52 OUR HYMNS :
death of his father, and on leaving there he entered upon a subordinate public office.
On the death of Cromwell, in 1658, he published "Heroic Stanzas on the late Lord Protector." But two years after, when the King was restored, Dryden had so far changed his political views as to be able to write " Astrea Redux, a Poem on the happy Restoration and Return of his most sacred Majesty King Charles the Second." A still greater change took place when, on the accession of James, Dryden declared himself a convert to Popery.
From 1663 to the end of his life, Dryden was occupied, with occasional intervals, in writing for the stage. Several of his pieces were of a character against which fundamental objections lie. They were heroic dramas in rhyme, after the style of the French school. It is justly objected to this class of dramas that the heroic element removes from our sympathies those characters that, according to the requirements of the drama, should enlist those sympathies, After the celebrated attack on heroic dramas made in the " Rehearsal," in 1671, Dryden exchanged tragedy for comedy, though he afterwards returned to tragedy ; and a few years after he gave up his preference for rhyme, in which he had greatly excelled, and wrote in blank verse. His " Annus Mirabilis" had appeared in 1667.
Some of his plays were alterations and expansions of Shak- spere s, and others were taken from the classics. And he did not take any pains to meet the charge of plagiarism, which was often brought against him ; but showed himself a master in using the materials of others and in uniting with them his own. Some of his pieces had a political meaning. " Absalom and Achitophel," produced in 1681, was of this class. This satire, written against the faction which, by Lord Shaftesbury s incitement, set the Duke of Monmouth at its head, met with a large and ready sale. In it Monmouth, Shaftesbury, and Buckingham, are held up to ridicule and scorn. And when a medal was struck to cele brate the refusal of the jury to find a true bill for high treason
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