My frist presentation

1. Gayatri Goswami M
PAPER NO:-03-LITERARY THEORY
&CRITICISM
ASSIGMENT TOPIC:-DREYDEN AS ACRITIC
SEM-1-PART-1
Roll no-11
SUBMITED TO
Dr. Dilip Barad,
M.K.Bhavnagar University
Dryden as a Critic:Introduction of john Dryden:-

2. John Dryden was born in the village
rectory of near theapston in
northamptonshire, where his maternal
grandfather was rector of all saint. john
was an English poet, literary critic
,translator ,and playwright who was
mode poet laureate in ‘1668’ .he is seen
dominating the literary life of restoration
England to such a paint that the period
come to be known in literary circle as the
Age of Dryden.
‚welter Scott called his glorious john‛
 LIMITED OF DRYDEN AS ACRITIC
With all these merits, certain defects
have also been noted in Dryden’s
criticism. It is inconsistent betrays
imperfect knowledge, and sometime give
too much concession to tradition and
classical Authority. Dr. Johnson was the
first critic to not these limitations of
Dryden. He pointed to the inconsistency

3. in Dryden’s attitude to Rhyming play. His
lack of scruple and Even logic in refuting
hostile critic ,or in defending some Dianec
of his own. There were also occasional
inaccuracies in hen his statements, as
when he referred to the tragedy of queen
Gerboduc or credited chapman with
Employing alexandrines in his homer .The
truth was ,so Dryden was explain he was
possessed of no very profound learning ,
despite appearance to the contry, his
critical doctrine being largely acquired in
ordinary converse, and lured to account
by a wise selection ,shrewd thinking and
experience. ‚But these limitations are
Insignificant in comparison with his great
Achieving and his final Estimate they
cannot detract from the essential
soundness of his position as a critic. He
lived in an Age of changing critical
values , but still he kept his balance of
mind and placed criticism on a high and

4. sound foaling for the guidance of future
generation. In 1668 Dryden published his
Essay of dramatic document of his most
important for general literary theory.
It is cast in the form of a lively dialogue
among four friend ,Critic ,Eugenics ,
Lisidius ,and Neander ,who have been
identified respectively with sir Robert
Howard lord Buckhurst , sir Charles sadly
,and Dryden himself. They discuss the
respective merit of ancient drama, modern
drama, seventieth century French Neoclassical drama and the drama of the last
Age.
The result of modification was the essay
of dramatic poesy, the immediate inactive
for writing the essay,
‚published in 1665 sorbier was a
Frenchman‛.

Dryden a great critic:-

5. Dryden belongs to the illustrious group of
poet critic which induces such names as
Ben Jonson, Dr. Johnson, Wordsworth,
Coleridge, Matthew Arnold, Dryden
greatness as a critic when he called him,
‚The father of English criticism‛,
And his view of Dryden set the fashion of
criticizing just as Shakespeare set the
fashion of dramatizing. They did not take
a comprehensive view of literature as a
whole and connected with it.
 Dryden freedom from rules
 Dryden has adopted a very rational
in criticism
He is a great admirer of the ancient
writers and accept many of their
principle. But he is not a servile imitator
and changes the classical rules when he
does not agree with them or finds them
unfit for modern condition.

6. He is more interested in a work’s being
good of its kind then in its conformity to
any pre-concaved theories about good
art.
 Pioneer of history criticism:Dryden is the first English critic to make
use of the historical method of criticism
.he regards literature as mirror of society
reflecting faithfully the characteristic of
the Age,
‚he says:-what pleased the Greek would
not satisfy and English audience‛.
Dryden’s sense of history is shown in his
remark on Chaucer who wrote ‚in the
infancy if pur poetry‛.
 Emphasis on native Element in
literature:Dryden is one of the English critics who
never accepts France as the world’s
greatest Arbiter of test. The English

7. writers imitated the French writers ,and
followed the principles of regularity and
order and the spirit of good sense in
their prose, drama and poetry.
 T.S.Eliot also says in this
connection:‚The great significance of Dryden in
criticism is that at the right moment he
become conscious of the necessity of
affirming the native Almost in literature
and blended the English accent with the
French accent.
We cannot afforded to forget how
revolution, in their bulk and seriousness
of purpose are Bryon’s analyses of Ben
Jonson and Shakespeare and of his own
plays.
‚The imitation of nature‛.