COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY STUDIES IN ENGLISH 
 
 JOHN DENNIS: HIS LIFE AND 
 CRITICISM 
 
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JOHN DENNIS 
 
 HIS LIFE AND CRITICISM 
 
 BY 
 
 H. G. PAUL 
 
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 1911 
 

 Copyright, 1911 
 BY THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 Printed from type April, 1911 
 
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PREFACE 
 
 John Dennis's career was one of prolonged and various 
 activities, covering a period of nearly a half century. He asso- 
 ciated with some of the wits of the time of Charles II ; he was 
 on intimate terms with Dryden ; he was a notable figure in the 
 age of the so-called Augustans; and he lived to be pitied and 
 befriended by Thomson and Mallet. The study of such a 
 career of diverse and extended activity should be of value in 
 promoting a clearer understanding of the literary relations of 
 that interesting age. One of Dennis's manifold activities is 
 worthy of especial consideration namely, his labors as a 
 critic. For nearly two centuries he has been remembered 
 chiefly as the severe judge and foe of some of the great writers 
 of the first quarter of the eighteenth century and has been 
 cited as a horrible example of the race of critics by a host of 
 biographers and admirers of Addison and Steele, of Swift 
 and Pope. In the last twenty years, however, something of a 
 reaction has begun in Dennis's favor; and while no one finds 
 in his dramas or poems much that deserves immortality, many 
 students of his period are coming to recognize in him " a 
 serious and well equipped critic " and one whose beliefs are of 
 especial interest as belonging to the period when English criti- 
 cism was young. By many of his contemporaries Dennis was 
 regarded as the foremost English critic of his times, and few 
 or none of the writers. of his age can be considered so fully 
 representative of the manifold critical tendencies then strug- 
 gling for supremacy. 
 
 In attempting this study of Dennis I have limited myself to 
 what seemed best worth while, that is, to a discussion of his 
 biography and of his .work as a critic. In tracing the course 
 of his life I have been obliged in large measure to break new 
 ground, for practically the only study of Dennis's career is 
 the useful but necessarily brief article in the Dictionary of 
 National Biography. The life itself seems to fall naturally 
 into three fairly well marked divisions the first to the death 
 
 vii 
 
Vlll' 
 
 J5 ~j 
 
 f Dryden in 1700, the second through the first decade of the 
 5V- ^7 eighteenth century, and the last from 1710 to the time of his 
 death in 1734, a period characterized by his well known liter- 
 ary quarrels. In dealing with Dennis as a judge of letters I 
 / have first outlined the chief critical tendencies of his time and 
 have afterwards attempted to indicate his relations with these 
 . various schools as shown in his attitude toward the great ques- 
 tions then debated in the republic of letters. I have tried to 
 point out how Dennis anticipated some ideas that have gen- 
 erally been credited to later critics, and how his appreciation of 
 the great national writers was truer and keener than that of 
 most of his contemporaries. I have also attempted to study 
 the question of his influence upon subsequent criticism. 
 
 The subject of this dissertation was suggested to the writer 
 by Professors W. P. Trent and A. H. Thorndike, of Columbia 
 University, who have been unfailing in their helpfulness, giving 
 generously of their time and scholarship and counsel through 
 all the different stages of the growth of the thesis. The writer 
 realizes only too keenly how inadequate must be any acknowl- 
 edgment of his indebtedness to both of them. To Professor 
 J. E. Spingarn thanks are due both for the books he loaned 
 and for the still more valuable assistance of his advice from 
 time to time and his suggestions for revision. Professor C. 
 N. Greenough of Harvard kindly loaned some rare books from 
 his private library ; and Mr. Carl VanDoren called attention to 
 one of Dennis's belated publications. Mr. William Roberts, 
 Dennis's first careful biographer, has also encouraged the 
 writer and offered some valuable hints. Acknowledgment is 
 also due many librarians both in America and in England who 
 have aided in the search for Dennis's scattered writings. 
 
LIFE OF DENNIS 
 
 John Dennis was born in London in I657. 1 His father, 
 Francis Dennis, was a saddler who seems to have been a 
 fairly prosperous and influential citizen at a time when the 
 London tradesmen were gaining rapidly both in wealth and 
 power. 2 Nothing further is known of the family except that 
 the father died about 1685, and that Dennis had at least one 
 sister. 3 When he was twelve years old he was sent to the 
 grammar school at Harrow, which was then just beginning 
 to receive " foreigners," that is, boys from other parishes who 
 paid for their schooling. 4 Possibly Dennis was attracted to 
 Harrow by the fact that the school had just come under the 
 management of Dr. William Horn, or Home, whom one of 
 Dennis's biographers has characterized as " pious and learned." 
 The new master brought with him many of the methods he 
 
 1 The first and one of the best biographies of Dennis is that by his friend 
 Charles Gildon in the Lives and Characters of the English Dramatic Poets 
 First begun by Mr. Langbaine, improv'd and continu'd down to this time 
 by a Careful Hand. London, 1699. Dennis himself supplied much of the 
 material for this sketch of his life. 
 
 3 The enemies of Dennis's later years made frequent disparaging refer- 
 ences to his father's occupation. One such, for example, is that by the 
 anonymous author of the Critical Specimen, 1715, p. 9: "The Mirror of 
 Criticism [Dennis] being thus mounted [on his Pegasus] without a saddle, 
 for he scorned to use one of his father's making." Again, in the preface 
 of an Author to Let, probably by Savage, which appeared during the war 
 following the publication of the Dunciad, we find the following : " Should 
 the author of the Dunciad declare that the great Mr. Dennis (the Son of 
 a Saddler) had better have been a common Parish Crier, than a Poet or 
 Critick ? Have not forty Years, and upwards, witness'd the Truth of this ? " 
 
 3 Original Letters, Familiar, Moral and Critical By Mr. Dennis. In Two 
 Volumes (but usually bound together and paged consecutively). London, 
 1721, p. 45. These letters form one of the chief sources of information 
 concerning Dennis's life and opinions. In subsequent notes they will be 
 referred to as Original Letters. 
 
 * Encyclopedia Brittanica, 9th edition, s. v. Harrow. 
 
 2 1 
 
had known at Eton, 5 and under his supervision Dennis was 
 well trained in the fundamentals of the classics. There is 
 little else to record of the lad's five years at Harrow except 
 that among his mates was Lord Francis Seymour, with whom 
 he was afterwards to visit the continent. 
 
 On the thirteenth of January, 1675, Dennis entered Caius 
 College, Cambridge, as a common scholar. The relations be- 
 tween Cambridge and Harrow were not especially close at 
 this time, and no reason can be given for his choice except, 
 possibly, the reviving prestige after the Civil War of this 
 university which was fairly in accord with Dennis's religious 
 views. Dr. Robert Brady, who as one of the royal physicians 
 divided his time between London and Cambridge, was then 
 head master of the college. Probably he made little or no 
 impression on Dennis, who has left no mention either of him 
 or of any of his fellow students at Cambridge. Jeremy Collier, 
 we may here note, finished his seventh year of residence at 
 Caius and was granted his M.A. when Dennis was a freshman; 
 and in 1679, the year that our author obtained his B.A., 
 Samuel Garth received the same degree from Peterhouse. 6 
 Dennis must have employed his days and nights to better 
 advantage than did most of his fellow undergraduates, for he 
 acquired a knowledge of the classics which in later years 
 gained him a reputation for scholarship. In time he became 
 one of the seventy-five scholars in Caius and continued such 
 till March 4, 1680, when the following extract, under the title 
 " Sir Dennis sent away," appeared in the Cambridge Gesta 
 Book: "At a meeting of the masters and fellows, Sir Dennis 
 mulcted 3 1., and his scholarship taken away, and he sent out 
 of the college for assaulting and wounding Sir Glenham 7 with 
 a sword." Dr. Farmer asserts 8 that Dennis stabbed his man 
 
 8 Great Public Schools, London, n. d., the article on Harrow by Thornton, 
 Butler, and Martineau, p. 66. 
 
 * It is possible that during these years Garth and Dennis became friends. 
 Twenty-five years later the Doctor exerted himself to secure subscriptions 
 for his fellow Cantabrigian's Criticism upon our most Celebrated English 
 Poets Deceas'd. 
 
 T Sir Glenham was probably Charles Glenham, B.A., Caius, 1678; M.A., 
 1682. 
 
