The Project Gutenberg EBook of All for Love, by John Dryden

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: All for Love

Author: John Dryden

Posting Date: January 29, 2009 [EBook #2062]
Release Date: February, 2000

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALL FOR LOVE ***

Produced by Gary R. Young

Comments on the preparation of this e-text

SQUARE BRACKETS:

The square brackets, i.e. [ ] are copied from the printed book,
without change, except that a closing bracket "]" has been added
to the stage directions.

CHANGES TO THE TEXT:

Character names have been expanded. For Example, CLEOPATRA was
CLEO.

Three words in the preface were written in Greek Characters.
These have been transliterated into Roman characters, and are
set off by angle brackets, for example, <melichroos>.

All for Love

by

John Dryden

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The age of Elizabeth, memorable for so many reasons in the
history of England, was especially brilliant in literature,
and, within literature, in the drama. With some falling off
in spontaneity, the impulse to great dramatic production lasted
till the Long Parliament closed the theaters in 1642; and when
they were reopened at the Restoration, in 1660, the stage only
too faithfully reflected the debased moral tone of the court
society of Charles II.

John Dryden (1631-1700), the great representative figure in
the literature of the latter part of the seventeenth century,
exemplifies in his work most of the main tendencies of the time.
He came into notice with a poem on the death of Cromwell in 1658,
and two years later was composing couplets expressing his loyalty
to the returned king. He married Lady Elizabeth Howard, the
daughter of a royalist house, and for practically all the rest of
his life remained an adherent of the Tory Party. In 1663 he
began writing for the stage, and during the next thirty years
he attempted nearly all the current forms of drama. His "Annus
Mirabilis" (1666), celebrating the English naval victories over
the Dutch, brought him in 1670 the Poet Laureateship. He had,
meantime, begun the writing of those admirable critical essays,
represented i