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John Dryden and the Function of Tragedy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Baxter Hathaway
Baxter Hathaway*
Affiliation:
Montana State University
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Extract

Since Dryden lived in a period when the authority of Aristotle in matters of poetry was gaining rather than losing strength, and since he was both a critic and a writer of serious plays, it was inevitable that he should come to grips with the principle of a tragic catharsis and with the broader problem of the function of tragedy. The passages in which he gave his answer to these problems are well known, but the significance of his remarks in relation to the ideas of his time has not always been understood. Especially, the assumption in recent years that all Neo-Classical renditions of the Aristotelian catharsis are irrelevant because of the strong moral bias of the period has led to the ignoring of quite important differences between the theories of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

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Type
Research Article
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PMLA , Volume 58 , Issue 3 , September 1943 , pp. 665 - 673
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1943

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References

1 Corneille's interpretation is by far the most important here. See Corneille's Discours de la tragédie, Œuvres, ed. Marty-Laveaux (Paris, 1862), i, 52–54. The following sentences give the gist: “Ainsi la pitié embrasse l'intéret de la personne que nous voyons souffrir, la crainte qui la suite regarde le nôtre, et ce passage seul nous donne assez d'ouverture pour trouver la manière dont se fait la purgation des passions dans la tragédie. La pitié d'un malheur où nous voyons tomber nos semblables nous porte à la crainte d'un pareil pour nous; cette crainte, au desir de l'éviter; et ce desir, à purger, modérer, rectifier, et même déraciner en nous la passion qui plonge à nos yeux dans ce malheur les personnes que nous plaignons, par cette raison commune, mais naturelle et indubitable, que pour éviter l'efiet il faut retrancher la cause.”

Cf. also René Bray, La formation de la doctrine classique en France (Lausanne, 1931), pp. 24, 75, for supplementary evidence from Maggi, Faustino Summo, and Paolo Beni.

Cf. also Jean Chapelain, “Lettre ou discours de Monsieur Chapelain à Monsieur Favereau Conseiler du Roi en sa cour des aides portant son opinion sur le poème d'Adonis du Chevalier Marino” (1623), Opuscules critiques (Paris, 1936), p. 95. “… l'utilité de la poésie consiste en la purgation des passions vicieuses. …” See also Chapelain's “Lettre sur la règle des vingt-quatre heures” (1630), Opuscules critiques, ed. cit. p. 119: “… le but principal de toute représentation scenique est d’émouvoir l’âme du spectateur par la force et l’évidence avec laquelle les diverses passions sont exprimés sur le théâtre, et de la purger par ce moyen des mauvaises habitudes qui la pourraient faire tomber dans les mêmes inconvénients que ces passions tirent après soi. …”

Cf. also François Hedelin, La practique du théâtre, ed. Pierre Martino (Paris, 1927), p. 9. “C'est là que l'Ambition passe devant eux, comme un grand mal, quand ils considerent un Ambitieux plus travaillé par sa passion que par ses Ennemis, violer les loix du Ciel et de la Terre et tomber en des malheurs inconcevables, pour avoir trop entrepris. C'est là qu'ils reconnoissent l'Avarice pour une maladie de l'ame, quand ils regardent un Avaricieux persecuté d'inquietudes continuelles, de soins extravagants, et d'une indigence volontaire au milieu de ses richesses.”

2 The following passages give some notion of the shape of the idea in the eighteenth century:

Shaftesbury, “An Inquiry concerning Virtue or Merit,” Characteristics, ed. J. M. Robertson (London, 1900), i, 297–298. “For thus when by mere illusion, as in a tragedy, the passions of this kind are skilfully excited in us, we prefer the entertainment to any other of equal duration. We find by ourselves, that the moving our passions in this mournful way, the engaging them in behalf of merit and worth, and the exerting whatever we have of social affection, and human sympathy, is of highest delight, and affords a greater enjoyment in the way of thought and sentiment, than any thing besides can do in a way of sense and common appetite. And after this manner it appears ‘how much the mental enjoyments are actually the very natural affections themselves.‘”

Francis Hutcheson, An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections (London, 1728), pp. 116–117, 140–141. Hutcheson often adopted the 17th century interpretation of the function of tragedy, but placed side by side with it a full grown sentimental interpretation.

John Dennis, The Usefulness of the Stage (London, 1698), pp. 53–54. “Tragedy, which by diving into the hidden Springs of Nature, and making use of all that is powerful in her, in order to the moving compassion, has been always found sufficient to soften the most obdurate heart.”

