John Dryden (1631 – 1700) was an English poet, playwright, literary critic, and translator. In 1644 Dryden was sent to Westminster School to be trained as a King’s Scholar. He later attended Trinity College, Cambridge. His first important poem, Heroic Stanzas, was published in 1659. In 1660 he began writing plays, which became his main source of income for the next two decades. During this time he continued to write poetry. Dryden’s poem, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, circa 1666, won him the poet laureateship in 1668. While Dryden is best remembered as a satirist, he actually only wrote two great satires, Mac Flecknoe (1682) and The Medall (1682). His use of the heroic couplet made it a standard in English poetry, and he is considered by many to be the greatest English Poet of the 17th century.
Quotes by John Dryden…
Good sense and good-nature are never separated, though the ignorant world has thought otherwise. Good nature, by which I mean beneficence and candor, is the product of right reason.
I am as free as Nature first made man, ere the base laws of servitude began.
Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; he who would search for pearls must dive below.
