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John Dryden MCQs (Set 1): 100 Questions on a Restoration Master
Welcome to the next installment of our literary giants series! Today, we explore the dominant literary figure of the Restoration period, a man so influential his era is often named after him: John Dryden. As England’s first official Poet Laureate, a masterful satirist, a pioneering dramatist, and the “father of English criticism,” Dryden’s impact on English literature is immense. This post contains Set 1 of our 100 MCQs on his life, works, and critical theories. Are you ready to test your knowledge of the age of heroic couplets and political satire?
Part 1: Biography and Career
1.The literary period in England from 1660 to 1700 is often named after John Dryden. What is this period called?
- A) The Augustan Age
- B) The Age of Sensibility
- C) The Age of Dryden
- D) The Jacobean Era
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) The Age of Dryden
Explanation: Due to his unparalleled influence as a poet, playwright, and critic during the Restoration, the period is commonly referred to as the Age of Dryden.
2.John Dryden was appointed to what prestigious royal position in 1668, becoming the first person to officially hold the title?
- A) Master of the Revels
- B) Poet Laureate
- C) Royal Librarian
- D) Historiographer Royal
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Poet Laureate
Explanation: While Ben Jonson and others received royal pensions, John Dryden was the first person to be formally appointed England’s Poet Laureate.
3.Dryden was educated at Westminster School and which university?
- A) University of Oxford
- B) University of Cambridge (Trinity College)
- C) University of Edinburgh
- D) University of Dublin
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) University of Cambridge (Trinity College)
Explanation: He attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he received a classical education, though he did not particularly distinguish himself as a student.
4.Later in his life, John Dryden famously converted from Anglicanism to which religion?
- A) Puritanism
- B) Roman Catholicism
- C) Quakerism
- D) Deism
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Roman Catholicism
Explanation: Dryden converted to Catholicism around 1685, during the reign of the Catholic monarch James II. This decision cost him his public offices after the Glorious Revolution.
5.Dryden’s poem *Astraea Redux* celebrates what major historical event?
- A) The defeat of the Spanish Armada
- B) The Glorious Revolution
- C) The coronation of Queen Anne
- D) The Restoration of King Charles II to the throne
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) The Restoration of King Charles II to the throne
Explanation: The title translates to “Justice Returned.” The poem, published in 1660, welcomed the return of the monarchy and an end to the Cromwellian era.
6.Dryden lost his position as Poet Laureate after which political event?
- A) The Great Fire of London
- B) The Popish Plot
- C) The Glorious Revolution of 1688
- D) The Jacobite Rising of 1715
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) The Glorious Revolution of 1688
Explanation: When the Protestant William and Mary replaced the Catholic James II, Dryden’s Catholicism and loyalty to the previous regime led to his dismissal from all royal offices.
7.Where is John Dryden buried?
- A) Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner
- B) St Paul’s Cathedral
- C) His family estate in Northamptonshire
- D) In an unmarked grave in France
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner
Explanation: Despite his loss of official favor, his literary reputation was so immense that he was buried with honor in Poets’ Corner, near Chaucer.
Part 2: The Great Satires
8.Dryden’s masterpiece of political satire, *Absalom and Achitophel*, is a biblical allegory for what contemporary event?
- A) The Glorious Revolution
- B) The Popish Plot and the Exclusion Crisis
- C) The Great Plague
- D) The Anglo-Dutch Wars
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) The Popish Plot and the Exclusion Crisis
Explanation: The poem satirizes the attempt by the Earl of Shaftesbury to exclude the Catholic James, Duke of York, from the line of succession in favor of Charles II’s illegitimate Protestant son, the Duke of Monmouth.
9.In *Absalom and Achitophel*, who does the character King David represent?
- A) James II
- B) Oliver Cromwell
- C) The Earl of Shaftesbury
- D) King Charles II
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) King Charles II
Explanation: King David, with his many mistresses and illegitimate son Absalom, is the clear allegorical stand-in for King Charles II.
10.The character Achitophel, the “false tempter,” is a satirical portrait of which political figure?
- A) The Duke of Monmouth
- B) The Duke of Buckingham
- C) The Earl of Shaftesbury
- D) Titus Oates
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) The Earl of Shaftesbury
Explanation: Anthony Ashley Cooper, the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, was the leader of the Whig faction who championed the Exclusion Bill. He is brilliantly and ruthlessly satirized as Achitophel.
11.Absalom, King David’s handsome but misguided son, represents which historical person?
- A) James, Duke of York
- B) The Duke of Buckingham
- C) King Louis XIV
- D) James Scott, Duke of Monmouth
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) James Scott, Duke of Monmouth
Explanation: The Duke of Monmouth was the illegitimate but popular Protestant son of Charles II, whom Shaftesbury promoted as a potential heir to the throne.
12.Dryden’s mock-heroic poem *Mac Flecknoe* is a personal satire directed against which fellow writer?
- A) Alexander Pope
- B) Thomas Shadwell
- C) William Wycherley
- D) John Milton
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Thomas Shadwell
Explanation: Dryden had a long-running literary feud with Shadwell. The poem depicts Shadwell as the heir to a kingdom of poetic dullness, succeeding the previous “King of Nonsense,” Richard Flecknoe.
13.The main “action” of *Mac Flecknoe* is what event?
