Topic :- The Satiric Vein in Donne’s Poetry

Name :- Upadhyay Devangana s.

Sub :- The Renaissance Literature

Pepa :- 1

Std :- M.A. Sem-1

Roll No :-07

Submitted to :- M.K. Bhavnagara University

“The Satiric Vein in Donne’s Poetry”

·      Introduction

                           There was an unprecedented rise of the spirit of satire in the last decade of the 16^th and opening one of the 17^th century. The exhaustion of the Renaissance spirit, religious and political controversies, uncertainty as regards the accession to the throne, the unpopularity of James 1,his extravagance and immorality, the clash between the old and new philosophies, all contributed to a growing sense of disillusionment and defeat self-introspection and self-criticism. It was but natural that satire should flourish under the circumstances. Men felt that the times were out of joint, eyes were focused on the many ills of society and so satire had its heyday.

“Donne is the greatest of the period, others being

John Marston, Joseph Hall, Ben Jonson etc.”

·      Ruggedness of Donne’s satires: Its causes

                         Donne has left behind him only five satires, all belonging to the early years of his poetical career, but the satiric vein penetrates even those Iyrics of his which are not professedly satiric. The harshness can be accounted for in a number of ways. As a both Saintsbury and Leishman notice, most of the Elizabethan satirists are harsh because they believed that the harsh and unpleasant nature of satire, needed a correspondingly harsh versification.

“It cannot be too often insisted that the harshness of which

Dryden and others accused Donne, and which is most apparent

In his satires, was deliberately cultivated, although it is much more

Apparent in his last two satires, the fourth and the fifth.

And we must remember that when Dryden and the eighteenth

Century criticism accused Donne of hardness they werethinking

Chiefly, if not exclusively, of his satires.”

Moreover, Donne did not intend to publish his satires so he did not take care to polish them up; further, the laws of versification were not fixed and much license was allowed in the age.

·      Analysis of Donne’s satires:

·       Satire: 1

“The originality of Donne as a Satirist, his themes,

And his many merits and demerits are easily brought out by a

Brief analysis of his five satires.”

                     In the first satire, Donne describes how he was persuaded to leave his books and take a walk with a foolish companion, who after smiling at ‘every fine silken painted fools’ they met, let him first for a celebrated tobacco-smoker, then for a celebrated judge of clothes, and finally for his mistress, in whose house he for his mistress, in whose house he quarrelled with other gallants and was turned out of doors with a broken head….. Here realistic detail, such as Jonson loved, predominates over mere wit, although there is s passage in which he insists on his companion’s inconsistenct and absurdity in hating naked virtue, and although souls only enter into felicity when they are naked of bodies, and although man was naked in the state of innocence…..

“The poem is also much more dramatic than most

Elizabethan satires, which generally deal in mere

Description and denunciation…….”

·       Satire: 2

                                The second satire on poets and lawyers is much less individual and characteristic and much closer to the general run of Elizabethan satires poets who starve themselves by writing for idiotic actors, ho ‘ write to Lords, rewards to get,’ Who plagiaries these Donne declares like other monstrous sinner, don’t trouble him, for they punish themselves but he cannot stand Cocus  who is proud of being a lawyer. Then by a very abrupt and obscure transition Donne proceeds to satirise men who take up the practice of law for mere gain and who like thet William Gardiner on whom Dr.Leslie Hotson flashed his lantern combining law with usury, cheat prodigal heir out of their with usury, cheat prodigal heirs out of their estates.

·        Satire: 3

                            In his Third satire, on search for tre religion, says Leishman

“Donne is inspired and his wit and his similes never get out of hand.

He is not merely witty but passionately witty, or wittily passionate

And the poem gives an unforgettable picture of an eager mind at

Wor-for even here Donne is in a sense dramatic as he is nearly in all

His best and most characteristic work.”

The poem proves too, thet his investigation of the rival claims of the Roman and the Anglican churches, although it may have begun partly and even, perhaps, largely from motives that We should call worldly was nevertheless prosecuted with what we should call ”Sincerity” , a burning sincerity for the rough line of this satire are penetrated by an intense eagerness for truth on the discovery of which the soul’s salvation depended and by a deep contempt for indifference.

