John Dryden is rightly considered as “the father of English Criticism”. He is a liberal classicist. He wrote An Essay on Dramatic Poesy. His ideas about the Poetry are given below. 

1. Nature of Poetry

  • Dryden upholds Aristotle’s definition of poetry as a process of imitation.
  • It imitates facts past or present, popular beliefs, superstitions and things in their ideal form.  

2. Function of Poetry 

  • The final end of poetry, according to Dryden is delight and transport.
  • The poet is a creator. He is one who, with life or nature as his raw material, produces a new thing altogether, resembling the original in its basis but different from it in the super structure – a work of art rather than a copy. 

3. Dramatic Poetry 

  • He says physical actions like battles, duels, etc. can be acted on the stage but the action of death should be avoided.
  • He protests against three Unities.
  • He gave the idea of weaving of a sub plot into the main plot. 

4. Tragedy 

  • Dryden’s definition of tragedy is the same as Aristotle’s.

5. Comedy 

  • Dryden calls it ‘a representation of human life in inferior persons and low subjects. 
  • He says that the end of comedy is delight. 
  • The persons in comedy are of a lower quality, the action is little and the faults and vices are but the sillies of youth and frailties of human nature; they are not premeditated crimes. 
  • Dryden wanted in comedy was ‘refined laughter’. 
  • In a comedy of wit (or comedy of manners as it grew) they laughed with the witty one. 

6. Epic 

  • He stresses that the epic is certainly the greatest work of human nature.
  • Aristotle had preferred the tragedy to the epic.
  • Dryden disagrees with Aristotle again in insisting on a moral in the epic. 

7. Satire 

  • The satirist should choose one vice or folly for his target, as the epic poet chooses one character for his special praise and make all others subservient to it as the epic poet does the other characters.
  • In the same way, he should extol ‘someone precept of moral virtue’.
  • For the manner of the satire, Dryden would prefer ‘fine raillery’. 

Criticism 

According to Dryden,  

  • A critic writes to his own age and people of which he himself is a product. 
  • He advocates that the ancient models should not imitate blindly but to recapture their magic to treat them as a torch to enlighten our own passage. 
  • The purpose of criticism is to discover the great beauties in the work of art, which make it immortal. 

The Value of his Criticism 

  • From Aristotle, he learnt a respect for rules.
  • From French Neo-classicism, he learnt to give preference to the epic over tragedy.
  • From Longinus and Saint Evermond, he learnt to give respect for his own judgement.