- All's Well That Ends Well
- Antony and Cleopatra
- As You Like It
- The Comedy of Errors
- Coriolanus
- Cymbeline
- Hamlet
- Henry IV, Part 1
- Henry IV, Part 2
- Henry V
- Henry VI, Part 1
- Henry VI, Part 2
- Henry VI, Part 3
- Henry VIII
- Julius Caesar
- King John
- King Lear
- Love's Labor's Lost
- A Lover's Complaint
- Macbeth
- Measure for Measure
- The Merchant of Venice
- The Merry Wives of Windsor
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Othello
- Pericles
- The Rape of Lucrece
- Richard II
- Richard III
- Romeo and Juliet
- Shakespeare's Sonnets
- The Taming of the Shrew
- The Tempest
- Timon of Athens
- Titus Andronicus
- Troilus and Cressida
- Twelfth Night
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- Venus and Adonis
- The Winter's Tale
This passage occurs early in the poem as the poet describes the plot that attempts to raise Absalom to the throne and exclude David’s brother from royal succession. This quote directly refers to the political events of Dryden’s contemporary England, including the English Civil War and the Popish Plot, which Dryden condemns in his poem. The Good Old Cause is a reference to the Puritan Rebellions during the English Civil War. During the war, the Puritans supported Parliament and opposed King Charles I. Parliament ultimately won, and Charles I was dethroned and executed. In reviving the Good Old Cause, Dryden…