The State of Innocence The State of Innocence The State of Innocence was intended to be performed as an opera, with the libretto written in 1674, (first published in 1677) by John Dryden. It is basically a musical stage adaptation of John Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost", a tribute to Milton rather than a satire of the poem. That Dryden was an admirer of Milton's is surprising as the two men were politically opposed. Milton was against the restoration of the British monarchy, while the royalist Dryden was created England’s first Poet Laureate by the restored Charles II. So great an admirer of Milton
The Fall of Princes The Fall of Princes The Fall of Princes is a long poem by English poet John Lydgate. It is based on Giovanni Boccaccio's work "De Casibus Virorum Illustrium", which Lydgate knew in a French translation by Laurent de Premierfait, entitled "Des Cas des nobles hommes et femmes". Lydgate's poem was written in the years 1431-38. It is composed of nine books and some 36 thousand lines. It is made up of rhyme royal stanzas: <poem style="margin-left:2em"> Out of her swoone when she did abbraide, Knowing no mean but death in her distrèsse, To her brothèr full piteously she said, "Cause