Literary Birthday – 19 August – John Dryden
John Dryden was born on 19 August 1631 and died on 12 May 1700.
John Dryden Quotes
- Beware the fury of a patient man.
- Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.
- Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call today his own: He who, secure within, can say, Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
- We first make our habits, then our habits make us.
- It is almost impossible to translate verbally and well at the same time; for the Latin (a most severe and compendious language) often expresses that in one word which either the barbarity or the narrowness of modern tongues cannot supply in more. …But since every language is so full of its own proprieties that what is beautiful in one is often barbarous, nay, sometimes nonsense, in another, it would be unreasonable to limit a translator to the narrow compass of his author’s words; it is enough if he choose out some expression which does not vitiate the sense.
- All things are subject to decay and when fate summons, monarchs must obey.
- Dancing is the poetry of the foot.
- Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide.
- It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.
John Dryden was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who became Poet Laureate in 1668. He was one of the most influential writers of his time, so much so that the period became known as the Age of Dryden. Dryden wrote almost 30 plays, including tragedies, comedies, and dramatic operas. He also made an important contribution to literary criticism through his essays and commentaries on poetry and drama. His work was so influential that Samuel Johnson called him ‘the father of English criticism’. Dryden is also known for works such as All for Love, a tragedy based on the relationship between Mark Antony and Cleopatra. He died in 1700 and was buried in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey, between Geoffrey Chaucer and Abraham Cowley.
Image: After Godfrey Kneller, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
by Amanda Patterson
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