Drydcn and the Critical Canons of the Eighteciitli Century 35 



Insist upon the imitation of nature as he might, the poet of the 

 eighteenth century never supposed that the imitation of nature, 

 even understanding by nature human or social nature, was the 

 whole story. Such an idea was of much later origin. It has been 

 reserved for naturalism and the late nineteenth century to assert 

 the identity of life and literature. The classical age knew better. 

 Nothing could be clearer than Dryden's recognition of this funda- 

 mental distinction ; nothing sharper than his discrimination be- 

 tween the foundation and the aim of literature. As for its ma- 

 terials, poetry is to be tried by the closeness of its imitation, that 

 is, by verisimilitude ; as for its purpose, that is quite another mat- 

 I ter. "It is true that to imitate well is a poet's work; but to affect 

 the soul and to excite the passions ; and above all to move admir- 

 ation, which is the delight of serious plays, a bare imitation will 

 not serve."^ And it is on this ground exactly, the distinction be- 

 tween life and literature, that he urges the use of the couplet in 

 tragedy. "The converse [conversation] therefore, which a poet 

 is to imitate, must be heightened with all the arts and ornaments 

 of poetry ; and must be such, as, strictly considered, could never 

 be supposed spoken by any without premeditation."- Upon this 

 point he insists : a tragedy is not life ; it is a representation of life 

 from a particular point of view with the aim of producing a par- 

 ticular effect. Accordingly he denies — and the denial is an ex- 

 cellent example of his hard-headed sagacity — he denies explicitly 

 the statement that "a play will be supposed to be a composition of 

 several persons speaking extempore/''" On the contrary, he boldly 

 declares, "a play is supposed to be the work of the poet, imitating 

 or representing the' conversation of several persons."* Clearly, 

 then, tragedy is not intended to diarize our daily existence, but to 

 "produce." as Goethe says, "the illusion of a higher reality."^ 

 What tragedy shall admit, therefore, is to be decided, not bv its 



^Dryden. Defense of an Essay of Drauiaiie Poesy. 

 "-Ibid. 



^Sir Robert Howard. The Great Favorite or tlie Duke of Lerma, 

 Preface. 



^Dryden. Defense of an Essay of Dramatic Poesy. 

 ^Goethe. WahrJieit und Diclitung, Tell iii, Buch 11. 



35 



