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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. PERIOD OF DRAMATIC ACTIVITY. There are not many portions of English literature which have been treated with greater severity by critics than the Restoration drama, and of the Restoration dramatists few have met with less favour, in proportion to their general literary eminence, than Dryden. Of his comedies, in particular, few have been found to say a good word. His sturdiest champion, Scott, dismisses them as "heavy;" Hazlitt, a defender of the Restoration comedy in general, finds little in them but "ribaldry and extravagance;" and I have lately seen them spoken of with a shudder as "horrible." The tragedies have fared better, but not much better; and thus the remarkable spectacle is presented of a general condemnation, varied only by the faintest praise, of the work to which an admitted master of English devoted, almost exclusively, twenty years of the flower of his manhood. So complete is the oblivion into which these dramas have fallen, that it has buried in its folds the always charming and sometimes exquisite songs which they contain. Except in Congreves two editions, and in the bulky edition of Scott, Drydens theatre is unattainable, and thus the majority of readers have but little opportunity of correcting, from individual study, the unfavourable impressions derived from the verdicts of the critics. For myself, I am very far from considering Drydens dramatic work as on a level with his purely poetical work. But, as nearly always happens, and as happened, by a curious coincidence, in the case of his editor, the fact that he did something else much better has obscured the fact that he did this thing in not a few instances very well. Scotts poems as poems are far inferior to his novels as novels; Drydens plays are...
| ISBN-13 | 9781154291704 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 1154291707 |
| Weight | 0.38 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.26 In |
| List Price | $19.99 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 108 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2010-03-01 |
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