John Dryden, All for Love, or The World Well Lost

Peter Byrne (Independent Scholar - North America)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.04: English Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century, 1625-1688.
Vol. editors: Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Neil Forsyth (Université de Lausanne), Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1678

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

All for Love, or the World Well Lost (1677),

Dryden’s tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra, represents a turning point in his career as a dramatist. Abandoning his practice of composing his plays in rhymed couplets (a method he had earlier encouraged in his

Essay of Dramatic Poesie

)(1668), Dryden shows here the mastery of an artist at the height of his powers. The play is especially impressive in creating genuine emotion and dramatic tension within the rigorous strictures of the neoclassical theatre; the unities of time, place, and action are strictly observed, but the story loses none of its power as a result. The work has obviously suffered in its inevitable comparison to Shakespeare’s

Antony and Cleopatra

—when read, Dryden’s play is usually offered as an illustration of the…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2823 words

Citation: Byrne, Peter. "All for Love, or The World Well Lost". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 November 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6773, accessed 22 November 2024.]

John Dryden, All for Love, or The World Well Lost

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback