An Essay of Dramatic Poesy

John Dryden composed “An Essay of Dramatic Poesy” while staying at his wife’s family estate in Wiltshire after an outbreak of plague closed London’s theaters. During this stay of more than a year, Dryden reflected on his aesthetic and moral ideas regarding literature and, especially, theater. He also wrote one of his most famous works during this time, the epic panegyric “Annus Mirabilis” (meaning “Year of Miracles”), which praises, among other events, the restoration of Charles II to the throne. Charles II’s coronation put a decisive end to the English Civil War and the intervening Puritan Interregnum, which had disrupted all of England—and shuttered the theaters—for the better part of 20 years. These circumstances are very much in the background of Dryden’s essay, which reflects upon the state of the English stage as well as the relative merits of modern writers. When Lisideius says, “[W]e have been so long together bad Englishmen that we had not leisure to be good poets” (175), he is clearly referring to these recent historical events: It is difficult to compose great works of literature when war and social strife are always afoot.

Dryden also has Neander—his avatar—mention the fickleness of mob opinion: “If by the people you understand the multitude […] ‘tis no matter what they think. They are sometimes in the right, sometimes in the wrong. Their judgement is a mere lottery” (217). Not only does this reflect the mercurial nature of the masses during those uncertain times, but it also reveals Dryden’s sensibilities: A few lines later, he argues that the “noblesse” favors rhyme in theatrical works (218); thus, their inclination justifies its usage. Dryden was a staunch royalist, although he himself was not a member of the titled elite. Later in life, when the Catholic James II ascended to the throne, Dryden would convert to Catholicism—strikingly controversial, especially given that the Glorious Revolution of 1688 quickly deposed James II, who would be England’s last Catholic king. Dryden, however, remained Catholic until his death in 1700.

The name Dryden assigns his stand-in, “Neander,” roughly translates to “new man,” and this is appropriate in context: Neander defends the English theater and modern writers—that which is new and innovative—just as the Royal Navy defends the newly emerging English empire against the Dutch in a series of skirmishes over trade routes and commercial rights. Dryden frames “An Essay of Dramatic Poesy” in martial terms, as four learned men discuss the value of English literature while hearing one of these battles in the background. It is fitting that Eugenius defers to Neander for the rejoinder to Lisideius’s praise of the French: “I am at all times ready to defend the honour of my country […], and to maintain we are as well able to vanquish them with our pens as our ancestors had been with their swords, yet […] I will commit this cause to my friend’s management” (174). Dryden will represent and defend the vanguard of English literature as England itself is renewed and enriched.