- A) A battle
- B) A coronation
- C) A wedding
- D) A funeral
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) A coronation
Explanation: The poem is a mock-heroic depiction of the coronation of Shadwell (Mac Flecknoe, meaning “Son of Flecknoe”) as the new monarch of dullness.
14.In *Absalom and Achitophel*, the character Zimri, who was “a man so various that he seem’d to be / Not one, but all mankind’s epitome,” represents whom?
- A) Thomas Shadwell
- B) The Earl of Shaftesbury
- C) The Duke of Buckingham
- D) The Duke of Monmouth
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) The Duke of Buckingham
Explanation: This famous satirical portrait depicts George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, as a man of many talents but no discipline or principle, constantly shifting his interests.
15.What poetic form does Dryden masterfully use for his major satires like *Absalom and Achitophel* and *Mac Flecknoe*?
- A) Blank Verse
- B) Spenserian Stanza
- C) Ballad Meter
- D) Heroic Couplets
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Heroic Couplets
Explanation: Dryden perfected the use of the rhyming iambic pentameter pair, or heroic couplet, making it the dominant form for satirical and epic poetry in the Neoclassical period.
16.What was the purpose of Dryden’s satire *The Medal*?
- A) To praise the Royal Society
- B) To mock the celebration of the Earl of Shaftesbury’s acquittal on treason charges
- C) To celebrate a naval victory
- D) To satirize King Charles II
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) To mock the celebration of the Earl of Shaftesbury’s acquittal on treason charges
Explanation: When Shaftesbury was acquitted, his supporters struck a medal in his honor. Dryden’s poem savagely satirizes this medal and the man it celebrated.
Part 3: Drama and Heroic Plays
17.What is John Dryden’s most famous play, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s *Antony and Cleopatra*?
- A) *The Conquest of Granada*
- B) *Aureng-Zebe*
- C) *All for Love*
- D) *Marriage à la Mode*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) *All for Love*
Explanation: *All for Love; or, the World Well Lost* is Dryden’s powerful reimagining of the story, written in blank verse and conforming to the Neoclassical unities.
18.A key difference between Dryden’s *All for Love* and Shakespeare’s *Antony and Cleopatra* is that Dryden’s play follows:
- A) The Classical Unities (time, place, and action)
- B) A comedic subplot
- C) The historical accounts of Plutarch more strictly
- D) A happy ending
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) The Classical Unities (time, place, and action)
Explanation: Unlike Shakespeare’s sprawling epic, Dryden’s play confines the action to a single day in a single location (Alexandria), focusing solely on the final hours of the lovers’ lives, adhering to the French Neoclassical rules.
19.John Dryden was a chief practitioner of a popular Restoration genre of drama characterized by epic themes, exotic settings, and grand speeches. What was it called?
- A) Comedy of Humours
- B) Domestic Tragedy
- C) Heroic Tragedy
- D) Sentimental Comedy
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Heroic Tragedy
Explanation: Heroic tragedies, like Dryden’s *The Conquest of Granada*, featured larger-than-life heroes and heroines wrestling with the conflict between love and honor, usually written in heroic couplets.
20.Dryden’s play *The Indian Emperour* is a sequel to an earlier play he co-wrote with his brother-in-law, Sir Robert Howard. What was the first play?
- A) *The Spanish Fryar*
- B) *The Indian Queen*
- C) *Secret Love*
- D) *Amboyna*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) *The Indian Queen*
Explanation: These two plays, set during the Spanish conquest of Mexico, are early examples of the heroic play genre, filled with spectacle and romantic conflict.
21.In *All for Love*, Dryden omits many of Shakespeare’s secondary characters to focus intensely on the central relationship. Which character plays a more significant role as Cleopatra’s loyal, but honorable, Roman friend?
- A) Octavius Caesar
- B) Dolabella
- C) Enobarbus
- D) Ventidius
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Ventidius
Explanation: Ventidius, Antony’s Roman general, is elevated in Dryden’s play to represent the call of Roman duty and honor, acting as a direct foil to Cleopatra’s representation of love and Egypt.
22.Dryden collaborated with Nathaniel Lee on which two plays?
- A) *All for Love* and *The Spanish Fryar*
- B) *Oedipus* and *The Duke of Guise*
- C) *The Conquest of Granada* and *Marriage à la Mode*
- D) *Mac Flecknoe* and *The Medal*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) *Oedipus* and *The Duke of Guise*
Explanation: Dryden worked with the younger dramatist Nathaniel Lee on these two politically charged tragedies during the turbulent 1670s and 80s.
23.The play *Aureng-Zebe*, one of Dryden’s last heroic plays in rhyme, is set in which country?
- A) England
- B) Ancient Rome
- C) Spain
- D) India
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) India
Explanation: The play is set in the Mughal Empire and is named after the historical figure Aurangzeb. It is notable for its more complex character psychology compared to his earlier heroic dramas.
24.What popular Restoration genre, which Dryden practiced in plays like *Marriage à la Mode*, focused on the witty and licentious exploits of the upper class?
- A) Sentimental Drama
- B) Comedy of Manners
- C) Closet Drama
- D) Farce
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Comedy of Manners
Explanation: The Comedy of Manners satirized the affections, social games, and sexual politics of aristocratic Restoration society.
