The Major Works

by Dryden, John; Walker, Keith

• ISBN13: 9780192840776
• ISBN10: 0192840770
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-03
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This authoritative edition was originally published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode. It brings together a unique combination of Dryden's poetry and prose - all the major poems in full, literary criticism, and translations - to give theessence of his work and thinking.John Dryden (1631-1700) was the leading writer of his day and a major cultural spokesman following the restoration of Charles II in 1660. His work includes political poems, satire, religious apologias, translations, critical essays and plays. This anthology includes all the major poems such asMacFlecknoe and Absalom and Achitophel as well as Dryden's classical translations; his versions of Homer, Horace, and Ovid are reproduced in full. There are also substantial selections from Dryden's Virgil, Juvenal, and other classical writers. Fables, Ancient and Modern, taken from Chaucer, Ovid,Boccaccio, and Homer, his last and possibly greatest work, also appears in full.

Author Biography

Keith Walker has edited editions of the poems of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, and Andrew Marvell.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
Acknowledgements	xv
Chronology	xvii
Note on the Text	xix
To John Hoddesdon on his Divine Epigrams	1	(1)
Heroic Stanzas	1	(5)
To Sir Robert Howard	6	(3)
Astraea Redux	9	(8)
To His Sacred Majesty	17	(4)
To Dr Charleton	21	(1)
Prologue to The Rival Ladies	22	(1)
Annus Mirabilis	23	(47)
An Essay of Dramatic Poesy	70	(60)
Prologues to Secret Love	130	(2)
Prologue and Epilogue to Sir Martin Mar-all	132	(1)
Prologue to The Wild Gallant revived	133	(1)
Prologue and Epilogue to The Tempest	133	(2)
Prologue and Epilogue to Tyrannic Love	135	(2)
Prologue to The First Part of The Conquest of Granada	137	(1)
Epilogue to The Second Part of The Conquest of Granada	138	(1)
Prologue and Epilogue to Aureng-Zebe	139	(2)
Epilogue to The Man of Mode	141	(1)
MacFlecknoe	142	(6)
Heads of an Answer to Rymer	148	(6)
Prologue to Oedipus	154	(1)
Preface to Ovid's Epistles	155	(10)
Canace to Macareus	165	(4)
Dido to Aeneas	169	(5)
Prologue to The Spanish Friar	174	(1)
Epilogue to Mithridates	175	(2)
Absalom and Achitophel	177	(27)
From the Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel	204	(1)
The Medal	205	(12)
Prologue to the Duchess on her Return from Scotland	217	(2)
Religio Laici	219	(20)
Ovid's Elegies. Book II. The Nineteenth Elegy	239	(2)
Prologue to The University of Oxford ['What Greece']	241	(1)
Epilogue to Oxford ['Oft has our poet']	242	(1)
Prologue to The University of Oxford [`Though actors']	243	(1)
Prologue Spoken at the Opening of The New House	244	(1)
To the Memory of Mr Oldham	245	(1)
Preface to Sylvae	246	(13)
Nisus and Euryalus	259	(32)
Translations from Lucretius
The Beginning of the First Book	271	(2)
The Beginning of the Second Book	273	(2)
The Latter Part of the Third Book	275	(8)
The Fourth Book	283	(7)
From the Fifth Book	290	(1)
Daphnis	291	(6)
A New Song	297	(1)
Song ['Go tell Amynta']	298	(1)
The Third Ode of the First Book of Horace	299	(1)
The Ninth Ode of the First Book of Horace	300	(2)
The Twenty-ninth Ode of the Third Book of Horace	302	(3)
The Second Epode of Horace	305	(3)
To Sir George Etherege	308	(2)
To Anne Killigrew	310	(5)
To Henry Higden	315	(1)
A Song for St Cecilia's Day, 1687	316	(3)
Prologue to Don Sebastian	319	(1)
Prologue to The Mistakes	320	(1)
The Lady's Song	321	(1)
To Mr Southerne	322	(1)
Eleonora: A Panegyric Poem	323	(13)
The Sixth Satire of Juvenal	336	(23)
The Tenth Satire of Juvenal	359	(14)
The First Satire of Persius	373	(9)
The First Book of Ovid's Metamorphoses	382	(27)
Ovid's Amours. Book I. Elegy 1	409	(1)
Ovid's Amours. Book I. Elegy 4	410	(3)
Ovid's Art of Love, Book I	413	(21)
The Fable of Iphis and Ianthe	434	(6)
The Fable of Acis, Polyphemus, and Galatea	440	(6)
A Song to a Fair Young Lady	446	(1)
Prologue ['Gallants, a bashful poet']	447	(1)
Veni, Creator Spiritus	448	(1)
Rondelay	449	(1)
The Last Parting of Hector and Andromache	450	(5)
To my Dear Friend Mr Congreve	455	(2)
To Sir Godfrey Kneller	457	(4)
An Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell	461	(80)
Virgil's Georgics
Book I	463	(17)
Book II	480	(20)
Book III	500	(21)
Book IV	521	(20)
Postscript to the Reader appended to the Aeneid	541	(4)
Alexander's Feast	545	(5)
To Mr Motteux	550	(304)
Fables Ancient and Modern
Preface	552	(19)
To Her Grace the Duchess of Ormonde	571	(4)
Palamon and Arcite	575	(60)
To my Honoured Kinsman John Driden	635	(5)
Meleager and Atalanta	640	(10)
Sigismonda and Guiscardo	650	(19)
Baucis and Philemon	669	(5)
Pygmalion and the Statue	674	(3)
Cinyras and Myrrha	677	(10)
The First Book of Homer's Iliad	687	(20)
The Cock and the Fox	707	(20)
Theodore and Honoria	727	(11)
Ceyx and Alcyone	738	(13)
The Flower and the Leaf	751	(15)
The Twelfth Book of Ovid's Metamorphoses	766	(21)
The Speeches of Ajax and Ulysses	787	(15)
The Wife of Bath's Tale	802	(13)
Of the Pythagorean Philosophy	815	(18)
The Character of a Good Parson	833	(4)
The Monument of a Fair Maiden Lady	837	(1)
Cymon and Iphigenia	838	(16)
The Secular Masque	854	(3)
A Song ['Fair, sweet, and young']	857	(1)
Aesacus Transformed into a Cormorant	858	(3)
Notes	861	(86)
Further Reading	947	(2)
Glossary	949	(12)
Index of Titles and First Lines	961