John Dryden and his plays. The Indian Queen

Born 1931, Aldwinckle, Northamptonshire; Landed gentry family; Dryden was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. After the Restoration he established a literary reputation in London. In 1662 he became a fellow of the new Royal Society but let his membership lapse. In 1663 he created his first play, The Wild Gallant. Married Lady Elizabeth Howard, sister of Sir Robert, with whom he wrote The Indian Queen in 1664. He was a writer, critic, poet, satirist, and became an outstanding dramatist of the period, with nearly thirty plays in a wide variety of styles. He was made Poet Laureate (1668); And Historiographer Royal (1670); And was sufficiently wealthy to lend £500 to Charles II (1667). In his last years he not only wrote some of his major poetry but also translated Juvenal, Persius, and Virgil. He was buried in Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey. In heroic tragedy, Dryden developed the Herculean hero, a Renaissance figure, an extravagant conception of individual power. His first such play was The Indian Queen (1664), written in rhymed couplets, which focused on the power element of heroism.