Part 4: Literary Criticism and Prose
25.Dryden is often called the “Father of English…” what?
- A) Satire
- B) Drama
- C) The Novel
- D) Criticism
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Criticism
Explanation: A title given to him by Samuel Johnson, this recognizes Dryden’s role as a pioneer in writing reasoned, systematic literary criticism in English, moving beyond simple praise or blame.
26.Dryden’s major work of literary criticism, *An Essay of Dramatic Poesy*, takes what form?
- A) A series of letters
- B) A formal treatise
- C) A Socratic dialogue among four friends
- D) A personal journal
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) A Socratic dialogue among four friends
Explanation: The essay is structured as a civilized debate among four gentlemen (Crites, Eugenius, Lisideius, and Neander) floating on a barge down the River Thames.
27.In *An Essay of Dramatic Poesy*, the character Neander is generally understood to represent whom?
- A) William Shakespeare
- B) John Dryden himself
- C) Ben Jonson
- D) Sir Robert Howard
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) John Dryden himself
Explanation: Neander (meaning “new man”) voices the most balanced and forward-thinking views, championing the merits of modern English drama, which aligns with Dryden’s own critical positions.
28.What is a central debate in *An Essay of Dramatic Poesy*?
- A) The merits of poetry versus prose
- B) The superiority of epic poetry over drama
- C) The virtues of ancient drama versus modern drama
- D) The necessity of a moral in all literature
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) The virtues of ancient drama versus modern drama
Explanation: The speakers debate whether the strict rules of classical (ancient) drama are superior to the more varied and lively forms of modern (i.e., Elizabethan and Jacobean) English drama.
29.In the same essay, Neander (Dryden) famously praises which English playwright above all others?
- A) Christopher Marlowe
- B) Ben Jonson
- C) William Shakespeare
- D) John Fletcher
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) William Shakespeare
Explanation: Neander delivers a glowing tribute to Shakespeare, calling him “the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul.”
30.What technical aspect of drama does Neander defend against the preference for blank verse?
- A) The use of soliloquies
- B) The use of rhyming couplets
- C) The five-act structure
- D) The use of a chorus
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) The use of rhyming couplets
Explanation: A key part of the debate is Crites’s attack on the use of rhyme in plays. Neander defends rhyme as adding sweetness and structure, which was a defense of Dryden’s own practice in his heroic tragedies.
31.The critical introductions that Dryden wrote for many of his own published works are known as his:
- A) Sonnets
- B) Prefaces
- C) Footnotes
- D) Epilogues
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Prefaces
Explanation: Dryden’s prefaces, especially to works like *All for Love* and the *Fables*, are themselves important works of practical literary criticism.
Part 5: Religious and Occasional Poems
32.Dryden’s poem *Religio Laici* or “A Layman’s Faith” was written to defend the tenets of which faith?
- A) Deism
- B) Anglicanism (The Church of England)
- C) Puritanism
- D) Roman Catholicism
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Anglicanism (The Church of England)
Explanation: Written before his conversion, *Religio Laici* is a reasoned, moderate defense of the Anglican faith as a middle way between the extremes of Deism and Catholicism.
33.His later poem, *The Hind and the Panther*, written after his conversion, is an allegory defending what?
- A) Deism
- B) Anglicanism
- C) Puritanism
- D) Roman Catholicism
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Roman Catholicism
Explanation: This long allegorical poem features a debate between different animals representing various churches. The “milk-white Hind, immortal and unchanged” represents the Roman Catholic Church.
34.In *The Hind and the Panther*, what animal represents the Anglican Church?
- A) The Lion
- B) The Bear
- C) The Panther
- D) The Wolf
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) The Panther
Explanation: The Panther, described as beautiful but dangerous and inconsistent, is Dryden’s symbol for the Church of England.
35.Dryden’s poem *Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders* commemorates the events of which year?
- A) 1660 (The Restoration)
- B) 1688 (The Glorious Revolution)
- C) 1666 (The Great Fire of London and the Second Anglo-Dutch War)
- D) 1700 (The end of the century)
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) 1666 (The Great Fire of London and the Second Anglo-Dutch War)
Explanation: The poem presents these two disasters as a test of the English nation’s character, which it passes through divine providence and royal leadership.
36.Dryden wrote two famous odes in honor of the patron saint of music. What are they?
- A) *Ode to Joy* and *Ode to the West Wind*
- B) *Ode on a Grecian Urn* and *Ode to a Nightingale*
- C) *A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day* and *Alexander’s Feast*
- D) *The Progress of Poesy* and *The Bard*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) *A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day* and *Alexander’s Feast*
Explanation: Both poems celebrate the power of music to create and influence human emotion, written for the annual London festival celebrating St. Cecilia.
37.In *Alexander’s Feast*, the musician Timotheus is able to manipulate the emotions of which great conqueror?
- A) Julius Caesar
- B) Charlemagne
- C) King Arthur
- D) Alexander the Great
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Alexander the Great
Explanation: The ode’s subtitle is “The Power of Music.” It depicts Timotheus playing his lyre and rousing Alexander to various states of emotion, from joy to rage to pity.
Part 6: Translations and Later Works
38.After losing his laureateship, Dryden turned to translation to support himself. His most ambitious project was a complete translation of the works of which Roman poet?
