John Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy

An Essay of Dramatic Poesy
by John Dryden

This blog is a Bridge course task on an Essay of Dramatic Poesy by John Dryden Assigned by Dr.Dilip Barad sir.

John Dryden (1631-1700) was an English poet, critic, and playwright active in the second half of the 17th century. As a poet, Dryden is best known as a satirist and was England's first poet laureate in 1668. In addition to satires, Dryden wrote elegies, prologues, epilogues, odes, and panegyrics. His most famous poem is Absalom and Achitophel (1681). Dryden was so influential in Restoration England that the period was known to many as the Age of Dryden.

• Samuel Johnson calls John Dryden “The father of English criticism.”

• Sir Walter Scott calls John Dryden “Glorious John.”

In the summer of 1665 when Dryden and his wife fled plague-stricken London for the countryside taking along only a few books, the theatres

had been re-opened for only a few years and there were exciting new critical ideas from France to be debated. There, in a quiet rustic setting, Dryden went fishing and wrote theory (An Essay of Dramatic Poesy), paraphrasing and quoting directly from Corneille's Prefaces that lay open on the desk. Never having been to France, Dryden knew the French dramatist's plays not from theatre, but from the study.

An Essay of Dramatic Poesy:

In this Essay, Dryden has put forward his criticism of dramatic poetry.

Aim :

In his address, "To the Reader" prefixed to the Essay, Dryden says that his aim was, "to vindicate the honour of our English writers, from the censure of those who unjustly prefer the French before them."

However, the real aim is much wider than this. The Essay is also an attempt to evolve the principles which ought to guide us in judging a play, as well as an effort to discover the rules which could help a dramatist in writing a good play.

The Essay is also a contribution to two current controversies:

• The comparative superiority of the ancient and the modern. Dryden demonstrates the superiority of the moderns over the ancients, and also the superiority of contemporary (Restoration) English dramatists over the Elizabethan dramatists. 

• The comparative merits and demerits of blank verse and rhyme for dramatic purpose. Dryden upholds the superiority of rhymed verse.

The Essay have five critical idea :

1. The relative merits of ancient and modern poets.

2. Whether the existing French school of drama is superior or inferior to the English.

3. Whether the Elizabethan dramatists were in all points superior to those of Dryden's time.

4. Whether plays are more perfect in proportion as they conform to the dramatic rules laid down by the ancients.

5. Whether the substitution of rhyme for blank verse in serious plays is an improvement.

In Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy ( 1668 ) the four persons who carry on the dialogue are Eugenius , Crites , Lisideius , and Neander

Crites argues in favour 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.

Crites:

• He supports the ancients.
• The Moderns are dependent upon the ancients.
• The Moderns do not follow the three units.
• The Ancients are the law-givers and they should be the models for other writers to follow.

Eugenius favours the moderns over the ancients, arguing that the moderns exceed the ancients because of having learned and profited from their example.

Eugenius:

• Although the Moderns have profited from the Ancients, they now excel the ancients through their work.
• The Ancients have not followed the unities.
• The Ancients did not have any sense of the division of the play.
• The Ancients plays lack originality.
• The Ancients did not include emotions like Love in their plays. 

But some may have a preference for ancient over the modern time due to the nature-friendly people. However, most people love this modern life more than ancient one due to its fast movement, ease of availability, and all kinds of opportunities. Both the world has their pros and cons.

Modern life is easier than life in the past. I definitely agree that modern life is easier than life in the past. The increased use of technology, rising standards of living, and improved healthcare have combined to make our lifestyles, at least in the first world, luxurious compared to lifestyles of the past.

Example:

Nowadays some people discuss, they say that because of smartphones people lose memory. They say past generations remember lots of mobile numbers but the new generations and even those generations aren't able to remember numbers and other things.

They complain that smartphones do all these things . That's why people lose their memory. 

Different way of doing things isn't always bad. Accepting new things is a sign progressive society. 

We generally say every new generation is updated.

But this argument is not relevant, we can say we remember many other different things instead of mobile numbers. We are using memory in a different way. This is not regressive. 

Paper based work is hard to manage and web version is easy to manage things. 

Changes of modern time make life more easier. 

Lisideius argues that French drama is superior to English drama, basing this opinion on the French writer's close adherence to the classical separation of comedy and tragedy. For Lisideius "no theatre in the world has anything so absurd as the English tragicomedy..."

Lisideius:

• He favours French plays.
• According to him, the French plays follow the unities properly.
• Their plots are simple, not complicated like the English plots.
• He criticises the English plays for mixing tragedy and comedy.
• French plays are more authentic.
• They prefer emotions over action/plots violence.
• They write their dialogues in rhyming verse.

Neander favours the moderns but does not underestimate the ancients. He also favours English drama and has some critical -things of French drama.

Neander criticises French drama essentially for its smallness:

its pursuit of only one plot without subplots; its tendency to show too little action; its "servile observations of the unities…dearth of plot, and narrowness of imagination" are all qualities which render it inferior to English drama.

Main Points: 

The appreciation of the worth of the striving, nature-imitating, large scope of tragicomedy and Shakespeare over the static perfection of the ideal-imitating Classical/French/Jonsonian

drama.

A dramatic act is defined as " an imitation with the aim to delight and to teach, and is considered a just and lively image of human nature representing its passions and humours for the delight and instruction of mankind."

The idea of decorum in the work of art is emphasised.

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