John Dryden was a great restoration
poet as well as critic. He was a versatile writer who left no branches of
literature untouchable. He produced lots of outstanding merits in each field.
He was a poet, prose writer, dramatist and critic also. His works like “An
Essay on Dramatic Poesy”, “Preface and Dedication” and “Preface to Fables” are
his chief contribution to criticism. Among them his “Essay on Dramatic Poesy”
is regarded as an important landmark in history of literary criticism. He
established himself as a revolutionary critic. So Dr. Johnson called him “The
Father of English criticism”. In An Essay on Dramatic Poesy, Dryden has discussed Shakespeare,
Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher as artists of drama. So let’s discuss them in detail.
Shakespeare:
William Shakespeare was one of the prominent
dramatists of the Age of Elizabeth. He describes the thing in such a way that
not only one can see, but also you feel it. He wrote 37 Plays and in which
he portrayed all the things in his Dramas and Sonnets. Though, he was not
considered a great writer in the days of Elizabethan.
Ben Jonson
Another writer of high quality in the
Elizabethan Age was Ben Jonson, who was considered superior to William
Shakespeare in those days. Because, Wit; Humour in his Dramas makes him a
learned man. Jonson was a judge himself, therefore, as one can observe in his
Dramas that he wrote plays, which contain Homour and Wit also.
