The Works of John Dryden, Volume XIV: Plays; The Kind Keeper, The Spanish Fryar, The Duke of Guise, and The Vindication (Works of John Dryden)

Kept women, comic clerics, and political schemers enliven the four plays in this volume of the California Dryden. Dryden asserted that __The Kind Keeper__ was a moral play, dedicated to exposing the "crying sin" of keeping a mistress. The production was closed after three nights, but whether because of the play's success in moralizing, or in exposing, is hard to know. v. 1. Poems, 1649-1680. v. 3. Poems, 1685-1692. v. 5. Poems - The works of Virgil in English, 1697. v. 6. Poems - The works of Vigil in English, 1697. v. 7. Poems, 1697-1700. v. 8. Plays - The wild gallant. The rival ladies. The Indian queen. v. 9. Plays - The Indian emperor. Secret love. Sir Martin Mar-all. v. 10. Plays - The tempest. Tyrannick love. An evening's love. v. 11. Plays - The conquest of Granada. Marriage a-la-mode. The assignation. v. 12. Plays - Amboyna. The state of innocence. Aureng-Zebe. v. 13. Plays - All for love. Oedipus. Troilus and Cressida. v. 14. Plays - The kind keeper. The Spanish fryar. The Duke of Guise. And, the Vindication of the Duke of Guise. v. 15. Plays - Albion and Albanius. Don Sebastian. Amphitryon. v. 16. Plays. King Arthur. Cleomenes. Love Triumphant. Contributions to the pilgrim. v. 17. Prose, 1668-1691. An essay of dramatick poesie and shorter works. v. 18. Prose - The history of the league, 1684. v. 19. Prose - The life of St. Francis Xavier, 1688. v. 20. Prose, 1691-1698 - De arte graphica and shorter works. I CANNOT easily excuse the printing of a Play at so unseasonable a time, when the Great Plot of the Nation, like one of Pharaoh's lean Kine, has devour'd its younger Brethren of the Stage: But however weak my defence might be for this, I am sure I shou'd not need any to the World, for my Dedication to your Lordship; and if you can pardon my presumption in it, that a bad Poet should address himself to so great a Judge of Wit, I may hope at least to scape with the Excuse of Catullus, when he writ to Cicero: Gratias tibi Maximas Catullus "The Kind Keeper" is a moral play, dedicated to exposing the "crying sin" of keeping a mistress. "The Spanish Fryar" is a comedy expressing outspoken antipathy to Spain and Catholicism. "The Duke of Guise" claims that opposition to the Stuarts was dangerous. "Vindication" is an expose of his art. This volume contains Dryden's 1684 translation of Louis Maimbourg's "The History of the League," a work relating to the religious wars of France in the preceding century, and which Dryden used as a commentary on the religious persecutions of his own time in England.