The Dramatist 1663–85

Abstract

The writing of poetry could not secure a living for Dryden. It is unlikely that he earned anything much from his poems of the early 1660s, and it is probable that these pieces served chiefly to establish his name before the reading public and the men of power. If he was to make a reasonable income solely as a writer, Dryden would have to turn to the theatre, for no man of letters before Pope was able to make a living from poetry alone. Dryden’s involvement with the theatre was often to prove burdensome and disillusioning, but there were several reasons why the theatre might have seemed attractive in these early years. The status of the playwright was no longer as disreputable as it had been when Shakespeare and Jonson had begun their careers: under Elizabeth playwrights had often been working actors, and actors were regarded at best as servants, at worst as vagabonds. The achievement of Jonson in gaining recognition for his plays as works of literature through their publication in a handsome folio collection in 1616 had helped to secure a similar recognition for Shakespeare in 1623 and for Beaumont and Fletcher in 1647.