Age Of Dryden - Verse Flashcards
The Stuart Restoration was followed by an immense change in the temper of the English. Describe the era briefly. Did it impact literature?
A sweeping reaction against Puritanism set in and even decency was cast aside.
England was now at its lowest in history. The court of Charles II is the most shameless the country ever knew; profligacy became fashionable.
The spirit of moral corruption spread wide and into literature too. As literature is a social product it was impacted too.
How was the literature of Age of Dryden?
Openly corrupt.
Real earnest purpose and passion had gone away.
The thoughts of men no longer scaled the heights but soared the plain; becoming pedestrian.
Literature was intellectual rather than imaginative and emotional, and though brilliant, is often unsympathetic.
How was poetry of the Age of Dryden specifically?
Poetry became prosaic, was judged by prose standards and made to do work of prose.
The poet made his verse the vehicle of controversy and personal +political satire.
The era of the Versified pamphlet began.
The men of the Restoration were the real creators of ___
Modern English prose
What was the influence of France on Restoration prose?
The European supremacy of Italy had passed and France had become the world’s great arbiter of taste.
The political relations between England and France made in England a vogue for all things French.
The contemporary literature of France was characterized by reason and close attention to form. IT was essentially a literature of polite society.
The intellectual, critical mind was always in control.
As in prose, the principles of correctness to form and order were cultivated in verse at the expense of real feeling. This grew an ___kind of poetry
Artificial
Dryden has been called?
” the greatest man of a little age “
Dryden has two master writers who are pioneers of the classical school of poetry. Talk more about them and who are they.
Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham.
In general these two men were against excesses of metaphysical poetry and in favour of sensible, clear poetry.
They were reformers of English verse at a time when it was too rugged. This is especially true of Waller.
How did Waller reshape the heroic couplet? Was he the first?
He brought into use the kind of ‘classic/closed’ heroic couplet in which the rule is that the couplet should regularly close at the end of the second line both rhetorically and metrically.
Dryden is wrong to say that Waller invented the closed heroic couplet. But when Waller began his work, the tendency was towards a formless kind of verse SO it is from him the new movement may be said to gain power.
What is Denham, one of Drydens masters, chiefly remembered for?
Coopers Hill a descriptive poem
Where was Dryden born and when?
Aldwinkle All Saints, Northamptonshire in 1631
Where was Dryden educated and where did he settled?
Educated at Westminster and at Trinity College, Cambridge
Settled in London later
What were Drydens first poems?
Heroic Stanzas of the Death of Oliver Cromwell, and rapidly changing sides, Astrea Redux in celebration of Charles IIs restoration
Later after poetry, Dryden began to work for the___ which was the only profitable writing profession. And for many years __ was his chief occupation.
Stage, playwriting
In 1670 Dryden was made __ and then later he opened a new chapter in his career with the publication of the first of his great verse satires ___
Poet laureate, Absalom and Achitophel
His great verse satire was followed by similar works, then two theological poems ___ a defence of the Church of England and ___ an argument in favour of Roman Catholics, to which he has converted.
Religio Laici, The Hind and the Panther
Because Dryden converted to Catholicism, the revolution of 1688 was a huge blow and he lost the position of ___. How did he spend his remaining years? When he died?
Poet laureate, spent remaining years producing more plays
translations of Juvenal, Persius, Virgil
A volume of Fables( or paraphrases from Homer, Ovid, Boccaacio, Chaucer)
He died in 1700.
As a poet, Dryden ripened very slowly. What was his first poem?
An elegy on the death of the young Lord Hastings; incredibly badly written
What was Drydens poem written in his late 20s? Which other early poem was it similar to and how? Talk about both poems.
He wrote Heroic Stanzas on the Death of Oliver Cromwell and there are few fine lines but it’s mostly crudely bombastic.
He was greatly influenced by Cowley” the darling of my youth” as a result all the characteristic absurdities of the metaphysical school are in his early works.
The fantastic conceits are even found in Annus Mirabilis, written about the War in Holland and the Great Fire of London.
But though it’s faults are many, the masculine vigour of the poem shows an immense development in the poets genius.
For Drydens full powers, we have to turn to the work of the last 20 years of his life. WHY so?
His emancipation from the metaphysical writers is complete and his work flows clear and strong, no longer choked with rubbish.
This marks the definite establishment of the classical school of poetry in England.
Talk about Drydens classical political satires.
Absalom and Achitophel, written amid the excitement of the Popish Plot conspiracy, was to defend the Kings policy against the Earl of Shaftesbury.
IT is famous for its character studies, of Shaftesbury under the name Achitophel and of Duke of Buckingham under the name Zimri.
The Medal is a further attack against Shaftesbury.
MacFlecknoe is a scathing personal attack on a former friend Thomas Shadwell who had abused Dryden in verse after The Medal.
Talk about Drydens classical doctrinal poems.
Religio Laici and The Hind and the Panther, are theological and controversial not spiritual.
They are written from opposing points of view and show Drydens mastery to conduct an argument in verse for whatever position he adopts.
Talk about Drydens classical Fables.
These poems written in Drydens last years and under burden of age and ill health show the poet at his best and shows him as one of the best verse storytellers.
Palamon and Arcite, based on Knightes Tale of Chaucer, give an opportunity for a comparison between form and art of 17th century poet VS 14th century poet.
Drydens poetry is thoroughly representative of its age.
As a whole it is marked by general want of the essential poetic qualities such as ? Except in the poems?
On the other hand it has? Therefore we can say Dryden holds his own as a satirist and reasoner in verse.
Such as imagination, feeling and spiritual glow, lyrical note
Except in the remarkable odes To the Memory of Mrs Anne Killigrew and Alexanders Feast
On the other hand it has splendid intellectuality and masculine vigour of style.