- A) Horace
- B) Ovid
- C) Virgil
- D) Juvenal
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Virgil
Explanation: Dryden’s translation of *The Works of Virgil* (1697), including the *Eclogues*, the *Georgics*, and especially the *Aeneid*, was a monumental achievement and a huge commercial success.
39.Dryden’s final major work was a collection of translated and modernized stories from various authors, including Chaucer and Ovid. What is its title?
- A) *Metamorphoses*
- B) *Canterbury Tales Retold*
- C) *Fables, Ancient and Modern*
- D) *Lives of the Poets*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) *Fables, Ancient and Modern*
Explanation: Published in 1700, this collection demonstrates his versatility. It includes modernized versions of Chaucer’s tales, translations from Homer and Ovid, and some of Dryden’s own poems.
40.The Preface to the *Fables* is a celebrated piece of prose. In it, Dryden compares the merits of which two great poets?
- A) Homer and Virgil
- B) Spenser and Milton
- C) Chaucer and Ovid
- D) Shakespeare and Jonson
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) Homer and Virgil
Explanation: The preface contains a lengthy and insightful comparison between Homer’s natural genius and Virgil’s more polished artistry, a classic critical debate.
41.Which of Chaucer’s tales did Dryden NOT adapt in his *Fables*?
- A) “The Knight’s Tale”
- B) “The Miller’s Tale”
- C) “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale”
- D) “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) “The Miller’s Tale”
Explanation: While Dryden translated many tales, he avoided the more bawdy and sexually explicit “fabliaux” like “The Miller’s Tale” and “The Reeve’s Tale” due to the more refined tastes of his era.
42.Dryden’s translation style is often described as a middle ground between two extremes. What are they?
- A) Literal vs. Paraphrastic
- B) Comedic vs. Tragic
- C) Ancient vs. Modern
- D) Ornate vs. Plain
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) Literal vs. Paraphrastic
Explanation: In his prefaces, Dryden defined three types of translation: metaphrase (word-for-word), paraphrase (sense-for-sense), and imitation (taking liberties). He advocated for paraphrase as the ideal middle way.
Part 7: Quotes, Trivia, and Legacy
43.Which famous younger poet was known as “the wicked wasp of Twickenham” and was heavily influenced by Dryden’s use of the heroic couplet?
- A) Jonathan Swift
- B) John Keats
- C) William Wordsworth
- D) Alexander Pope
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Alexander Pope
Explanation: Alexander Pope revered Dryden and built upon his mastery of the heroic couplet, becoming the dominant poet of the next generation.
44.Finish this famous line from *The Conquest of Granada*: “I am as free as nature first made man, / Ere the base laws of servitude began, / When wild in woods the noble…”
- A) creature ran.
- B) hero ran.
- C) savage ran.
- D) freeman ran.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) savage ran.
Explanation: This line is one of the earliest expressions in English literature of the “noble savage” concept, an idea that would later become central to Romanticism.
45.Dryden’s wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard, was the sister of which frequent collaborator and rival?
- A) The Duke of Buckingham
- B) Sir George Etherege
- C) Sir Robert Howard
- D) William Wycherley
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Sir Robert Howard
Explanation: Dryden collaborated with his brother-in-law on plays like *The Indian Queen* and later debated with him on the use of rhyme in drama, as dramatized in *An Essay of Dramatic Poesy*.
46.Who succeeded John Dryden as Poet Laureate after he was dismissed?
- A) Alexander Pope
- B) Ben Jonson
- C) Nahum Tate
- D) Thomas Shadwell
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Thomas Shadwell
Explanation: In a final ironic humiliation, the very man Dryden had mercilessly lampooned as the king of dullness in *Mac Flecknoe* was appointed as his successor.
47.What coffee house in London was famously associated with John Dryden, where he would preside over the literary discussions of the day?
- A) Will’s Coffee House
- B) Button’s Coffee House
- C) The Grecian Coffee House
- D) Lloyd’s Coffee House
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) Will’s Coffee House
Explanation: In his later years, Dryden was the leading literary figure at Will’s Coffee House in Covent Garden, where younger writers like Pope would go to listen to him speak.
48.The term “Neoclassicism,” the literary movement Dryden dominated, refers to a reverence for the artistic ideals of:
- A) Ancient Greece and Rome
- B) The Italian Renaissance
- C) The French court of Louis XIV
- D) The Elizabethan era
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) Ancient Greece and Rome
Explanation: Neoclassicism emphasized order, reason, clarity, and decorum, drawing inspiration from classical writers like Virgil, Horace, and Aristotle.
49.“Errors like straws upon the surface flow; / He who would search for pearls must dive below.” This quote from *All for Love* illustrates what Neoclassical ideal?
- A) The importance of surface polish over depth
- B) The idea that true value requires careful, deep searching, not just superficial judgment
- C) A preference for nature over art
- D) The belief that all great art contains flaws
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) The idea that true value requires careful, deep searching, not just superficial judgment
Explanation: This couplet suggests that one should not judge a work of art (or a person) by minor, superficial faults, but rather seek the profound beauty and worth that lies beneath.
50.In a famous incident, Dryden was physically assaulted in Rose Alley in 1679. The attack was widely believed to have been ordered by what powerful, offended nobleman?
