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The official post of ‘Poet Laureate’ (laureate meaning crowned with laurels) in the United Kingdom, is held by a distinguished poet chosen by the monarch who is attached to the royal household for a period of ten years at an annual salary of £5,750. In 1668, John Dryden was the first poet to be officially appointed to the role by formal warrant from king Charles II, when the salary included a barrel of Canary wine. Earlier scholars, such as Friar Bernard André (Andreas), chronicler of Henry VII’s reign, and Ben Jonson, who received a pension of 100 marks from James I, were also informally referred to with the title of poet laureate.
The responsibilities of the role have changed over the years, but the main task is to compose poems that commemorate important national events such as coronations, royal births and birthdays. The poems were originally often set to music and performed in the sovereign’s presence, but in the 21st century popular poet laureates including Andrew Motion, Carol Ann Duffy and the current postholder Simon Armitage, have adapted the role to suit their own voice.
John Dryden
Poet Laureate from 1668-88
John Dryden, the eldest of fourteen children, was a King’s Scholar at Westminster School from around 1644, when the Headmaster was the charismatic disciplinarian Richard Busby. Dryden came from a Puritan family and he wrote a poem to mark Oliver Cromwell’s funeral. His poems Astraea Redux, (1660), and the modern epic Annus Mirabilis (1667) secured the approval of the newly-restored king Charles II and his appointment as poet laureate in 1668, combined in 1670 with the role of historiographer royal. Dryden wrote and produced several plays for the King’s Company, including Marriage à la Mode (1673). His conversion to Catholicism, captured in The Hind and the Panther (1687):
‘Thy throne is darkness in th’abyss of light/
A blaze of glory that forbids the sight’
saw him refuse the oath of allegiance to William and Mary. He was consequently replaced as poet laureate by Thomas Shadwell. Dryden was best-known for his heroic couplets; his topical satires and his translation of The Works of Virgil (1697).
John DrydenJohn Dryden (1631-1700)
Poet Laureate from 1668-88
John DrydenJohn Dryden, the eldest of fourteen children, was a King’s Scholar at Westminster School from around 1644, when the Headmaster was the charismatic disciplinarian Richard Busby. Dryden came from a Puritan family and he wrote a poem to mark Oliver Cromwell’s funeral. His poems Astraea Redux, (1660), and the modern epic Annus Mirabilis (1667) secured the approval of the newly-restored king Charles II and his appointment as poet laureate in 1668, combined in 1670 with the role of historiographer royal. Dryden wrote and produced several plays for the King’s Company, including Marriage à la Mode (1673). His conversion to Catholicism, captured in The Hind and the Panther (1687):
‘Thy throne is darkness in th’abyss of light/saw him refuse the oath of allegiance to William and Mary. He was consequently replaced as poet laureate by Thomas Shadwell. Dryden was best-known for his heroic couplets; his topical satires and his translation of The Works of Virgil (1697).
A blaze of glory that forbids the sight’
Thomas Shadwell (c.1640-1692)
Poet Laureate from 1688-1692
When Dryden refused to take the oath of allegiance to the monarchy after ‘The Glorious Revolution’ and exile of king James II in 1688, Thomas Shadwell was chosen to succeed him as poet laureate and historiographer royal for life. Enormously fat and addicted to opium (from which he died), Shadwell introduced the practice of writing a celebratory new year poem and of composing an annual ode on the monarch’s birthday (discontinued after 1820). The Shadwell family lost its fortune supporting the Royalists in the civil war, but the poet later found patrons amongst Charles II’s Whig circle of court wits, including the libertine earl of Rochester.
Celebrated for his plays including The Sullen Lovers (1668) and The Virtuoso (1676), which was a satire on the Royal Society, Shadwell set the fashion for adaptations of Shakespeare’s tragedies. His fierce literary feud with his predecessor, saw Dryden satirise him in his poem MacFlecknoe (1676).
Love in their little veins inspires
their cheerful notes, their soft desires.
(Poem, Date)
