Restoration LiteratureRestoration LiteratureRestoration LiteratureRestoration Literature

Lesson 2 DrydenLesson 2 Dryden

Dr. Marguerite ConnorDr. Marguerite Connor

John Dryden, 1631-1700

Sometimes Hard to Read Today

• Works are often political in nature or occasional pieces (written for a specific occasion).

• Also wrote for money– poetry and plays had to meet the taste of the

day.

• Writing is very eloquent and intellectual– qualities not always appreciated today

Background and Education

• son of a moderate Puritan country gentleman of moderate means

• First attended Westminster School

• Trinity College, Cambridge,AB.

• Stayed on at Trinity for three years after graduation, but did not earn a higher degree.

Early Works/Politics

• His first important poem was Heroic Stanzas (1659) to commemorate Cromwell.

• Astraea Redux (1660) in honor of the Restoration

• For the rest of his life he was loyal to Charles and James.

Very Important Literary Figure

• He was very much aware of the religious, political, philosophical and artistic trends that were swirling about him, and he wrote about them.

• His occasional poems and Astraea Redux and Annus Miribilis (1667) are his greatest examples of this.

First Great Honor• In 1662, he was elected to the Royal

Society, England’s national academy of science founded by King Charles II in 1660.

Marriage• Married Lady Elizabeth Howard, 1663

• the sister of his patron, the poet and courtier, Sir Robert Howard

• He and Sir Robert wrote the play The Indian Queen together, 1664.

• By marrying a “lady” he married “above his station”.

• His election to the Royal Society helped make the marriage possible.

Playwright

• Between 1664-81 mainly a playwright.

• Openly wrote to please people and make money

• In this respect he was very much like a screenplay writer today.

Heroic Plays• Usually wrote rhymed heroic plays

– the taste in the early part of the Restoration.

• Feature incredibly noble heroes and heroines who face impossible choices between love and honor or duty.

• All for Love (1667)– reworking of Shakespeare’s Antony and

Cleopatra in blank verse and adapted to the Unities of time, place and action

“ Father of English Criticism”

• Studied the great playwright– Greece– Rome– Renaissance– French contemporaries.

• Sought sound theatrical principles on which to construct new drama.

Poet Laureate

• In 1668, King Charles made him the poet laureate

• Two years later gave him the post of royal historiographer

• Combined income of about £200

– a good sum in those days.

Formal Verse Satire• Between 1678-81 at his height.

• Mock-epic satire MacFlecknoe (1678) satirizing the playwright Thomas Shadwell

• Absalom and Achitophel (1681)

• The Medal in 1682, a poem written in response to Shaftesbury getting off on charges of treason.

Religio Laici• Published 1682

• Title means “A Layman’s Religion”

• Examines the grounds of his religious faith

• Defended the middle way of the Anglican Church against Deism and Catholicism.

Deism• A philosophy, not really a religion

• Often is called “a natural religion”

• Sought to find a standard and a guide in all the conflicting creeds and doctrines of the 17th century

What is a Deist?• “One who believes in the existence of a

God or supreme being but denies revealed religion, basing his belief on the light of nature and reason." (Webster)

Lord Herbert of Cherbury • First “name” of English Deism• 1583-1648• Codified the philosophy of Deism

Original Five Core Beliefs

• a belief in the existence of the Deity,

• the obligation to reverence such a power,

• the identification of worship with practical morality,

• the obligation to repent of sin and to abandon it, and,

• divine recompense in this world and the next.

Deism and Christianity• "Five Articles" constitute the nucleus of all religions

and of Christianity in its primitive, uncorrupted form.

• The variations between positive religions are explained as due partly

– to the allegorization of nature

– partly to self-deception,

– the workings of imagination,

– priestly guile.

Other Deist Influence• Particularly evident in the writings of the

philosopher Thomas Hobbes.

