An Overview of An Essay On Dramatic Poesy
"The expressions of a
poem designed purely for instruction ought to be plain and natural, yet
majestic... The florid, elevated and figurative way is for the passions; for
(these) are begotten in the soul by showing the objects out of their true
proportion.... A man is to be cheated into passion, but to be reasoned into
truth."
-Dryden.
In English Literature the
period from 1660 to 1700 is known as the Restoration era since monarchy was
restored in England and Charles II came back to England from his exile and
ascended the throne. The tendency to preciseness
was the chief characteristic of restoration era. After the restoration in 1660,
up to over 140 years of time period is generally considered as the
neo-classical age. This particular age is considered as the "age of
Dryden". Neo-classicism refers to a broad tendency in Literature that
ranges from early 17th century. Most significant feature of this particular age
is that the return to the classical models of the ancient Greek and Roman
culture. literature was primarily conceived to be an art which was perfected by
long study and practice. the restoration poetry was mostly satirical, realistic
and written in heroic couplet. Dryden was the first to employ neo-classical
heroic couplet and quatrain in his own work. Dryden's poetry does not have the
poetic glow, the spiritual fervor, the moral loftiness and philosophical depth
which were sadly lacking in the restoration period.
Writings of this period found
directness and simplicity of expressions.
What Dryden achieved in his poetry was neither the emotional excitement
of the early nineteenth-century romantics nor the intellectual complexities of
the metaphysical. His subject matter was often factual, and he aimed at
expressing his thoughts in the most precise and concentrated manner. Although
he uses formal structures such as heroic couplets, he tried to recreate the
natural rhythm of speech, and he knew that different subjects need different
kinds of verse.
John Dryden was a person who
work founded expertly in drama, poetry, criticism and translation. He has made
impressive achievements and significant influence and his writing is too
topical and occassional. Dryden's biographical details suggest that his middle
class parents supported the puritan cause and the parliament. His first poem is
Heroic Stanzas which was written in 1659 which praised Oliver Cromwell,
the puritan religious, military and political leader. In 1660, when Charles II
was came to the throne, he celebrated this victory through his poem Astrea
Redux or Justice Restored . This and many later shifts in his
political and religious views made other critics to criticise Dryden as an
opportunist. But Samuel Johnson was in favour of Dryden which is clearly
evident from his statement about Dryden in his Life of Dryden that
"If he changed, he changed with the nation". It was Johnson who
considered Dryden as the "Father of English Criticism".
Dryden's most celebrated
poems include the mock-heroic Mac Flecknoe, the political satire Absalom
and Achitophel and Medal , two religious poems Religio
Laici ( a defence of Anglicanism) and The Hind and the Panther which
criticises the Anglican church and also reflects the conversation between
Dryden and Catholicism. While coming to his contributions that he has made in
the field of drama, his best comedy is Marriage a la Mode and his widely
celebrated tragedies are Au range-zebe and All For Love or The
World Well lost .
Dryden
occupies a significant position in the history of English criticism and prose.
Mattew Arnold observed Dryden's relaxed and conversational style of writing as
"such as we would all gladly use if we only knew how". He was very
much influenced by Greek, Roman and neo-classical French writers and theories
and at the same time he did not fail to admire English writers such from Chaucer
to Ben Johnson and Shakespeare.
Dryden's judgements
can be identified as solid and sensible. He is of the opinion that "A man
should have a reasonable, philosophical, and in some measure mathematical head
to be a complete and excellent poet".
Dryden's strengths and limitations as a critic are best reflected in his
An Essay on Dramatic Poesy. The purpose of this particular work as
stated by Dryden is "to vindicate the honour of our English writers from
the censure of those who unjustly prefer the French before them". Through
his four speakers he explore the relationship between the ancients and the
moderns , French dramatic theory and that of English and the usage of rhyme in
drama taking in to consideration some of the major writers of that period such
as Shakespeare,Johnson and other authors.
An Essay of Dramatic Poesy
An Essay of
Dramatic Poesy is structured in the form of a dialogue among four friends
on the banks of river Thames. They were taken refuge on a barge during a naval
battle between English and Dutch forces. The four friends mentioned by Dryden
are Eugenius, Crites, Lisideius and Neander. All these characters depicts the aliases of
actual restoration critics and the last one, Neander stands for Dryden
himself.
