Poems and Fables of John Dryden

by John Dryden

Poetry

876 pages, Hardcover

First published April 23, 1970

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made Poet Laureate in 1668. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. Walter Scott called him "Glorious John."

Reviews

[Gille Liath · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dryden was a man who could say anything elegantly in rhyme, but who did not have anything interesting of his own to say: he had the technique of a poet, but not the soul. The most notable traits of his own poetry, which is apparently reproduced here in full - 500 pages' worth - are moral and religious licentiousness, and servility towards Charles II (whose poet laureate Dryden was) and his other aristocratic patrons. We may not take the licentiousness as seriously as did Dr Johnson in his 'Lives of the English Poets' but, together with the fact that Dryden spent most of his career producing verse plays (*not* reproduced here) for which he himself seemingly had neither liking nor respect, it indicates someone of lightweight character whose guiding principle is the Main Chance; and nobody can be a great writer who lacks fundamental moral seriousness.

It follows that the best part of his work is his translation and retelling of classic poetry in which, indeed, he shows sound judgement and real poetic flair. This aspect is represented here by his 'Fables, Ancient and Modern', which includes tales from Homer, Ovid, Boccaccio and Chaucer; but a good deal of it, including his translations of Virgil, is omitted.

[Nathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Misleading title. Too much of this book contained the Prologues, Epilogues and Songs from plays he wrote. The Fables were just his renditions/translations from works by Homer, Ovid, Boccace, and Chaucer. Some of the Prologues and Epilogues were quite rude to the critics who were about to watch, or had just watched his plays. Overall, disappointing. I'll look for a different collection of his poetry to examine.