CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

DRYDEN'S LIFE.

CONTEMPORARY LITERARY AND

POLITICAL HISTORY.

1631. Dryden born, August 9th.

1631. Donne and Drayton died.
1633. George Herbert died.
1634. Milton's Comus acted.
1637. Ben Jonson and Dekker died.
1642. Opening of the civil war between

Charles I. and Parliament. New

ton born.
1644. Milton's Areopagitica.

1649. Execution of Charles I. 1650. Entered Trinity College, Cambridge. 1650. Baxter’s Saints' Everlasting Rest.

Jeremy Taylor's Holy Living. 1653. Walton's The Complete Angler. The

Protectorate under Cromwell in

stituted. 1654. Dryden took his bachelor's degree,

January. Erasmus Dryden died.'

Dryden left Cambridge, April (?). 1657. Dryden took up residence in Lon

don. 1658. Heroic Stanzas on Oliver Cromwell. 1658. Cromwell died. 1660. Astræa Redux.

1660. Restoration of Charles II. Pepys's

Diary begun.

1661. Defoe born. 1663. The Wild Gallant, and The Rival 1663. Butler's Hudibras (Part i.).

Ladies. Dryden married, Decem

ber, to Lady Elizabeth Howard. 1664. The Indian Queen.

1664. Hudibras (Part ii.). Naval war with

Holland. 1665. The Indian Emperor (published 1665. The Plague Year in London. 1667). 1666. The Great Fire of London.

Victories over the Dutch. Shirley, last of the Elizabethan dramatists,

died. 1667. Annus Mirabilis. Secret Love, or 1667. Paradise Lost. Cowley and Jeremy the Maiden Queen (acted). Sir

Taylor died. Swift born.
Martin Mar-all. The Tempest, or
the Enchanted Island (with Dave-
nant. Published 1668). Essay on

Dramatic Poesy.
1668. An Evening's Love, or the Mock 1668. Davenant died.

Astrologer. Ladies à la Mode.
1669. Tyrannic Love, or the Royal Martyr. 1669. End of Pepys's Diary.
1670. Dryden made Poet-laureate and His- 1670. Congreve born.

toriographer-royal. The Conquest
of Granada (published 1672).

1671. Milton's Paradise Regained and

Samson Agonistes. Buckingham's

The Rehearsal. 1672. Marriage à la Mode. The Assigna- 1672. Steele born. Addison born.

tion, or Love in a Nunnery. 1673. Amboyna. 1674. The state of Innocence.

1674. Milton died. 1675. Aurungzebe, or the Great Mogul. 1678. All for Love, or the World Well 1678. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (Part i.).

Lost. Edipus (with Lee). The
Kind Keeper, or Limberham.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.-Concluded

DRYDEN'S LIFE.

CONTEMPORARY LITERARY AND

POLITICAL HISTORY.

а

1679. Troilus and Cressida. Rochester's

attack on Dryden. 1681. The Spanish Friar. Absalom and 1681. Indictment of Shaftesbury.

Achitophel.
1682. The Medal. MacFlecknoe. Absa-

lom and Achitophel (Part ii.). Re-
ligio Laici, or å Layman's Faith.

The Duke of Guise (with Lee). 1684. Poetical Miscellanies (Part i.). 1684. Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress

(Part ii.). 1685. Poetical Miscellanies (Part ii.). Al- 1685. Death of Charles II. Accession of bion and Albanius. Threnodia

James II. Insurrection of MonAugustalis. Dryden became

mouth. Roman Catholic. 1687. The Hind and the Panther. 1688. Britannia Rediviva.

PALAMON AND ARCITE

OR

THE KNIGHT'S TALE

FROM CHAUCER

IN THREE BOOKS

PALAMON AND ARCITE

OR THE KNIGHT'S TALE

BOOK I

In days of old there lived, of mighty fame,
A valiant prince, and Theseus was his name;
A chief who more in feats of arms excelled,
The rising nor the setting sun beheld.
Of Athens he was lord; much land he won,
And added foreign countries to his crown.
In Scythia with the warrior queen he strove,
Whom first by force he conquered, then by love;
He brought in triumph back the beauteous dame,
With whom her sister, fair Emilia, came.

10
With honour to his home let Theseus ride,
With Love to friend, and Fortune for his guide,
And his victorious army at his side.
I pass their warlike pomp, their proud array,
Their shouts, their songs, their welcome on the way;
But, were it not too long, I would recite
The feats of Amazons, the fatal fight
Betwixt the hardy queen and hero knight;
- The town besieged, and how much blood it cost
The female army and the Athenian host;

20 7. Warrior queen, Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. 19. The town besieged. Uniformity of construction would require “the siege of the town,” or “how the town was besiege:1.".