JOHN DRYDEN

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4562, 20 April 1942, Page 3

JOHN DRYDEN

Hl§ RETARDED DEVELOPMENT

F.W.B.)

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Short, slight, well-proportioned, and handsome in youth, characterised by sprightly movements, a nimble stride, and p wide-awake eyes, Dryden developed towards' middle age an uncomely rotundity which earned for him among his intimates the nickname of “ The Sqab.” We catch fitful glimpses of him, a portly little gentleman of ruddy face and double chin, sitting with his rod on the primrosed banks of one of the upper reaches of the Thames, or participating violently in an animated conversation at one of the tables in Wills’ famous coffee house. We surprise him basking in the sun on the balcony of his residence in Gerrard Street, and, in his later and greater days, we watch him, at a respectful distance, as he strolls with the King among the flower beds of St. James’. THE TWO DRYDENS The student who wishes to be plunged into the utmost confusion as to the merits and demerits of Dryden cannot do better than read Macaulay’s essay on the poet, and Professor Saintsbury’s biography of him in the “ English Men of- Letters ” series. Both Macaulay and Saintsbury may be regarded as authorities; yet each denies what the other affirms, and the reader of both will find it an interesting and a profitable task to form for himself a clear and independent judgment.

Yet, on one point at least, the two are in perfect agreement. Each holds that there are two distinct Drydens. “ If,” says Macaulay, “ Dryden had died at fifty, he would have been known only to men of letters; and by them he would have been mentioned as a writer who threw away, on subjects which he was incompetent to treat, powers which, judiciously employed, might have’ raised him to eminence.”

“ If,” says Saintsbury, “ Dryden had died at fifty—and by that time the work of most literary men is finished—he would not now rank very high even among the second-class English poets. But the work that he did in the years that followed his fiftieth is superb. Not only is there nothing superior to his satires in English, but there is nothing better in any other language.” It is possible that Saintsbury’s panegyrics are too effusive, and that Macaulay’s strictures are too severe; but it is interesting to find that, as far as the sharp division of Dryden’s career into two distinct parts is concerned, these powerful protagonists are in complete accord. TURN OF THE TIDE How are we to account for the remarkable change that overtook the spirit and style of Dryden as he entered upon his sixth decade ? It is not so difficult as it at first appearsDryden was made of plastic material; he was essentially a child of his age; and, in his earlier days, the spirit of the age was not conducive to the production of literary work of superlative merit. His early manhood was surrounded by the excesses and frivolities that marked the return of the Stuarts. English customs, English standards, and English ideals were at their lowest ebK It was essentially an age of artificiality and affectation. The atmosphere of the time was disgustingly servile; the aspirations of the time were sordid and selfish; the language of the time was incredibly coarse.

But whilst Dryden was still young enough to be affected by such transitions, the tide turned. The wind, veering suddenly, blew from quite another quarter. Dryden was thirty-five when the English version of the Bible appeared; he was forty when “ Paradise Lost” was published; he was forty-seven when Bunyan gave “ Pilgrim’s Progress ” to the world. A note of stark sincerity had been struck; an era of crystal-clear simplicity had dawned. Dryden saw that the old style—the involved and elaborate style of Which Clarendon was the chief exponent; the style that he himself had therefore affected—had received its death-blows. He observed silence for a few years, and when again he applied his pen to paper it was a new and greater Dryden that the world saluted.

ENGLISH RENAISSANCE

Morevoer, at just about the time of Dryden’s transformation, the Puritan