Restoration Period poet, dramatist, and critic John Dryden wielded an influence upon English theater beyond the scope of his own creative abilities. As a politically minded polemicist, his words carried sufficient authority to serve as a basis for rules governing the writing of dramatic works. Much of this was accomplished through the lengthy prefaces and commentaries he composed to explicate his plays; An Essay on Dramatick Poesie and its sequel were equally important in setting forth Dryden's convictions. Several of his literary creations were used for lyric works by composers Henry Purcell, George Frideric Handel, and John Blow, some of these materials being drawn from Dryden's arrangement of Milton's Paradise Lost. After studies at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, Dryden moved to London in 1657 to begin a career as a writer. At its premiere in 1664, his first play, The Wild Gallant, failed. The following year, The Indian Queen, co-written with Sir Robert Howard, was far more successful as the first of a series of heroic tragedies. During the plague, which closed London's theaters, Dryden lived in the Wiltshire home of his father-in-law. There he wrote his "Essay of Dramatick Poesie," followed by "A Defense of an Essay of Dramatique Poesie." By 1668, Dryden had achieved a stature that led to his appointment as England's Poet Laureate. He agreed to write exclusively for the theatrical company of Thomas Killigrew, becoming in the process an organization shareholder. After several more heroic tragedies, Dryden wrote a comedy, Marriage A-la-Mode, richly charged with sexual tensions. After a decade with Killigrew, Dryden left the now debt-ridden company to find other producers for Oedipus, Don Sebastian, and Amphitryon. He achieved success in poetry while maintaining his dramatic preeminence with the biting satire "Absalom and Achitophel," a work that won instant popularity. In 1687, Dryden, born a Puritan, converted to Catholicism, a move that cost him his laureateship; he wrote "The Hind and the Panther" as a defense of his new faith. Among his adaptations of Shakespeare plays, All for Love (based upon Antony and Cleopatra) was not only the best, but is considered by many to be the finest of all of Dryden's works. Upon his death in 1700, Dryden was buried next to Chaucer at Westminster Abbey.