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 of my sorrowe, roote of my heavinesse, That whilom were the sourse of my gladnèsse, When both our joyes by wille were so disposed, Under one key our hearts to be enclosed.— </poem> The poem tells about lives and tragic deaths of many historical and legendary persons. A sixteenth-century poem "The Mirror for Magistrates" by various authors is a sequel to "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