• Interest in science and maths during this part of the century, and the reaction against the harsh religious wars of the earlier part of the century made Deism appealing to “Men of Reason” as they thought of themselves.

Dryden’s Religion• Anglican during most of his adult life

• In 1686 Dryden and his two sons converted to Roman Catholicism.

– Political enemies and literary rivals said he was being an opportunist and converting to the religion of the king,

Remains Faithful• Remained a Roman Catholic after James was

overthrown.

• Lost his official positions under William and Mary in 1688 as well as all of his stipends.

• The Hind and the Panther (1687)

– debate between the pure white hind, (Roman Catholic faith) and the spotted panther (Anglican Church)

Need for Money• After the 1688 revolution, Dryden had

to work hard for money until the end of his life, as was the situation for many writers.

• To earn his keep, he resumed writing plays and started doing translations of literature.

Best Known Translations

• In 1693 he did translations of Juvenal and Persius

• In 1697 he published a fine translation of Virgil.

• In 1700, two months before his death, he published Fables Ancient and Modern.

Long-lasting Influence• Dryden had an incredible influence on

English literature, especially through his criticism.

• He set the taste and standards in literature for a century

• Standards were overthrown by the Romantics, who still hold critical sway today.

Neoclassicism• Neo-classical, when used in a specific

literary sense, refers to the theories and practices of most writers from the latter part of the 17th century through the 18th century.

Disparate Writers• It’s a very broad description

• Includes– Dryden– Swift– Pope– Addison– Johnson. Joseph Addison, whom we

won’t be studying this term

Distinguishing Traits• Admired restraint, clarity, order, balance

and proportion. • Applied the principle of decorum

– the idea of a rich and elevated language is the appropriate one for writing tragedy, but that a simpler language was used for comedy and other genres that deal with ordinary life.

Examples• Dryden as well as Swift and Pope

would invert this formula, often using rich elevated language when writing satire.

• Examples of this are MacFlecknoe, The Lady’s Dressing Room, and The Rape of the Lock

Aristotle’s “Unities”• From The Poetics

• Later codified by French and Italian writers during the Renaissance.

• Dryden argues that the Unities are important, but good drama is more important, so if one has to bend the rules, it’s permissible.

Neo-classicism Explained• “Neoclassicists generally regarded man as a

limited creature whose understanding was not adequate to an exploration of the infinite. In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), John Locke expressed the hope that his ‘inquiry into the nature of understanding’ would lead ‘the busy mind of man to be more cautious in meddling with things exceeding its comprehension… . Our business here is not to know all things, but those which concern our conduct.’

Definition 2• This acceptance of human limitations and this

emphasis on ‘conduct’, on the behaviour proper to men in society, was congenial to an age in which many of the greatest literary productions were satires of human pretensions. Commonly, the enlightened minds of the age believed that the orderly laws of the physical universe (as Newton and others were revealing them) demonstrated that a beneficent creator existed and that human affairs were to be directed toward understanding man’s position in the physical universe and in the social world. As Pope wrote, ‘The proper study of mankind is man.’

Definition 3• “For the writer, the proper goal, as the Roman poet

Horace had said, to instruct and to delight. Through embellishments of language, the poet was to please his reader and thus lead him to see his characters as individuals who were yet general representations of humankind. Recognizing in the actions of these characters what was virtuous as well as what was foolish, the reader learned, presumably, to admire the former and avoid the latter.

Definition Conclusion• To achieve his goal, the poet had to do more

than just trust his inspiration: he had to study his craft, particularly as it had been practised by the great writers of the Classical ages of Greece and Rome. For in their works and in the ‘rules’ that the best critics of the past had devised, he would find reflected those general laws governing man an the world that are the true source of knowledge -- in short, ‘Nature’.” (Beckson and Ganz’s Literary Terms: A dictionary)

An Essay on Dramatic Poesy

• Socratic dialogue

• We only read a small segment

• Speakers based on real people.

