Dryden's Palamon and Arcite

John Dryden's Palamon and Arcite comes alive here as both poem and historical document, set against the restless, divided world of late seventeenth-century England. The book traces the upheavals of Commonwealth, Restoration, plague, and fire, then follows the reigns of Charles II, James II, and William of Orange through party politics, religious conflict, and the Protestant Revolution of 1688. Against this backdrop of Puritan severity and Restoration extravagance, Dryden emerges as the central literary force of his age, shaped by the move from Metaphysical ingenuity to French-inspired classicism, polished couplets, satire, and the rebirth of the stage. The account also follows Dryden's life from Puritan beginnings and shifting loyalties to court favor, political combat, and controversial conversion, before his later turn to translation and adaptation. His versions of Juvenal and Virgil, and his powerful reworking of Chaucer, show a poet who could make borrowed material feel urgent, musical, and new. In Palamon and Arcite, jealousy, exile, suffering, identity, and divine justice deepen the tragic grandeur of the tale, as Palamon escapes prison and Arcite returns in disguise, each driven by love, ambition, and fate. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.