An Essay of Dramatic Poesy

by John Dryden
(Major Arguments)
Contents
Introduction
Form of the Essay
Characters in the Essay
Views of the Characters
Definition of Drama
Dryden’s point of view
Conclusion
Introduction
John Dryden
Born on 9th August 1631
A poet, critic and a dramatist
“ father of English Criticism”
Famous works
Preface to the Fables
All for Love
Absolem and Achitophel
An Essay on Dramatic Poesy
Writtenduring the time of great plague and war
between English and Dutch Fleets

Most of the people were escaping from plague

and war

Among them, were the characters of this essay

(Eugenius, Crites, Lisideus and Neander)
Form of the Essay
An essay of criticism

More like a drama

Characters and conversation

Amalgam of prose and rhyme

Form contributes to the subject matter of the

essay
Characters in the Essay
Eugenius – Charles Sackville (a poet of 17 th
Century)

Crites – Sir Robert Howard (English dramatist

of 17th Century)

Lisideius– Sir Charles Sedley (English

Dramatist and politician of 17 th Century)

Neander – John Dryden

Views of the characters
Eugenius – moderns
Believes that moderns have excelled than the ancients
“we have joined our own industry”
Proper division into acts – “Protasis”, “Epitasis”,
“Catastasis” and “Catastrophe”
Lisideus – French dramatists
All the three unities are best observed
Scenes of tragicomedy are irrelevant to the main plot
“there is no theater in the world that has anything so
absurd like the English Tragicomedy”
 Along with the known history they add fancy to it
“He so lies and so mingles the false with the true
That the middle will not disagree with the first, nor the last
With the middle”
Crites – Ancients
Initiators of the “Dramatic Poesy” – Thespis to
Aristophanes
Three unities – time, place and action
Tragedies and comedies are static
Neander – Modern English Dramatists
A moderate view about modern English Writers
“I am of opinion that neither our faults nor their
virtues are considerable enough to place them
above us”
Inclusion of verse form in Drama – adds to the
beauty
Favors Tragicomedy
“a more pleasant way of writing for the Stage than
was ever known to the Ancients or Moderns of any
Nation, which is Tragicomedy”
Disagrees with the idea of only one plot

Disagrees with the idea of one main

character

Unity of time, place and action is negated

Definition of Drama

“just and lively image of human nature,

representing its passion and humors, and
the change of fortune to which it is subject,
for the delight and instruction of mankind”

Most widely accepted through the

arguments of Neander who is the
spokesperson of Dryden
Dryden’s point of view
Dryden’s point of view is similar to Neander’s
point of view

 Verse form
 Tragicomedy

 Even through the example of Examen of the

Silent Woman,
Dryden emphasizes on the use of verse/rhyme in
Drama.
Conclusion
The essay ends with no proper concluding
remarks

But Dryden’s viewpoint about how a

drama should be seems more logical and
acceptable to human mind
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