              We must seek for truth he exclaims, but where is she to be found? Some seek her at Rome, because she was there a thousand years ago, others at Geneva others at home, while some are content to suppose that all religian are the same:

“But unmoved thou of force must one, and forc’d but one allow;

And the right; aske thy father which is shee, let him ask him, though

Truth and falsechood dee neare twins,yet tru’h a little elder is; Be busie

To seeke her, believe mee this Hee’s not of none nor worst, but seekes the best.

To adore, or scorne an image, or protest, may all be bad; doubt wisely in strange

Way to stand inquiring right, is not to stray; to sleepe, or runne wrong, is

On a huge hill Cragged, and steep, truth stands, and he that willreach her,about must and about must goe;”

       “An unforgettable picture…… an almost dramatic expression of an eager mind at work.”

·        Satire: 4

                                    “The Fourth Satire is the longest of Donne’s satires, the roughest in versification and on the whole the least interesting the nearest to the common run.” Donne describes how, having been foolish enoughto go to court, he was unable to be a great traveler, linguist, and repository of secrets. Having got rid of him by lehding him a criwn. Donne went home and reflected on the folly and futility of those whom he had seen at court. There is no clear plan or dominant idea, detail is piled upon detail and although lines are often stinking, they do not co-operate to produce the desired effect.

·       Satire:5

                        “The fifth and last of Donne’s satires is on suitors and law officers. Here we feel continually that the particular abuse Donne professes to be satirizing is merely a topic for the display of his wit, which is a thing we almost never feel in reading Dryden’s satires, however true it may be that he never writes as one inspired by his subject in itself.”  Almost the whole point of the following passage turns on the exploitation of the double meaning of the word angel:

“Judges are Gods; he who made and said them so,

Meant not that men should be forc’d to them to goe.

By means of Angels; when supplications we send to God, to Dominations,

Powers, cherubim’s, and all heavens courts if wee

Should pay fees as here Daily bread would be

Scare to kings.”

·      Originality of Donne :The All – pervading satiric

                          Though Donne was considerably influenced by the contemporary love of antiquity, he was too great a genius to be a mere imitator or camp-follower. Donne was no imitator for he could not but stamp his individuality upon anything that he wrote. Thus Donne may borrow something from the Romans and yet we find the elements of satire in his works working beyond the bounds five formal attires that he wrote. Gransden  stresses the historical significance of Donne as a satirist when he writes:

“Donne put much more into satire than any English

Writer did  before him, and in any history of English

Verse his satires would have to be described as a landmark.”

·      Satire on Contemporary Life

“Donne frequently satirizes contemporary life,

And glimpses that we have of this life are very

Revealing whether it be the ordinary social, circle or

  life at the court.”

·      Satire on False sense of Honor

                          Donne is conscious of the apparent concern of the renaissance people with honor, when he speaks of their greed for wealth and favoure. The exuberant sense of honor as an object of display is ridiculed both y Shakespeare and Ben Jonson in their plays. Donne also recognizes honor as a mere affectation between the attack by the dramatists and Donne that while Shakespeare and Ben Jonson do it through their Fall staffs, corvine, etc. It is this integrity that is conveyed in ‘Break of Day’   through the following line with the subtle suggestion that the worldly sense of honor is a fake:

“Light hath no tongue, but is all eye;

If it could speak as well as spie, this were the worst,

That it could say, that being well, I faine would stay,

And that lov’d my heart and honor so,

That I would not from him, that ha them, go”

·      Religious poetry :The satiric Vein

                           In fact Donne could not be committed to anything partial; the total was always important for him. He was not fascinated and overswayed by the Renaissance stress on reason; rather he question it and shows its limitation when he says in Holy Sonnet :xIv :

“Reason your viceroy in mee, mee should defend,

But is captitv’d and proves weake or untrue”

In his religious poetry also Donne often writes in a satirical vein. He positivel asks people to seek ‘true religion’.

