The work is a rhymed adaption of John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, and retells the Biblical story of the fall of man.

Unofficial transcripts of the libretto began to circulate, however, and the errors in these copies so annoyed Dryden that he was finally induced, in 1677, to publish an authorised version.

These regions and this realm my wars have got; This mournful empire is the loser's lot; In liquid burnings, or on dry to dwell, Is all the sad variety of hell.

While Paradise Lost had met with a cold reception upon its first publication,[7] The State of Innocence was a great success, and was reprinted more often during Dryden's lifetime than any of his other plays.

[1] A poem by Nathaniel Lee, attached to the first edition of the libretto, cast Dryden as the "mighty genius" who had refined Milton's "rough" work.