The Personal Drama of Dryden's The Hind and the Panther

Abstract

Dryden's poem, though praised for its style, remains generally unappreciated because it is regarded as public and theological in its theme and argumentative in method. What is overlooked is the vivid personal confession of faith, the poem's most vital and appealing element. The neoclassical strategy of providing a literary treatment through the beast fable has obscured the personal drama. Both the Panther and the Hind are at times personae for Dryden: they dramatize the poet's struggle to achieve faith and charity. Their debate over church authority recapitulates in the present moment the doctrinal doubts of Dryden before his conversion. The more spiritual struggle, between charity and humility (represented by the Hind) and pride and revenge (represented by the Panther), is also crucial in the poem since pride is innate in the poet and prompts him still to revenge against enemies like Stillingfleet and Burnet. The poem not only provides a vivid, dramatic testimony to the poet's unending struggle to achieve practical piety, but as a neoclassical work, it transforms the personal drama into the pattern of the universal Christian drama to achieve faith and charity.