Poetical Works of John Dryden (1857)

S$148.00

Poetical Works of John Dryden (1857)

S$148.00

Title: Poetical Works of John Dryden
Author: John Dryden, John Franklin (illus)
ISBN: –
Publisher: D Appleton & Co, 1857
Condition: Hardcover, brown leather with deep embossing, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Bears a gift inscription from 1886. Fr

SKU: dryden-appleton Categories: ,

Title: Poetical Works of John Dryden
Author: John Dryden, John Franklin (illus)
ISBN: –
Publisher: D Appleton & Co, 1857
Condition: Hardcover, brown leather with deep embossing, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Bears a gift inscription from 1886. Front hinge tender, else nicely aged. Impossibly rare.

About Dryden:

John Dryden (9 August 1631 – 1 May 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. Walter Scott named him “Glorious John.” He was Poet Laureate in 1688. (from wikipedia).

Excerpt:

One Happy Moment

O, no, poor suff’ring Heart, no Change endeavour,
Choose to sustain the smart, rather than leave her;
My ravish’d eyes behold such charms about her,
I can die with her, but not live without her:
One tender Sigh of hers to see me languish,
Will more than pay the price of my past anguish:
Beware, O cruel Fair, how you smile on me,
‘Twas a kind look of yours that has undone me.

Love has in store for me one happy minute,
And She will end my pain who did begin it;
Then no day void of bliss, or pleasure leaving,
Ages shall slide away without perceiving:
Cupid shall guard the door the more to please us,
And keep out Time and Death, when they would seize us:
Time and Death shall depart, and say in flying,
Love has found out a way to live, by dying.