 8 Essay on the Learning of Shakespere, 2d ed., London, 1825, p. 14, n. 
 
3 
 
 in the dark, and that many years afterwards the tradition of 
 the affair lingered in the college. 9 As it was then no uncom- 
 mon thing for a student expelled from one college to go over 
 to another, Dennis soon registered in Trinity Hall, of which 
 Sir Thomas Exton was the headmaster. There is little to 
 record of these years except that Dennis made occasional trips 
 to town, where, doubtless, he saw many of the contemporary 
 plays in which he was much interested. 10 Among the visitors 
 to Cambridge in 1680 was the Princess Anne, to whom, as 
 Queen, Dennis was afterwards to dedicate his most important 
 poem. In the following year the King and Queen were 
 elaborately entertained at Cambridge, as is shown by the 
 record of the university expenses at that time. 11 We do not 
 know how far, if at all, Dennis improved this opportunity to 
 exhibit his loyalty, 12 but we do know that he took advantage 
 of another occasion that same year, for he then composed his 
 earliest extant poem, Upon the Fleet then fitting out. Written 
 in 1682. The following year he received his M.A. from 
 
 9 In answer to the doubts expressed by Kippis, who wrote the account of 
 Dennis for the second edition of the Biographia Brittanica, Dr. Farmer 
 says : " I might plead in the first place that if it were not true, I gave it 
 only as I received it from the late Master of the college, Sir John Bur- 
 rough, to whose accuracy in a thousand anecdotes, every one who knows 
 him will be a willing witness ; and I add the testimony of Dr. Smith, the 
 present Master, who declared it to be a well-remembered tradition, when 
 he first knew the college fifty years ago." First quoted by Dr. Farmer in 
 the European Magazine, XXV (1794), 412. Cf. the article on Dennis in 
 the Dictionary of National Biography. 
 
 10 Nearly forty years later Dennis commented on the manner in which 
 the fight waged over Settle's Emperess of Morocco extended to the univer- 
 sity, and how the " young Fry inclin'd to Elkanah." Preface to the Re- 
 marks upon Mr. Pope's Homer, 1717. 
 
 11 C. H. Cooper's Cambridge Annals, Cambridge, 1845, III, 589 ff. 
 
 13 "The 1 8th, [October, 1681] an indictment of high treason was pre- 
 ferred at the Old Baily against Mr. John Rouse : there were eight witnesses, 
 viz., Mr. Wyatt . . . and Mr. Dennis, who all charged him with treasonable 
 expressions ; " Luttrell, Brief historical Relation of State Affairs from 
 September i6?8-April 1714, Oxford, 1857, I, 137. Whether the Mr. Dennis 
 here mentioned was John Dennis cannot be determined. The Cambridge 
 student was then twenty-four, and he may have been at home for a brief 
 time. 
 
Trinity Hall. 13 Soon after leaving Cambridge Dennis inherited 
 property from his father and from an uncle, " who was," says 
 one of the critic's biographers, 14 " if not an alderman, a wealthy 
 citizen of London." 
 
 On coming into this inheritance, Dennis proceeded with his 
 Harrow schoolmate, Lord Francis Seymour, upon a tour of 
 France and Italy. Voltaire states 15 that Dennis spent only 
 fifteen days 16 in France and ridicules as hasty and ill grounded 
 his opinion that the people of that country are civil to 
 strangers "not as they imagine it a duty but an accomplish- 
 ment." Voltaire was doubtless wrong in his statement regard- 
 ing the length of Dennis's stay in France, but right in his 
 censures of that traveller's general attitude toward the French. 
 Led by his stout English prejudice, which seems to have been 
 intensified by his travels, 168 - Dennis saw in every Frenchman a 
 " Narcissus," who " in the flattering glass of his own false 
 imagination is eternally gazing on himself, or at least what he 
 takes for himself." In fact he seems to have found but little 
 in France that pleased him; he showed but slight enthusiasm 
 for the art treasures of the capital; and he considered the 
 Parisian theaters very unsatisfactory 17 as compared with those 
 
 18 Trinity Hall in Cambridge University College Series, London, 1902, 
 p. 167. 
 
 14 The Life of Mr. John Dennis, the Renowned Critick. In which are 
 likewise Some Observations on most of the Poets and Criticks, his Con- 
 temporaries, Anon., London, 1734, p. 7. 
 
 15 Oeuvres, avec Prefaces, Avertissements, Notes, etc. Par M. Benchot, 
 Paris, 1829, XXXVII, 22. 
 
 16 How long Dennis really was in France is not known. After he had 
 been in Italy five or six weeks, however, he wrote to a friend that he had 
 spent a longer time in France. See p. 141 of Dennis's Miscellanies in 
 Verse and Prose, 1693, a volume from which is derived most of our infor- 
 mation regarding this tour. Against Voltaire's statement may also be cited 
 a passage in the Epistle Dedicatory of Dennis's Advancement and Reforma- 
 tion of Modern Poetry, 1701: "I know by experience that a man may 
 travel o'er most of the western parts of Europe, without meeting three 
 Foreigners, who have any tolerable knowledge of it [the English language]." 
 
 iea ^d j t j s amus i n g t o fi n( j Addison . . . making his Tory f oxhunter 
 declare this anti-Gallican temper the main fruit of foreign travel." Cour- 
 thope's Addison, in the English Men of Letters Series, p. 39. 
 
 11 In the preface to his drama Iphigenia Dennis mentioned with a touch 
 of pride the hum of admiration which went round the audience at the 
 
of London. His dislike for Paris was, in all probabality, in- 
 tensified by the ill health he suffered there, so we are not sur- 
 prised to learn that he was glad to leave that city and to 
 proceed to Marseilles. Of his stay in this latter city he has 
 left no record beyond a chance allusion 18 to his astonishment 
 at the sight of priests there serving sentence in the galleys. 
 From Marseilles he took the customary route of travel of his 
 day back to Lyons, whence on the nineteenth of October, 1688, 
 he began the journey across the Alps to Italy. Six days later 
 he was in Turin. In striking contrast with Addison who later 
 took the same trip, Dennis enjoyed keenly the passage of the 
 mountains. Throughout his life he showed a delight in the 
 wilder aspects of nature, but the mountains filled him, he 
 says, 19 "with a delightful Horrour, a terrible Joy." 
 
 " At the same time," he continued, " I had an infinite Pleasure, I 
 trembled ; " adding, " I am delighted, 'tis true, at the prospect of Hills and 
 Valleys, of flowry Meads, and murmuring Streams, yet it is a delight that 
 is consistent with Reason, a delight that creates and improves Meditation. 
 But transporting Pleasures followed the sight of the Alps, and what unusual 
 Transports think you are those, that are mingled with Horrours, and some- 
 times almost with Dispair ? " 
 
 From Turin he made his way to Rome, though by what 
 route he nowhere definitely states. One sentence in a letter 
 written many years later, however, offers a hint as to his 
 
 discovery of the identity of the heroine. The author of a Comparison Be- 
 tween the Two Stages, 1702, p. 38, sarcastically refers thus to Dennis's 
 comment : " Surprise and Astonishment ! Nay, such a thing had never 
 happened since Thespis rode in a Cart, unless at one of Corneille's, who by 
 the way was one of his most intimate Acquaintance ; for, continues he 
 [Dennis], I had one day the honor to sit by that same Author at a Tragedy 
 of his in Paris, and by and by comes such a turn that the People murmur'd 
 again, they were so surprised." But Pierre Corneille died in 1684, so that 
 we must consider the above either a piece of banter or, less probably, a 
 reference to the great dramatist's brother, Thomas. 
 
 "Dennis's Usefulness of the Stage to the Happiness of Mankind, 1698, 
 reprinted in his Miscellaneous Tracts, 1725, p. 402. 
 
 19 Miscellanies in Verse and Prose, 1693, p. 134. This same sort of 
 rapture, tinged with a customary patriotic prejudice, is exhibited in a letter 
 to Thomas Sargent, written nearly thirty years afterwards : " In a late 
 Journey which I took into the Wild of Sussex, I pass'd over a Hill which 
 shew'd me a more transporting sight than ever the Country had shewn 
 me before either in England or in Italy." Original Letters, p. 31. 
 
6 
 
 course and also affords further illustration of his love of 
 " transporting Sights : " 20 
 
 " The Prospects, which in Italy pleas'd me most, were that of Valdarno 
 from the Apennins, that of Rome and the Mediterranean, from the moun- 
 tain of Viterbo ; of Rome at Forty, and of the Mediterranean at Fifty 
 Miles distance from it, and that of the Campagne of Rome, from Tiuoli 
 and Frescati; from which two Places, you see every FOOT of the famous 
 Campagne, even from the Bottom of Tiuoli and Frescati, to the very Foot 
 of the Mountain of Viterbo without any thing to intercept your Sight." 
 
