All for Love by John Dryden One of the Best Plays I've Read

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All for Love

John Dryden

All for Love John Dryden The age of Elizabeth, memorable for so many reasons in the history of England, was especially brilliant in literature, and, within literature, in the drama. With some falling off in spontaneity, the impulse to great dramatic production lasted till the Long Parliament closed the theaters in 1642; and when they were reopened at the Restoration, in 1660, the stage only too faithfully reflected the debased moral tone of the court society of Charles II. John Dryden (1631-1700), the great representative figure in the literature of the latter part of the seventeenth century, exemplifies in his work most of the main tendencies of the time. He came into notice with a poem on the death of Cromwell in 1658, and two years later was composing couplets expressing his loyalty to the returned king. He married Lady Elizabeth Howard, the daughter of a royalist house, and for practically all the rest of his life remained an adherent of the Tory Party. In 1663 he began writing for the stage, and during the next thirty years he attempted nearly all the current forms of drama. His "Annus Mirabilis" (1666), celebrating the English naval victories over the Dutch, brought him in 1670 the Poet Laureateship. He had, meantime, begun the writing of those admirable critical essays, represented in the present series by his Preface to the "Fables" and his Dedication to the translation of Virgil. In these he shows himself not only a critic of sound and penetrating judgment, but the first master of modern English prose style.

All for Love Details

Date : Published May 9th 2013 by Createspace (first published 1678) ISBN : 9781484916988 Author : John Dryden Format : Paperback 84 pages Genre : Plays, Drama, Classics, Poetry, Fiction, Romance

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Mitchell says

Reading for book group. We are also looking at Shakespeare's Antony & Cleopatra as well as Plutarch's Life of Antony.

It's obvious how Plutarch is the grandfather, Shakespeare the child and Dryden the grandchild.

I found the differences between the two plays interesting. Shakespeare's is sprawling with high-flown emotion and intense character study, as you would expect. The Dryden looks to the tradition of Shakespeare but it is all toned down in its attempt to have the play observe the classic unities. The play really rockets forward to its climax and I imagine it would be very effective in live performance. Shakespeare's play is one of his greatest but it often strikes me as a great play to read and not a great play to see. The few performances of it that I have seen or heard have borne that out.

Dryden's Cleopatra is a much diminished figure from Shakespeare's mercurial, emotional Queen. Both Antonys are men acknowledging the doom of their fate, but Dryden puts up more of a fight......

I'm glad to have had the opportunity to read all three pieces together.

Rachel says

In form and style Dryden's play is almost impeccable, adhering to Aristotlean conventions quite to the letter (whether that is for better or worse is rather for the individual reader to decide). But though in this coherent, thoroughly theatrical play there is much to be admired, particularly by actors and directors, it lacks the violent, irrepressible soul in Shakespeare's telling of this same story. In Dryden's measured scenes there are not the garishly bright lines of blank verse which, in Shakespeare, so fully express the essences of Antony and Cleopatra. In comparison to Shakespeare, Dryden cannot help but pale, though he pales in tasteful, clear style.

Benjamin says

The title of this book sounds a bit corny and hokey. And indeed, it is about the well-worn theme of illicit love that is doomed from the beginning. Nevertheless, the inherent lessons are timeless, and if the tale itself is well-worn it is also true that it has the same satisfying feeling as putting on a well-worn shoe. It somehow appeals to those longings of the human soul that have the capacity to bring a body to ruin.

It is actually a play that takes place after the catastrophic defeat of Marc Antony's navy at the hands of young Gaius Octavius (later Ceasar Augustus). Marc Antony has retreated to the last safe haven of Cleopatra's Alexandria. What occurs in these last days and hours is a series of conversations between Marc Antony, Cleopatra, and various friends, family members, and servants as they all try to influence the course of action. Each player is compelling in dialogue, but as one reads the play, he gets the impression that fate will have its way regardless of the influential forces at work. Marc Antony plays the part of the doomed fool, and ultimately pays the doomed fool's price.

