Dryden's Relation to Germany 3 1 



ress of the Satire, and was the first work of Dryden noted by 

 German critics. Alorhof , in his Unterricht der deiitschen Sprache 

 und Poesie'^ (1684), discusses and in a chapter on English poetry 

 analyzes it at some length. One of the interesting features of his 

 discussion is that of the four authors dealt with in the Essay, 

 Shakspere, Fletcher, Beaumont, and Jonson. He says that he 

 has read nothing of Shakspere and Fletcher, and limits his anal- 

 ysis to Jonson. While he concedes, " Dryden hat gar wohl ge- 

 lehrt von der Dramatica Poesi geschrieben," he regards his claim 

 that the present English writers are superior to all moderns, as 

 too presumptions. In his " Polyhistor "^ (1688-1692), Morhof 

 also twice mentions the Essay, and like most German critics in the 

 eighteenth century, speaks of the author as the " celebrated 

 Dryden." 



Jocher's Gelehrte Lexicon (1715)^ characterizes Dryden as 

 " einer von den vortrefflichsten Poeten und Comodien-Schreibern 

 in Engelland, welcher sonderlich sehr viele Schauspiele, auch einen 

 gelehrten Tractat von Dramatik Poesy geschrieben." 



As early as 1730 Gottsched quotes from the Essay Dryden's 

 definition of humor : " The ridiculous Extravagance of Conver- 

 sation, wherein one Men differs from all others."^ Like Morhof, 

 he accuses Dryden of presumption in the claim that the English 

 surpass all moderns in the use of humor. He regards Jonson the 

 authority on the rules for the English stage, but adds : " darin 

 Dryden auch viel Wercks macht." He knew the Essay only 

 through the French translation of the Spectator, for his knowledge 

 of English was so limited that he could not even quote accu- 

 rately, as is evident from the English passages in the Critischen 

 Dichtkiinst. 



^ See the second edition, p. 226 fif., Liibeck und Frankfurt, 1702. 



2 See fourth edition, I, p. 763 and 1013, Lubecae, 1747. 



3 See the third edition, p. 940, Leipzig, 1733. 



* Versuch einer critischen Dichtkunst vor die Deutschen, p. 639, Leipzig, 

 1730. 



319 



