SOURCE: "What Kind of Poem is Religio Laici?" in Studies in English Literature, Vol. XVII, Summer 1977, No. 3, pp. 397-406.

In the following excerpt, Gransden suggests that Dryden regarded his poem Religio Laici as a satire in the classical tradition: one that would instruct his audiences rather than criticize or ridicule them.

It is natural that recent critics of the Religio Laici have been more concerned to analyze Dryden's moral and theological position than to consider the poem's literary ancestry. Yet such an examination may be more than a sterile exercise in "influences," for it can illuminate Dryden's entire technique as a moral poet. Moreover, the two approaches are more fully complementary than is perhaps always realized. The moral position which Dryden takes up is one to which the genre he was writing in was traditionally accommodated. Further, an understanding of the poem's ancestry, which I shall approach through...