John Dryden, Astraea Redux Study Questions

     1. Astraea (in Greek myth) is the daughter of Zeus and Themis (Justice).  She left  the earth at the end of the Golden Age, and her return marks the return of Justice and a new Golden Age.   What point does Dryden therefore make about the return of Charles II and about the events that caused his exile?

     2. Dryden praises Charles II for his endurance of suffering and his ability to learn from it, for example, 

Inur'd to suffer ere he came to raigne
No rash procedure will his actions stain (ll. 87-8).

Not ty'd to rules of Policy, you find
Revenge less sweet than a forgiving mind (ll. 260-1).

Two questions:
How does Dryden's praise also serve as instruction to the new king?
And how does this praise coincide with Charles's own statement about his return?  See the *Declaration of Breda (context) and Declaration of Breda (text).

     3. Examine some of the rhymes in this poem:  blest/rest;  tost/lost;  Bride/side; Bed/wed;  groan/Throne;  enjoy/destroy;  down/Crown.   What "story" do the rhymes help to tell?  Try making a list of the rhyme words.  If you read only these words, what would you guess the poem was about?

     4. Thus often means "therefore," but in line 5 it means "as" and introduces a simile.  A very colloquial paraphrase of the lines might read like this: 

You know what it's like when black clouds seem to draw the sky down toward us and  we hear the thunder from every direction and there's a weird silence that makes us wait tensely for the storm to break--well that was what the political atmosphere was like in the period before Charles returned.

Look for another example of thus meaning "as" and paraphrase the comparison that follows.

     5. What can you tell from the poem about the relations among England, France, and Spain?

    6.  Read the following couplet carefully:

For his long absence Church and State did groan;
Madness the pulpit, Faction seiz'd the Throne (ll. 21-2).

Paraphrase the lines and then describe the relationships that seem to be set up between the key terms: Church & State; Madness & Faction; pulpit and Throne (e.g., How is Church related to State?  And how are Church and State related to pulpit and Throne?)  See if you can explain how the arrangement of words helps to create meaning.

     7. Dryden associates Charles II with King David (Old Testament) and with Augustus (Roman emporer).  What is the effect of these comparisons?

      8. There was apparently a particularly bright star (probably Venus) noticeable at Charles's birth (May 29, 1630).  And he entered London on May 29, 1660, his 30th birthday.   Notice how Dryden treats this point in the poem (lines 284-291).  To whom does Dryden seem to be comparing Charles, by implication?

      9.  Looking back at the title, what do you think is the significance of the term sacred:  "Return of His Sacred Majesty Charles the Second"?