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In my humble opinion the greatest dialogue of the play happens between Cleopatra and Octavia - Antony's estranged wife. They finally meet in an intense standoff - a battle for possession of a man. It has all the buildup of tension that one might expect from two armies about to come to blows. Here is a brief excerpt:

Octavia: I need not ask if you are Cleopatra; Your haughty carriage- Cleopatra: Shows I am a queen; Nor need I ask you, who you are. Octavia: A Roman: A name, that makes and can unmake a queen. Cleo: Your lord, the man who serves me, is a Roman. Octav: He was a Roman, till he lost that name to be a slave in Egypt; but I come to free him thence. Cleo: Peace, peace, my lover's Juno. When he grew weary of that household clog, he chose my easier bonds. Octav: I wonder not your bonds are easy: you have long been practised in that lascivious art: He's not the first for whom you spread your snares...

And on it goes. Octavia and Cleopatra are the real characters to follow in this play. If you hope for greatness from Marc Antony you will only find its potential and a lot of indecision. It makes the determination and certainty of Cleopatra and Octavia all the more heartbreaking since the object of their mutual affection is such a sadsack.

I enjoyed this play. Perhaps I enjoyed it more than the average reader as I gave it four out of five stars and the average is only three out of five stars. But I like melodrama and I was certainly entertained by the read. I would love to see this play performed. So there's my two cents.

Mira Jundi says

I honestly enjoyed Shakespeare's version of Antony and Cleopatra more than Dryden's.

He actually failed what he was aiming to do; passing a moral lesson. The result was absolutely the opposite.

Breann says why rewrite Shakespeare when you can just read Shakespeare

Sarah says

Comparing poor Dryden with Shakespeare , definitely shakespeare is going to shine in contrast . If you want to read about sentimental love and romance this is the play for you BUT if you want to read an open debate then surely Shakespeare is your right guy.

Neo-Classicism prevailed during the restoration age when Dryden wrote this play in 1667. At this time new theatres were built completely different from Shakespeare’s time .

In Shakespeare’s time the most famous stage was The Globe Theatre it was a bare stage , round and surrounded by all the people which created this intimacy and interaction between the audience and the actors , they didn’t need lots of settings it was enough for an actor to jump on the stage saying to the audience: I am

PDF File: All for Love... 4 Read and Download Ebook All for Love... in Athens .

In contrast , the new theatre which is called Proscenium Arch where the audience face it only from one side , So they had to draw something in the background , they would create settings and tableaus on the stage , this somehow limited the dramatist in the way they wanted to move the action from one place to the other . Therefore, they preferred to narrow the focus as much as they could because it was difficult to change the background every while from Athens to Syria to Egypt back to Rome as in Shakespeare’s play.

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This play is supposed to be a Heroic Tragedy which deals with : 1- Ideal subject matter which is flexible to idealize like love , honour .so u find the main characters glorified as a god almost unlike Shakespeare where he shows you for example Antony as someone who has fraility , weakeness and points of strength.

2- Its purpose is teaching the corrupt upper classes and monarchies also to please them. He wanted to show them that women can be beautiful and loyal , because women in the Resoration age were not loyal because it is easy to have virtue when you are not beautiful .

3- It should have Heroic couplet and rhymed poetry , Dryden deviated from that and he wrote his play in free verse otherwise it would be to the extreme boring .

4- It has the 3 unities A? -->unity of place : Only Alexanderia . B? -->unity of time : Ten days to a week . c? -->unity of action : Only the Love between Antony and Cleopatra .

In Short, this play has narrow focus while shakespeare does not care about place and time his focus is on the panoramic history , it is a panoramic story where you are allowed to have different judgments . On the other hand Dryden’s focus was on the ideal love where you should admire Antony and Cleopatra whether you like it or not !

Dakota says

I actually like this adaptation more than Antony and Cleopatra, but I do not think I would have liked it nearly as much without having first read Antony and Cleopatra because All for Love has a much smaller focus in

PDF File: All for Love... 5 Read and Download Ebook All for Love... the plot. I think the theme of everything being for love is way more meaningful after having first thought of Antony and Cleopatra as microcosms in Shakespeare's play, as it makes them into much more important and dynamic characters than Dryden's does.

Ann Canann says

Found in: Four Great Restoration Plays pg.135

All For Love is an interesting retelling of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, but not nearly as good.

"Although John Dryden the poet is best known for his alexandrine epics, John Dryden the playwright is most honored for this blank verse tragedy. The summit of Dryden's dramatic art, All For Love (1677) is a spectacle of passion as felt, feared, and disputed in the suspicious years following the English Civil War."

???? ?????? says

All for love , all for you , my honor , my dignity , my throne even my soul .. all for you but stay with me or die with me Love it so much ..

Hussein Rifai says

It's all about true love, how the lovers keep honest in their love till the last moments.

