John Dryden was an English poet, critic, and playwright active in the second half of the 17th century. Over the span of nearly 40 years, he dabbled in a wide range of genres to great success and acclaim. As a poet, Dryden is best known as a satirist and was England's first poet laureate in 1668. In addition to satires, Dryden wrote elegies, prologues, epilogues, odes, and panegyrics. His most famous poem is Absalom and Achitophel (1681). Dryden was so influential in Restoration England that the period was known to many as the Age of Dryden.
Born at a vicarage in Northampshire in 1631, Dryden was the son of parliamentary supporters, but exhibited royalist sympathies early. His poem “Upon the Death of Lord Hastings” supports a royalist agenda. Three years after graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge, he moved to London and wrote his "Heroic Stanzas" in 1659. After writing the poem "Annus Mirabilis" in 1667, Dryden was named poet laureate of England.
Dryden wrote plays throughout the 1670s, and was at the forefront of Restoration comedy. His best-known plays were Marriage à la Mode in 1673 and All for Love in 1678. However, his plays were never as successful as his poetry, and he eventually turned back to satires. In the satires that he wrote, Dryden often took aim at the Whigs, which earned him attention from Charles II. In the 1680s, Dryden converted to Catholicism and set to work criticizing the Anglican church, which ultimately lost him the position of Poet Laureate.
At the end of his career, Dryden returned to theatrical writing and also took up translation. He died in 1700 from gout.