Dryden (dri'dn), John. An English poet. Dryden was born in 1631. After graduating at Cambridge, he entered upon a literary career, and succeeded Sir William Davenant as poet-laureate in 1670. Dryden's "Essay on Dramatic Poesy," according to Dr. Johnson, created the school of English criticism. Dryden, by his dramas and political satires (especially his "Absalom and Achitophel", 1681), stands at the head of English poets of the second rank, and his works have elicited high eulogy from such judges as Pope, Scott, Macaulay, and Brougham. Died 1700.

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