Topic: “Play” Definition by Dryden

2. John Dryden

3. Life
 Born August 9th, 1631 in Northamptonshire, England.
 Eldest of 14 children.
 On December 3rd, 1663, Dryden married the sister of Sir
Robert Howard.
 His new wife, Lady Elizabeth, would bear him three sons
and outlive him.
 He published his first important poem, Heroique Stanzas, a
eulogy on Cromwell’s death.
 Became the first Poet Laureate (Official Government Poet)
in 1668.
 He died in 1700 and was buried at Westminster Abbey

4. Influences
 In 1644, he was sent Westminster, a humanistic grammar
school.
 In 1650, he went to Trinity College.
 Entering London during The Protectorate, Dryden worked
with Cromwell’s Secretary of State, John Thurloe.
 In 1658, at Cromwell’s Funeral, he met with Puritan poets
John Milton and Andrew Marvell.
 He would later go on to establish the Heroic Couplet (more
on this later).
 In 1663, after the Puritan ban on theater was lifted, Dryden
began writing plays.
 In 1688, after the death of King James, Dryden’s refusal to
take the oaths of allegiance left him out of favor at court.

5. List of Works
 Hidden Flame (Poem)
 Mac Flecknoe (Poem)
 One Happy Moment (Poem)
 A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, November 22, 1687 (Poem)
 Song from Amphitryon (Poem)
 Song to a Fair Young Lady, going out of the Town in the
Spring (Poem)
 To the Memory of Mr. Oldham (Poem)
 The Wild Gallant (Play) (1663)
 Marriage a la Mode (Play) (1672)
 Aureng-zebe (Play) (1675)
 All for Love (Play) (1678)

6. “Play”
 John Dryden’s Essay on: Dramatic poesy presents a brief
discussion on Neo-Classical theory of literature. He defends
the classical drama saying that it is an imitation of life and
reflects human nature clearly.
 Throught the essay Dryden treats drama as a form of
imaginative literature, and hence his remarks on drama
apply to poetry as well.
 The very definition of a play, given in the very beginning is
expressive of his view of poetry.
 The essay is written in the form of a dialogue concerned to
four gentlemen: Eugenius, Gites, Lisideius & Neander.

7.  Neander: Neander seems to speak for Dryden himself.
 Eugenius: He takes the side of the modern English
dramatists by criticizing the faults of the classical play
wrights who did not themselves observe the unity of place.
 Crities: He defends the ancient and pointed out that they
invited the principles of dramatic art, and he believes that
“The Ancient Age was the true age of Poetry”.
 Lesideius: He defends the french play wrights and attacks
the English tendency to mix genres. He defends a play as a
“Just” and “lively image of human”.

8. Dryden’s Definition of Drama

9.  According to this definition, drama is an ‘image’ of human
nature and that the image is ‘just’ as well as ‘lively’.
 By using the word ‘just’ Dryden seems to imply that
literature 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’.
 While David Daiches takes ‘Lively’ to mean interesting the
antithesis to dull R.A.Scott – James takes ‘lively’ to mean
beautiful and so delightful.

10. The role of imagination
 It is not slavish imitation, but imaginative creation that
Dryden means by ‘just’ and ‘lively’ image of human nature.
It is ‘just’ because it is basically true, and it is also ‘lively’ for
it is more ‘heightened’ and beautiful re-production.
Dryden’s essay makes it quite clear that he lays more
emphasis on the ‘liveliness’ of the image then of its
‘justness’. Thus the irregular plays of Shakespeare are
praised for their ‘liveliness’.

11. Its Function
 According to David Daiches the ‘instruction’ which poetry
gives is psychological, it is a better understanding of human
nature, a keener insight into the working of the human
mind and heart that we get from poetry. A learned critic
writes- “you obtain a just and lively image of human nature
by representing its ‘passion and humor’s, (humor’s
meaning, state of mind or mental characteristics), and by
presenting the changes of fortune to which men are subject.
It is only when we see a character’s reaction to change of
fortune that we get real view of his, ‘passion and humors’. It
is the testing circumstances that illuminate character”. The
function of poetry would thus be to inform the reader, in a
lively and agreeable way, of what human nature is like.

12. Conclusion
 Dryden does not for a moment consider the possibility that
the end of art can be dissociated from beauty. For him, as
for Aristotle , it goes without saying that when you speak of
poetry, or art, you are speaking of beauty, and if you speak
of the pleasure of poetry, you mean a pleasure arising out of
the beautiful. It is only such an aestheic delight that has the
power to move, to transport the power, in Dryden’s words,
“To affect the soul, and excite the passion, and above all to
move admiration” to the appreciation of the beautiful- the
beautiful in human actions and passions. They are also, ‘the
noble’, ‘the good’, and ‘the moral’. Hence , an appreciation
of the good, the moral and the noble.

13. ?