All For Love by John Dryden (speech)

AllforLove byJohn

Dryden

It is a heroic drama that follows many of the same story beats of Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra, but Dryden confines the action of the story to Alexandria and details the last hours of Anthony and Cleopatra's doomed relationship. It examines not only the end of their relationship, but the end of the Egyptian empire.

The original production premiered in 1677 and was performed by the King's Company, then revived in 1704 at Lincoln's Inn Fields. For a time, Dryden's version of the story became the preferred one, and Shakespeare's version was not performed again after its premiere until 1813 in London.

Summary

Priests in the temple of Isis observed several bad omens in Egypt and fear about the future of the Kingdom, especially with recent disastrous loss of Antony and Cleopatra in the Battle of Actium to Antony’s rival for power in Rome, Octavius. Nonetheless Alexas, Cleopatra’s eunuch, worries more about where their relationship is heading to.

Several visitors appear to convince Antony to return to home to his family like Venditius, one of his lieutenants and Dollabella, his old friend. Even his real wife, Octavia appears to find a resolution. Conflicts of interests, uncontrollable passion, lies and a final loss against the Romans lead to a ultimate tragedy.

UseofDramaticDevices

Many instances of asides and soliloquies that give insight into the characters' inner lives. The play is written in blank verse.

Characters

Cleopatra

Antony

Ventidius

Dollabella

Alexas

Octavius

Octavia

Charmion

Serapion

The heroic drama, sometimes called heroic tragedy, is a dramatic genre that involves epic stories of grandeur with noble heroes, lavish, exotic settings, themes of courage, duty, love, war, and usually, a tragic ending.

Dryden's aim was to interpret the highly elevated romantic vision of the greatest of the Elizabethan dramatist in a simplified and restrained manner.

MainThemes

Honor vs Love

Continuity and Change Passion vs Reason

John Dryden :Life and Works

John Dryden (19 August 1631 — 12 May 1700) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright. He largely dominated the literary world of Restoration England and became England’s first Poet Laureate in 1668.

JHe attended Westminster School as a King’s Scholar in 1644. During his time at Westminster, Dryden published his first poem the elegy “Upon the Death of the Lord Hastings”.

He enrolled at Trinity College in Cambridge the following year, where he likely studied the classics, rhetoric, and mathematics. He obtained his BA in 1654, graduating first in his class.

After graduation, Dryden found work with Oliver Cromwell’s Secretary of State, John Thurloe. Dryden was present at Cromwell’s funeral in 1658, and one year later published his first important poem, Heroic Stanzas. In 1660, Dryden celebrated the regime of King Charles II with Astraea Redux, a royalist panegyric in praise of the new king. In 1663, he married Lady Elizabeth, the royalist sister of Sir Robert Howard.

After the Puritan ban, when theatres reopened in 1660, Dryden began writing plays. His own first outstanding success with The Indian Emperour in 1965, a play that was a sequel to The Indian Queen. 1668 he became part of Thomas Killigrew's King Company but later left in 1677.

In the 1680s, Dryden wrote in satiric verse, with one of his greatest achievements being the mock-heroic Mac Flecknoe, which was a lampoon circulated in manuscript and an attack on the playwright Thomas Shadwell. He also wrote Absalom and Achitophel (1681) and The Medal (1682).

King Charles II

In the 1680s and ’90s Dryden supervised poetical miscellanies and translated the works of Juvenal and Persius for the publisher Jacob Tonson with success. In 1694 he began work on what would be his most ambitious and defining work as translator, The Works of Virgil (1697),

Dryden died on 12 May 1700. He was originally buried in St. Anne’s cemetery in Soho, before being exhumed and reburied in Westminster Abbey ten days later.

An Essay of Dramatick Poesie, 1668

Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen, 1667

Marriage-a-la-Mode, a Comedy, 1673

The Hind and the Panther, 1687

Notable Works

John Dryden dominated the literary scene of his day that it came to be known as the Age of Dryden. A versatile writer, he wrote poetry, prose and plays, as well as translating great works by the likes of Homer and Virgil so they were available to those who spoke and read English.

References

GradeSaver.(s/f).AllforLoveStudyGuide|GradeSaver.

All For Love by John Dryden Plot summary | LitCharts. (s. f.). LitCharts

AllforLoveSummary|SuperSummary.(s.f.).SuperSummary.

Cldyson.(2022,16febrero).JohnDryden-EnglishHistory. EnglishHistory. AcademyofAmericanPoets.(2000,julio20).JohnDryden. Poets.org;Poets.org-AcademyofAmericanPoets.

TheEditorsofEncyclopediaBritannica.(2003).JohnDryden summary.EnEncyclopediaBritannica.