 In Rome, he tells us, 21 he was astonished by the statue of 
 Laocoon, " which does not appear to be a work of art, but the 
 miserable creature himself." As for the Italians themselves, 
 he found them as reserved to strangers as the French had 
 been open. He was, indeed, deeply interested in studying 
 these people and concluded that they had degenerated through 
 the sins of their ancestors. How long he remained in Italy, 
 or when or how he journeyed back to England, cannot, it 
 seems, be determined. 
 
 On his return to England, 21 * about the time of the deposition 
 of James, Dennis declared for the new government and began 
 to mingle with the wits and men of letters of the town. 22 The 
 accession of William had deprived Dryden of his position as 
 poet laureate and royal historiographer, but it could not take 
 
 20 Original Letters, p. 31. 
 
 21 See his Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, 1701, p. 31. 
 21a "... it is plain that to a considerable detriment to my little affairs, 
 
 I declar'd for the Government at a time when I had no Encouragement, 
 nor any Prospect of receiving the least Return ; " Preface to the Remarks 
 on Prince Arthur, 1696. 
 
 22 The Critical Specimen, Anon., 1715, p. n, proposed a number of titles 
 for chapters of Dennis's life, of which one reads thus : " Chapter III. How 
 after leaving College he generously despised the Narrow Souled Prin- 
 ciples, taught there, and fell in with the Modern free and daring Principles 
 of the Town, as favouring much more of Publick Spirit, together with his 
 Private Reasons for doing so." It is interesting also to note that at this 
 time Dennis lived on friendly terms with men as different as the profligate 
 rascal, Fleetwood Shepherd and the future Bishop of Rochester, Dr. Atter- 
 bury. We learn from Atterbury's Correspondence, 1783, I, 262, n., that 
 " The Bishop and Mr. Dennis were very intimate at their first setting out in 
 the world (especially when his Lordship was at the Rolls)." May not the 
 two also have been joined more closely by their common admiration of 
 Milton ? 
 
from him the literary dictatorship of England. Ever?Dorset, 
 who was forced to remove him from office, had shown his 
 esteem for the poet by a liberal present from his own private 
 purse; and his example had been followed by others, such as 
 Dryden's old friend Mulgrave. At Will's coffee-house the 
 aging poet regained and held his old time power so success- 
 fully that "a pinch from Dryden's snuff box was equal to 
 taking a degree in the academy of wit." 23 Further evidence 
 of Dryden's popularity is afforded us by such comments as that 
 by Shaftsbury, in his Characteristics, 2 * upon the " young fry " 
 that surrounded the old dictator as admirers, champions, and 
 imitators. Among these young men one of the most promi- 
 nent was Dennis, who "made court" to his fellow Canta- 
 brigian, addressed the old poet as a close friend, gained many 
 critical ideas from him, and warmly championed his fame in 
 the following century against the growing reputation of Pope. 25 
 Dennis confessed that, although he usually found his letters 
 to his friends a light task, 26 in writing to Dryden he missed 
 
 23 Dryden's Works (Scott and Saintsbury), Edinburgh, 1882, I, 311. Un- 
 less otherwise stated, all references to Dryden's works will be to this 
 edition. 
 
 24 " They are his guards ready to take arms for him, if by some presump- 
 tuous Critic he is at any time attacked. They are indeed the very shadows 
 of their immediate predecessor, and represent the same features, with 
 some alterations perhaps for the worse. They are sure to aim at nothing 
 beyond or above their Master, and would on no account give him the least 
 jealousy of their aspiring to any degree or order of writing above him. 
 From hence the harmonious and reciprocal esteem, which on such a bottom 
 as this, cannot fail of being perfectly established among our poets." Miscel- 
 laneous Reflections, London, 1900, II, 327. 
 
 25 " How many were there in Mr. Dryden's Life-time, who endeavour'd 
 to make him believe, that I should be the foremost, if I surviv'd him, of 
 all his Acquaintance to arraign his Memory; whereas I am he of all his 
 Acquaintances, who, tho' I flatter'd him least while living, t having been 
 content to do him justice behind his back and before his Enemies Face, 
 am now the foremost to assert his Merit and vindicate his Glory." Original 
 Letters, p. 291. 
 
 28 " Tho' no Man writes to his Friends with greater Ease, or with more 
 Chearfulness, than Myself ; and tho' I have lately had the Presumption 
 to place you at the head of that small Party, nevertheless I have experienc'd 
 with Grief, that in writing to you I have not my old Facility. . . . My 
 extraordinary Inclination to shew that I honour you at an extraordinary 
 
8 
 
 his customary ease through his great desire to do well. 
 Dryden, in his turn, esteemed Dennis highly 27 and declared 
 him to be one of the greatest masters of the Pindaric ode 28 
 and a better critic than Perrault. His regard for Dennis is 
 further shown by the singularly interesting correspondence 
 that passed between them and by his contribution of a trans- 
 lation of one of Voiture's letters to the selections from that 
 author with which Dennis concluded his Letters upon Several 
 Occasions, 1696. We are not surprised, therefore, to find 
 Dennis appearing as Dryden's champion in the literary 
 quarrels of the time, and we may regard it as at least curious 
 that practically all of our author's critical writings before 
 1700 were directed against those who had opposed his master. 
 Dennis first took arms against Rymer, who had supplanted 
 Dryden as royal historiographer, 29 and whom Dryden had 
 
 rate, and to shew it in words that might not be altogether unworthy Mr. 
 Dryden's Perusal, incapacitates me to perform the very Action to which it 
 incites me." Dennis's Letters upon Several Occasions, 1696, p. 46. 
 
 27 Dryden's intimacy with Dennis is also shown by the old poet's habit 
 of relating to his admirer literary anecdotes and reminiscences, of which 
 the following may serve as illustrations: "The only play that ever Mr. 
 Cowley wrote was barbarously treated the first night, as the late Mr. 
 Dryden has more than once informed me, who has told me that he went 
 to see it with the famous Mr. Sprat, now Bishop of Rochester, and that 
 after the play was done, they both made a visit to Mr. Cowley, whom the 
 death of his Brother had obliged to keep to the House, and that Mr. Cowley 
 received the news of his ill-success with not so much firmness as might 
 be expected of so great a man." Dennis's Large Account of the Taste in 
 Poetry, prefatory to the Comical Gallant, 1702. One other illustration 
 "And yet Mr. Dryden at that time knew not half the extent of his [Mil- 
 ton's] Excellence, as more than Twenty Years afterwards he confess'd to 
 me, and it is pretty plain from his writing the State of Innocence." Orig- 
 inal Letters, p. 75. 
 
 28 "There is another part of Poetry in which the English stand almost 
 upon an equal foot with the Ancients ; and 'tis that which we call the 
 Pindarick, introduc'd, but not perfected by our famous Mr. Cowley: and of 
 this, Sir, you are certainly one of the greatest Masters. You have the 
 Sublimity of Sense as well as of Sound ; and know how far the Boldness 
 of a Poet may lawfully extend. I could wish you would cultivate that 
 kind of Ode, and reduce it either to the same Measures which Pindar 
 us'd, or give new Measures of your own." Dennis's Works, II, 504. 
 
 " For an account of the relations between Dryden and Rymer, see Dry- 
 den's Works, I, 317. Cf. Spingarn's Critical Essays of the Seventeenth 
 Century, II, 342. 
 
9 
 
 attacked both in the preface to his translation of Ovid and, 
 with greater bitterness, in his Preface to the Third Miscel- 
 lany. 30 Dryden also prepared the " Heads " of an answer to 
 Rymer's Short View of Tragedy; but he never published this 
 reply, possibly because so many of his views were expressed by 
 Dennis in the Impartial Critick, 1693. At any rate, the re- 
 semblance between this book and Dryden's notes is quite suffi- 
 cient to justify Mr. Saintsbury's query 31 whether Dennis had 
 not been permitted to see the "Heads." Again, Dryden had 
 proposed to criticize Blackmore's Prince Arthur, since the 
 preface to that epic contained " some personal reflections aimed 
 at him directly." 32 Indeed as he afterwards stated in the 
 preface to the Fables, Dryden felt that Blackmore had taken 
 the hint for Prince Arthur from his preface to the translation 
 of Juvenal; and he went on to complain that, instead of 
 acknowledging an obvious indebtedness, the poetaster had 
 rather traduced him in a libel. 33 It seems not improbable, 
 therefore, that Dennis may have received encouragement from 
 Dryden to criticize Blackmore's popular epic. Dennis also 
 replied in 1698 to Collier's Short View of the Immorality 
 and Profaneness of the English Stage, in which Dryden's plays 
 had been censured. He further showed his admiration for 
 his master by writing To Mr. Dryden upon his Translation of 
 the Third Book of Virgil's Georgics. Pindarick Ode. 3 * This 
 poem, which was one of the most popular of Dennis's poetical 
 productions, was published in Tonson's Miscellanies and was 
 afterwards incorporated in our author's Works. 
 
