At the time of his death in 1700, John Dryden was acknowledged as England's greatest writer, his reputation even rivaling that of Shakespeare. Certainly, whether considered as a poet, a dramatist, or as a critic, Dryden far outstripped his contemporaries in the sheer scope and variety of his literary production. The amazing versatility of his pen was matched only by the transformational energy that shapes individual works, from heroic dramas to great satires.
For Enchanted Ground, Jayne Lewis and Maximillian E. Novak have brought together many of the world's experts on Dryden, and their essays reflect a range of new, uniquely twenty-first-century views of him. The book is divided into two sections. The first explores Dryden's role as a public poet who had made himself the voice of the restored Stuart court. The second considers Dryden's relationship to the arts and particularly to the past and to Shakespeare.
Dryden was a poet for all ages. These essays provide fresh readings of Dryden and bring scholarship on him fully up-to-date.
For Enchanted Ground, Jayne Lewis and Maximillian E. Novak have brought together many of the world's experts on Dryden, and their essays reflect a range of new, uniquely twenty-first-century views of him.
Introduction. Jayne Lewis And Maximillian E. Novak
PART I: ENCHANTED GROUND
- Dryden and the Consumption of History . Margery Kingsley, Dept. of English, Cameron University, Lawton, OK
- Dryden,Marvell, and the Design of Political Poetry . Leo Braudy, Dept. of English, University of South California
- Dryden and Dissent . Sharon Achinstein, English Faculty, Oxford University
- The Politics of Pastoral Retreat: Dryden's Poem to His Cousin . Michael McKeon, Dept. of English, Rutgers University
- Dryden's Emergence as a Political Satirist . David Haley, Dept. of English Language and Literature, University of Minnesota
- The Political Economy of All for Love . Richard Kroll, Dept. of English and Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine
- Wit, Politics, and Religion: Dryden and Gibbon . Susan Staves, Dept. of English, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
- How Many Religions Did John Dryden Have? . Steven Zwicker, Dept. of English, Washington University, St. Louis
PART II: THE GROUNDS OF ENCHANTMENT
- Anxious Comparisons in John Dryden's Troilus and Cressida . Jennifer Brady, Dept. of English, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN
- Dryden and the Canon: Absorbing and Rejecting the Burden of the Past . Cedric D. Reverand, Dept. of English, University of Wyoming
- 'Betwixt two Ages cast': Theatrical Dryden . Deborah Payne Fisk, Dept. of Literature, American University, Washington, DC
- Dryden's Baroque Dramaturgy: The Case of Aureng-Zebe . Blair Hoxby, Dept. of English, Yale University
- 'The Rationall Spirituall Part': Dryden and Purcell's Baroque King Arthur . Dianne Dugaw, Dept. of English, University of Oregon
- Dryden's Songs . James Winn, Dept. of English, Boston University
- 'Thy Lovers were all untrue': Sexual Overreaching in the Heroic Plays and Alexander's Feast . James Grantham Turner, Dept. of English, University of Californa, Berkeley