·      The Progress of the soul

                     It is the same liberality of outlook that embraces the satire in the progress of the soul. Wherein the intention of Donne was to parade all the heretics of history from Eve to calvin and Queen Elizabeth by tracing the progress of the soul of the apple which Eve tasted in the Garden of Eden, and his conclusion is what the moderns may very well appreciate:

“There’s nothing simple good nor ill alone;

Of every quality comparison the only measure is and judge”

·      Donne’s Originality

                            Donne is one of the most humanisitic of the great English poets and therefore, one of the least typial of satirists with Donne this concern for value does not become an opportunity for idealism; rather his sense of realism gives him a chance to satirise the idealists. This can be specifically perceived in his love poems. He has no patience with petrarchan idealism whose- notions of love are not to be comprehended on the plane of reality. On the other hand, he would not even be with the protagonists of physical love that cannot stand any test of endurance:

“Dull sublunary lovers love whose soule

Is sense cannot admit absence, because it doth

Removethose things which elemented it.”

The satire cannot be missed in what the lover imagines the heart will tell him:

“Yet goe to friends, whose love and means

Present various aontent;

To your eyes, ears, and tongue, and every part, If then your body

Go,what need you a heart?”

The element of satire is implicit in the progress of thought in the prohibition from the two apparently contradictory warnings in the first two stanzas to the synthesis in the final stanza:

“Yet, love and hate mee too”

·      Satire on Religious controversies

                      In satire 3 his consciousness includes knowledge of the contemporary religious controversy, the claims of the Roman Catholics the protestants and the Anglicans each sect deeming itself to be the true follower of God by being committed to a particular creed, and he satirizes each of them in a tone that suggests the worthlessness of the dogmatic protection and who entertain creed. He attracts even those who entertain an indifferent sense of contempt for every sect, because he generalize anr thinks that none of them can be good:

“carless phygious doth abhore all, because all cannot be

Good as one knowing some woman, whores, dares marry none.”

·      Conclusion

                              To conclude: the element of satire in Donne’s poems is all-pervasive and is not confined to any particular subject; here as elsewhere in Donne, the range is cosmic, for Donne can satirize love, religion, social life, scientific discoveries ,old idealism every kind of exuberance that produces a gap between what things really are and what they appear to be; in fact the incongruity in any sphere is what forms the basis of his satires. His individuality is seen in his realistc attitude that is expressed through wit, dramatization and with a marked vividness that leaves no scope for obscurity. Despite some shortcomings, Donne must be raned very high as a satirist. K. W. Gransen’s view;

“literary history of England Donne’s satire must be

Described as important landmarks”

Topic :- Kanthapura as aGandhian Epic

Name :- Upadhyay Devangana s.

Sub :- Indian Writing in English

Pepar :- 4

Std :- M.A. Sem-1

Roll No :- 07

Submitted to :- M.K. Bhavnagar University

Kanthapura as a Ganghian  epic

·        Introduction:-

                     Mulk Raj Anand, R.K Narayan, Raja Rao those three person are great dramatist of the Indian Writing in English. In Indian literature we have many forms like Epic, Lyrics, Drama, Short sorties and Fables but we should wit of Novel very long time. Bana’s ‘Kadambari’ and Subandhu’s ‘ Vasavadatta’ are also novels but the description would not rally fit; and, besides, there were isolated marvels for the Novel, property so called, we have to wait till the latter half of the nineteenth century.

                    The first Novel written in Bengali was ‘ Alaler Gharer Dulal’ which is come out in 1858. However the real beginnings  with the work of the great Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. His first novel publish in English “Rajmohan’s Wife’ . It was followed next year by ‘ Durgeshnandini’ in Bengali. His other novels are:

·        Kapalkundala

·        Vishavriksha

·        Krishnakantar Uyil

·        Anandamath

·        Dexi chaudhurani

In the meantime Raj Lakshmi Devi’s ‘the Hindu wife’ was published in 1876 . Toru Dutt’s ‘Bianca’ in 1878.

                 There novels, written in English have for us today no more than an antiquarian or historical interest.

                  This is beginning of the novel form. Mulk Raj Anand, R. K. Narayan, and Raja Rao, there are great novelist in India writing in English.

