John Dryden (1631–1700)

John Dryden was an English poet, playwright, translator, and critic, and England’s first official Poet Laureate. Born on 19 August 1631 in Aldwincle, Northamptonshire, he was the eldest of fourteen children. He was educated at Westminster School, and later at Trinity College, Cambridge.

After gaining his BA in 1654, he began to earn his living from writing, first as a poet and, after the theatres reopened following the Restoration in 1660, as a playwright. He was a pioneering writer, establishing metrical forms new to English poetry and writing extensively on literary criticism, besides being a prolific playwright of tragedy and Restoration Comedy. He became known also for his polemical writing and for biting satires of literary and political figures.

In 1668, Dryden was appointed England’s first official Poet Laureate by Charles II, but, having converted to Catholicism around 1685, was deposed in 1689 following the accession of the Protestant William and Mary. Although he had previously been criticized for seemingly expedient changes in his political and religious allegiances, he remained a Catholic notwithstanding the risks, and continued to respond to contemporary events through allegories in his work.

In later life, Dryden turned increasingly to producing translations of Greek and Latin authors, including Homer, Virgil, Juvenal, and Ovid. Besides publishing his own versions, he collaborated with his publisher Jacob Tonson to compile miscellany translations by the major literary names of the day. He also devised a renowned tripartite model of translation methods (published in the introduction to Ovid’s Epistles in 1680).

Dryden dominated London’s literary scene throughout his career: known for his astute critical judgement, he presided over coffee-house meetings of the poets, playwrights, and critics known as the ‘Wits’. He also supported the careers of younger writers. His work profoundly influenced contemporary and later writers, most significantly Alexander Pope, as well as, subsequently, many Romantic poets.

In 1663, Dryden married Lady Elizabeth Howard, a union that lasted until his death from gangrene in 1700. He left behind three sons, Charles, John, and Erasmus-Henry, none of whom outlived him by more than ten years. His death was marked by the publication of two books of memorial verse, one entirely by women poets.