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.