Eugenius• Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset who

used the courtesy title Lord Buckhurst,

• Dryden’s patron and friend

• also a poet and court wit.

Crites• Sir Robert Howard, Dryden’s brother-in-

law and fellow playwright

• They argued about the use of blank verse in drama.

Lisideius• Sir Charles Sedley, another

poet/playwright associated with Court circles

Neader• Dryden himself

Dryden, c 1698

Dryden on the Puritans• “Be it spoken to the honour of the English, our nation

can never want in any age such who are able to dispute the empire of wit with any people in the universe. And though the fury of a civil war, and power for twenty years together of a barbarous race of men, enemies of all good learning, had buried the muses under the ruins of monarchy; yet, with the restoration of our happiness, we see revived poesy lifting up its head, and already shaking off the rubbish which lay so heavy on it.”

Absalom and Achitophel

• Occasional poem linked to the trial of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury

Shaftesbury background

• First been a soldier for Charles I

• Became a Parliamentarian under Cromwell.

• On the Restoration he was pardoned by Charles II

• Became an influential politician

– member of Charles’s infamous “Cabal” ministry

Shaftesbury and Politics

• Appointed Lord Chancellor in 1672

• Did not support James to become king after his brother because of his Catholicism.

• Supported Charles’s illegitimate son, James, Duke of Monmouth’s claim to the throne

• He was brought to trial for treason in 1681.

Final Flight• Although he was vindicated in this trial,

he fell from favor so dramatically that he was forced to flee to the Netherlands in 1682

• He died there the next year.

Notes on Lecture• Shaftesbury really a brilliant statesman, but

his image has been colored by Dryden’s depiction.

• There is no action in the poem. The rebellion is stopped. So for us as readers, the portraits of the people involved are what’s important.

• The poem glamorizes the king. It has to, really, and it has to gloss over some of Charles’s faults

Characters• David - Charles

• Absalom - Monmouth

• Achitophel - Shaftesbury

• Enemies - the Whig party

• Zimri - George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham

Duke of Monmouth

• Charles’s oldest child and a favorite.

• Came to Court 1662, made Duke and married to Anne, Countess of Buccleuch

• Military commands on Continent• Captain General, 1678

Plot to Supplant James• Shaftesbury, among others, tried to get

Monmouth made heir

• Tried to have Charles legitimize him.

• Started a rumor campaign that Charles had actually been legally married to Lucy Walters, Monmouth’s mother.

• Charles always denied this.

Banishment• In 1679, Charles sent both Monmouth

and the Duke of York (his brother James) into exile.

• At this point, he was also pretty disgusted with his brother for his obstinate avowal of his Catholic faith.

Popular with the People• Monmouth returned without the king's

permission

• Forbidden to come to court.

• Because of anti-Catholic sentiment welcomed in London and the western counties.

More Plotting• After the arrest of Shaftesbury for treason

in 1681 he was heard to speak openly of rebellion.

• When a plot to assassinate King Charles and the Duke of York was discovered in 1683 and some of the Whig leaders were arrested, Monmouth fled to Holland.

Under King James II• June 1685, four months after James’s

ascension, Monmouth returned to England and raised a small force.

• At Taunton he was proclaimed king• For a short time his chances for success

looked very promising. • Gentry failed to come to his support, and his

army was routed by James's troops. • Monmouth was captured and beheaded in

London.

Biblical Allusions• See 2 Samuel 13-18• King James Bible is the one that

Dryden would have known.• Really beautiful language

The Tories• Crown party • Those who stood for the traditional values of

king and country• Dryden, Swift, Behn and Manley are some of

the staunch Tory poets we’ll discuss this term. • It’s also the party associated with the Anglican

and Catholic churches, though members of these faiths could be Whigs.

The Whigs• Parliamentarian party• associated with the ousted Puritans, but more

with the rising mercantile middle-class– people who have earned wealth and position

though hard work and not birth

– though there were members of the peerage who were Whigs.

• Whigs tended to be less conservative, forward-looking and closer to what we would call “liberal” today.

H.T. Dickinson on the Whigs

• “The Whigs regarded both absolute monarchy and a democratic republic as inimical to that political and social order which they believed was natural and best suited to England . . .

• (con’t)

Dickinson 2• “Whiggism was opposed to all the

fundamental tenets of the Tory theory of order: namely absolute monarchy, divine right, indefeasible hereditary succession, non-resistance and passive obedience. Whigs recognized the need for an absolute and irresistible authority in the state, but they refused to confer such authority on a single magistrate.”

Dickinson 3• “ …since the monarch existed for the benefit

of his subjects and not vice-versa, and since all governments were man-made and not specifically ordained by God, no ruler could claim his title by divine right. Rulers could govern only with the consent of the people.”– Dickinson, H.T. "Whiggism in the Eighteenth Century." The Whig

Ascendancy: Colloquie on Hanoverian England. John Cannon, ed. London: Edward Arnold, 1981. 28-44.

Divine Right of Kings• This is an ancient doctrine that kings

received their thrones from God, as you can see illustrated in the Bible story you read today. David is king of Israel because God wills it. The ruler, then, was answerable to no one but God.

Long History• While this idea goes back as far as the

Hebrews, it did not come into prominence in Western Civilization until the Middle Ages.

• It then held sway throughout Europe until the changes wrought by the Enlightenment, beginning in the mid-17th century.

King James I: On the Divine Right of Kings (1609) • “The state of monarchy is the supremest thing upon

earth; for kings are not only God's lieutenants upon earth, and sit upon God's throne, but even by God himself are called gods. There be three principal similitudes that illustrate the state of monarchy: one taken out of the word of God; and the two other out of the grounds of policy and philosophy. In the Scriptures kings are called gods, and so their power after a certain relation compared to the divine power.

More James I• “Kings are also compared to fathers of families: for a

king is truly Parens patriae, the politique father of his people. And lastly, kings are compared to the head of this microcosm of the body of man.”

• [note from me, this tied in real well with the strengthening of the patriarchy!]

More James I• “Kings are justly called gods, for that they exercise

a manner or resemblance of divine power upon earth: for if you will consider the attributes to God, you shall see how they agree in the person of a king.”

• Finally he wrote: “First, that you do not meddle with the main points of government; that is my craft . . . to meddle with that were to lesson me . . . I must not be taught my office.

Conclusion of James I Quote

• “Secondly, I would not have you meddle with such ancient rights of mine as I have received from my predecessors . . . . All novelties are dangerous as well in a politic as in a natural body. and therefore I would be loath to be quarreled in my ancient rights and possessions, for that were to judge me unworthy of that which my predecessors had and left me.”

Father to Son• James taught this to his son and heir, of course, and

it was the arrogance of this position which brought Charles I to his death.

• Charles II was aware of the doctrine, of course, but he proved himself a bit more flexible, though he indeed, did believe that he had been called to the throne by God.

• He also believed that if God willed it, Charles would have had a legitimate son, but as he didn’t, the throne must go to his brother James, as that seemed to be God’s will as well.

Tories vs. Whigs• Tories held fast to the idea of the Divine

Right of kings

• Whigs don’t believe it.

Structure of poem

• Lines 1-149 are an introduction to the dilemma and the political situation

• Lines 150-490 are the temptation of Absalom

• Lines 491-681 Achitophel’s men

• Lines 682-816 Dryden’s view of kingship

• Lines 817-932 “Good guys” listed

• Lines 933-end David asserts himself

Description Very Important

• The physical descriptions of people are very important in this poem.

• Dryden was very interested in the connection between the visual arts and poetry

• Dryden being unusually visually-based in his descriptions, more than in any other poem

Physiognomy• “Science” which seeks links between

the character and the body.

• These ideas are still with us today, but they have been discredited as science.

• But we hold on to our prejudices.