2..0 Objectives
2..1 Introduction
2.1.1 Dryden as a Critic
Self-Check Questions for 2.1.1
2.1.2 Dryden on The Nature of Poetry
Self-Check Questions for 2.1.2
2.1.3 Dryden on The Function of Poetry
Self-Check Questions for 2.1.3
2..2 An Essay on Dramatic Poesy: An Introduction
Self-Check Questions for 2.2.1
2..2..2 Violation of the Three Unities
Self-Check Questions for 2.2.2
2.2.3 Eugenius Arguments on Superiority of Moderns over the Ancients
Self-Check Questions for 2.2.3
2.2..4 Crites’s Arguments in favour of the Ancients
Self-Check Questions for 2.2.4
2..2.5 Lisideius’s view in favour of Superiority of the French Drama over English Drama
Self-Check Questions for 2.2.5
2.2..6 Neander’s view in favour of Modern (English) Drama
Self-Check Questions for 2.2.6
2...3 The Ancients versus Modern Playwrights
2..4 Mixture of Tragedy and Comedy
2..5 Advocacy of writing plays in Rhymed Verse
(A) Bibliography
(B) Further Reading
Crites develops the main points in defending the ancients and raises objections to modern plays. The Moderns are still imitating the Ancients and using their forms and subjects, relying on Aristotle and Horace, adding nothing new and yet not following their good advice closely either, especially with respect to the Unities of time, place and action. While the unity of time suggests that all the action should be portrayed within a single day, the English plays attempt to use long periods of time, sometimes years. In terms of place, the setting should be the same from beginning to end with the scenes marked by the entrances and exits of the persons having business within each. The English, on the other hand, try to have all kinds of places, even far off countries, shown within a single play. The third unity, that of action, requires that the play "aim at one great and complete action", but the English have all kinds of sub-plots which destroy the unity of the action.
In anticipating the objection that the Ancients' language is not as vital as the Moderns’s, Crites says that we have to remember that we are probably missing a lot of subtleties because the languages are dead and the customs are far removed from this time.
Crites uses Ben Jonson as the example of the best in English drama, saying that he followed the Ancients "in all things" and offered nothing really new in terms of "serious thoughts".
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