These
four friends are described as involved in a witty and ironic conversation about
the subject of poetry. Their discussion
soon changes in to their difference of opinion about the virtues of modern and
ancient writers. Since imitation of classical writers was a common practice during Dryden's age, he steers their conversation to a new genre, that is
dramatic poetry. Lisideius suggests that drama is "a just and lively image
of a human nature".
Each character
then reveals their opinion about the merits of English and French drama. They
also discusses the unties or rules of the French drama. While French plays stay
closer to the classical notion of drama , Neander supports English drama precisely because of
its sub plots, blending of mirth and tragedy and multiple characters.
At many instances
Dryden's characters draws platonic dialogues for inspiration and their speech sounds reasonable. Playwrights such as Ben Johnson, Moliere, and
Shakespeare becomes the subjects of their discussion and they discusses the
suitability of rhyme to drama where Crites objects to it. Neander says that a
"natural" rhyme can add to its artistry. During this final speech,
the barge docks at the somerset stairs and the four friends go in separate
ways.
In this essay,
the most significant part is their discussion about the writers of their
period. They begin with Shakespeare. It is being said that he is the
significant writer who has the most comprehensive soul. Shakespeare's writing style is such that more
than we see, we can feel what he writes. There are so many critics who says
that Shakespeare needed more learning and he has yet more to know about nature.
Neander defends this by assuring that Shakespeare is a person who is naturally
learned and he does not need the spectacles of books to study nature. The essence
of nature is present there inside himself. At the same time, at times he was
flat and insipid too. Sometimes his comic wit degenerated in to clinches and
serious to bombast. But he is always
great when some great occassion is presented to him. No man can ever say that he had a fit subject
for wit and did not raise himself as above the rest of the poets. This
consideration made Mr. Hales of Eaton say that there was no subject of which
any poet ever writ and the contemporaries with him like Fletcher and Johnson
never equaled them to him. And in the court of Charles I, when Ben Johnson's
reputation found highest, Sir John suckling along with a great part of the
courtiers set Shakespeare far above them all.
Neander next
speaks about Beaumont and Fletcher who had the advantage of Shakespeare's
wit. They improved it through continuous study and practice. Beaumont was an accurate judge of plays, that Ben Johnson, while he lived, submitted all his
writings to his consent. His debt to Beaumont has been revealed by Jonson in his
epigram To Francis Beaumont . The first play that brought Beaumont and
Fletcher to esteem was Philaster. Before that they had written two or
three plays which were unsuccessful. Their plots were generally more regular
than that of Shakespeare and they understood and imitated the conversation of
the common people better. They considered humour not to be described by them.
They presented all the passions especially that of love very lively. Neander
believes that the English language attained its perfection in their hands.
Since then the words used by writers were superfluous rather than ornamental.
While coming to
the next writer, that is Ben Jonson, Neander points out that he was a judicious
and learned writer which any theater ever had. He was a severe judge of himself
as well as that of others. His works demand only little alteration. Humour was
his proper sphere and he used this quality to represent mechanic people. he was
very much tied up with the ancient Greek and Roman tradition and he borrowed
boldly from them. In his works Sejanus and Catiline he has
translated the works of almost all Roman authors and Historians. Neander put
forward an opinion in the comparison between Jonson and Shakespeare, that Jonson is a more correct poet and Shakespeare, the greater wit. Shakespeare was
the Homer or father of our dramatic poets and Jonson was Virgil. He concludes
his remarks by mentioning that he admire Jonson but loves Shakespeare.
It is likely to
say that the definition of drama given by Dryden may not be perfect but has its
own importance in dramatic criticism. Dryden, here emphasizes on the craftsmanship of the artist. Dryden is of the belief that the definition of
drama could be fit in poetry as well. He wanted nature to be imitated by poetry
so that the essence of nature can be presented more beautifully. his native
sensibility, conversational style, classical liberalism etc place him in an honorable position in the field of literary criticism. Since he is considered as the first person to
draw higher attention to the literary criticism, this quality is considered to
be appreciated as positive literary excellence.“His reputation as a critic
rests on sure and lasting foundations”, remarks Atkins.
Bibliography
Dryden, John. An Essay of Dramatic Poesy.1668.,London.
Aden, John. Critical Opinions of John
Dryden.1963.,London.
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