Cleaning up somethings that have been bugging me. This is a double thingie with commas. It sounds fine, but do I need the comma between boy and Dryden? "From under the fur cloak, a boy, Dryden, crouched in wait."
I think it should be there. I'm not sure there's an absolute rule about it, but it looks (and sounds) right to me with the comma. Without the comma, it seems to mean there's a race of beings called Drydens, and this particular one is a boy.
What @minstrel recommends is an absolute rule. When an identifier is surrounded by commas, that denotes an appositive. You have an appositive. In this sentence: "A boy Dryden, crouched in wait." the comma serves no purpose. Likewise, it would serve no purpose with the prepositional phrase prepended to the sentence.