                  Raj Rao is most remarkable person of Indian Writing in English ,in Novel. A novelist and a short story writer, he too is a child of the Gandhian Age, and reveals in his work his sensitive awareness of the forces let loose by the Gandhian Revolution as also of he thwarting or steadying pulls of past tradition. His four books up-to-date are the novels  Kanthapura, The serpent and the Rope, The cat and Shakespeare, and The Cows of the Barricades.

                        ‘Kanthapura’ is Raja Rao’s First novel . Raja Rao was born in 1908 and die in 2006. He is a distinguish writer and philosopher, is acknowledged as the author of the first major Indian novel in English. Beginning his career in writing in Kannada for an Indian periodical, he moved to Mercure de Frane, a Paris periodical, where he served on the editorial board for several years. Later, he also taught Indian philosophy at The University of Texas. Apart from Kanthapura  his work include :

·        The Cow of the Barricades and Other Stories

·        The Serpent and the Rope

·        The cat and Shakespeare

·        A Tale India

·        The Chessmaster and His Moves

Internationally recognized Raja Rao’s novels blend philosophical and spiritual insights into the fabric of everyday life. for the serpent and the Rope (1960), he received the sahutva Akademi Award in 1964. He also received the restigious Neustadt international Prize for Literature in 1988.

‘ (Raja Rao ) is a novelist in search of equation, in search of understanding a novelist looking for explanation, for wisdom….. (he) has a reach, a capaciousness, a resonance, that is sufficient to contain the largeness.’

                                                                            _ Edwin Thumboo, poet and critic

·     Kanthapura as a Gandhian epic

                       Raja rao’s Kanthapura is best cited to illustrate this purpose. The novel recodes the Gandhian impact on atypical Indian village through an informal but very intimate narration of an elderly widow, Acchakka.  Gandhi is again portrayed here as Rama, Krishna, and Shiva whose birth has a divine significance. As the novel says, once Valmiki,the great sage and the writer of Ramayana, in the novel goes to the Lord Brahma and says:

“O Brahma, you who have sent us the Prince propagators

Of the Holy Law and sages that smote the darkness of

Ignorance, you have forgotten us so long that men have

Come from across the seas and the oceans to trample on

Our wisdom and spit on virtue itself….. O Brahma, deign to

Send us one of your gods so that he may incarnate on

Earth and bring back light and plenty to your enslaved

Daughter. O’ sage…siva himself will forthwith go and

Incarnate on the earth and free my beloved daughter from

Her enforced slavery.”

          Raja Rao in Kanthapura has portrayed women as active participants or revolutionists against the social and political disturbances during the satygraha movement in India. In the opening chapter of the novel there is a folk song which is an invocation it the goddesses Kenchamma, whom the villagers believe to have killed a demon to save their young ones:

“ Kenchamma, Kenchamma ,

Goddess bening and bounteous,

Mother of earth , blood of lie ,

Harvest – queen , rain – crowned,

Kenchamma, Kenchamma ,

Goddess benign and bounteous “

        This is symbolic. The woman folk in village draw inspiration from the great goddess showing tremendous courage when they come in contact with the British soldiers. Rangamma, a childless widow, the daughter of a learned father Ramakrishnayya of the Brahmin community , in the course of the novel becomes the source of inspiration not only for the woman of the village but also for young man who look up to her as Aunt Rangamma . She emerges as the symbol of courage and boldness or otherwise can be seen as Kanchamma , the incarnate . In the novel Raja Rao dutifully described the situation of Indian Woman . He try to described condition of widow how they suffer from society. The political stance of woman under Rangamma shows their allegiance to the practical man , Gandhi rather than the idealist Nehru , despite the men folk including Moorthy resolving to follow Nehru. To quote  for instance a letter written by Moorthy to Ratna:

“Since I am out prison , I met this Satyagrehi and that ,

And We discussed many a problem , and they all say the

Mahatma is a noble person , a saint , but the English will

Know how to cheat him , and he will let himself be

Cheated . Have faith in your enemy , he says , have faith in

Him and convert him . But he world of men is hard to

Move , and once in motion it is wrong it stop till the gold

Is reached . And yet , what is the gold ? Independence ?

