ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Besides being the greatest English poet of the later 17th century, Dryden wrote almost 30 tragedies, comedies, and dramatic operas. He also made a valuable contribution in his commentaries on poetry and drama, which are sufficiently extensive and original to entitle him to be considered, in the words of Dr.

Detailed explanation-2: -Dryden the poet is best known today as a satirist, although he wrote only two great original satires: Mac Flecknoe (1682) and The Medall (1682). His most famous poem, Absalom and Achitophel (1681) contains several brilliant satiric portraits. But unlike satire, it comes to a final, tragic resolution.

Detailed explanation-3: -He led the way in Restoration comedy, his best-known work being Marriage à la Mode (1673), as well as heroic tragedy and regular tragedy, in which his greatest success was All for Love (1678).

Detailed explanation-4: -Dryden wrote only one formal critical work-the famous essay Of Dramatic Poesie. The rest of his critical work consists of three classical lives (Plutarch, Polybius, and Lucian), as many as twenty-five critical prefaces to his own works, and a few more prefaces to the works of his contemporaries.