“With Honour Quit the Fort”: Ambivalent Colonialism in Dryden’s Amboyna
Schille, Candy B. K.
Early Modern Literary Studies 12.1 (May, 2006)
Abstract
The essay argues that Amboyna, its subject and occasion the Dutch Wars, is not simple-mindedly propagandistic, but shows Dryden’s ambivalence about the English colonial project. I discuss Dryden’s manipulation of his historical sources, the relevance of the religious and political context of the 1670′s, and link the play to Dryden’s attitudes and utterances during the period, including Annus Mirabilis, The Hind and the Panther, and Absalom and Achitophel. Characteristically, Dryden shows the complexity of mind required to negotiate between the immediate political pressures on a playwright and an evolving, flexible metaphysical and historical consciousness.
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