Crites and Eugenius criticism and arguments on Dramatic Poetry

A remark or comment that expresses approval or disapproval of something or

someone is known as criticism. Like; the activity of making careful judgment
about the good and bad qualities of book, movie etc. A person who does this
activity is known as a critic.

I will discuss this question with the help of references from the book An Essay on
Dramatic Posey written by John Dryden.

Introduction

John Dryden is known as the father of Criticism. He introduced a new form of

criticism known as Liberal criticism (means breaking the rules lead by others).

BPLDNESS IS A MASK FOR FEAR HOWEVER GREAT

He was also the pioneer of Historic criticism. John Dryden was born in 9 August
1631 in England. He was a scholar, a writer, a critic and a well-known poet. With
Dryden a new era of criticism began. He gave importance to almost all the fields of
literature and gave his own views on them. His best known critical work is An
Essay on Dramatic Poesy. Dryden died on 12 May 1700 in London.

Basically An Essay on Dramatic Posey written by John Dryden is a debate among

four characters.

1) Eugenius (Charles Sackville)

2) Crites (Sir Robert Howard)
3) Lisideius ( Sir Charles Sedley)
4) Neander (Though to represent John Dryden)

Issues of this debate

Five issues are under discussion in this essay. These are;

1) Ancient vs. Modern

2) Unities
3) French vs. English Drama
 4) Separation of Tragedy and Comedy vs. Tragicomedy
5) Appropriateness of Rhyme in Drama

Contradiction between them

ANCIENT VS. MODERN FRENCH VS. ENGLISH

1:Eugenius favors the moderns 3: Lisideius favors French drama

2: Crites favors the ancients, blank verse 4: Neander favors the modern-English
plays rhyme

Definition drama

In literature, a drama is the portrayal of fictional or non-fictional events through

the performance of written dialogs (either prose or poetry). Dramas can be
performed on stage, on film, or the radio.

For Example:

Oedipus Rex, Hamlet, Dr. Faustus etc.

Definition Dramatic poetry 

Dramatic poetry is any play or scene in which the characters use poetry, whether
blank or metrical, in their dialogues. The works of Shakespeare are probably some
of the most easily recognizable examples of dramatic poetry. Dramatic work
written in lines of verse is known as Dramatic poetry. For a very long period, verse
drama was the dominant form of drama in Europe.

VIEWS OF CRITES

 Crites stands out as the spokesman-for the ancients. He seeks to establish the
superiority of ancient dramatist over the moderns on the following grounds.

Ancient Greek dramatist was the earliest dramatist who can be said to the founders
of the dramatic genre in Europe. It was in Greece that drama, especially tragedy,
rose to the level of maturity. Drama and dramatist were highly esteemed in Greece
and this attitude gave great encouragement to the dramatist. In England, against
this attitude drama and dramatist were condemned and dramatic performances
banned during the Puritan age. The ancient Greek dramatist followed nature in
writings and performing drama as a literary sense. Therefore, there is naturalness
and reality in their dramatic art.

 The ancient dramatist stands out as models and ideals for the modern
dramatists.

 The modern dramatist only follows rules and practices as laydown by the
ancients.

 The ancient first gave the concept of three dramatic unities and also brought
them into practice.

 In the use of language style figure of speech and other literary devices also
ancients are superb.

 The moderns are only the imitator of the ancient and therefore, they appear
to be only dwarf against gigantic personality of ancients.

VIEWS OF EUGENIUS

 The second interlocutor is Eugenius. He defends the moderns on the

following grounds.

The modern have improved upon the rules and practices of the ancients. The
ancients also have many defects. The division of plot into Proptosis, Epitasis,
Catastasis and Catastrophe was not always possible or effective. The plots and
character of the comedies also were of stock type. The dramatic unities were also
not always observed by ancients. Sometimes their observance led to absurdities.

 In their plays there is access of speech at the cost of action. Therefore, there
plays are dull and monotones.

 The tragic plot of ancient was always hackneyed and confined to the tails of
Thebes and troy.
  Very often the ancient dramas are found lacking in poetic justice. Instead of
“Punishing vice and rewarding virtue”, they often displayed “ a prosperous
vice and unhappy piety”.

 The plots display more of honor and melodramatic effects than love, pity
and compassion.

 The modern are better than ancients in many respects, and if the ancient had
lived to later ages, they might have accepted many changes are introduced
by modern.

Difference

FRENCH ENGLISH

 Smallness  Longer

 Pursuit of one plot  Subplot

 Little action  More action

 Narrowness of imagination  Broadness of imagination

Conclusion

With the help of all these references we can say that Dryden gave arguments on the
ancient’s writers and tried to make it better. He compared so many things and tried
to conclude revolution came in literature. He gave arguments with the help of four
characters. Eugenius says in favors the modern, in their plays there is access of
speech at the cost of action. Therefore, there plays are dull and monotones. Crites
says in favors of ancients, in the use of language style figure of speech and other
literary devices also ancients are superb.