Absalom and Achitophel

Absalom and Achitophel
By John Dryden

While at college he had written some not very successful verse. His Heroic Stanzas on the Death of Oliver Cromwell [1658] was his first considerable poem. It was followed, in 1660, by Astræa Redux, in honour of the Restoration. The interval of 18 months had been crowded with events, and though much has been written against his apparent change of opinion, it is fair to remember that the whole cast of his mind led him to be a supporter of de facto author...