The Literature Network - 'Fortuna' as political image in three poems on Cromwell. (Oliver Cromwell)

'Fortuna' as political image in three poems on Cromwell. (Oliver Cromwell)

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From: ANQ
Date: 19940401
Author:Lawson, Bruce

Poems of John Dryden and Thomas Sprat in honor of Oliver Cromwell qualify their praise by using the pagan spirit Fortuna. The poems were elegies upon his death, and the poets were trying to appease the political powers while keeping an opening to the royalist powers which were stirring. While Cromwell should have been praised for his Christian virtues, he was also praised as a favorite of the goddess Fortune, indicating an association with pagan and Machiavellian attitudes.

John Dryden's Heroique Stanzas and Thomas Sprat's To the Happie Memory of the most Renowned Prince, Oliver Lord ...

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