An Essay of Dramatic Poesy by John Dryden: An Overview.

From Essay of Dramatic Poesy. TO begin then with Shakespeare. He was the man who of all modern and perhaps ancient poets had the largest and most comprehensive soul. All the images of nature were still present to him, and he drew them not laboriously but luckily: when he describes anything you more than see it, you feel it too. Those who accuse him to have wanted learning, give him the greater.

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John Dryden: An Essay on Dramatic Poesy (On Ancient vs Moderns) Samuel Johnson: Preface to Shakespeare (On Merits and Demerits of Shakespeare) Matthew Arnold: The Study of Poetry Coleridge: Biographia Literaria, Chapter XIV Wordsworth: Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, 1800 (On Poetic Diction).

In his essay on dramatic poesy, Dryden ,in the voice of Neander, rises up in defence of English Dramatists and strongly pleads that English dramatists are fully justified in not slavishly accepting the classical principles in many respects. They have developed their own principles and proved themselves to be superior to the Greek and French dramatists in many ways.

Epistle to John Dryden of Chesterton. Line 33. Better to hunt in fields for health unbought Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught. The wise for cure on exercise depend; God never made his work for man to mend. Epistle to John Dryden of Chesterton. Line 92. So softly death succeeded life in her, She did but dream of heaven, and she was there.

The Age of John Dryden roughly spans the period from the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 to the year 1700. Truly speaking John Dryden best represents the English mind set of his time .He publishes an astonishing variety of work, including poetry, prose, drama, criticism, translation, and satire. He becomes the leading literary figure of Restoration England.Such an influential English poet.

Lauded at length by John Dryden, in his Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668), as the most nearly perfect example of English drama, Epicne offers a number of obstacles—quite surmountable obstacles, but.

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John Dryden, English poet, dramatist, and literary critic who so dominated the literary scene of his day that it came to be known as the Age of Dryden. Besides being the greatest English poet of the later 17th century, he wrote almost 30 tragedies, comedies, and dramatic operas.

Samuel Johnson's From a preface to Shakespeare. (1765) and John Dryden's From an essay of Dramatic Poesy. Introduction: These two fragments show Dryden and Johnson's view about Shakespeare. Dryden talks very vaguely and superficially about Shakespeare while Johnson goes a little bit deeper than Dryden.

John Dryden, in his essay “ Of Dramatick Poesie ” (1668) and other essays, condemned the improbabilities of Shakespeare’s late romances. Shakespeare lacked decorum, in Dryden’s view, largely because he had written for an ignorant age and poorly educated audiences.

A great playwright, exceptional poet, fine translator, solid critic, and an excellent satirist, John Dryden wore many hats during his living. He was a legendary figure of the seventeenth century who ranks amongst the greatest English poets such as John Donne and John Milton and the greatest playwrights such as William Shakespeare and Ben Johnson.