ABSTRACT
John Dryden’s work for the theatre is uneven in quality. His comedies have neither the naturalness nor the wit of those Restoration dramatists whose plays can still hold the stage. His tragedies for the most part exemplify those artificialities of style that are especially associated with Restoration tragedy. Restoration writers position their tragic characters on a lofty plane of contrived situational improbability and emotional extravagance. Dryden collaborated with Nathaniel Lee in Oedipus and The Duke of Guise: he also collaborated with Sir William D’Avenant in making an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. D’Avenant, who had been active as a dramatist before the revolution, returned to the theatre after the Restoration and became a great ‘improver’ of Shakespeare.