- A) The Duke of Buckingham
- B) The Earl of Shaftesbury
- C) The Earl of Rochester
- D) The Duke of Monmouth
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) The Earl of Rochester
Explanation: John Wilmot, the notorious Earl of Rochester, was suspected of hiring thugs to beat Dryden in retaliation for a pamphlet (likely not written by Dryden) that criticized him.
51.What does the name Neander in “An Essay of Dramatic Poesy” translate to?
- A) Old Man
- B) Everyman
- C) New Man
- D) Wise Man
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) New Man
Explanation: The name is Greek for “New Man,” signifying the modern viewpoint that Dryden’s character represents in the debate.
52.The “Sh-” that Shadwell is constantly associated with in *Mac Flecknoe* refers to what?
- A) A compliment on his sharpness
- B) An abbreviation of his name
- C) An insulting reference to his supposed dullness and nonsensical writing
- D) His political party affiliation
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) An insulting reference to his supposed dullness and nonsensical writing
Explanation: The “Sh-” is a recurring pun on Shadwell’s name and a crude expletive, cementing the poem’s satirical attack.
53.What event provides the backdrop for the dialogue in *An Essay of Dramatic Poesy*?
- A) The Great Fire of London
- B) A naval battle of the Second Anglo-Dutch War
- C) The coronation of Charles II
- D) A plague outbreak
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) A naval battle of the Second Anglo-Dutch War
Explanation: The sound of the naval guns provides the setting for the four friends’ escape down the Thames and their subsequent debate.
54.In his critical writings, Dryden differentiated between “wit” as mere cleverness and “wit” as:
- A) Poetic genius
- B) Humorous insight
- C) The apt and lively expression of thought
- D) A moral lesson
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) The apt and lively expression of thought
Explanation: For Dryden, true “wit” was not just wordplay but the fitting and beautiful use of language to express ideas clearly and memorably.
55.Which of these is NOT one of the speakers in *An Essay of Dramatic Poesy*?
- A) Crites
- B) Eugenius
- C) Lisideius
- D) Horatius
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Horatius
Explanation: Horatius (Horace) is a classical authority they discuss, but he is not a character in the dialogue. The four speakers are Crites, Eugenius, Lisideius, and Neander.
56.What is the subtitle of *All for Love*?
- A) The World Turned Upside Down
- B) A Roman Tragedy
- C) The Serpent of Old Nile
- D) The World Well Lost
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) The World Well Lost
Explanation: The subtitle emphasizes the play’s central theme: that Antony and Cleopatra’s choice to sacrifice their empire for their love was a worthy and noble one.
57.In which work did Dryden coin the word “biography”?
- A) *The Life of Plutarch*
- B) *An Essay of Dramatic Poesy*
- C) His preface to the *Fables*
- D) *Religio Laici*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) *The Life of Plutarch*
Explanation: In his 1683 work prefacing a translation of Plutarch’s *Lives*, Dryden was one of the first to use the English term “biography” in its modern sense.
58.In “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day,” what is referred to as “the soft complaining flute”?
- A) The sound of war
- B) The pangs of hopeless love
- C) The trumpets’ loud clangor
- D) The universal harmony of creation
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) The pangs of hopeless love
Explanation: The poem famously describes different instruments and the specific emotions they evoke in the listener.
59.Dryden’s poem written upon the death of Oliver Cromwell was titled:
- A) *Astraea Redux*
- B) *Heroic Stanzas*
- C) *Annus Mirabilis*
- D) *Threnodia Augustalis*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) *Heroic Stanzas*
Explanation: *Heroic Stanzas to the Glorious Memory of Cromwell* was written in 1659. His subsequent celebration of Charles II in *Astraea Redux* led to accusations of political opportunism.
60.“Three poets, in three distant ages born, / Greece, Italy, and England did adorn…” Which three poets was Dryden praising in this epigram?
- A) Sophocles, Dante, and Shakespeare
- B) Homer, Virgil, and Milton
- C) Plato, Ovid, and Chaucer
- D) Aristotle, Cicero, and Ben Jonson
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Homer, Virgil, and Milton
Explanation: This famous tribute praises the three great epic poets. The lines continue: “The first in loftiness of thought surpass’d, / The next in majesty, in both the last. / The force of Nature could no farther go; / To make a third she join’d the former two.”
61.Dryden’s play *The Spanish Fryar* combines a serious tragic plot with a:
- A) Musical interlude
- B) Low-comedy plot
- C) Historical prologue
- D) Satirical epilogue
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Low-comedy plot
Explanation: The play is a tragicomedy, noted for its successful blending of two distinct plots, one serious and one comedic, a practice he defended against Neoclassical critics.
62.Which character in *Absalom and Achitophel* is described as “everything by starts, and nothing long”?
- A) Absalom (Monmouth)
- B) Corah (Titus Oates)
- C) Shimei (Slingsby Bethel)
- D) Zimri (Buckingham)
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Zimri (Buckingham)
Explanation: This is part of the famous character sketch of the Duke of Buckingham, criticizing his lack of constancy and discipline.
63.The “Hind” in *The Hind and the Panther* is described as being “milk-white”. What quality does this symbolize?
