Bridge Course : Essay of Dramatic poesy by John Dryden
This blog is in response to the Bridge Course - Essay on Dramatic Poesy by John Dryden which is assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad Sir, Department of English MK Bhavnagar University. In this blog I am going to discuss my understanding of John Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy and I will also deal with various aspects of it. So, Let's first have a brief introduction of John Dryden's "Essay of Dramatic Poesy" and Introduction of the writer himself.
John Dryden:- ( 1631-1700 )
"we first make our habits, and then our habits make us." - John Dryden
Dryden is the greatest literary figure of the Restoration, and in his work we have an excellent reflection of both the good and the evil tendencies of the age in which he lived. If we can think for a moment of literature as a canal of water, we may appreciate the figure that Dryden is the 'Lock by which the waters of English poetry were let down from the mountains of Shakespeare and Milton to the plain of Pope's; that is , he stands between two very different ages, and serves as a transition from one to the others.
John Dryden was born in the village of Aldwinckle, Northamptonshire, in 1631. He was an English poet, Dramatist and literary critic. As a poet, dryden is best known as a satirist and was England's first poet laureate in 1668. His most famous poem is Absalom and Achitophel ( 1681 ). In 1667 he became more widely known and popular for his 'Annus Mirabilis', a narrative poem describing the terrors of the great fire in London and some events of the disgraceful war with Holland.
His Notable works:-
- Absalom and Achitophel
- Popish plot
- Essay on Dramatic poesie
- All for love
- Comedy of Manners
- Amphitryon
Sir Walter Scott calls John Dryden "Glorious John". Samuel Johnson calls John Dryden "The Father of English Criticism". He was the first poet Laureate of England. Father in sence of one who originates certain things. One who propagates in a particular, in a sustained manner.
Dryden is a Neoclassical poet. So The age of Dryden comes after an Elizabethan age. The Elizabethan age was having its free flow of imagination and romances and all that. And it was by reaction that the next generation of poets writing, satire, drama in verse, in the ancient sense poetry, because Aristotle uses poetry in the sense of literature but mostly in verse because that was a convention. So these neoclassical poets were trying to get back to some different sorts of inspiration other than that of the Elizabethan.
So, Now we discuss in detail An Essay on Dramatic poesie. It is a written by John Dryden.
An Essay on Dramatic poesie:-
Essay of Dramatic poesie is a work by John Dryden, England's first poet Laureate, in which Dryden attempts to justify drama as legitimate form of "poetry" comparable to the epic, as well as defend English drama against that of the ancient and the French.
An Essay on Dramatic poesie was probably written in 1666 during closure of the London theatre due to plague. It can be read as a general defence of drama as a legitimate art form. In presenting his argument, Dryden takes up the subject that Philip Sidney had set forth in his Defence of poesie in 1580.
Meaning of Dramatic poesie:-
Dramatic poetry is written in verse and meant to be spoken or read aloud or acted out to an audience. It involves actions and speech either spoken to others or oneself in the form of dramatic monologue, character sketch, and dialogue.
The Essay begins with a scene where four friends are sailing to see a Naval battle between the British and Dutch armies. These four Crites who are imagined as these four personages are,
Eugenius - Charles Sackville
Crites - Sir Robort Howard
Lucideus - sir Charles Sedley
Neander - Dryden himself
These four characters of the essay are thought to have been related to four Crites including Dryden himself. In between they talk about the Naval battle. The four men debate a series of three topics:
Eugenius - classical vs. Modern drama
Neander - Rhyme vs. Blank verse
Invoking the so - called unities from Aristotle poetics, the four speakers discuss what makes a play "just and lively imitation" of human nature in action. So, in this essay all four present their view on Dramatic poesie. In this essay Dryden offers a definition of play. According to him,
"A play ought to be just a lively image of human nature, representing its passions and the changes of fortune to which it is subject, for the delight and instruction of mankind."
A play ought to be just lively ; it means there is no artificially or consciousness. It should be very natural, just a lively image so it should not be the Artificiality to be considered. While talking about the play , he doesn't say that he is giving definition of the play but, he says that he is rather giving description of the play. For a better understanding you can watch this video.
Q.1 Do you see any difference between Aristotle 's definition of Tragedy and Dryden 's definition of play?
Definition of Tragedy:-
"A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and also , as having magnitude , complete in itself; in appropriate and pleasurable language;... In a dramatic rather than narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear , wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions."
