden as poet was huge throughout the course of his life, and at his death many Elegies were written in his honor by the English literary community. In the 18th century his poems were used as a model by famous poets such as Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson.
During the 19th century his reputation suffers a decline, and even today Dryden is known only from inner circles of specialists. One of his greatest admirers, T.S. Eliot, wrote of him: "the ancestor of nearly all that is best in the poetry of the eighteenth century" and "we can't appreciate and evaluate one hundred years of English poetry if we do not appreciate Dryden in its entirety".
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