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Name    : maru Janakkumar J

Paper    :3[LiteraryTheory&Criticism]

Semester  : 1

Roll No   : 26

Topic    : Dryden Essay

Email id  : marujanak17@gmail.com

Submitted:MK Bhavnagar University,                       Bhavnagar

v      Essay on Dryden:

v   Born      : 9 August 1631

 Aldwincle, Thrapston,                      Northamptonshire, England

v      Died               : 1 May 1700 (aged 68),

                 London, England

v                  Occupation : poet, literary critic, playwright,               librettist

                 Alma mater    Westminster School

                 Trinity College, Cambridge

v                     Notable works :Absalom and Achitophel, Mac       Flecknoe

John Dryden was one of the most shining stars of the Restoration Age, that’s why this age is also known as the age of Dryden. He was the great critic. So, Dr.Samuel Johnson quotes as...

“The Father of English Criticism, who first taught us to

Determine upon principles the merits of composition”

v      Gist of essay:
        Dryden is a neoclassic critic, and as such he deals in his criticism with issues of form and morality in drama. However, he is not a rule bound critic, tied down to the classical unities or to notions of what constitutes a "proper" character for the stage. He relies heavily on a pragmatic tradition.

Ø Dryden wrote this essay as a dramatic dialogue with four characters representing four critical positions. These four critical positions deal with five issues.

Ø Eugenius (whose name may mean "well born") favors the moderns over the ancients, arguing that the moderns exceed the ancients because of having learned and profited from their example.

Ø Crites argues in favor of the ancients: they established the unities; dramatic rules were spelled out by Aristotle which the current--and esteemed--French playwrights follow; and Ben Jonson--the greatest English playwright, according to Crites--followed the ancients' example by adhering to the unities.

Ø Lisideius argues that French drama is superior to English drama, basing this opinion of the French writer's close adherence to the classical separation of comedy and tragedy. For Lisideius "no theater in the world has anything so absurd as the English tragicomedy . . . in two hours and a half, we run through all the fits of Bedlam."

vHis Creative Works:

Ø Preface to the Fables

Ø Preface to the Indian Emperor

Ø The Wild Gallant

Ø An Essay on Dramatic Poesy

Ø All for Love

Ø Absalom and Achitophel

Ø Macflecknoe.

vAn Essay on Dramatic Poesy: Introduction

Ø Dryden developed a very ingenious plan of writing his essay. In 1665 great plague broke out in London. In order to escape from the infection of the plague, many people left London. So, Dryden takes this situation and develops a plan to write a great treatise on drama. He imagines the he and his friend’s sails out of London in a boat on the river of Thames. So, to avoid boredom the journey, they decide to hold some useful discourse on the theory of drama in different ages in Greece, Rome, France and of England. They decide to allot one age to each of the four friends.

Each taking up the defense of dramatic Literature of one country or one age. Crites speaks for the Greek and the Roman dramatists and their principles. Lisideius expresses his view that the French drama is superior to the English drama. So, he favors French dramatists. Eugenius claims that the English Drama of the last age in England is better than the Ancient Dramatists. Neander (For Dryden himself) pleads for England and Liberty. So, Dryden holds that ancient principle should be respected, but should not be followed blindly.

v Dryden’s definition of drama

Ø Here, Dryden expresses his views on Drama that what a play should be; therefore, he defines drama as

“Just and Lively Image of human nature,

Representing its passions and humors,

And the changes of fortunes to which it

Is subject, for the delight and instruction of mankind”.

Therefore, Dryden and his friends talk about what a play should be, further, Lisideius conveys his view about Drama as ‘a just lively image of Human nature ‘.after this discussion, they start to give their views and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of French and English Drama. At last the debate goes on about the comparison between Ancient and Modern writers.

v Violation of the three unities

Ø As far as the unities of the time, place and action are concerned. This group further discusses the playwrights like Ben Jonson, Moliere and Shakespeare with a deeper insight. John Dryden himself.

v Also defenses English tragic-Comedy:

Ø He comments that the French plays may be more regular but they are not as lively as that of English. For example in William Shakespeare’s Plays the more lively and just images of life can also be observed. Therefore, Dryden here condemns French Plays s lack of just and lively image.   

v Eugenius’s arguments on the superiority of the Moderns over the Ancients:      

Ø Eugenius defends the English dramatists of the last age with a highly penetrating insight. It is true, he says that the Ancients Greek and Roman scholars laid down many basic principles of Drama. The English authors gave due respect to them, but they had no clear-cut concept of dividing a Play into Acts. The Dramatist set the voyage of dividing a play into five acts. Most of the Ancient Greek Playwrights wrote their plays on highly popular episodes of Thebes or troy on which many narrative poems, epics and plays had already been written. Therefore, the spectators found nothing new in them. Many times they spoke out the dialogues before the actors spoke them. The English dramatist wrote their plays on new themes. In comedies, the Greek and roman playwrights repeated common theme of lost children coming back to their home after gap of many years. The English dramatist invented new and interesting theme. In all these respects the English dramatist of the last age were better than the Greek or roman dramatists.  

vLisideius’s view in favour of the Superiority of the French Drama over the English Drama

    Lisideius speaks in favour of the French. He agrees with Eugenius that in the last generation the English drama was superior. The French do not burden the play with a fat plot. They represent a story which will be one complete action, and everything which is unnecessary is carefully excluded. But the English burden their plays with actions and incidents which have no logical and natural connection with the main action so much so that English play is a mere compilation. Hence the French plays are better written than the English ones. Based on the definition of the play, Neander suggests that English playwrights are best at "the lively imitation of nature" Further; he suggests that English plays are more entertaining and instructive because they offer an element of surprise that the Ancients and the French do not.

v Mixture of Tragedy and Comedy:

Dryden is more considerate in his attitude towards the mingling of the tragic and the comic elements and emotions in the plays. Mirth does not destroy compassion and thus the serious effect which tragedy aims at is not disturbed by mingling of tragic and comic. Just as the eye can pass from an unpleasant object to a pleasant one, so also the soul can move from the tragic to the comic. And it can do so much more swiftly.

v Rhymed Verse versus Blank Verse Controversy:

    Crites’s attack on Rhyme occurs towards the end of the Essay, Rhyme is unnatural in a play, for a play is in dialogues, and no man without premeditation speaks in rhyme. Drama is a ‘just’ representation of Nature, and rhyme is unnatural, for nobody in Nature expresses himself in rhyme. It is artificial and the art is too apparent, while true art consists in hiding art. Tragedy is a serious play representing nature exalted to its highest pitch; rhyme being the noblest kind of verse is suited to it, and not to comedy.

vConclusion:

In short, John Dryden’s Of Dramatic Poesie (also known as An Essay of Dramatic Poesy) is an exposition of several of the major critical positions of the time, set out in a semidramatic form that gives life to the abstract theories. Of Dramatic Poesie not only offers a capsule summary of the status of literary criticism in the late seventeenth century; it also provides a succinct view of the tastes of cultured men and women of the period. Dryden synthesizes the best of both English and Continental (particularly French) criticism; hence, the essay is a single source for understanding neoclassical attitudes toward dramatic art. John Dryden in his essay, An Essay on Dramatic Poesy, gives an account of the Neo-classical theory and discusses all the topics in the essay.

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