Definition of play:-
"Just a lively image of human nature, representing its passions and humours, and the changes of fortune to which it is subject , for the delight and instruction of mankind."
Definition of Tragedy is given by Aristotle. Aristotle was a Greek Philosopher and scientist. Tragedy is the "Imitation of an action" (mimesis) according to the law of probability or necessity." Aristotle indicates that the medium of Tragedy is drama, not narrative; tragedy"shows " rather than"tells".
Aristotle gives six parts of tragedy:
Formative elements of tragedy:-
Plot
Character
Songs
Diction
Thought
Spectacle
The end of the tragedy is a catharsis of the tragic emotions of pity and fear. Katharsis is another Aristotelian term that has generated considerable debate. The word means "purging", and Aristotle seems to be employing a medical metaphor: tragedy arouses the emotions of pity and fear in order to reduce these passions to a healthy, balanced proportion. Aristotle also talks of the "pleasure" that is proper to tragedy, apparently meaning the aesthetic pleasure one gets from contemplating the pity and fear that are aroused through an intricately constructed work of art.
Definition of play is given by John Dryden.
According to the definition, play is an 'image' of 'human nature' and the image is 'just' and 'lively'. By using the word 'just' Dryden seems to imply that literature imitates human actions. For Dryden, 'poetic imitation ' is different from an exact, servile copy of reality, for, the imitation is not only 'just'; it is also 'lively'.
Aristotle's definition of Tragedy ended with the therapeutic word catharsis while Dryden's definition of play ended with delight and instructions. By the comparison, we can say that both have similar ideas but Dryden moves a step forward when he says it is for the delight and instruction of mankind.
Neander's final argument with Crites over whether rhyme is suitable in drama depends on Aristotle's poetic: Neander says that Aristotle demands a verbally artful"lively" imitation of nature, while Crites thinks that dramatic imitation ceases to be "just" when it depends from ordinary speech - i.e. prose or blank verse.
Q. 2 What would be your preference so far as poetic or prosaic dialogues are concerned in the play?
In Essay of Dramatic poesie, Eugenius, Crites, lucideus and all four present different opinions.
Between the two characters Crites and Dryden himself, Neander. The last and very important part of the essay is which way of writing the play is more appropriate poetic or prosaic dialogues.
The Neo Classical way of writing the heroic couplet style of writing and Dryden himself being in this tradition, writing plays in verse. And therefore his mouthpiece Neander the writings of serious plays, tragedy in verse.
Crites:-
In this essay, Crites objects to rhyme in plays: "sunset no man without premeditation speaks in rhyme, neither ought he to do it on the stage." Whereas Crites first said that Even though blank verse lines are no more spontaneous than are rhymed lines, they are still to be preferred because they are "nearest nature ". "Rhyme is incapable of expressing the greatest thought naturally, and the lowest it cannot with any grace: for what is more unbefitting the majesty of verse than to call a servant or bid a door be shut in rhyme? He says that this kind of an artificiality puts stress on the playwrights to necessarily Rhyme.
Neander:-
Neander responds to the objects against rhyme by admitting that "verse so tedious" is inappropriate to drama. I would be on the side of prosaic dialogues. It is fine that the verses are very essays to remember , but it is very difficult to understand. For example, Shakespeare's works are written in blank verse and other works are written in verse , which language is very difficult to understand or even read. It is easy to read and understand prose dialogues. First, I would prefer the prose style of drama.
So by giving the arguments on rhymes and blank verse what Dryden wanted to communicate or say through an Essay on Dramatic poesie, your ideas and thoughts I think will remain helpful for the e - contect leaders for literary criticism. So we can say that the ideas of play given by Dryden is much more appropriate than earlier Crites. here I put a small YouTube video on Dramatic poesie.
Between the two characters Crites and Dryden himself, Neander. The last and very important part of the essay is which way of writing the play is more appropriate poetic or prosaic dialogues. The Neo Classical way of writing the heroic couplet style of writing and Dryden himself being in this tradition, writing plays in verse. And therefore his mouthpiece Neander the writings of serious plays, tragedy in verse.
So , we can say that in this essay Dryden favours and understands English and French drama. So we can say that the definition of drama is an image of human nature and that the image is just as well as lively. And using the just too seems to imply that literature imitates human actions.
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