John Dryden

John Dryden was the dominant literary figure of Restoration England, Poet Laureate, and the master of the heroic couplet, satire and critical prose; he made the age’s verse and its arguments. All for Love of 1677 retells Antony and Cleopatra in blank verse and the unities, and is his one play still read. He converted to Catholicism under James II and lost his offices at the Revolution, then earned his living by translating Virgil and Chaucer. Johnson said he found English brick and left it marble.