JOHN DRYDEN (9 August 1631 – 1 May 1700)

INTRODUCTION: John Dryden 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. Walter Scott called him "Glorious John.“ He was made Poet Laureate in 1668. His critical works exhibit his immense tolerance and Catholicism. George Saintsbury believed that, “He established the English fashion of criticising as Shakespeare did the English fashion of dramatising.”

Dr. Johnson goes one step ahead and calls him, “The Father of English Criticism, as the writer who first taught us to determine upon principles, the merit of composition.” In spite of the fact that there were critics like Sidney and Ben Jonson, Dryden can safely be called the first practical critic in English Literature.

DRYDEN’S IDEA OF LITERATURE: The critics in Dryden’s time relief completely on classical rules. They believed that the highest point of excellence was reached by the ancient writers and so to produce the best writing one had to imitate the ancients. However, Dryden never agreed with this. He says, “It is not enough that Aristotle had said so, for Aristotle drew his models of tragedy from Sophocles and Euripides. And if he had seen ours, might have changed his mind.”

He regarded literature as a mirror of the society that is, it reflects the characteristics of the age. He anticipated Taine in pointing out that each age or nation has its own genius. He also says that every nation or age also has its own temper and climate. These factors affect the literature of a nation. Hence it is not correct to judge the literature of nation or age with the rules of the other. He believes that, “Shakespeare and Fletcher have written to the genius of the age and nation in which they have lived : for though nature is the same in all places and reason too the same… what pleased the Greeks would not satisfy an English audience.”

In order to analyze the merits or demerits as of a writer Dryden did not just use classical writers as models. He took into consideration the whole body of writing, Classical, medieval and Modern. The essay begins with some primary discussion about literature in general and Lisideius gives the definition of a play that it should be “A just and lively image of human nature, representing its passions and humours and the changes of fortune to which it is subject for the delight and instruction of mankind.”

The Crites advocates the classical drama The Crites advocates the classical drama. To him the classical drama is superior as their focus on life. More so all the rules of drama were invented by the ancient and they have been borrowed by the English. The classical plays are based on the classical norms which are universal. Eugenius advocates the modern drama because the modern have profited by the rules of the ancients but they have made some novel modifications in the construction of the play. Moreover the modern dramatists are superior to the ancients in the fact that they can write both tragedies and comedies equally well.

Lisideius favors the French drama as French writers have definitely gained supremacy over the English playwrights. Neo-classical drama is superior to Elizabethan because the neo-classical drama is either tragedy or comedy, not a mixture. This drama is based on history and it is primarily concerned with inner crisis. The French handle details with much care and the rhymed verse applied by the French is excellent one.

Neander advocates the Restoration drama or the English drama Neander advocates the Restoration drama or the English drama. He appreciates the concept of the tragic-comedy by the English dramatists that can provide both gaiety and sadness together. He also appreciate the concept of under plot applied by the dramatists that enriches the play. English plays have the multiplicity of themes, characters and the dramatists have surpassed all the ancients and the modern writers. He appreciates Shakespeare and Ben Jonson.

The aim of poetry according to dryden In Dryden’s time it was believed that the chief aim of poetry was to teach, delight and move. However, Dryden considered the capacity of poetry to delight as its greatest asset. He says, “Delight is the chief, if not only the end of poesy; instruction can be admitted but in the second place.” Therefore, he marks a difference from Sidney. He frankly admits that an artist’s chief aim is to delight the age in which he lived.

His idea of imitation The poet’s world for Plato was a second hand imitation, for Aristotle it was a more profound reality and for Sidney it was morally better than reality. However, Dryden for the first time suggests that a poet would be doing his duty, if he only describes life as he finds it. He believed that a poet should : “take so much only as will make beautiful resemblance of the whole.”

His idea of fancy or imagination: Dryden used the words fancy and imagination to mean the same things. He believed that “It is fancy that gives the life – touches.” But as he lived in an age of reason he wanted fancy to be controlled by “reason” and “good-sense”. However, he doesn’t propagate sheer realism. He says that Shakespeare’s plays reflect his observation of life, however, they are not based on sheer realism. Dryden did not confuse the truths of poetry with the truths of life. He says, “Shakespeare needs not the spectacles of books to read nature, he looked in-ward and found her there.”

Conclusion: Therefore Dryden believes that literature is an organic being, which changes along with the tastes, fashions and techniques of the different ages. For him the main aim of the poet is to delight and instruction is only secondary. A work of art gives pleasure because it appeals to our sense of beauty. For Dryden, a poet is a creator who select, changes and refashions life like a curious goldsmith working on Gold. Thus for Dryden, the final product shall be the one which is conceived by the imagination and regulated by the poets judgement. For him the writer has his own genius, which is an intimate part of his personality. Thus John Dryden broke away from the contemporary mould of criticism to become the first liberal critic of English literature.