Drydenian

I looked at my blogs today and realized that it has been awhile since I have blogged, two months! But thankfully the exams and the Christmas holidays break it all up so I think in a technical sense I’m shy by about four or five blogs. But I have kept up with all of the readings and I still think I have something to contribute there and here. I was trying to decide what would be the best approach to getting back on track with these blogs so even though we’re at Wordsworth I’ll focus on Dryden for the next few blogs until I’m satisfied that I’m caught up. I’m not sure if my honesty is working against me here but oh well…

It’s funny that when I start to write blogs I get a fair bit of enjoyment from it. Play a little music in the background and get into the spirit of letting my thoughts flow. I could imagine myself as some sort of column writer for a major magazine working from home letting my words delight the world, while my hot wife makes me eggs. (that’s right, h o t) Sigh. Fantasy. I lack the one thing that those column writers seem to possess in abundance and that’s discipline. D C PLIN. Instead I B SLEEPIN. But that’s enough of that.

So the first work of Dryden hat we come across is his Essay of Dramatic Poesy. Where Dryden helps to lay down the template for modern criticism or analysis of works. I found that the language was easier to absorb but I think this is because I’m used to the language and not because its actually easier some how. I’m not suffering through the passages at a halting pace like in September and I’m a little better versed in some of the Greek mythology that they are constantly referring to in a lot of the works of the period.

This ‘conversation between the four gentlemen’ (I like to call it the ‘war time river boat chatty chat’) takes place at the time of England’s butt kicking of the Spanish armada. Where four gentlemen find themselves in each others company after seeking some sort of solace form the torrent of cannonball volley. At first I thought that this all actually took place but then I realized that life doesn’t happen that way. Who wants to talk about books and plays at a time of war? Why would these men be talking at length about something other than the giant war going on at their doorsteps?

These few points of logic helped me realized the logic of the composition. Its focus on matters of aesthetic and intellect juxtaposed to the matter of the armada would be to highlight the intensity of the debate. Each individual seems heavily armed with more than enough wit and skill of retort to withstand any attack from the others. Also each of the gentlemen seems more than ready to defend their points with an extensive array of Latin quotes and idioms. They all seem well matched with a little more favour weighing towards the foreign plays and ancient works, which are also foreign in nature.

The debate begins to roll when the four gentlemen take fading sounds of cannon fire to be a good sign of he Spanish armada in retreat and I guess in some sense the debate works to celebrate England and all of its works. What better way to celebrate than by thrashing all that is foreign? But maybe that is putting it simply. I think its more a thrashing of all that Dryden and his contemporaries take to be inferior and an effort to place focus on some sort of universal commonality from which the aesthetic could proceed.