 It was, however, no blind admiration that Dennis bestowed 
 upon the older poet and critic. He recognized, for example, 
 Dryden's failure to appreciate Milton 35 and took him to task 
 for censuring Wycherley's portrayal of characters in the Plain 
 
 80 Ibid., XV, 53. 
 
 81 History of Criticism, II, 129. 
 
 82 Dryden's Works, I, 351. 
 
 88 Dryden probably never forgave Blackmore's attacks, for lie afterwards 
 pilloried the physician in the poem To My Honoured Kinsman, John Dry- 
 den, in the preface to the Fables, and in the prologue for the Pilgrim. 
 
 34 " Addison paid an early tribute to Dryden's fame by the verses ad- 
 dressed to him on his translations." Dryden's Works, I, 312. 
 
 35 Original Letters, p. 75. 
 
10 
 
 Dealer Furthermore, he has left us, as Lowell has justly 
 observed, a most discriminating characterization 37 of his 
 master as "my departed Friend, whom I infinitely esteem'd 
 when living for the Solidity of his Thought, for the Spring, 
 the Warmth, and the beautiful Turn of it; for the Power and 
 Variety, and Fullness of his Harmony; for the Purity, the 
 Perspecuity, the Energy of his Expression: and (whenever the 
 following great Qualities were requir'd) for the Pomp, 
 Solemnity, and Majesty of his Style." 
 
 Next in authority to Dryden in the circle at Will's coffee 
 house was Congreve. The relations between these two writers 
 had been close and friendly from the time of their introduction 
 to each other, when Dryden had read the Old Bachelor and 
 had pronounced it "the best first play" he had ever seen. 
 Dennis, too, held a high opinion of Congreve's ability and 
 regarded him as the greatest living writer of comedy, " except- 
 ing only Mr. Wycherley." 38 Pope, however, sneered 39 at 
 Dennis as intruding upon Congreve and Wycherley, " obtaining 
 some correspondence with them," and "immediately obliging 
 the world with their letters." That Dennis was proud of his 
 literary associations is undoubtedly true, but the tone of the 
 letters and other evidences are of such a nature as to show 
 that he was not regarded as an intruder. Otherwise Con- 
 greve would hardly have written him the long and painstaking 
 letter on the nature of humor, 40 a subject which the author 
 believed had never been treated before; and his request that 
 Dennis would set him right, if he should be in the wrong, 
 seems more than a perfunctory compliment. About this time, 
 too, Dennis probably published his Letters on Milton and 
 Congreve, which have since been lost. 41 Through the early 
 
 88 Proposals for Printing by subscription . . . Miscellaneous Tracts writ- 
 ten by Mr. John Dennis, 1721. 
 
 87 Original Letters, p. 291. Quoted by Lowell in his essay on Dryden. 
 
 88 Dennis's Works, I, 526. 
 
 89 Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), 1871-1889, IV, 109. Unless 
 otherwise specified, all references to Pope's writings will be to this edition. 
 
 40 Letters upon Several Occasions: Written by and between Mr. Dryden, 
 Mr. Wycherley, Mr. . . . , Mr. Congreve, and Mr. Dennis. With a New 
 Translation of Select Letters of Monsieur Voiture. London, 1696, pp. 80 ff. 
 
 41 Infra, p. 28. 
 
11 
 
 years of the eighteenth century the two remained on terms of 
 at least nominal friendship. 42 Later, when Steele accused 
 Dennis of having abused Congreve, the critic retorted thus: 43 
 "As for my having been severe with Mr. Congreve, it is a 
 figure of speech, which Jeremy says, in Love for Love, inter- 
 lards the greater part of his conversation." Charles Wilson, 
 Congreve's biographer, asserts 44 that in their later life " Con- 
 greve was continually bestowing upon Dennis pecuniary 
 favours ; " and that he had often heard Congreve " say of the 
 two evils, it was better to have Dennis's Flattery than his 
 Gall." In some other matters Wilson is not a perfectly im- 
 partial judge of Dennis, so we may discount his statement 
 somewhat, while admitting that as it concerns the author's old 
 age, it may be true. On the other hand, however, it must be 
 remembered that in 1721 Dennis addressed to Congreve his 
 letter In Defence of Mr. Wycherley's Characters in the Plain- 
 dealer, in which he praised Congreve as " a better Judge than " 
 himself and declared that in defending the author of the 
 Plain-dealer he was also defending the author of the Double- 
 dealer. Last of all it is to be noted in tracing the relations of 
 these two authors that Congreve probably received this letter 
 favorably, for. his name is found among the subscribers for 
 Dennis's Miscellaneous Tracts in which was printed the letter 
 just mentioned. As this volume was not published till 1727, 
 Congreve's name appeared in this list of subscribers just two 
 years before his death. 
 
 Once as a student coming up to town, so Dennis states in a 
 letter to Richardson Pack, 45 he drank the health of Mr. 
 
 42 Later, though they saw less of each other, Congreve is said to have 
 acted as a peace maker between Dennis and Addison and to have induced 
 the latter to subscribe for the former's Works. See Memoir of the Life, 
 Writings, and Amours of William Congreve, by Charles Wilson, London, 
 1730, II, 135. Leigh Hunt in his Biographical . . . Notices of . . . Con- 
 greve attributes this book to John Oldmixon. 
 
 48 J. Nichols, The Theatre, By Sir Richard Steele, with the Anti-Theatre, 
 &. London, 1791, II, 432. In subsequent references this will be men- 
 tioned as the Theatre. 
 
 ^Memoir . . . of Congreve, II, 135. 
 
 45 Dennis's Original Letters, p. 214. Also in Pack's New Collection of 
 Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, London, 1725. 
 
12 
 
 Wycherley, under the title of Captain Wycherley ; and he goes 
 on to relate a number of incidents which show an unusually 
 intimate knowledge of this man whom Dryden was proud to 
 call his friend. 46 As has been stated above, Dennis con- 
 sidered Wycherley the greatest contemporary writer of comedy, 
 and he did not hesitate frequently to reaffirm this belief. 
 Wycherley, in his turn, wrote Dennis occasional letters and 
 declared that he valued his friendship more than he should a 
 title. 47 Many years later Pope included in his published cor- 
 respondence 48 a letter purporting to be from Wycherley, in 
 which the latter threatened "to print your letters as Dennis 
 did mine, without your knowledge." Possibly this letter is 
 authentic; but knowing Pope's habits of doctoring his cor- 
 respondence, we may well regard it with suspicion along with 
 the laudatory verses which Dennis said 49 Pope wrote and 
 published in Wycherley's name, thus securing for himself some 
 commendation and for Wycherley the blame of the bad verse- 
 making. Furthermore, Dennis states in the very beginning of 
 the dedication to Lord Halifax of his volume containing the 
 Wycherley letters, 50 "As soon as I had resolv'd to make this 
 Address to you, that the Present might not be altogether un- 
 worthy of you, I took care to obtain the Consent of my 
 Friends to publish some Letters, which they had writ in answer 
 to mine." Six years after Wycherley's death Dennis pub- 
 lished in his Proposals for printing his Miscellaneous Tracts, 
 1721, the letter to Congreve in Defence of Mr. Wycherley's 
 Characters in the Plain-dealer, which we noticed in the preced- 
 ing paragraph. The critic here defends this comedy against 
 the charge that its wit is forced and not fitted to the characters, 
 though he acknowledges that in some other respects the comedy 
 is not faultless. Incidentally, it may be added, Dennis here 
 contributes a few incidents to Wycherley's biography, stating, 
 
 46 Preface to the State of Innocence. 
 
 " Dennis's Works, II, 494. Their correspondence touches a variety of 
 themes, ranging from Wycherley's good-natured raillery at Dennis's pet 
 aversion to puns and punning to his serious advice about the latter's love 
 affairs. 
 
 48 Works, VI, 41. 
 
 49 Remarks upon Mr. Pope's Dunciad, 1729, p. 6. 
 60 Letters upon Several Occasions, 1696. 
 
13 
 
 for example, that the Duke of Buckingham once "lent him 
 500 1. upon his own single bond, in his father's life time." 
 
