The published version, though apparently purified from the worst passages, is certainly offensive enough.
Dryden adopted other not very creditable devices to catch the public taste. In 1673 he produced the tragedy ‘Amboyna, or the Cruelties of the Dutch to the English Merchants,’ a catchpenny production intended to take advantage of the national irritation against the Dutch, then threatened by the Anglo-French alliance. In a similar manner Dryden took advantage of the Popish plot, by a play named ‘The Spanish Friar, or the Double Discovery,’ performed in 1681. It is a bitter attack upon the hypocrisy and licentiousness attributed to the catholic priesthood. A more singular performance was the ‘State of Innocence,’ an opera, which is founded upon Milton's ‘Paradise Lost’ (published 1669). Aubrey states that Dryden asked Milton's permission to put his poem into rhyme, and that Milton replied, ‘Ah! you may tag my verses if you will.’ In the preface Dryden speaks of ‘Paradise Lost’ as ‘one of the greatest, most noble, and sublime poems which either this age or nation hath produced.’ The admiration was lasting. Richardson, in his notes to ‘Paradise Lost’ (1734, p. cxix), tells a story, which is certainly inaccurate in details (Malone, p. 113), to the effect that Dryden said to Lord Buckhurst (afterwards Earl of Dorset), ‘This man cuts us out and the ancients too.’ His famous epigram upon Milton was first printed in Tonson's folio edition of ‘Paradise Lost’ in 1688.
Dryden's most important works during this period were the ‘heroic tragedies.’ Of these ‘Tyrannic Love, or the Royal Martyr,’ and the two parts of ‘Almanzor and Almahide, or the Conquest of Granada,’ appeared in 1669 and 1670. Nell Gwyn appeared in all three, and it is said that she first attracted Charles II when appearing as Valeria in ‘Tyrannic Love.’ Dryden's last (and finest) rhymed tragedy, ‘Aurengzebe, or the Great Mogul’ (which Charles II read in manuscript, giving hints for its final revision), was produced in 1675. The dedication to John Sheffield, lord Mulgrave (afterwards Duke of Buckinghamshire), states that he was now desirous of writing an epic poem, and he asks Mulgrave to use his influence with the king to obtain some means of support during the composition. He says, probably with sincerity, that he never felt himself very fit for tragedy, and that many of his contemporaries had surpassed him in comedy. The subjects which he had considered, as appears from his ‘Discourse on Satire’ (1693), were Edward the Black Prince and King Arthur. He had still some hopes of ‘making amends for ill plays by an heroic poem;’ and Christie suggests that the pension of 100l. a year was a result of this application. Dryden, however, instead of carrying out this scheme, devoted himself to writing his finest play, ‘All for Love.’ Abandoning his earlier preference for rhyme, he now ‘professed to imitate the divine Shakespeare,’ and produced a play which, if inferior to the noble ‘Antony and Cleopatra,’ may be called a not unworthy competitor. Dryden, it may be noted, had written a fine encomium upon Shakespeare in his ‘Essay of Dramatic Poesy,’ and in the prologue to the altered ‘Tempest’ appears the famous couplet:
But Shakespeare's magic could not copied be;
Within that circle none durst walk but he.
At a later period (1679) he brought out an alteration of ‘Troilus and Cressida,’ the prologue of which contains fresh homage to Shakespeare. Dryden adapted Shakespeare's plays to the taste of the time, but he did more than any contemporary to raise the reputation of their author, whom, contrary to the prevalent opinion, he preferred to Ben Jonson: ‘I admire him’ (Jonson), ‘but I love Shakespeare.’ The heroic tragedies, of which Dryden was the leading writer, and which as he admits (Dedication of Spanish Friar) led him to extravagant declamation, produced some lively controversy. The famous ‘Rehearsal,’ in which they were ridiculed with remarkable wit, was first performed in December 1671. It had long been in preparation, the Duke of Buckingham, the ostensible author, receiving help, it is said, from Butler (of ‘Hudibras’), Sprat, and others. The hero, Bayes, was first intended for D'Avenant, but after D'Avenant's death in 1668 Dryden became the main object of attack, and passages of his ‘Indian Emperor’ and ‘Conquest of Granada’ were ridiculed. ‘Bayes’ thus became the accepted nickname for Dryden in the various pamphlets of the time. The ‘Rehearsal’ was brought out at the King's Theatre, in which Dryden had a share, and the part of Amaryllis was taken by Ann Reeve, whose intrigue with him was noticed in the play. Dryden, in his ‘Discourse on Satire,’ gives his reasons for not retorting, and appears to have taken the assault good-humouredly. He had another literary controversy in 1673. Elkanah Settle had published his ‘Empress of Morocco,’ with a dedication containing a disrespectful notice of Dryden. Dryden joined with Crowne and Shadwell to attack Settle in a coarse pamphlet, and Settle replied by a sharp attack upon the ‘Conquest of Granada.’ John Dennis [q. v.] (who went to Cambridge in 1676) reports that Settle was
