John Dryden (redirected from J. Dryden)

Dryden, John 

Born Aug. 7, 1631, in Aldwinkle All Saints, Northamptonshire; died May 1, 1700, in London. English poet, dramatist, and critic; one of the founders of English classicism.

During the English bourgeois revolution Dryden eulogized Cromwell in an ode on his death (1658), while during the Restoration he glorified the monarchy in the satirical poem Absalom and Achitophel (1681). The best of Dryden’s tragi-comedies are Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen (1668) and Love Triumphant (1694); his greatest heroic plays are The Indian Emperor > or the Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards (1667) and The Conquest of Granada (1672). Dryden’s best poetic work is the ode Alexander’s Feast, or the Power of Music (1697; Russian translation by V. A. Zhukovskii), which was put to music by G. F. Handel.

WORKS

Works, vols. 1-18. Edinburgh, 1882-93.
Poems, vols. 1-4. Oxford, 1958.
Literary Criticism. Lincoln [1966].

REFERENCES

Verkhovskii, N. P. “Draiden i Shekspir.” Uch. zap. LGU. Seriia filologicheskikh nauk, 1944, v. 9.
Istoriia zapadno-evropeiskogo teatra, vols. 1-2. Edited by S. S. Mokul’skii. Moscow, 1956-57.
Essential Articles for the Study of John Dryden. Hamden, Conn., 1966. (Bibliography on pp. 586-87.)
Miner, E. Dryden’s Poetry. Bloomington-London, 1967. (Bibliography on pp. 327-34.)
Davison, D. Dryden. London, 1968. (Bibliography on pp. 147-49.)
Macdonald, H. John Dryden: A Bibliography of Early Editions and of Drydeniana. [London] 1966.

E. V. KORNILOVA