John Dryden

John Dryden was born the first of 14 children to Erasmus Dryden and Mary Pickering in Aldwincle, a small civil parish in the eastern part of England. Dryden’s maternal grandfather was the village rector, and his paternal grandfather, Sir Erasmus Dryden, 1st Baronet, was a respected Member of Parliament. In 1644, Dryden went to Westminster School, a public school in London, which he references fondly in his poem “Absalom and Achitophel.” During Dryden’s time at Westminster School, he wrote and published his first poem, a royalist elegy about the death of a classmate that allegorizes the execution of Charles I, in 1649. Dryden then attended Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated in 1654 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. During the Interregnum—the period of time between the execution of Charles I and the restoration of Charles II in 1660, during which Oliver Cromwell ruled over England—Dryden returned to London and worked for Cromwell’s Secretary of State. When the monarchy was restored, Dryden dominated the literary scene of Restoration England. He wrote numerous poems and public speeches, and he was frequently commissioned by King Charles to write directly on the crown’s behalf. After the ban on theaters was lifted in 1663, Dryden began writing plays and quickly became famous for works such as Marriage à la Mode (1673) and All for Love (1678). While certainly famous for his plays, Dryden is perhaps remembered most for his satirical poems, such as “Absalom and Achitophel” (1681) and “Mac Flecknoe” (1682). Dryden married Lady Elizabeth Howard in 1663, and while their marriage was said to be rather unhappy, the couple had three sons—Charles, John, and Erasmus—whom they deeply loved and were very close to. Dryden served as the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1668 to 1688, and in his time he was both celebrated and condemned. Despite being born a Protestant, Dryden converted to Catholicism in 1686. He died in the year 1700 at the age of 68 in London due to complications of gout and was buried at Westminster Abbey.