- A) Purity and ancient truth
- B) Naivete and weakness
- C) Blandness and lack of color
- D) Cowardice
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) Purity and ancient truth
Explanation: Dryden presents the Roman Catholic Church (the Hind) as pure, blameless, and directly descended from the origins of Christianity, in contrast to the newer, “spotted” churches.
64.Dryden’s last heroic play written entirely in rhyme was:
- A) *All for Love*
- B) *The Conquest of Granada*
- C) *Aureng-Zebe*
- D) *The Indian Emperour*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) *Aureng-Zebe*
Explanation: In the prologue to this play, Dryden himself declared he was growing “weary of his long-loved mistress, Rhyme,” and his next major tragedy, *All for Love*, was written in blank verse.
65.Which of the following terms did Dryden NOT help to popularize or define?
- A) Neoclassicism
- B) Metaphysical poets
- C) Biography
- D) Stream of consciousness
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Stream of consciousness
Explanation: “Stream of consciousness” is a term associated with modernist writers like James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. Dryden coined “metaphysical poets” to describe John Donne and his followers, helped establish “neoclassicism,” and pioneered “biography.”
66.In the Restoration theatre, who played the female roles for the first time on the English public stage?
- A) Young boys
- B) Actresses
- C) Puppets
- D) Masked noblemen
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Actresses
Explanation: A key innovation of the Restoration theatre, in which Dryden was a leading figure, was the introduction of professional actresses to play female parts, a practice banned in Shakespeare’s time.
67.Dryden described which English poet as having “a rough cadence, and a rugged stile” but being “a perpetual fountain of good sense”?
- A) William Shakespeare
- B) John Milton
- C) Geoffrey Chaucer
- D) Edmund Spenser
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Geoffrey Chaucer
Explanation: In his Preface to the *Fables*, Dryden praises Chaucer’s insight and characterization while criticizing what he saw as the unpolished nature of his language, a typical Neoclassical judgment.
68.The conflict between “love and honor” is a central theme in which dramatic genre perfected by Dryden?
- A) Comedy of Manners
- B) Satire
- C) Heroic Tragedy
- D) The Ode
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Heroic Tragedy
Explanation: The hero of a Drydenic heroic tragedy is almost always torn between his love for the heroine and his duty or honor as a soldier, king, or son.
69.Nahum Tate, a lesser poet, is known for his collaborations with Dryden on the second part of which famous poem?
- A) *Mac Flecknoe*
- B) *The Hind and the Panther*
- C) *Annus Mirabilis*
- D) *Absalom and Achitophel*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) *Absalom and Achitophel*
Explanation: Dryden wrote the majority of the celebrated first part, but for the second part, he outsourced most of the writing to Nahum Tate, contributing only a few hundred lines himself.
70.What was the primary aim of satire in the Age of Dryden?
- A) Purely personal revenge
- B) To amuse without purpose
- C) To correct vice and folly through ridicule
- D) To praise the government
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) To correct vice and folly through ridicule
Explanation: Following Roman models like Horace and Juvenal, Neoclassical satirists like Dryden aimed to use wit and mockery not just to attack, but to expose moral and political failings for the good of society.
71.Which of these quotes is from *Absalom and Achitophel*?
- A) “The World was void, / The World was blind, and saving you alone.”
- B) “Great wits are sure to madness near allied.”
- C) “From Harmony, from heav’nly Harmony, / This universal frame began.”
- D) “Beware the fury of a patient man.”
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) “Great wits are sure to madness near allied.”
Explanation: This famous observation on the nature of genius comes from Dryden’s description of Achitophel (Shaftesbury), acknowledging his brilliance while diagnosing it as unstable.
72.Who is the “Judean” in *Mac Flecknoe* whose style Shadwell is ironically warned not to imitate?
- A) William Shakespeare
- B) Ben Jonson
- C) John Donne
- D) John Milton
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Ben Jonson
Explanation: Shadwell greatly admired Jonson and tried to imitate his “comedy of humours.” Dryden mockingly warns him not to attempt Jonson’s witty style, as his own talents are purely for dullness.
73.Dryden adapted which of Shakespeare’s plays into *The Tempest, or The Enchanted Island*?
- A) *The Tempest*
- B) *A Midsummer Night’s Dream*
- C) *Macbeth*
- D) *King Lear*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) *The Tempest*
Explanation: Along with William D’Avenant, Dryden heavily adapted Shakespeare’s *The Tempest*, adding new characters and subplots to suit the tastes of the Restoration stage. It was immensely popular.
74.In “To the Memory of Mr. Oldham,” Dryden laments the early death of a fellow poet. How does he refer to their relationship?
- A) As master and student
- B) As rivals for the same prize
- C) As two souls of the same kind, one born much later than the other
- D) As brothers separated at birth
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) As two souls of the same kind, one born much later than the other
Explanation: The famous lines are: “O early ripe! to thy abundant store / What could advancing age have added more? … Thy brows with ivy, and with laurels bound; / But fate and gloomy night encompass thee around.”
75.The Restoration period saw the rise of political parties in England. Which party did Dryden support with his satires?
- A) The Whigs
- B) The Tories
- C) The Levellers
- D) The Diggers
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) The Tories
Explanation: Dryden was a staunch supporter of the monarchy and the established line of succession, aligning him with the Tory cause against the Whigs, who sought to limit the king’s power.
76.What does the term “Flecknoe” signify in *Mac Flecknoe*?