Swaraj ? is there not Swaraj in our states , and is there not

Misery and corruption and cruelty there ? Oh no , Ratna , it

Is the way of the masters that is wrong.”

          ‘Kanthapura’ is the most powerful of the Indo – Anglian novel portraying the impact of the Gandhian movement on the Indian people. The time 1920 is a renaissance period of India because this time Gandhi movement become more powerful. Raja Rao with this novel wants to represent this movement indirectly The scene is set at Kanthapura , a remote south Indian village near Hassan. The evolution of the national movement as it advances through various stages till it gains strength has been traced forcefully and realistically. In this novel Moorthy is a symbol  represent as a Gandhi. In this novel we can see Gandhian non-violent non – cooperation movement, through the Moorthy. Gandhi aimed at the total involvement of all section of the people and had so launched a programme at socio-eonomic , religious levels. His programme of action was fourfold.

1.     Swadeshi and Khaddar were necessary for Swaraj , hence he encouraged Charkha , weaving of one’s clothes and boycott of foreign clothes .

2.     Eradication of untouchability and other social evil like pardah system so that woman and people of lower class could play their part in the freedom struggle.

3.     Eradication of poverty , illiteracy , castism and village uplift.

4.     Communal harmony stress on truth and non – violence. Congress communities were formed to carry out these programmes.

                  In the novel Moorthy places the very Gandhian programme of action before the people of ‘ Kanthapura ‘. Gandhi’s message of truth and non – violence is carried to the remote part by fellow workers , communities are formed , Satyagrehies trained to carry out  the programme. Publicity material is brought from the city and freely distributed; Moorthy inspires them to Charkha spinning and weaving; literacy is spread; and they are trained to be non – violent in the face of repression by the rulers . The people of ‘Kanthapura’ are enthused with the spirit of Gandhi and they march ahead heroically despite all the suffering and the hardship they have to undergo. In the end it truly becomes a mass movement , the villages comprising men and women of all castes and professions and the labourers of the coffee estate readily meeting the onslaught of bureaucracy. An unequal fight it proves it be for the Satyagrahies; they are maimed , broken and scattered ; they leave ‘Kanthapura’ and are forced to settle at Kashipura , when the non – cooperation movement was abruptly brought to an end by Gandhiji. They had still not lost their faith in Gandhi , thought felt a bit uneasy . When Gandhi signed the Gandhi – Irwin pact , it was see as the right step.

                      Indian sensibility is essentially religious and even politics gets spiritualized. The religious element and the socio- political issues are artistically transformed into one entity. The objective is independence, but the means adopted are religious: ‘Harikatha’, ‘Bhajan’, ‘fasting’, and ‘prayer’ non – violence and truth. By using the mythical technique through harikatha juxtaposing the past and the present, Raja Rao has not only brought religion in politics, but has lated Gandhi as the invisible God and Moorthy the Avthar Gandhi’s trip to England to attend the Round Table conference to seen as rama going to Lanka to Rescue Sita Gandhi was Rama going tobring back bharat Mata. It is the use if the mythical technique that has made Kanthapura a Gandhian Epic a Gandhian myth

Daniel O’ an Irish politician said

“Nothing is politically right which is morally wrong”

C. D. Narasimhaiah praiaing ‘Kanthapura’ as a Gandhian novel says:

“If ever in India boy or girl today or in years to come

Wishes to gain some insight into story of India’s struggler

And suffering for independence it is in Kanthapura as it is in

Nehru’s Autobiography that he must expect to find it, and not in

Those tomb called Histories of the freedom movement, in which

The suffering and the song that was born behind the dull

Tracts of the laborious scholar untouched by Gandhi’s

Living flame. If Gandhi has been the cause of one

such minor classics in the English language, he has helped

to enrich the language as he has helped him to

exalt him that he wrote.”