 Dennis's friendship with another member of the Dryden 
 group, Charles Gildon, has been recorded in the Dunciad. 51 
 In 1694 Gildon issued his Letters and Essays on Several 
 Subjects: To Dryden . . . Dennis and other Ingenious men 
 of the Day, addressing to Dennis what is probably the most 
 important essay of the volume, his Vindication of Love in 
 Tragedies against Rapin and Mr. Rymer. To him we are also 
 indebted for the first biography of Dennis, since he edited 
 and enlarged the 1699 edition of Langbaine, giving what is 
 probably an accurate, though a meager, account of the first 
 forty years of the critic's life. Gildon is also generally re- 
 garded as the author of a Comparison Between the Two 
 Stages, 1702, which contains some tart criticism of Dennis's 
 plays. The keenness of the writer, his sharp and ready 
 tongue, together with the disagreement between the critical 
 dicta there expressed and those usually entertained by Gildon, 
 seem, to the present writer at least, to make doubtful his 
 authorship of the book. 
 
 Among the other literary friends of the critic who may be 
 ,j mentioned briefly, the most important is Addison, who is also 
 to be counted among the disciples of Dryden. 62 Neither 
 Dennis nor Addison has left any recorded cause for differ- 
 ence before 1710; and even at the time of their greatest dis- 
 agreement the former considered the latter a man of remark- 
 *able parts. 53 To Prior Dennis wrote a letter on the relative 
 merits of Horace and Juvenal, which he afterwards published 
 without date. The tone of the letter is that of respect and 
 consideration, and we may note occasional phrases 54 that seem 
 to indicate a long established acquaintance. With the gentle 
 Southerne, who sat on Dryden's left, Dennis was on especially 
 good terms ; and he later gratefully acknowledged this friend's 
 
 6l Dunciad, III, 11. 172-173. 
 
 62 Addison had addressed his first poetical essays to Dryden and had 
 also written the arguments prefixed to the several books of the old poet's 
 translation of the Aeneid. 
 
 53 Original Letters, p. 173. 
 
 64 Ibid., p. 430. 
 
14 
 
 help in planning his play Liberty Asserted. With Maynwar- 
 ing 55 and Moyle, 56 other members of the Dryden coterie, 
 Dennis lived in intimate relations, proud of the praise of the 
 former, and maintaining an affection for the latter which a 
 separation of twenty years could not stifle. 
 
 The circle at Will's, however, formed but a part of Dennis's 
 friends and acquaintances. Whatever fortune he inherited 
 disappeared rapidly under his careless management, so that he 
 was forced to pay an ever increasing attention to the patrons 
 of the day, especially to the great political leaders. To the 
 man of letters of the late seventeenth century, politics meant 
 much, for they led to a patronage, which, while neither re- 
 markably great nor entirely secure, afforded almost the only 
 income for any poet who did not write plays. 
 
 In the earlier years following his return from the continent 
 Dennis's writings show a very moderate interest in politics, so 
 that it is not surprising that early in 1694 he should declare 
 to Dryden that " all who are at present concern'd for their 
 Country's Honour, harken more after your Preparatives, than 
 those for the next Campaign." 57 Possibly it is not too much to 
 say that Dennis would have ranked Dryden very close to his 
 favorite King William as the great national hero. For the 
 latter Dennis, like Defoe, always manifested a passionate 
 admiration, which found expression in nearly every poem on 
 state affairs he ever composed from his Pindarick Ode to the 
 
 65 Arthur Maynwaring, or Mainwaring (1668-1712), an Oxford and Inner 
 Temple student, was in his earlier years an effective Tory writer, but 
 afterwards, through his friendship with Lord Somers, became a Whig. To 
 him Steele dedicated the first volume of the Tatler. He wrote much in 
 the Medley, and was the center of a group of Whig pamphleteers which 
 included Oldmixon and Robert Walpole. He was a member of the Kit 
 Cat club, and while in France after the peace of Ryswick met Boileau and 
 LaFontaine. Dennis refers to him in the Original Letters, p. 4; p. 85. 
 
 "Walter Moyle (1671-1721), was also an Oxford student who, as one of 
 the circle at Will's, was generously praised by Dryden and other members 
 of the company, especially by Charles Gildon. He was a classical scholar 
 of some ability and a political pamphleteer. About the beginning of 
 the eighteenth century he left London and seems never to have revisited it. 
 In the Original Letters, p. 159, Dennis includes an invitation to him to 
 spend some time with his old companions. 
 
 w Works, II, 502. 
 
15 
 
 King, written in 1691 to his panegyric on the accession of 
 George I. Some of the contemporary political events, such as 
 the naval victory at LaHogue in 1692 and the death of Queen 
 Mary two years later, evoked verses from Dennis. He did 
 not, however, ally himself closely with either political party; 
 and it is evident that during these years his ideal patron was 
 a Maecenas, one interested in letters for themselves. 58 It was, 
 indeed, to those whom he regarded as thus disposed that he 
 made his first appeal. It is decidedly significant that his first 
 dedication, that of his Poems in Burlesque, should have been 
 addressed to the scapegoat wit and courtier Fleetwood Shep- 
 pard, or Shepherd, as Dennis spelled the name, who for many 
 years had posed as a patron of letters. 59 
 
 What success Shepherd had gained had been due in large 
 measure to his relations with the Earl of Dorset, a man of 
 no very high moral sense, a wit and courtier, a man about 
 town, much of a politician, and a patron of poets. We have 
 already noticed his generosity to Dryden, who had dedicated to 
 him the Essay on Satire and that Of Dramatic Poesy. 
 Wycherley and Butler knew his munificence, and Prior praised 
 him highly. Possibly, as in the case of Prior, Shepherd intro- 
 duced Dennis to Dorset, to whom in 1693 our author addressed 
 his second dedication, that of Miscellanies in Verse and Prose. 
 Dennis maintained his position with Dorset so well that the 
 latter's son became one of the few benefactors of his old age, 
 and that too in spite of the fact that in 1697 when Robert, 
 Earl of Sunderland, succeeded his patron as Lord Chamberlain 
 our author dedicated to the new favorite his Plot and No Plot. 
 
 Among the protegees of Dorset was Lord Halifax, 60 who, 
 
 "'After Mecoenas and Cardinal Richelieu your Lordship [Dorset] will 
 stand eternally recorded by Fame, as the last in succession of this illus- 
 trious Triumvirate, and it will also stand recorded by that same everlasting 
 Register, That in your Lordship's time, England had more good Poets, 
 than it could boast frpm the Conquest to you before." Dedication to the 
 Miscellanies in Verse and Prose, 1693. 
 
 69 Rymer dedicated to Shepherd his Tragedies of the Last Age. 
 
 60 The following stories from the Life of Mr. John Dennis, 1734, P 2 4> 
 which probably contain some apocryphal elements, are typical of a large 
 number that have gathered around the critic's name : "... at his first 
 introduction into that Nobleman's [Halifax's] Acquaintance an Accident 
 
16 
 
 according to Dennis, " received more dedications than any other 
 man of his time." He proved the lifelong friend and bene- 
 factor of the critic. The Earl of Pembroke must also be men- 
 tioned among Dennis's friends as one who remembered him 
 both when he was prosperous and after he fell into want. 61 
 Dennis also gained the favor of another munificent patron of 
 letters, the Duke of Ormond, 62 to whom Dryden had addressed 
 his Plutarch. The Duke, who rather courted the writers of 
 the day, graciously accepted the dedication of Dennis's play 
 Rinaldo and Armida. Buckingham and Lansdowne, too, re- 
 ceived his work favorably: the former was pleased with his 
 play Rinaldo and Armida and was chosen as the patron for 
 his chief critical work, the Advancement and Reformation of 
 Modern Poetry, 1701. The latter, by introducing Dennis to 
 Godolphin, secured for the critic the only office he ever held. 
 
 The only definitely known amount that Dennis received from 
 a patron was one hundred guineas for his play Iphigenia. 93 Of 
 all his patrons Lord Lansdowne was perhaps the most liberal, 
 
 happened that might have lost the Favour of another not so well able to 
 discern his merit as My Lord Halifax, for having been invited to Supper, 
 and getting much intoxicated with some fine Wines, he had not often been 
 used to, he grew so impatient of all contradiction, that he got up of a 
 sudden, and left the Room, but at his Exit, overturned the whole Side- 
 board of Plates and Glasses. 
 
 " The next morning, seeing Walter Moyle, who was one of the Com- 
 pany, he told him that he had quite forgotten what had happened, for he 
 was very much in liquor, and desired that he would tell him in what man- 
 ner he went away. ' Why, Sir,' said Mr. Moyle, ' you went away like the 
 Devil, and took one corner of the House with you.' 
 
 " Being another time at the same Nobleman's House, my Lord having 
 a very fine Parrot he was very fond of, and happening to turn toward 
 Poll, to stroke and play with him, Mr. Dennis got up on a sudden, * I see,' 
 said he, ' your Lordship is engaged, I will wait on you another time,' and 
 before my Lord could make any Answer was got to the Door." 
 