Sir Richard Steele, The Toiler, No. 82. “The contemplation of distresses of this sort softens the mind, and makes the heart better. It extinguishes the seed of envy and illwill towards mankind, corrects the pride of prosperity, and beats down all that fierceness and insolence which are apt to get into the minds of the daring and fortunate.”

Joseph Addison, Spectator, No. 39. “Diversions of this kind wear out of our thoughts every thing that is mean and little. They cherish and cultivate that humanity which is the ornament of our nature. They soften insolence, sooth affliction, and subdue the mind to the dispensations of providence.”

James Arbuckle, A Collection of Letters and Essays on Several Subjects, Lately Publish'd in the Dublin Journal (London, 1729), i, 32, 50–52, 109, 226, 214–215, 149–150, 446–447.

James Thomson, “Winter,” The Seasons, vv. 339–359. See also the speech of Melisander to the Trojan captives in Thomson's Agamemnon (1738), v, iii, Works (London, 1788), iii, 78; and the prologue to Edward and Eleonora, Works, ed. cit., ii, 239.

Mark Akenside, The Pleasures of the Imagination, ii, 670–711.

Richard Hurd, Notes on the Art of Poetry, Works (London, 1811), i, 116–118.

Edmund Burke, Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, Works (Boston, 1871), i, 117–119.

Arthur Murphy, The Gray's-Inn Journal, No. 76, March 30, 1754, Works (London, 1786), vi, 219–220.

Aaron Hill, “Prologue, for Mrs. Cibber, in The Fatal Bribery,” Dramatic Works (London, 1753), iv, 13; “Dedication” to Alzira, op. cit., ii, 117; “Dedication” to Zara, op. cit., ii, 22; “Prologue” to Merope, op. cit., ii, 204.

Henry Home, Lord Kames, Elements of Criticism (New York, 1838), p. 418.

Antonio Conti, “Prefazione” to Il Druso (1748), in Le quattro tragedie composte dal Signor Abate Antonio Conti (Firenze, 1751), pp. 471–472.

Charles Batteux, Principes de la littérature (1750) (Lyon, 1802), iii, 6, 70–73.

Louis Racine, Traité de la poésie dramatique, ancienne et moderne (1752), Œuvres (Paris, 1808), vi, 331, 358.

Robert Petsch, ed., Lessings Briefwechsel mit Mendelssohn und Nicolai über das Trauerspiel (Leipzig, 1910), pp. 54–92.

3 John Dryden, “Essay of Dramatic Poesy,” Essays, ed, W. P. Ker (Oxford, 1926), i, 58.

4 Dryden, “Preface containing the Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy,” to Troilus and Cressida, Essays, ed. cit., i, 209.

5 René Rapin, Reflexions on Aristotle's Poesie, in The Whole Critical Works of Monsieur Rapin, Eng. trans. (London, 1706), ii, 204–205.

6 Daniel Heinsius, De tragoedia constitutione (Lugduni, Batavorum, 1643), pp. 12–13.

7 Spinoza, “Of Human Bondage,” Ethics, Chief Works, trans. R H. M. Elwes (London, 1887), ii, 221. The distrust of emotionality is further illustrated in many quotations to be found in L. B. Campbell's Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes, Cambridge, 1930. Cf. also, Léontine Zanta, La renaissance du stoïcisme au XVIe siècle, Bibliothèque littéraire de la renaissance, n.s., v, Paris, 1914.

8 Henry More, Enchiridion ethicum, the English trans. of 1690, The Facsimile Text Society (New York, 1930), p. 70.

9 John Norris, The Theory and Regulation of Love: A Moral Essay, 2nd ed. (London, 169?), p.46. For Cumberland's position see Henry Sidgwick, Outlines of the History of Ethics (London, 1888), p. 173.

10 Dryden,“ An Essay of Dramatic Poesy,” Essays, ed. cit., i, 36.

11 Ibid., i, 50.

12 Ibid., i, 58.

13 Ibid., i, 58.

14 Dryden, “A Defense of an Essay of Dramatic Poesy,” Essays, ed. cit., i, 113.

15 Dryden, Preface to An Evening's Love, Essays, ed. cit., i, 142.

16 Dryden, “Dedication of the Aeneis,” Essays, ed. cit., ii, 158.

17 Ibid., ii, 166.