·      Conclusion

                        It is remarkable to not that culmination of Kanthapura has an element of doubt while shifting from Gandhis to Nehruism and it is here that sane critics raise question and it is on the integrity of Rao as a Gandhian thought doth Gandhi and Nehru have the same destination, there is difference in his ‘barrowing and difference’, Gandhi is abit nostalgic and principle unscientific and so unwelcomed. Right from the beginning a reader feels orthodox village, the great village, the great is completely transformed Moorthy, the motivation is complete and experience a sort of nationalism. Transformation continues ; Moothy continues to develop, though he does not get support from all quarters and imperialism seems to be crumbling. Achakka’s thinking and behavior reflects her understanding of the dynamic between the village and the Indian nation as the blending of tradition and modeninty. Kanthapura undergoes the process and the process is an internal one. Achakka is a perpetuator of Hindu revivalist propaganda and Rao stands as aHindu reformers to encourage self exploration.    

                 

 

                    

Topic :- “Essay of Drametic Poesy” Main Argument

Name :- Upadhyay Devangana s.

Sub :- Literary theory & Criticism

Paper :- 3

Std :- M.A. Sem-1

Roll No :- 07

Submitted to :- M.K. Bhavnagar University

“Essay of Drametic poesy” Main Argument

1. Introduction

                           John Drsyden was a versatile and voluminous writer who left on branch of literature untouched and produced works of outstanding merit in each field. He was a great poet and a great dramatist. He was also a great prose-writer and is regarded as the founder of modern prose style. He was also an original and discriminating critic, so much so that Dr. Johson called him ‘the father of English criticism’ and critic after has agreed with this estimate.

                        However, the only formal work of criticism that Dryden has left behind him is his ‘Essay of Drametic poesy’ a work which is the unofficial manifest of him critical creed, and a important landmark in the history of literary criticism in English.

2.   ‘Essay of Dramatic poesy’ Main Argument

                   As a preliminary to the more serious discussion to follow, Lisideius defines a play as;

“Drama is the lively and just image of human nature

Representing its passions and humours and the changes

Of fortune to which it is subject for, the delight and

Instruction of mankind”

3.  Crites: Defence of the Ancients; their superiority over the Moderns

A.    Among the ancient poetry was held in high esteem and poets were highly honourd. So there was a healthy competition among them to excel each other. Poet were suitably rewarded. Today , they poets have no such encouragement, and they are not suitably rewarded. So the poets do not take pains.

B.     The Ancients were faithful imitators of nature, which is distorted and disfigured in the drama of the day.

C.     All the rules of dramatic composition we owe to the clssics, and we have added nothing of our own to the rules of Aristotle and Horace.

D.    The Ancient observed the three unities well.

1.     The unity of Time means that the action should not take more than twenty-four hours the natural compass of a day, and it should be equally divided between the Acts. This rule was faithfully observed by the Ancients. The action began somewhere towards the end of the fable, and the earlier part was delivered by narration, The English do not follow the unity of time and therefore, they ill represent nature.

2.     The unity of place means that the same scene should be continued throughout, for the stage being one place it cannot be represents as many. No doubt there may be same variation of place by the use of painted scenery, but ever then it should not shift to places far distant form one another. The French observe this unity, but not the English. The unity of Action means that there should be only one great and complete action. Two action “equally labored and driven on by the writer, would make the play not one play but two plays. However, there may be a number of action subservient to the main action, as in the plays of Ben Jonson. Such under-plots must all be conducive to the  main design, and be subordinated to it” 

There is gross violation of there unities in the English drama which makes it unnatural and improbable. The superiority therefore, of the Ancients is unquestionable.

4. Eugenius, Reply to crites : The Case for the Moderns

                                                    I.            The modern plays are superior to the Ancients because the modern have the advantage of the experience and the rules of the ancients, as well as they have life and nature before them which they new features which the Ancients lacked. Just as in the arts and the sciences, the moderns have discovered much that is new, as also on Drama.

                                                II.            For example among the Ancients the plays were divided by Entrances not by Acts. The division of it into Acts was not known to them; it was first given only by Horace. So the Greeks cannot be said to have perfected the art of poesy.

