The Poems of John Dryden, Volume 5

The Poems of John Dryden is a multi-volume edition of the poetry of John Dryden (1631-1700) resulting from a complete reappraisal of the canon, the text, and the context of his work. The modernised text is prepared from a fresh examination of early printed editions, and takes account of contemporary manuscript copies of Dryden's verse. The annotation is particularly substantial for the most important poems and a headnote accompanies each one, giving details of its date, circumstances, publication history, sources and contemporary reception.

Volumes one and two (published in 1995) included his major satires Mac Flecknoe,Absalom and Achitophel, and The Medal; volume three (2000) contained The Hind and the Panther, and volume four (2000) his translations from Juvenal and Persius.

This fifth and final volume in the series presents, in newly-edited texts and with a substantial editorial commentary, the complete non-dramatic poetry of Dryden's later years. It contains the full text of Dryden's final collection, Fables Ancient and Modern (1700), including its prose Dedication and Preface, together with a number of other poems of the late 1690s, and some posthumously published items. The volume includes Dryden's translations of tales from Homer, Ovid, Chaucer, and Boccaccio. Texts are presented in modernized spelling and punctuation. Annotation offers comprehensive guidance on Dryden's language, and on the sources, contexts and reception of his work. The notes on Dryden's translations trace the poems' relation to their classical and medieval originals, and to the numerous commentaries and earlier translations which Dryden consulted.

The volume incorporates the findings of recent scholarship, together with substantial original research by the editors themselves. It thus represents the most informative, focused, and up-to-date presentation of Dryden's later poetry now available, and should become the standard resource for all serious students of the poet and his period.