Introduction
Today we are going to discuss about The poem of John Dryden. which was published in 1681. It is one of the satirical poem. which also reflected with age of England. so It seems that the Its one of the Allegorical satire poem by John Dryden. Also connect with the charles second was on the Reign of England. let us see the pic of the John Dryden.
John Dryden was one of the writer, satirist as well as best critic. John Dryden was born the first of 14 children to Erasmus Dryden and Mary Pickering in Aldwincle a small civil parish in the eastern part of England. Dryden’s maternal grandfather was the village rector, and his paternal grandfather, Sir Erasmus Dryden, 1st Baronet, was a respected Member of Parliament. In 1644, Dryden went to Westminster School, a public school in London, which he references fondly in his poem “Absalom and Achitophel.” During Dryden’s time at Westminster School, he wrote and published his first poem, a royalist elegy about the death of a classmate that allegorizes the execution of Charles I, in 1649. Dryden then attended Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated in 1654 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. let us see the pic of the poem, which we are going to discuss.
The poem is started with the one of the city of Israel. so There is one king. who is known as the king David, so the people of Israel living with rules of David and one of the very Important point is the David has so many relationship with the another woman also the king has so many wives. so at that time that things was going but now we can not expert It due to our believes. Also one of the point is that the king has one son. who is very clever, brilliant as well as Handsome boy. The bravery of Absalom so the people were liking to Absalom because of the his famousness as well as his Bravery.
And another part of the poem is there one character. who is worker of the king's reign .so we can say that the priest of that time. The character of Achitophel is very different at that time who tries to say to Absalom who has Revolt against his father but the character of the Absalom is very different. who does not want to take reign of his father. here is one video of the poem.
so the three videos is Describing the basic but Important Information of the poem. There are many characters like a
King David = charles second
Absalom = James scot , Duke of Monmouth
Achitophel = Antony Ashley cooper, The Earl of shaftesbury
Also, there some characters like a corah, Zimari, Shimei etc.
The poetry of John Dryden is a verse satire by English poet John Dryden published in 1681. The poem, which is written in heroic couplets, is about the Exclusion crisis, a contemporary episode in which anti-Catholics, notably the earl of Shaftesbury, sought to bar James, duke of York, a Roman Catholic convert and brother to King Charles II, from the line of succession in favor of the king’s Illegitimate but Protestant) son, the duke of Monmouth. Dryden based his work on a biblical incident recorded .These chapters relate the story of King David’s favorites son and his false friend Achitophel , who persuades Absalom to revolt against his father. In his poem, Dryden assigns each figure in the crisis a biblical name; e.g., Absalom is Monmouth, Achitophel is Shaftesbury, and David is Charles II. Despite the strong anti-Catholic tenor of the times, Dryden’s clear and persuasive dissection of the intriguers’ motives helped to preserve the duke of York’s position.
Q (1) Any two quotes from the poem which you find it worth expanding
This set the heathen priesthood in a flame;
For priests of all religions are the same.
Dryden has a lot to say about religious groups and their leaders, and none of it is very positive. He writes of the moody and headstrong Jews, or the English, who are loath to keep a ruler for more than twenty years, and acknowledges their apprehension of the Jebusites, the stand-in for Catholics. In this quote, he refers to Jebusite, Catholic priests as heathens, but he is insulting priests of all religions. In fact, Dryden notes that Of whatsoer descent their godhead be they are quick to see kinship in other priests. Even if those priests do terrible things or support the wrong causes, those pledged to their faith will tacitly or explicitly condone them. Dryden is suggesting that religious men are just as self-interested as political men.
Oh, that my power to saving were confined!
Why am I forced, like heaven, against my mind,
To make examples of another kind?
Must I at length the sword of justice draw?
Oh curst effects of necessary law!
One of the things that makes David's relatively short speech so effective is that he suggests to the people that he has to go against his natural proclivities of tenderness and mildness and take up the literal and metaphorical sword against his enemies in order to protect the throne. Here, he values the power of the throne as far greater than his own, and he says that he must do as it requires. He knows what is required of him and he will do it, but the people must know he is at heart a peaceful man—he simply knows that there are bigger things than his love of his son. David has undergone the shift from gentle, longsuffering father-king to severe, forceful executor of justice Marshall.
Auspicious prince, at whose nativity
Some royal planet ruled the southern sky;
Thy longing country's darling and desire;
Their cloudy pillar and their guardian fire;
Their second Moses, whose extended wand
Divides the seas, and shows the promised land;
Whose dawning day, in every distant age,
Has exercised the sacred prophet's rage;
The people's prayer, the glad diviner's theme,
The young men's vision, and the old men's dream!
Thee, Saviour, thee the nation's vows confess,
And, never satisfied with seeing, bless"
Achitophel knows exactly how to appeal to Absalom here. First, he calls him auspicious. Second, he suggests that his birth was ordained by heaven, and he uses the word "royal" to connect him to the throne. Third, he calls him his country's "darling and desire" because the people love him so. Fourth, he even calls him a god; that is what the cloudy pillar and guardian fire refer to. Fifth, he calls Absalom a "second Moses" and paints a picture of him leading the Jews into the promised land. Sixth, he calls him a Saviour. Achitophel is thus very skilled at appealing to Absalom without pressuring him or seeming like he is doing anything immoral or unjust.
And every hostile humour, which before
Slept quiet in its channels, bubbles o'er;
So several factions, from this first ferment,
Work up to foam, and threat the government.
The humors are not the immediately recognizable medical literary philosophical subject they once were, so an analysis of these lines is necessary for the modern reader. The humors were, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, "part of Shakespearean cosmology, inherited from the ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Galen. Organized around the four elements of earth, water, air, and fire; the four qualities of cold, hot, moist, and dry and the four humors, these physical qualities determined the behavior of all created things including the human body." Psychology Today explains, The ancient names for these humors melancholic black bile, choleric yellow bile, sanguine blood, and phlegmatic phlegm represented different temperaments, and still do. Melancholic people are despondent and gloomy. Choleric people are bad-tempered. Sanguine people are courageous, hopeful, and amorous. Phlegmatic people are calm, cool, and unemotional. Thus, in suggesting that a hostile humour is bubbling over, Dryden is creating a metaphor suggesting that the tensions of the people are boiling and will soon erupt into rebellion.
2) Explore the poem as a political allegory
we can say that the poem of Dryden is a political allegory because of the age of England as well as the Reign of David at Israel. so Dryden is Describing the political situation of the both the country. He may tries to say that the situation of politicians.who are not doing his duty as properly. Means the power politicians are not using what they have to do as perfectly also there are so many part which is describing the poem as political allegory. so we can take this poem as political allegory.
3) Which vices are satirised in the poem so as to correct them explore the poem as satire
In that poem there is some character who has some vices of the take the reign of Israel. who is in hand of the David. so one character Achitophel say to his friend Absalom to that revolt against his father. so there is one Vices of Achitophel.
we can correct them because of the may be Achitophel is right there due to might be the king has some oldmanship .so Achitophel wants to believes that the people have indeed of new king its my own point of view that the new Indeednes of the king.
Thanks.........😊
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