An Essay of Dramatic Poesy: Main Frame of Dryden’s Literary Criticism

Abstract

John Dryden, a great poet of the 17th century English literature, has left a tremendous stamp in literary criticism with his An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668), an essay that includes a frame of his literary output. Providing such important aspects for literary criticism like ideas about plays and poetry, Dryden works on the elaboration of Englishness in literature. He claims that it is high time contemporary English authors and critics elevated their literature above that of the ancients and the French. By stressing on the importance of rhyme in poesy, Dryden argues that English plays are better than those in France because they have richer plot and livelier characters. This study will focus on Dryden’s Essay and the frame of literary criticism that this Essay puts forward. It will also analyse Dryden’s Annus Mirabilis (1667), All for Love (1677), “Mac Flecknoe” (1678-79), and Absolom and Achitophel (1681) in terms of these works’ reflection of the Essay’s main outline. The study will conclude that what Dryden comes with in his Essay is the precise and clear picture of his talent as a poet and literary critic.