Everyone of the lovers gives a lesson in love, Moreover, gives a lesson in courage, to be in love means to be a courageous one.

Antony and Cleopatra were for love ( all for love )

Sarita says

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Aili says

I fail to understand why someone who clearly doesn't respect women would write a play about one of history's most impressive women. Cleopatra, in Dryden's rendering, is a simpering, pathetic excuse for a person. Antony isn't much better, and any mention of their mutual affection violates the old writing rule of "show, don't tell."

Octavia, too, falls short of the paragon history tells us she was. She's instead a harridan. No wonder Antony choose to leave her, although why he'd go to such a lackluster Cleopatra remains a mystery.

I loathed this play. Two stars instead of one only because he does take Shakespeare's unwieldy cast of 50+ down to a manageable dozen or so. But maybe Shakespeare had so many characters to give his play scale, a quality Dryden's weak imitation hasn't considered.

H says

"I have been a man," declares, laments Dryden's Mark Antony. I read this with excitement; it seemed to re- illuminate Shakespeare's characters. But the mawkish fourth act made a soap opera of the old tragedy.

Still, there's plenty to learn from the comparison. Dryden loosens his iambs, gives to speech a little more vernacular. He varies line lengths to rhetorical, not poetic, effect. In Shakespeare, the dramatic oddity of characters and situations require unpacking; in Dryden, prosaic simplicity does injustice to the speakers.

To Dryden's favor, he grants Octavia voice and dignity, which Shakespeare failed to do:

But the conditions I have brought are such, You need not blush to take: I love your honour, Because 'tis mine; it never shall be said, Octavia's husband was her brother's slave. Sir, you are free; free, even from her you loathe; For, though my brother bargains for your love, Makes me the price and cement of your peace, I have a soul like yours; I cannot take Your love as alms, nor beg what I deserve. I'll tell my brother we are reconciled; He shall draw back his troops, and you shall march To rule the East: I may be dropt at Athens; No matter where. I never will complain, But only keep the barren name of wife, And rid you of the trouble.

Dryden romanticizes the tragedy of Antony & Cleopatra, casts them as innocent Adam & Eve, tempted by dissemblers in their ranks. It has an interesting effect, but sacrifices personality, especially Cleopatra's sophistry and wiles, which made her attractively human.

DOLABELLA: Men are but children of a larger growth; Our appetites as apt to change as theirs, And full as craving too, and full as vain; And yet the soul, shut up in her dark room,

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Viewing so clear abroad, at home sees nothing; But, like a mole in earth, busy and blind, Works all her folly up, and casts it outward TO the world's open view: Thus I discovered, And blamed the love of ruined Antony; Yet wish that I were he, to be so ruined.

Tony says

ALL FOR LOVE. (1678). John Dryden. ***. This play by Dryden (1631-1700) was subtitled, “The World Well Lost,” and was written “in imitation of Shakespeare’s style.” It is written in blank verse, and, other than featuring Antony and Cleopatra, has little resemblance to the Bard’s earlier work. I found it to be a difficult reading play. Although the plot, such as it is, moves forward logically, the verse itself is in many places strained in order to adhere to the rules. “All For Love” was not Dryden’s first adaptation of Shakespeare, but “it was his best as well as his greatest tragedy…Where Shakespeare’s Antony took twelve years to fret his way across the stage, Dryden’s appeared for one day only, his last…[A]ction shifted at will between Alexandria, Rome, Athens, Messina, Actium, and various other parts of the Roman Empire, whereas All For Love setting was solely Alexandria.” A plot synopsis can be found on line, but the story itself is of lesser importance than the manner of Dryden’s writing and style. This is apparently one of the most “assigned” plays of the Restoration Era for English Lit majors – although it is not typical of those of the time.

Loly says

All for love by John Dryden one of the best plays I've read . it's a heroic play written in blank verse . all for love is an imitation to Antony and Cleopatra by Shakespeare . they say it surpass the one by Shakespeare but i think only in love . the main theme is the conflict between love and duty . love was every where in the play . Cleopatra's love was true but Antony was fickle , he left her many times but she loved him the same way . i was confused all along the play between Cleopatra's love and Octavia 's love , Octavia his wife and Cleopatra his mistress sure i didn't know who deserve him more but true love can't be explained . it was obvious the Cleopatra loved him more . the tragic end was so sad . i enjoyed the play . ♥

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