ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -John Dryden (/ˈdraɪdən/; 19 August [O.S. 9 August] 1631 – 12 May [O.S. 1 May] 1700) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England’s first Poet Laureate.

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.

Detailed explanation-3: -His works are so praiseworthy that Samuel Johnson, a contemporary of Dryden and himself a major critic, called him ‘the father of English criticism” along with commenting that English prose starts with Dryden’s Essay on Dramatic Poesy.

Detailed explanation-4: -John Dryden, (born August 9 [August 19, New Style], 1631, Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire, England-died May 1 [May 12], 1700, London), English poet, dramatist, and literary critic who so dominated the literary scene of his day that it came to be known as the Age of Dryden.

Detailed explanation-5: -Dryden’s poems have the qualities of his plays―some middling songs and unspontaneous lyrics, careful and melodic versification, and lack of poetic expression of the different emotions.