- A) A famous hero
- B) An earlier, notoriously bad poet
- C) A place in Ireland
- D) A type of musical instrument
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) An earlier, notoriously bad poet
Explanation: Richard Flecknoe was a real, minor poet whose name had become a byword for terrible writing. Dryden seizes upon this to make him the symbolic father of Shadwell’s dullness.
77.“Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen” by John Dryden features a heroine modeled on which real-life person?
- A) Queen Elizabeth I
- B) Nell Gwyn
- C) Queen Anne
- D) Mary, Queen of Scots
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: A) Queen Elizabeth I
Explanation: The “Maiden Queen” of the title is a fictional queen who, like Elizabeth I, vows never to marry to protect her kingdom and independence.
78.Who wrote a famously critical “Life of Dryden” in his *Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets*, acknowledging his greatness while criticizing his character?
- A) Alexander Pope
- B) Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- C) T.S. Eliot
- D) Samuel Johnson
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Samuel Johnson
Explanation: Johnson’s *Life of Dryden* (1779) is a foundational piece of literary biography and criticism, offering a thorough (if sometimes harsh) assessment of Dryden’s life and work.
79.The “Exclusion Crisis” that inspired *Absalom and Achitophel* sought to prevent whom from inheriting the throne?
- A) Charles II
- B) The Duke of Monmouth
- C) James, Duke of York
- D) William of Orange
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) James, Duke of York
Explanation: James was Charles II’s brother and legal heir, but his open Catholicism made him unacceptable to the powerful Whig faction in Parliament.
80.Dryden’s play “Amboyna, or the Cruelties of the Dutch to the English Merchants” was written as what?
- A) A plea for peace
- B) A work of wartime propaganda
- C) A romantic comedy
- D) An adaptation of a French play
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) A work of wartime propaganda
Explanation: The play was hastily written during the Third Anglo-Dutch War to stir up anti-Dutch sentiment by dramatizing an earlier massacre.
81.The “Parson’s Tale” is one of the Chaucerian stories modernized by Dryden in his *Fables*.
- A) True
- B) False
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) False
Explanation: The “Parson’s Tale” is a long prose sermon, not a poetic tale, and was not one of the narrative pieces Dryden chose to adapt.
82.In which work does Dryden attack Titus Oates, the fabricator of the Popish Plot?
- A) *Mac Flecknoe*
- B) *The Hind and the Panther*
- C) *Absalom and Achitophel*
- D) *All for Love*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) *Absalom and Achitophel*
Explanation: Titus Oates is viciously satirized under the allegorical name of “Corah” (or Korah), a biblical rebel.
83.“But Shadwell never deviates into sense.” This famously cutting line appears in:
- A) *An Essay of Dramatic Poesy*
- B) *The Medal*
- C) *Mac Flecknoe*
- D) Dryden’s personal letters
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) *Mac Flecknoe*
Explanation: This is one of the most memorable insults from Dryden’s sustained literary assault on Thomas Shadwell.
84.Which of the following did Dryden praise Shakespeare for most highly?
- A) His observance of classical rules
- B) His “divine” and “comprehensive” natural genius
- C) His morally perfect characters
- D) The purity of his language
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) His “divine” and “comprehensive” natural genius
Explanation: Dryden saw Shakespeare as a force of nature, possessing a universal soul, even while criticizing him (from a Neoclassical perspective) for his lack of polish and failure to observe the rules of drama.
85.What is the “herring-man” mentioned in Dryden’s poems about his literary rival?
- A) A symbol of dullness
- B) A code word for a Dutch spy
- C) A reference to Elkanah Settle, another rival, whose father was a fishmonger
- D) Thomas Shadwell himself
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Thomas Shadwell himself
Explanation: Shadwell’s father was a herring-man, and Dryden uses this background to mock him for his perceived low origins and vulgarity.
86.Dryden’s style is often praised for establishing a new standard for English prose, characterized by:
- A) Ornate, complex sentences
- B) Metaphysical conceits
- C) Clarity, moderation, and rhythm
- D) Emotional, lyrical outbursts
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Clarity, moderation, and rhythm
Explanation: Dryden is credited with developing a modern English prose style that was clear, direct, and well-balanced, moving away from the more convoluted styles of the earlier 17th century.
87.The title of Dryden’s ode, *Threnodia Augustalis*, suggests it is a:
- A) Celebration of a royal birth
- B) Wedding song
- C) Funeral poem
- D) Call to battle
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Funeral poem
Explanation: A “threnody” is a song of mourning. This poem was written to lament the death of King Charles II in 1685.
88.Which of Dryden’s plays is set in Granada during the final stand of the Moors against the Spanish?
- A) *The Spanish Fryar*
- B) *The Indian Emperour*
- C) *Aureng-Zebe*
- D) *The Conquest of Granada*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) *The Conquest of Granada*
Explanation: This two-part heroic epic is famous for its larger-than-life hero, Almanzor, and its quintessential depiction of the love vs. honor theme.
89.Which work established Dryden’s reputation as the leading poet of his generation?
- A) *Heroic Stanzas*
- B) *Mac Flecknoe*
- C) *Annus Mirabilis*
- D) *Religio Laici*
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) *Annus Mirabilis*
Explanation: While his other poems were significant, the scope and masterful handling of national themes in *Annus Mirabilis* (1667) cemented his position and helped lead to his appointment as Poet Laureate.