                                            III.            Their plots were traditional, they were already knows to the people and so lacked in novelty and pleasure. So the main aim of poesy, i.e. to cause delight was gone.

                                            IV.            They used stock, hackneyed plots and characters in their comedies. There were certain types which were used in one comedy after another.

                                                V.            Their plots being narrow, and their person few, their Acts are shorter than even the well-wrought scenes in the Modern English plays.

                                            VI.            There is too much of speechifying at the cost of action and hence monotony and boredom.

                                        VII.            There is no poetic justice in their plays : They often show a  neither delight nor instruct.

                                    VIII.            Among the Ancients comedies and tragedies were written by separate dramatists, and not by the same person as at present. Hence, they should have achieved perfection in the chosen branch, but they failed to do so. Hence there is no justification for their shortcomings.

                                            IX.            Often they are guilty of faulty diction, coinages and metaphors.

·      Lisideius :Defence of the French Drama; Demontration of the superiority of the French over thr English

A.    The Franch observe the unities to perfection: (a) The unity of Time they observe so well that the action in none of their plays exceeds thirty hours. Indeed, they interpret “single revolution of the sun” to mean 12 hours and not 24; and try to reduce all plays to this compass; (b) They fully observe the unity of place the entire action being limited to the spot where it began. It is rarely that they go outside the city or town; (c) They do not burden their plots with under-plots, which divert the attention of the audience and the readers.

B.     There is no multiplicity of action and incident in their plays, and so there is enough time to represent one passion well and fully instead of being hurried from one to another as in the English plays.

C.     No doubt in their plays one character is exalted above the rest, but due attention is also paid to other character and every one of them is gives a suitable role to play.

D.    The French manage their narration or relations much more skillfully than the English. The narration of events antecedent to the play, but necessary for its understanding is generally avoided with great skill by the suitable management of the plot itself. There are relation of events that have happened off the stage, and through such relations they avoid the tumult and violence of the English stage. Everything cruel, obnoxious, absurd or unnatural is thus kept stage. All passions may find a just and lively representation on the stage, but not all actions, and dying is one of them. Narration is also necessary to reduce the plot to a more reasonable compass of time.

E.     There are no sudden changes or conversions in their plays, as in the English

F.     They use rhyme which is to be preferred to the English blank verse. The use of rhyme beautifies a play.

·      Neander or Dryden: Demonstration of the superiority of the English over the French, and of the Moderns over the Ancients.

A.    There is on doubt that the French plays are more regular, and the laws better followed, and it is also true that the English plays have many irregularities but “ neither our faults nor their virtues are considerable enough to place them above us”

B.     They lack the rich variety of humour in the English plays.

C.     Moliere and some other French dramatists have started mingling tragedy and comedy serious and the gay, in the manner of the English.

D.    Their plots are too much alike to please often. They lack verity.

E.     Dryden then passes on to justify tragic comedy. He does so on the following grounds: (a) contraries set off each other (b) a sense of mirth introduced in a tragedy refreshes and provides relief. (c) compassion and mirth do not destroy each other, they are found together in nature also (d) tragic-comedy is a pleasant way of writing not known to the Ancients or to the moderns of any other nation.

F.     The English plots are copious and varied the Franch barren and narrow. They have only a single action; we have under plots or by concernment, which however move with the main action and so the unity of action is not destroyed. Thus there is a combination of variety with unty and, therefore greater pleasure.

G.    Their pre-occupation with a single theme does not give them any advantage in the expression of passion. Their verses are cold and the long speeches in their plays are tiresome. During the performance of a French play, “ we are concerned for our own troubles instead of being concerned for their imaginary heroes.” 

H.    Long speeches may suit the genius of the French, they do not uit the English who are sullen people and come to the stage for refreshment.

I.       Short speeches and replies are more likely to move the passions and wit and repartee are the chief graces of comedy. In the “ chase of wit,” the English have reached perfection, and are superior to the French.

J.       The more the characters in a play, the greater will be the variety. Only this variety should be so managed that there is no confusion, and this skill has been attained by the great English dramatists, like Ben Jonson.

K.     As regards showing of violent action on the stage: (a)