 It is noteworthy that all the stories about Dennis, of which there is 
 a fairly large group, emphasize his impetuousness. 
 
 91 Gentleman's Magazine (1795), Vol. LXV, Ft. i, pp. 105-106. 
 
 62 Among those receiving his benefactions were Congreve, Addison, New- 
 ton, Locke, and Prior. Pope in the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, 11. 231-248, 
 bitterly denounced his patronage. 
 
 ** Life of Mr. John Dennis, p. 21. 
 
17 
 
 for Dennis himself wrote 64 that this peer once made him "a 
 Present so noble as never to have been made by any Subject 
 to any Author now living." It seems impossible to determine 
 when this present was bestowed, or what was its amount. 
 Possibly Dennis's statement as to its munificence is an exag- 
 geration, for his lively gratitude usually prevented him from 
 underestimating the benefactions he received. It seems prob- 
 able, however, that these benefactions were not frequent, and 
 that of themselves they would have afforded a very precarious 
 living for a gentleman about town. 
 
 Regarding Dennis's life at this time most of our scanty in- 
 formation is derived from his Letters upon Several Occasions f 
 1696. From them we learn that he was out of town a great 
 deal, 65 that much of the time he was not in good health, 66 
 and that in 1695 he was "wracked by a cruel Passion" of 
 love. 67 The object of his affection was a Northamptonshire 
 woman, whose father disapproved of the proposed match. 
 Wycherley, whom our author chose as his confidant in this 
 affair, railed at him good naturedly and wrote that he was 
 pleased when, about the last of March, 1695, Dennis announced 
 his recovery from the passion. 68 By the following August our 
 
 84 Original Letters, p. 86. 
 
 85 Few of Dennis's out of town letters give any idea as to his where- 
 abouts. On January 10, 1793/4, however, he wrote to Dryden from Busby 
 Heath (Letters upon Several Occasions, p. 46). At the beginning of the 
 next winter he was again out of town (ibid., p. 24) and probably remained 
 away till spring (ibid., p. 32). Possibly it was at this time that he spent 
 a month in Northamptonshire (ibid., p. 34). He was back in the city 
 during the summer (ibid., p. 99) but had left by October and was again 
 out of town at the time of the publication of his Remarks on Prince 
 Arthur (prefatory note) in 1696. Dennis manifested a Londoner's usual 
 regard for his native city, which he declared " is the only true and solid 
 Foundation of the English Strength" (Original Letters, p. 262); but for 
 many years he was led by his love of the country to spend at least a few 
 weeks there (ibid., p. 147). 
 
 68 Original Letters, p. 24; p. 55. Letters upon Several Occasions, p. 17. 
 
 OT Letters upon Several Occasions, pp. 34 ff. 
 
 w Letters upon Several Occasions, pp. 31 ff. While these letters are 
 unsigned, it is fairly certain from their position in the collection and from 
 their nature, together with Dryden's remark (Dennis's Works, I, 502) 
 3 
 
18 
 
 author had regained his spirits sufficiently to be flattered 
 by Congreve's favorable mention of him to a woman 
 acquaintance. 69 
 
 This collection of letters (which supplies most of the in- 
 formation just given concerning Dennis) illustrates well how 
 our author followed the literary fashions of the time. The 
 letter had become a popular form in France, largely through 
 the genius of Voiture, and in England had found its best repre- 
 sentative of the century in Howell. As a vehicle for gallantry, 
 entertainment, literary gossip, biography, criticism, politics, 
 and religion, it was much in vogue. Such collections as Tom 
 Brown's Letters from the Dead to the Living and the cor- 
 respondence of the rake Rochester passed through frequent 
 editions. It is not surprising, therefore, that as one of his 
 earliest ventures Dennis should have published in 1696 a small 
 volume of correspondence between himself and some of the 
 more prominent members of the group at Will's. 70 In these 
 
 that they are autobiographic. It is not known, whether Pope alludes to 
 this affair in the lines to Cromwell, July 12 or 13 (1707): 
 " And for a butcher's well-fed daughter 
 Great D s roared like ox at slaughter." 
 
 69 Dennis remained through life unmarried. In Pope's Works, VIII, 237, 
 n., however, is given the following story : " Lord Marchmont told Sir 
 George Rose that he was once at Lord Bathurst's villa, near London, when 
 a servant whispered something to Pope which disconcerted him so visibly, 
 that Lord Bathurst inquired of the man what he said. The servant 
 answered that a young gentleman with a sword had desired him to inform 
 Mr. Pope, that he was waiting for him in an adjacent lane, and that his 
 name was Dennis. The challenger was the son of the critic, who had 
 come to avenge his father. Lord Bathurst went out to the swordsman in 
 Pope's stead, and succeeded in pacifying him." To the present writer this 
 story seems hightly improbable. It is possible, however, that Dennis may 
 have had a natural son, though there is no further evidence at present 
 to support such a belief. 
 
 70 Letters upon Several Occasions, Between Mr. Dryden, Mr. Wycherley, 
 
 Mr. , Mr. Congreve, and Mr. Dennis. Published by Mr. Dennis, With 
 
 a New Translation of Select Letters of Monsieur Voiture, 1696. Advertised 
 in the Term Catalogues for February, 1696. In 1700 Tom Brown repub- 
 lished the greater part of this volume of Dennis's in his Familiar and 
 Courtly Letters, made English, . . . by Mr. Dryden, T. Cheek Esq., Mr* 
 Dennis . . . With Twelve Select Epistles out of Aristaenetus ; . . . And 
 a Collection of Letters of Friendship . . . written by Mr. Dryden, Mr. 
 
19 
 
 letters we find mixed with expressions of mutual admiration 
 occasional pieces of valuable criticism, such as Congreve's dis- 
 cussion of the nature of humor; while the gossip of the coffee 
 house is mingled with suggestive comments on writers con- 
 temporary and classic. At the close of this body of cor- 
 respondence are printed the letters of Voiture which we noticed 
 in discussing the relations of Dennis and Dryden. 
 
 These letters, however, were not Dennis's earliest published 
 work. In the Gentleman's Journal; or Monthly Miscellany 
 for May, 1692, appeared an imitation of the tenth ode of the 
 second book of Horace, preceded by an editorial note to the 
 effect that " the Ingenious Writer of this poem " had refused to 
 permit the publication of his name. By June, however the poet 
 had lost some of his coyness and was prevailed upon to allow 
 the following editorial preface to the poem Upon Our Victory 
 at Sea: 
 
 " With much difficulty I have prevailed upon the Ingenious Gentleman 
 who wrote it [Upon Our Victory"} to let you know to whom the World 
 is oblig'd for so admirable a Piece. His name is Mr. John Dennis. And 
 'tis to him that you owe that beautiful Translation of the Ode to Licinius 
 in my last." 
 
 To the October number of this same magazine Dennis con- 
 tributed a translation of the eighth satire of Juvenal, just at 
 the time Dryden was turning that Roman author into English. 
 While Dennis was making these first ventures in the Gentle- 
 man's Journal, he was also preparing to publish some of his 
 poems in book form. Some time in 1692, probably late in the 
 year, appeared his Poems in Burlesque with a " Dedication in 
 Burlesque " to Fleetwood Shepherd, and the Passion of Byblis, 
 made English . . . by Mr. Dennis. In so much as this trans- 
 lation from Ovid was not advertised till the 24th of No- 
 
 Wycherley, . . . and other hands. The Term Catalogues for February, 
 1702, announce Familiar Letters to Persons of Honour and Quality by Mon- 
 sieur Voiture ; made English by Mr. Dryden, Mr. Congreve, Mr. Wycherley, 
 and Mr. Dennis, and other hands; in Two Volumes in Octavo. Nothing 
 more is known of this collection. It was possibly simply a slightly changed 
 edition of material already published. In 1735 appeared the Works of 
 Monsieur Voiture, Translated by the most eminent Hands, -viz., Mr. Dryden, 
 Mr. Dennis, Dr. Drake . . . Addressed to Miss Blount by Mr. Pope. This 
 volume, which reached a third edition in 1736, was published by Curll. 
 For its history see Pope's Works, VIII, 253. 
 
