John Dryden, Fables Ancient and Modern

Jena Trammell (Anderson University)

Ed. by Janet Todd, University of Cambridge
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.04: English Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century, 1625-1688.
Vol. editors: Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Neil Forsyth (Université de Lausanne), Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1700

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Commentary / Criticism (literary)
Poem collection
Translation

Resources

John Dryden's last, and one of his finest, literary achievements was a collection of new translations of classical and medieval poetry, published together with some of his own original poems and a preface considered to be one of his most important critical essays. This volume, entitled Fables, Ancient and Modern, was published in 1700 to the acclaim of Dryden's English contemporaries. Dryden had already translated classical poetry by authors like Ovid and Juvenal in the 1680s, and he turned to translating again in the early 1690s to provide himself with a source of income as his dramatic success declined. Literary translation from the Greek and Latin poets was a conventional exercise, but Dryden's genius for poetry enabled him to …

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908 words

Citation: Trammell, Jena. "Fables Ancient and Modern". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 February 2003 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5233, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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