IntroductionPresented by: Maheta Arati R.Roll No: 3Course No:3.(Literary Theory &

Criticism Western-1)Book: Essay on Dramatic PoesyTopic :Explain and comment upon

Dryden's definition of drama .Submitted to: Department of

English(MKBU)Year:2013-14

John Dryden• Born9 August 1631

Aldwincle, Thrapston,Northamptonshire, England.

• Died1 May 1700 (aged 68)London, England.

• Occupation poet, literary critic, playwright Alma materCambridge University.

• Notable work(s)Absalom and Achitophel,MacFlecknoe

• Mr. Dryden ... my departed friend, whom I infinitely esteemed when living for the solidity of his thought, for the spring, the warmth, and the beautiful turn of it; for the Power and variety, and fullness of his harmony; for the purity, the perspicuity, the energy of his expression; and (whenever the following great qualities are required) for the pomp and solemnity, and majesty of his Style.'—John Dennis

What is drama?

• Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance.

• The term come from a Greek word.• It’s meaning ‘’action’’,which is derived from

the verb meaning ‘’ to do’’ or ‘’to act’’

Dryden’s definition of drama as “a just(exact)and lively image of human nature ,representing its passions and humours and

the change of fortune to which it is subject, for the delight and instruction of mankind”?

• Throughout, ‘ The Essay of Dramatic Poesy’ ,Dryden treats drama as a form of Imaginative literature and hence his remarks on drama apply to poetry as well.

• According to this definition is an ‘image ‘of ‘human nature', and that the image is ‘JUST 'as well as ‘LIVELY'. By using the word ‘JUST' Dryden seems to indirectly that literature (and not reproduces)human actions.

• For Dryden , ‘poetic imitation' is different from an exact, servile copy of reality, for the imitation is not only ‘just’ , it is also ‘lively’.

David Daiches examines the implication of these words in detail.In his view, the image of human nature implies that drama ,or imaginative literature in general .’shows people acting in such a way as to reveal what they are like’ Dryden seems to be emphasizing the ‘ appearance of human actions ‘, quit untroubled by Plato's notion that to do simply to imitates an imitation.

• Dryden makes no distinctions in fact between an image or appearance of human nature and the truth about human nature, the former if it Is ‘JUST’ gives the latter(lively).

• i.e. if the image is ‘JUST’ ,it gives truth about human nature.

• Further the image is not only to be just; it must also be ‘Lively’.

• While David takes ‘lively' to mean interesting-antithesis to dull.

• Scott James stresses on aesthetic pleasure or delight. Aesthetic delight is concerned to poetry which springs from a beautiful thought. Shamasuddin Bulbul, the great poet of Mehar city, also emphasized on aesthetic pleasure as the chief function of poetry. Scott James says that the pleasure which a work of art produces is of a certain kind; it is that which comes up from a sense of the lively creativity. For Dryden, speaking of poetry is speaking of beauty. If one speaks the pleasure of poetry, it means a pleasure that comes out of the beautiful art. The aesthetic pleasure has the power to move and to transport. According to Dryden, the power of aesthetic pleasure affects the soul and excites the passion, and above all, it moves admiration. The soul, thus, is moved by reading the beautiful work, and it compels the reader to value it.

R.A.Scott-james takes ‘lively’ to mean ‘beautiful’ and so delightful.The poet is maker or creator, and he aims at making something more beautiful.

• He says that “ the poet does not leave things as he finds them ,but handles them, treats them, ‘hightens’their quality, and so create something that is beautiful, and his own.

• What is the role of imagination?• It is not slavish imitation, but creation that Dryden

means by ‘just’ and ‘lively’ image of human nature is ‘just 'because it is basically true, and it is also ‘lively' for it is more ‘heightened’ and beautiful re-production.

• Dryden’s essay makes it quite clear that he lays more emphasis on the ‘liveliness’ of the image then of its ‘just’.

• Thus irregular plays of Shakespeare and praised for their ‘liveliness.

Its function(instruction)• According to David Daiches the ‘instruction’ which poetry gives is

psychological, it is better understanding of human nature, a keener insight into the working of the human mind and heart that we get from poetry.

• Learned critic writes ‘’you obtain a just and lively image of human nature by representing its passion and humor’s, and by change of fortune to which men are subject

• It is only when we see a characters reaction to change of fortune that we get real view of his ,’passion and humors’.

• It is the circumstances that illuminate character.• The function of poetry would thus be to inform the reader, in a lively

and agreeable way, of what human nature is like. • Liveliness is more important than justness.• Literature would be a form of knowledge and it would bear the same

relation to psychology as in Sidney it does to ethics.

• However, Scott-James seems to nearer the truth when he emphasizes that it is aesthetic delight at which the poet aims.

• He says ‘’but the pleasure which a work of art possess is of certain kind-it is which that we arises from a sense of the beautiful’’.

• Dryden does not for a moment consider the possibility that end of art can be dissociated from beauty.

• For him as for Aristotle, it goes without saying that when you speak of poetry, or art you are speaking of beauty, and if you speak of the pleasure of poetry, you mean a pleasure arising out of the beautiful.

• It is only such an aesthetic delight that has the power move, to transport the power in Dryden’s words ‘’to effect the soul, and excite the passion, and above all to move admiration’’ to appreciation of the beautiful.

• The beautiful in humans actions and passions.• They are noble good and moral.• It is in this that poetry ‘’instruct as it delight’’ for this

purpose a fare imitation of reality will not do ,but reality must be selected, ordered and shaped' by the poets imagination.

• Thus imagination enables a poet to give a ‘lively’ picture of human nature, while his judgment keeps the picture ‘just’.

Thank

you

Good day to all of you