Skip to main content

Dryden, the father of English criticism

John Dryden was English poet, dramatist, and critic. He was the leading literary figure of the Restoration age. He wrote important prose work "Of Dramatick Poesie" Essay in 1668. Five issues are under discussion in this essay:
# Ancients vs modern 
# unities 
# French vs English Drama 
# separation of Tragedy and comedy tragic comedy 
# Appropriateness of Rhyme in Drama 
Four critics :
# Eugenius (Modern Drama) 
# crites (Ancient Drama) 
# Lisideius (French Drama) 
# Neander (English Drama) 
Q. 1 Do you any difference between Aristotle's definition of Tragedy and Dryden's definition of Play?

       Yes there is difference between Aristotle's definition of Tragedy and Dryden's definition of Play. As we know that aristotalian thought holds that poetry is an imitation of what is possible in real life and that tragedy, by imitation of a serious action cast in dramatic form. He says that "tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious and also having magnitude complete in itself...." and he ended his definition with the word 'catharsis'.  

But Dryden give the definition of play in a different way. According to Dryden's definition of play,
       " Play is an ‘image’ of ‘human nature’, and that the image is ‘just’ as well as ‘lively’."
He added two new words just and lively and play represents the lively image of human nature. So I find this difference.
Q. 2  If you are supposed to give your personal predilection, would you be on the side of the Ancient or the Modern? Please give reasons.
       I would like to be on the side of modern. Modern means "relating to the present or recent times as opposed to the remote past." but moderns follow some things from ancient but modern gives us new way of thinking. When we read the modern and ancient we comes to know that modern present the new Idea or logical Idea. There are two critics Eugenius favors the modern and crites favors the ancients like blank verse. 

For example, The story of the Ramayana had been told Incalculable times. The great story of Rama, the incarnation of God, who killed Ravana, the evil demon of darkness, is known to every Indian. But when we read "Asura: Tale Of The Vanquished" we comes to know that Ravana is good character, he is good brother. Asura is written by Anand Neelakantan. He represents the character of Ravana as hero. 

The second example, Bible and paradise lost by milton.
Q. 3 Do you think that the arguments presented in favour of the French plays and against English plays are appropriate?
     I want to take side of Neander who favours English plays and rhymes because English are best at lively imitation of nature. English plays are more entertaining because they offer an element of surprise. But when we talk about French plays, they doesn't have subplots. It is  right to show death scene or love scene on stage, duel fight with blunted swords because these all things are common to show and  audiance knows that they are watching play not reality. so this is good to show death scenes on the stage. mingling of mirth means I think sub plots and serious. But this is the choice of writer if they wants to write sub plots than thay can.  Sub plots make play iteresting and exciting. So therefore I found the English play more appropriate.
Q.4 What would be your preference so far as a poetic or prosaic dialogues are concerned in the play?
   In this easy there are two critics who argued in terms of rhymes and blank verse. Crites favors blank verse style of writing and Neander favors rhyme.Neander says that when we use appropriate word at appropriate place, then the naturality of dialogues is good but it is depends on writers. It gives pleasure and delight. When we use poetic dialogues, it us difficult to understand. But both are good. So in the play both dialogues should prefer in proper order to it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Assignment Paper 6 Victorian Literature

Name : Ruchita Kankrecha A Roll no. : 29 Paper no. : Victorian age Topic name : Victorian poets Enrolment no : 20691084190024 Email Id : ruchikankrecha06@gmail.com College : Department of English Submitted to : Department of English M. K Bhavnagar University “I cannot rest from travel : I will drink Life to the less : all times I have Enjoy’d Greatly, have Suffer’d greatly, both with those That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades Vext the dim sea : I am become a name;”                          ( Ulysses by Alfred Tennyson) Introduction : In the history of English literature, there are many periods likes the age of Elizabethan, The puritan age, The age of restoration, 18 th century literature, The age of Romantic, The Victorian age and 20 th century literature. So all age has their own characteristics and writer or poets. I would like to talk about the age Victorian and poets like Tennyson a
Post a Comment
Read more

ELT Assignment

Name : Ruchita Kankrecha Roll No : 29 Paper No : 12 Paper Name : English language Teaching Class : MA Sem 3 Topic : Second Language Acquisition Enrolment No : 2069108420190024 College : SMT. S. B. Gardi Department of English Email Id : ruchikankrecha06@gmail.com Submitted to : Department of English Introduction : As we believe that English language is not our language or the metamorphosis if English language from a colonial power to the global market player. Nowadays, we all are more interested in learning the English language rather than any other Language because we think that the English language is a link language and gives you more opportunity than any other language. English has subsumed several languages but it also occupies a paradoxical position in the contemporary world language scene. The story of the language especially the English language is the best story that has to be written. We all are using the English lang
Post a Comment
Read more

Far From the madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

    "Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife     Their sober wishes never learned to stray ;     Along the cool, sequestered vale of life     They kept the noiseless tenor of their way." The title 'Far from the madding crowd' is taken from Thomas Gary's 'Elegy on a country churchyard'. About the Author : Thomas Hardy was a famous English novelist and poet. He has the best skill to present a lot of characters in one novel. He gives different personalities to all the characters. He has the best command on the novel as well as on poetry. His famous works are                 " The Mayer of Casterbridge" (1886)                " Far From the Madding Crowd" (1874) Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) was Thomas Hardy's first major literary success. It originally appeared anonymously as a monthly serial in Cornhill Magazine, where it gained a wide readership. The novel is the first to be set in Hardy's fi
Post a Comment
Read more