20 
 
 vember, 71 it seems probable that the Poems in Burlesque may 
 claim priority among all Dennis's books and pamphlets. These 
 two earliest books, we may note, illustrate respectively favorite 
 contemporary types. The burlesque had been made so popular 
 in France by Scarron that it had become the most prominent 
 form of non-dramatic literature and for a time practically 
 monopolized attention. Thence it had been brought to Eng- 
 land, where Butler had used it in Hudibras. 72 It was but 
 natural, therefore, that Dennis in his aspirations to be counted 
 among the wits of the day should have adopted this form for 
 what is possibly his first pamphlet, for book would be too 
 dignified a term to apply to these twenty odd pages with their 
 large type and broad margins. These half dozen poems in octo- 
 syllabics, of which the principal ones are entitled A Day's 
 Ramble in Covent Garden and the Story of Orpheus Bur- 
 lesqu'd, are filled with a broad humor and display an occa- 
 sional coarseness. 
 
 The Passion of Byblis, which, it is barely possible, may have 
 been issued earlier in 1692 than the Poems in Burlesque, also 
 illustrates how Dennis adopted the prevailing literary modes. 
 Translating from the classics was at this time a favorite exer- 
 cise of literary men, with whom none of the ancients was more 
 popular than was Ovid. Dryden published his translations 
 from that author in 1694 and by his interest in the task must 
 have stimulated Dennis in his similar employment. It is also 
 noteworthy that Dryden did not attempt this particular poem, 
 which was then one of the best known in Ovid. In the preface 
 to his translation of this story Dennis criticized Oldham who 
 had undertaken the same task, maintaining with some justness 
 that his predecessor's masculine temper was not suited to 
 translating a poem that "required neither Force nor Genius, 
 but only a Tenderness of Soul." This quality Dennis en- 
 deavored to supply. 
 
 This same year (November 17, 1692) the imprimatur of 
 
 71 London Gazette. 
 
 72 Dennis always manifested the highest regard for Hudibras, which he 
 was obviously imitating in these poems. Through his writings are scat- 
 tered some fifty quotations from Butler's pages, which show a remarkable 
 knowledge of that author. 
 
21 
 
 Edward Bohun was prefixed to a volume by Dennis called 
 Miscellanies in Verse and Prose. The title page bears the 
 date of 1693. 73 The prose includes three letters written to a 
 friend when Dennis was on the continent, and a translation of 
 Boileau's speech upon his admission to the French Academy. 74 
 The variety of the verse included also helps to confirm the 
 appropriateness of the title chosen for the book. Here are two 
 or three patriotic poems, a few of gallantry, and some imita- 
 tions and translations of Anacreon, Horace, and Boileau. 
 But a good half of these poems are Fables, the majority of 
 them in burlesque and bearing a moral in verse longer than 
 the stories themselves. L'Estrange's Fables had appeared but 
 a few months before, and LaFontaine was also growing in 
 favor in England, so we are not surprised at Dennis's interest 
 in this literary form. He deserves the credit of being one of 
 the earliest English writers to assist in the revival of the 
 fable, since in the date of publication, at least, his fables ante- 
 date those of Lady Winchilsea, for example, by nearly twenty 
 
 73 Advertised in the Term Catalogues in June, 1693. In November, 1692, 
 the Term Catalogues had announced "Poems and Letters upon Several 
 Occasions by Mr. Dennis, Octavo, D. Brown, at the Sign of the Swan and 
 Bible." Possibly this is the title of a third volume issued by Dennis within 
 these closing months of 1692. It seems much more probable, however, 
 that this was simply another title for the Miscellanies in Verse and Prose, 
 for that volume is not inaptly described by the title advertised. Futher- 
 more, Brown actually published the Miscellanies, in octavo, and some 
 of Dennis's other publications, such as his Britannia Triumphans, were 
 twice noticed in the Term Catalogues. In 1697 appeared a second edition 
 of the Miscellanies in Verse and Prose, bearing the metamorphosed title 
 Miscellany Poems, By Mr. Dennis: With Select Translations of Horace, 
 Juvenal, Mons. Boileau' s Epistles, Satyrs, and Aesop's Fables in Burlesque 
 Verse. To which is added, The Passion of Byblis, With some Critical 
 Reflections on Mr. Oldham, and his Writings, With Letters and Poems. 
 The Second Edition with Large Additions. The " Large Additions " con- 
 sisted of the Passion of Byblis, which had previously been published sepa- 
 rately and of some half dozen closely printed pages of notes and comments 
 on Oldham's translation of the poem. This collection, with exactly the 
 changed title just given, was, however, advertised in the London Gazette, 
 June 15, 1696. 
 
 74 Brown included this translation in the 1698 edition of his Familiar 
 Letters. 
 
22 
 
 years. 75 The preface of this volume is also of interest, for 
 it shows that, while Dennis was translating Boileau's verses 
 and speech, he was also absorbing that writer's critical ideas. 
 
 Two years later, in i6o,5, 76 Dennis's admiration for King 
 William, which we have already noticed, found expression in 
 the Court of Death: a Pindaric k Poem, dedicated to the 
 Memory of her Most Sacred Majesty Queen Mary. The poet 
 here represents himself as carried to the court of " Grim 
 Death, the Giant Terror," who declares that the only thing 
 that can break William's "matchless spirit" is the death of 
 the Queen, which is accordingly decreed. Evidently the domi- 
 nant love for things reasonable was shocked by Dennis's " con- 
 vulsive transports," for he defended himself in the preface 
 against the "horrible extravagancies" which had been "so 
 falsely and so unreasonably" laid to his charge. 
 
 Such charges, however, failed to weaken Dennis's admira- 
 tion for the Pindaric, for in 1697 he published what is probably 
 the "most enthusiastic" of all his poems the Nuptuals of 
 Britain's Genius and Fame. A Pindarick Poem on the Peace. 
 The following lines, which begin this short effusion, will indi- 
 cate all too plainly why these verses failed to bring either 
 commendation or reward: 
 
 " What divine Rapture shakes my Soul ? 
 What Fury rages in my Blood, 
 And drives about the stormy Flood? 
 What makes my sparkling Eye-balls rowl? 
 See, see the Godess of the Lyre 
 Descending in Tempestuous fire ; 
 Hence ye Profane, be gone, retire ; " 
 
 75 "The first six books of his [LaFontaine's] Fables were published in 
 France in 1668, other parts appearing in 1671, 1678, 1679, and the twelve 
 books in 1694. Their popularity in England is shown by a remark of 
 Addison, who writing in 1711 in praise of fables, says that LaFontaine 
 ' by this way of writing is come into vogue more than any other writer 
 of our times.' " Reynolds's Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea, 
 Chicago, 1903, cviii. These fables by Dennis, it may be noted, seem to 
 invalidate Miss Reynolds's statement that Lady Winchilsea was "first in 
 the field with a poetic form destined to great popularity in succeeding 
 years." Ibid., cxi. 
 
 "Advertised in the London Gazette for March n, 1694/5. The second 
 edition of this poem was advertised in the Term Catalogues in May, 1695. 
 
23 
 
 Congreve, too, had celebrated in verse this peace of Ryswick, 
 so that he came in for attack along with Dennis in the anony- 
 mous and almost negligible Justice of the Peace, or a Vindica- 
 tion of Peace from Several Late Pamphlets Written by Mr. 
 Congreve, Dennis, &c., 1697. This is a short poem in " dog- 
 gerel verse," accusing Dennis and Congreve of an interest in 
 irregular verse forms, both to the neglect of the needs of the 
 country. Neither Congreve nor Dennis ever took any notice 
 of this attack, if indeed they ever saw it. 
 
 Though the poems of this period 77 gained Dennis some 
 fame 78 and more than one substantial present, 79 they brought 
 a reward by no means adequate for his support. Sometimes 
 they failed of any financial return: the Court of Death, for 
 example, was, according to the author's own statement, 80 
 " almost the only poem in praise of the late Queen that re- 
 ceived no reward from the Government." It is not strange, 
 therefore, that during this period Dennis made three ventures 
 as a playwright. In fact, living as he did in contact with the 
 most successful dramatists of the time, it was almost inevitable 
 that he should try his hand at a play. 
 
 Sometime in May, i697, 81 his first play, A Plot and No 
 Plot, or Jacobite Cruelty, a Comedy was acted at the Drury 
 
 77 From the following passage in A Comparison Between the Two Stages, 
 1702, p. 38, it seems that Dennis also translated Horace's Ars Poetica: 
 "... has he [the author of a Trip to the Jubilee] never read the Ars 
 Poetica? That's strange; if he does not understand Latin, he may read 
 it in English, done by my Lord Roscommon, Oldham, or if he does not 
 understand good poetry, he may read it translated by Dennis, which is as 
 uncouth, hobbling Verse as he can desire." 
 
 78 Letters upon Several Occasions, p. 51. 
 
 79 " For since it is plain that to the considerable detriment to my little 
 affairs, I declar'd for the Government at a time when I had no Encourage- 
 ment, nor any Prospect of receiving the least Return; I think I should 
 prove the most foolish as well as the most ungrateful of men, if I could 
 fall from my English Principles at a time when I have received repeated 
 Encouragement from an Extraordinary Man whose Favour is sufficient to 
 give Force and Fire to the most Spiritless." Preface to the Remarks on 
 Prince Arthur, 1696. 
 
