ENGLISH literature

1. John Dryden
Cricelyn D. Magamong
MAT-English
URS-Morong, Rizal

2. John Dryden

3. John Dryden (9 August 1631 –
12 May 1700)
 was an influential English poet, literary
critic, translator, and playwright who
dominated the literary life of Restoration
England to such a point that the period
came to be known in literary circles as
the Age of Dryden.
 Regarded by many scholars as the father
of modern English poetry and criticism

4. An Essay of Dramatic Poesy
SUMMARY:
An Essay of Dramatic
Poesy (sometimes also referred to
as Of Dramatic Poesy)
An Essay, which more closely
matches the form of the original
Latin title) is a critical examination of
English literature presented in
dialogue form.

5. Four Critics:
1) Eugenius--favors the moderns over the
ancients, arguing that the moderns
exceed the ancients because of having
learned and profited from their example.
2) 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.

6. 3) 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."

7. 4)Neander (thought to represent
Dryden)--favors the moderns, but
does not disparage the ancients. He
also favors English drama--and has
some critical things to say of French
drama:"those beauties of the French
poesy are such as will raise
perfection higher where it is, but are
not sufficient to give it where it is
not: they are indeed the beauties of
a statue, but not of a man."

8. The discussion begins when the characters
comment on the terrible poems that the scenic
battle will no doubt inspire; Crites says that they
will never be able to duplicate (much less
surpass) the achievements of the ancients,
while Eugenius disagrees. This part of the
discussion very much resembles standard
debates between the ancients and moderns:
Crites’s main argument is that all of the
conventions of modern literature come from the
ancients; Egenius’s main argument is that just
as the ancient built upon the foundation of poets
who came before them, modern poets have built
upon the foundation laid by the ancients.

9.  Eventually, the combatants decide to restrict
their discussion to one form of literature: drama.
Lisideius then enters the argument in order to
defend the strict formalism of the modern
French dramatists, while Neander cites the
richer emotional content and wit of the
Elizabethans, particularly Shakespeare. From
there, the discussion evolves into a discussion
on whether or not rhymed verse is the most
appropriate for the stage. Each of the characters
has a tenable position here, with the main point
of contention being whether the requirement for
verisimilitude is better filled with plain prose,
blank verse or elegantly-composed rhyming
verse.

10. Five issues:
1) Ancients vs. Moderns
2) Unities
3) French vs. English Drama
4) Separation of Tragedy and
Comedy vs. Tragicomedy
5) Appropriateness of Rhyme in
Drama

11. 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 Corneille--and through
him on Horace--which places him in
a pragmatic tradition.

12. The main point of Dryden's essay
seems to be a valuation of
becoming (the striving, nature-
imitating, large scope of
tragicomedy and Shakespeare) over
being (the static perfection of the
ideal-imitating
Classical/French/Jonsonian drama).

13. An Essay of
Dramatick Poesie
By John Dryden
.
To the Right Honourable
CHARLES LORD BUCKHURST.

14.  [1] It was that memorable day, in the first Summer of the
late War, when our Navy ingag'd the Dutch: a day wherein
the two most mighty and best appointed Fleets which any
age had ever seen, disputed the command of the greater
half of the Globe, the commerce of Nations, and the riches
of the Universe. While these vast floating bodies, on either
side, mov'd against each other in parallel lines, and our
Country men, under the happy conduct of his Royal
Highness, went breaking, by little and little, into the line of
the Enemies; the noise of the Cannon from both Navies
reach'd our ears about the City: so that all men, being
alarm'd with it, and in a dreadful suspence of the event,
which we knew was then deciding, every one went
following the sound as his fancy led him; and leaving the
Town almost empty, some took towards the Park, some
cross the River, others down it; all seeking the noise in
the depth of silence.

15. [2] Amongst the rest, it was the
fortune
of Eugenius, Crites, Lisideius and N
eander, to be in company together:
three of them persons whom their
witt and Quality have made known
to all the Town: and whom I have
chose to hide under these borrowed
names, that they may not suffer by
so ill a relation as I am going to
make of their discourse..(up to 122)

17. Alexander Pope
Cricelyn D. Magamong
MAT-English
URS-Morong, Rizal

18. Alexander Pope

19. Alexander Pope(1688-1744)
English essayist, critic, satirist, and
one of the greatest poets of
Enlightenment. Alexander Pope
wrote his first verses at the age of
12. His breakthrough work, AN
ESSAY ON CRITICISM (1711),
appeared when he was twenty-three.

20. An Essay on Criticism
….is a didactic poem in heroic couplets,
begun, perhaps, as early as 1705, and
published, anonymously, in 1711.
….is at once a treatise of literary
theory and working manual of
versification.
…. is one of the first major poems written
by the English writer Alexander
Pope (1688–1744).

21. An Essay on Criticism
 It is divided into three parts: part one
creates a vision of the golden era of art
and criticism, part two presents a vision
of decay and disorder in literary criticism,
and part three puts forth a means of
reformation and restoration in literary
endeavors, emphasizing in particular the
basic precepts of clarity, impartiality, and
public responsibility.

22. An Essay on Criticism
 It is a verse essay written in
the Horatian mode and is primarily
concerned with how writers and
critics behave in the new literary
commerce of Pope's contemporary
age. The poem covers a range of
good criticism and advice. It also
represents many of the chief literary
ideals of Pope's age.

23. Pope contends in the poem's opening couplets that
bad criticism does greater harm than bad writing:
'Tis hard to say, if greater Want of Skill
Appear in Writing or in Judging ill,
But, of the two, less dang'rous is th' Offence,
To tire our Patience, than mis-lead our Sense
Some few in that, but Numbers err in this,
Ten Censure wrong for one who Writes amiss;
A Fool might once himself alone expose,
Now One in Verse makes many more in Prose. ...
(1–8)

24. Despite the harmful effects of bad criticism, literature
requires worthy criticism.
Pope delineates common faults of critics, e.g., settling for
easy and cliché rhymes:
And ten low words oft creep in one dull line:
While they ring round the same unvaried chimes,
With sure returns of still expected rhymes;
Wher'er you find "the cooling western breeze",
In the next line, it "whispers through the trees";
If crystal streams "with pleasing murmurs creep",
The reader's threatened (not in vain) with "sleep" .
. . (347–353)

25. Throughout the poem, Pope refers to ancient
writers such
as Virgil, Homer, Aristotle, Horace and Longinus.
This is a testament to his belief that the "Imitation
of the ancients" is the ultimate standard for taste.
Pope also says:
"True ease in writing comes from art,
not chance, / As those move easiest
who have learned to dance" (362–
363),
meaning poets are made, not born.

26.  As is usual in Pope's poems, the "Essay"
concludes with a reference to Pope
himself. Walsh, the last of the critics
mentioned, was a mentor and friend of
Pope who had died in 1710.
 An Essay on Criticism was famously and
fiercely attacked by John Dennis, who is
mentioned mockingly in the work.
 Consequently, Dennis also appears in
Pope's later satire, the Dunciad.

27. Part II is also the source of this famous line:
“To err is human, to forgive divine”
The line "Fools Rush In Where
Angels Fear to Tread"
from Part III has become part of the
popular lexicon, and has been used
for and in various works.

28. The death of Alexander Pope from
Museus, a threnody by William
Mason. Dianaholds the dying Pope, and John
Milton,Edmund Spenser, and Geoffrey Chaucer
prepare to welcome him to heaven.

29. the end