An essay of dramatic poesy. Edited with notes by Thomas Arnold. 3d ed., rev. by William T. Arnold PDF
Preview An essay of dramatic poesy. Edited with notes by Thomas Arnold. 3d ed., rev. by William T. Arnold
DRYDEN AN ESSAY OF DRAMATIC POESY ARNOLD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE CAPE TOWN BOMBAY HUMPHREY MILFORD PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY 9 DRYDEN AN ESSAY OF DRAMATIC POESY EDITED WITH NOTES BY THOMAS ARNOLD, M.A. LATE OF UNIV. COLL., OXFORD AND FELLOW OFTHE ROYAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND THIRD EDITION, REVISED BY WILLIAM T. ARNOLD, M.A. FORMERLY SCHOLAR OF UNIV. COLL. OXFORO AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1918 PR /UA7 .1.31$ PREFACE. IT is interesting to note that the same cause the great plague of 1665 which drove Milton from London to the Buckinghamshire village of Chalfont St. Giles, and there gave him leisure to complete the Paradise Lost, obliged Dryden also the theatres being closed to pass eighteen months in the country, 'probably at Charlton in Wiltshire,' says Malone, where he turned his leisure to so good an account as, besides writing the *Annus Mirabilis/to compose in the following Essay the first piece of good modern English prose on which our literature can pride itself. Charles II, havingbeenmuch in Paris during his exile, had been captivated by the French drama, then in the powerfulhandsofCorneille andMoliere. In that drama, when prose was not employed, the use ofrhyme was an essential feature. Dryden and others were not slow to consult the taste prevailing at Court. His first play, The Wild Gallant, was in prose; it is coarse and not much enlivened by wit, and it was not well received. In his next efforts Dryden took greater pains. He seems to have convinced himself that the attraction of rhyme was necessary to please the fastidiousaudiences forwhich he had towrite; PREFACE. vi and after The Rival Ladies, of which a small part is in rhyme, and The Indian Queen (1664), a play entirely rhymed, in which he assisted his brother-in-law Sir Robert Howard, he brought out, early in 1665, his tragedy of The Indian Emperor, which, like The Indian Queen, is carefully rhymed throughout. In the enforced leisure which his residence at Charlton during the plague brought him, he thought over the whole sub ject,and this Essay ofDramaticPoesy was the result. In the course of time Dryden modified more or less the judgment in favour ofrhyme which he had given in the Essay. In the prologue to the tragedy ofAurung- zebe, or the GreatMogul(\6*i^, he says that he finds it more difficult to please himself than his audience, and is inclined to damn his own play : Not that it's worse than what before he writ, But he has now another taste of wit ; And, to confess a truth, though out of time, Grows weary of his long-loved mistress, Rhyme. Passion,he proceeds,is too fierce to be bound in fetters; and thesenseofShakespeare'sunapproachablesuperiority, Shakespeare, whosemasterpieces dispense with rhyme, inclines him to quitthestagealtogether. Nevertheless his original contention, however under the pressure of dejection, and the sense perhaps of flagging powers, he mayafterwards have beenwilling to abandon it, cannot be lightly set aside as either weak or unimportant; a point on which I shall have something to say presently. Five critical questionsare handled in the Essay, viz. i. The relative merits ofancient and modern poets.
The list of books you might like