90.In “An Essay of Dramatic Poesy,” Crites argues for the superiority of which group of writers?
- A) The French Neoclassicists
- B) The Elizabethans
- C) The modern poets of his day
- D) The ancient Greek and Roman dramatists
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) The ancient Greek and Roman dramatists
Explanation: Crites, as his name suggests (from “critic”), takes the most conservative, rule-based position, arguing that the ancients cannot be surpassed.
91.In which play does a character say “None but the brave deserves the fair”?
- A) *All for Love*
- B) *Alexander’s Feast*
- C) *The Conquest of Granada*
- D) This is not a line from Dryden.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) *Alexander’s Feast*
Explanation: This famous line is part of the ode celebrating military valor and romantic reward, sung by the musician Timotheus to Alexander the Great.
92.What poetic device does Dryden use when he writes, “The trumpet’s loud clangor / Excites us to arms”?
- A) Metaphor
- B) Simile
- C) Onomatopoeia
- D) Alliteration
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) Onomatopoeia
Explanation: “Clangor” is a word that phonetically imitates the sound it describes, a classic example of onomatopoeia used effectively in *A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day*.
93.Dryden’s critical term “the other harmony” refers to what?
- A) The beauty of rhyming verse
- B) The beauty of prose
- C) The harmony of the spheres
- D) The beauty of blank verse
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) The beauty of prose
Explanation: In his writings, Dryden praised the well-structured, rhythmic, and clear qualities of prose, which he memorably called “the other harmony.”
94.In “Marriage à la Mode,” two couples agree to have an open relationship. This reflects the licentious and liberated atmosphere of what historical period?
- A) The Elizabethan Era
- B) The Interregnum
- C) The Restoration
- D) The Victorian Era
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) The Restoration
Explanation: After years of Puritan austerity, the restoration of Charles II brought a notoriously libertine and sexually open culture to the English court, which was reflected in the popular comedies of manners.
95.Dryden coined the term “metaphysical poets” as a criticism of their style. What did he dislike?
- A) Their simple language
- B) Their use of harsh language and complex, unnatural comparisons (conceits)
- C) Their lack of religious feeling
- D) Their focus on nature
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: B) Their use of harsh language and complex, unnatural comparisons (conceits)
Explanation: From his Neoclassical viewpoint, Dryden criticized Donne and his followers for a style that he found to be intellectually overwrought and lacking in smooth, natural expression.
96.Who is described as being “A fiery soul, which working out its way, / Fretted the pigmy body to decay”?
- A) King David (Charles II)
- B) Absalom (Monmouth)
- C) Zimri (Buckingham)
- D) Achitophel (Shaftesbury)
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Achitophel (Shaftesbury)
Explanation: This memorable couplet from *Absalom and Achitophel* describes Shaftesbury as having an intensely brilliant but destructive intellect that wore out his frail physical body.
97.The main character Almanzor in “The Conquest of Granada” is an example of what type of hero?
- A) A tragic hero with a fatal flaw
- B) An anti-hero
- C) An overreacher, a larger-than-life figure of immense pride and power
- D) A simple common man
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) An overreacher, a larger-than-life figure of immense pride and power
Explanation: Almanzor is the archetypal hero of heroic tragedy, an unstoppable warrior whose will is almost a force of nature, similar to Marlowe’s Tamburlaine.
98.Dryden’s later career focus on translation was a pragmatic choice due to:
- A) The closing of the theaters
- B) A personal request from the king
- C) His loss of official income after the Glorious Revolution
- D) A belief that no new stories could be told
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) His loss of official income after the Glorious Revolution
Explanation: After being dismissed as Poet Laureate and Historiographer Royal, Dryden needed a new source of income. Large-scale translation projects were financially lucrative.
99.Which of the following is true about John Dryden?
- A) He was born into a wealthy aristocratic family.
- B) He never married.
- C) He wrote poetry in support of both Cromwell and Charles II.
- D) He died in poverty and obscurity.
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: C) He wrote poetry in support of both Cromwell and Charles II.
Explanation: He wrote *Heroic Stanzas* on Cromwell’s death and later *Astraea Redux* celebrating Charles II’s return, leading some to call him a political turncoat.
100.The term “glorious John” was famously used to describe Dryden by whom?
- A) John Dryden himself
- B) King Charles II
- C) Alexander Pope
- D) Sir Walter Scott
Click to see Answer
Correct Answer: D) Sir Walter Scott
Explanation: The influential 19th-century novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott edited an 18-volume edition of Dryden’s works and referred to him admiringly as “glorious John.”
Conclusion: The Enduring Legacy of “Glorious John”
“For I confess, my chief endeavors are to delight the age in which I live.” – John Dryden
John Dryden truly did delight his age, but his influence extends far beyond it. He set the standard for satirical poetry, refined drama for a new era, and single-handedly established literary criticism as a serious art form in English. His mastery of the language provided a bridge from the world of Shakespeare to the polished Augustan age of Pope. We hope this first set of MCQs has provided a challenging and insightful look into the father of English criticism.
How did you do? Stay tuned for Set 2, where we will delve even deeper into the works of John Dryden. Let us know your score in the comments!