Thinking Activity: Dryden's Essay on Dramatick Poesie
This post is in reference to the questions asked here: http://dilipbarad.blogspot.com/2015/09/drydens-essay-on-dramatic-poesy-short.html The publication of John Dryden's essay in 1668, marked a new beginning in the field of literary criticism. So much was the contribution of the essay that, Dryden is still considered the Father of English criticism. The reason is quite simple. For the first time we find an English writer giving a proper definition of a play after Aristotle.We surely had critics like Philip Sidney before him, but none of them ever tried to define them according to their understanding. They just built upon the foundations laid by Aristotle. Dryden, though not completely disregarding Aristotle's ideas, tried to come up with a definition which was suitable to his times as well. If we want to compare Dryden's definition with that of Aristotle, let's take a look at both of them: Let's first list out the common points between the...