An Essay of Dramatic Poesy

In concert with wit and nature, a poet must employ appropriate “judgment” in determining the structure of a poem or a play, as well as the language and verse used within it. An important concept to Augustan age poets, judgment restrains fancy and assists the poet in achieving balance. Neander uses the concept to support his argument that rhyme is appropriate in dramatic plays: “Judgement is indeed the master-workman in a play; but he requires many subordinate hands, many tools to his assistance; and verse I affirm to be one of these” (224). The dramatist-poet who exercises judgment will “avoid errors” and create a noble work of art: one that delights and instructs in equal measure.

Poesy is a now archaic term for poetry. Dryden uses the term to refer both to poetry and to the act of poetic composition. While “An Essay of Dramatic Poesy” concerns itself with the relative merits of the ancients versus the moderns and with the French theater versus the English theater, its most controversial claim is that rhyme (i.e., poesy) is not only appropriate in dramatic plays but also more natural than blank verse or regular speech. Thus, Dryden names the essay for its most divisive point. A year after the original essay’s publication, Dryden was moved—in part due to public comments made by his brother-in-law (Crites)—to publish “Defence of an Essay of Dramatic Poesy.”

Used almost interchangeably with “poesy,” rhyme refers to the repetition of sound often used in verse, typically at the end of subsequent lines or in another recognizable pattern. The use of rhyme in dialogue is at the heart of the debate in “An Essay of Dramatic Poesy.” On the one hand, Crites argues that using rhyme renders a play unnatural because people do not naturally speak in rhyme. On the other hand, Neander argues that using rhyme in a dramatic play can be natural when it elevates the heroic and tragic elements of the play (Neander concedes that using rhyme in a comedic play is inappropriate). It is notable that, while Neander (the voice of Dryden himself) adamantly defends the use of rhyme in dramatic plays, Dryden would later distance himself from this position.

These are the rules, derived from readings of Aristotle, which Dryden and his contemporaries believed should govern the construction of theatrical works: They direct the playwright to hew closely to unity of time, place, and action when possible. This means that a play should take place within a 24-hour time period, “the compass of a natural day” (157); in as few locations as possible, as “it is unnatural to conceive it in many, and those far distant from one another” (159); and with one main plot, “[f]or two actions equally laboured and driven on by the writer would destroy the unity of the poem” (160). These rules are central to the essay’s discussion regarding whose plays are better—by which the characters mean “more natural”—between the ancients and the moderns or the French and the English. Ironically, perhaps the greatest playwright in all of English literary history—William Shakespeare—regularly and aggressively flouted these rules. Nevertheless, Dryden is a creature of his time; he employs Ben Jonson rather than Shakespeare as his example of the pinnacle of English playwriting because Jonson is the more rule-bound of the two.