neglected. The result was a clever and finished but not profoundly imaginative literature. (a) THE DRAMA Classical Ideas. The characteristics of the period are well illustrated in the drama. The theaters had been closed by the Puritans in 1642; but the pressure for dramatic entertainments had been so great that, before the end of the Commonwealth, permission had been given to Davenant to present his operatic drama, The Siege of Rhodes. This play, Dryden claims, was the beginning of the "heroic drama," the first type of drama to develop when the theaters were opened after the Restoration. Dryden himself was the principal exponent of this kind of play. He did not follow the traditions of Shakespeare and the romantic drama of the Elizabethan time. He followed, rather, Ben Jonson's classical ideas enforced and modified by the rules of dramatic composition which had been formulated by the French critics and exemplified by Corneille and other French dramatists. He tried to conform to the requirements of the three unities, i.e., that the action should be confined to a single place, that the time represented should not exceed twentyfour hours, and that the action should have a clearly defined unity. Dryden's principal heroic plays are The Indian Emperor (1665) and The Conquest of Granada (1670). They did not altogether satisfy the new classical interest in restraint, for the characters were pushed into an extravagance of passion which caused the plays to be caricatured by the Duke of Buckingham in a mock-heroic play, called The Rehearsal. They were, however, prevailingly classical in tone. Dryden's early plays were written in the heroic couplet, two iambic pentameter lines united by rime; but in his later work rimed verse was abandoned. All for Love (1678), a rehandling of the story of Antony and Cleopatra, was written in blank verse. This play is considered the best of Dryden's tragedies. Thomas Otway (1651-1685), an unsuccessful actor who turned to the writing of plays, produced two tragedies, which are nearly, if not quite, equal to any of Dryden's. They are The Orphan (1680) and Venice Preserved (1682). The latter held the stage for many years, and was considered a model for the writing of tragedies. Tragedy did not flourish, however, in the classical period. Even Addison's Cato and Johnson's Irene are notable largely because their authors became famous in other kinds of writing. Comedy was more in accord with the spirit of the time, and reflects the time in fashions, manners, and speech. The prevailing taste was for love intrigues developed by means of brilliant dialogue. George Etheredge, an Englishman educated in Paris and familiar with Molière, was the first to write plays of this kind. He was followed by William Wycherley (1640-1715), whose most important play is The Plain Dealer (1674), and by the more brilliant William Congreve (1670-1729), whose masterpieces were Love for Love (1695) and The Way of the World (1700). All of these plays are reckless and cynical, expressing the immoral atmosphere of the corrupt court of the Restoration. This gross immorality called forth in 1698 the vigorous protest of Jeremy Collier in a Short View of the Profaneness and Immorality of the English Stage, but the coarseness continued in the plays of John Vanbrugh (1666–1726) and to an extent in the work of George Farquhar (1678-1707). After the turn of the century, however, new forces began to work, making for morality and decent living; and in Richard Steele's plays comedy comes into alliance with these forces. The later comedy of the eighteenth century, represented by Goldsmith (1728-1774) and Sheridan (1751-1816), retains the brilliant dialogue without the gross immorality of the Restoration plays. Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer and Sheridan's The Rivals and The School for Scandal have held the stage down to the present time. Tony Lumpkin, the loutish squire of She Stoops to Conquer, Mrs. Malaprop and Bob Acres in The Rivals, and Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal are still familiar to theater-goers. Their sparkling dialogue is a never failing source of enjoyment. In these plays we have an amusing mock world, light, trifling, and frivolous, but not fundamentally and flagrantly immoral. (b) NON-DRAMATIC POETRY Lyric Poetry. The poetry of classicism - as might be expected in an age in which reason and common sense were emphasized at the expense of imagination and emotion was for the most part satiric, didactic, and mock-heroic. There was some lyric verse of a high order, Dryden's Alexander's Feast for example, a fine ode on the power of music; but for the most part the poetry consisted of light society verse, poems of political and religious controversy, and poetic literary criticism. Political Satire. Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel and Mac Flecknoe are typical examples of the satiric verse. The former is a political satire. While Charles II was king, the court and country were divided, on the matter of the succession, between the partisans of the king's brother James, who was a Papist, and the adherents of the king's illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth. The famous Earl of Shaftesbury was a partisan of Monmouth, and pushed his claims vigorously before the people and parliament. Dryden, in adherence to James, wrote Absalom and Achitophel as a satire on the agitation in behalf of Monmouth. He told the old story of Absalom's revolt against King David in such a way that Absalom was clearly understood to be the Duke of Monmouth; Achitophel, the Earl of Shaftesbury; David, King Charles II. All the characters, indeed, and all the events have a direct relation to Dryden's own time. Mac Flecknoe was an attack upon the poet Shadwell who had entered the controversy as a champion of Shaftesbury and the Whigs. "Hudibras." Another satire quite as popular was Samuel Butler's Hudibras, a scurrilous mock romance directed against the hypocrisy, intolerance, and cant of the Puritans. It was remarkably popular at the court of King Charles II. The king is said to have carried a copy about with him constantly. A short extract will show its burlesque tone. "He was in logic a great critic, A hair 'twixt south and southwest side; "For he was of that stubborn crew Of errant saints, whom all men grant And prove their doctrine orthodox By apostolic blows and knocks; Compound for sins they are inclined to, By damning those they have no mind to." Pope's Satires. - Pope's most famous satires are The Dunciad and the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot. The Dunciad is directed against Pope's literary rivals. The dullards, the pedants, and the bad poets are presented in ridiculous situations. The poem is brilliant, but not judicious, for Pope satirized every one against whom he had the slightest personal spite. The Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot contains the famous clever but unfair description of Addison: "Peace to all such! but were there one whose fires Who would not weep, if Atticus were he?" Later in the century came the less bitter, but none the less interesting Retaliation by Oliver Goldsmith. The poet gives amusing pictures of David Garrick, Edmund |