In the pantheon of English literature, few figures loom as large or cast as long a shadow as John Dryden. Born on August 9, 1631, in the village of Aldwincle All Saints in Northamptonshire, England, and dying on May 12, 1700, in London, Dryden lived through one of the most turbulent periods in British history. His lifetime spanned the English Civil War, the execution of Charles I, the Interregnum under Oliver Cromwel…
“A play ought to be a just image of human nature; but it is not necessary that it should be a true history of the times.”
Neighbourhood:
Augustan Poets, Dramatic Poets, Love Poets, Political Poets, Restoration Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Tenderness, Sensuality
In the sun-dappled fields and ancient cathedral shadows of Kent, England, around the year 1553 or 1554, a boy named John Lyly entered the world. He would grow to become one of the most dazzling literary innovators of the Elizabethan age, a wordsmith whose elegant prose and witty comedies lit up the courts of Queen Elizabeth I and helped shape the very foundations of English drama and fiction. Though his birth date is…
“Though the camomile, the more it is trodden, the more it spreadeth, yet the violet, the oftener it is handled, the sooner it withereth.”
Neighbourhood:
Elizabethan Poets, Love Poets, Renaissance Poets
Emotional landscape: Tenderness, Wonder, Sensuality