 80 Preface to Liberty Asserted, 1704. 
 
 81 Advertised in the London Gazette for May 31, 1697. 
 
24 
 
 Lane theatre. 82 It relates the story of a conspiring Jacobite 
 guardian, caught by two wards who may not marry without 
 his consent. Their love is, of course, successful. Possibly the 
 conception of this drama arose, as Mr. Ward suggests, 83 from 
 the discovery of the Assassination plot the previous year. Joe 
 Haines, the actor, declared in the prolog which he wrote and 
 delivered that the play was prepared in six weeks ; and know- 
 ing Dennis's methods of composition, we may well believe the 
 statement. The comedy was produced in May, at a time, says 
 Dennis, when the heat was intolerable; and he adds that 
 though the crowds were not so large as the customary winter 
 ones, they were well pleased with the play. We must remem- 
 ber, however, that Dennis was always optimistic in reporting 
 the receptions of his own dramas. 
 
 The history of A Plot and No Plot after its first performance 
 is a brief one. In his reply to Congreve in 1699 Collier 
 incidentally replied to Dennis, who had published a vindica- 
 tion of the stage, by declaring that this comedy "swears at 
 length and is scandalously Smutty and Profane." The 
 theatrical dictionaries of the eighteenth century 84 treat it as 
 they do most of Dennis's plays, either simply mentioning the 
 name and date (the latter not always correctly), or bestowing 
 a few words of perfunctory praise. In April, 1746, the 
 comedy was revived at Covent Garden. 
 
 Dennis's second play,Rinaldo andArmida/is certainly a curi- 
 ous one for a writer who fulminated against music as effemi- 
 nating and against the spectacular as ignoble. In this drama, 
 produced, probably in i698, 85 at the Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, 
 
 82 " Baldernoe Penkethman ; Bull Senior Doggett ; Bull Junior Gibber ; 
 Belcil Harland; Rumor Haines; Sue Frowsy Mr[s] Bullock; Frisket 
 Mrs. Kent; Celia Mrs. Rogers." Genest, Some Account of the English 
 Stage from the Restoration in 1660 to 1830, Bath, 1832, II, no. 
 
 83 History of English Dramatic Literature to the Death of Queen Anne, 
 2d ed., London, 1899, HI, 2 95- 
 
 84 E. g., A Companion to the Play House . . . Composed in the Form of 
 a Dictionary, London, 1764. Vide sub Dennis: John Edgerton : Theatrical 
 Remembrancer, London, 1788, p. 123. 
 
 85 The date of this play is open to question. Genest gives simply 1699 
 without month or day, following, in all probability, the date printed on 
 the title page of the published version. The following advertisement in 
 
25 
 
 Dennis has left us an interesting mixture of Venuses and 
 Cupids, Shepherds and Nymphs, with enchanted palaces that 
 rose to music. 86 With the exception of a single chorus, which 
 was borrowed from Henry Purcell, the music, forming a con- 
 siderable feature of the play, was written by John Eccles. 
 Dennis took his plot from Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, much 
 as Dryden in his Prince Arthur had closely copied from that 
 same author his chief incident the adventures of Rinaldo 
 on Mount Olivet. Though the play created something of a 
 stir among the theatre goers of the town, it failed and after a 
 short run was withdrawn. 
 
 Early in December, i6gg, 87 the managers of the Lincoln's- 
 Inn-Fields produced Dennis's 'third play, Iphigenia, based on 
 the Iphigenia in Taurus of Euripides. The story of that 
 heroine was at this time a popular one for dramatic representa- 
 tion. Dennis shows that he was familiar with Racine's treat- 
 ment 88 and in his preface mentions the dramatization of M. 
 de la Grange, which had lately been "brought on the French 
 stage." Speaking of his own play, Dennis went on to state 
 that the audience was much better pleased with the fourth 
 and fifth acts which he had made his own than with the 
 second where he had left Euripides almost untouched. The 
 
 the London Gazette for December 22, 1698, indicates that the play had 
 already been performed : " Rinaldo and Armida, a Tragedy as it is Acted 
 at the Theatre in Little-Lincoln' s-Inn Fields. Written by Mr. Dennis. 
 Printed for Jacob Tonson in Gray's-Inn-Lane." This advertisement is 
 practically a reproduction of the title page of the play. In Dennis's career 
 as a dramatist there is no other instance of his producing more than one 
 play in a season. 
 
 1 " At last the old stagers moulded a piece of Pastry work of their own, 
 and made kind of Lenten Feast with their Rinaldo and Armida; that 
 surprised not only Drury-Lane, but indeed all the town. Nobody dreamed 
 of an Opera there. . . . Well with this Vigary they tugged a while, and 
 . . . not a Fop but ran to see the Celebrated Virgin . . . there she shined 
 in the full Zodiac, the brightest Constellation there ; 'twas a pleasant re- 
 flection all the time to see her scituated there among the Bulls, Capricorns, 
 Sagittaries, and yet the Virgo still remain intacta ... at last down goes 
 Rinaldo's enchanted mountain; . . . and there is not so much as a Mole- 
 hill seen on't." Comparison Between the Two Stages, 1702, p. 35. 
 
 87 Advertised in the London Gazette for January i, 1699/1700. 
 
 88 Dennis's Works, II, 409. 
 
26 
 
 play was well staged and well acted and had also the zealous 
 support of Colonel Codrington, 89 who wrote the epilogue. 90 
 Dennis thought that the first representation was as successful 
 as he might reasonably expect. He was pleased, he says in 
 the preface, with the close attention and profound silence ; and 
 he added naively, "... there was something like what hap- 
 pened at the representation of Pecuvius, his Tragedy. For 
 when Orestes discovered his passion for Iphigenia in the 
 fourth act there ran a general murmur through the Pit, which 
 is what I had never seen before." "The critics, however, 
 after allowing themselves to be pleased by Nature," he con- 
 tinues, "began to study how to be displeased by Art" and 
 censured the drama severely. From the manager's standpoint 
 the play was a decided failure, for it probably did not pay 
 the expenses of staging, and after six performances it was 
 withdrawn. 91 Following closely upon this play came one by 
 Boyer, 92 based upon Racine's treatment of the Iphigenia in 
 
 89 Christopher Codrington (1668-1710), an Oxford student and later a 
 soldier, gained something of a name about town in the last decade of the 
 seventeenth century as a wit and a courtier. He received dedications from 
 Dennis, Creech, and others and took part in the replies to Blackmore's 
 Satire against Wit, 1700. In 1697 he was made governor of the Leeward 
 Islands. Six years later he resigned his appointment and spent the re- 
 mainder of his life in retirement on his estate in the Barbadoes. 
 
 90 " His Intimate Friend, Colonel Codrington, Governor of the Leeward 
 Islands, having taken a great deal of Pains to support his Interest, at the 
 Representation, not only by writing the Epilogue to it, but by encouraging 
 all his Friends to take Tickets for the Poet's Night, Mr. Dennis thought 
 himself obliged, as he had been really his Patron, to make a publick 
 Acknowledgment of it, but when he told the Colonel of his Intentions, he 
 would by no means consent to it, telling him that after what he had done, 
 it would be thought by everybody that he had courted the Dedication : but 
 that the Author might not imagine that he did it to save the Present, 
 which is usually made on these Occasions, he forced (undoubtedly without 
 any great Violence) an hundred Guineas upon him." Life of Mr. John 
 Dennis, p. 20. Possibly Dennis managed to kill two birds with one stone, 
 for when the play appeared in print, it was dedicated to Mr. John Freeman. 
 
 91 The criticism of this play in A Comparison Between the Two Stages, 
 p. 181, which emphasized Dennis's fondness for the word "tremendous," 
 gave the town an epithet which was applied to our author throughout 
 his life. 
 
 82 Abel Boyer (1667-1729) was born of Huguenot parents in Castres in 
 
27 
 
 Aulis. The ill success of this drama it seems to have fared 
 worse than Dennis's caused its author to say some harsh 
 things in his preface about the " Giant Wit and Giant Critic," 
 whose tiresome play had deterred people from attending a far 
 better one, which differed from the former "no less than a 
 young, airy Virgin from a stale and antiquated Maid/' 
 Iphigenia was the last of Dennis's dramas produced in the 
 seventeenth century, all of which, we may note in summary, 
 had proved ephemeral. Though he was beginning to gain a 
 name as an unsuccessful playwright and at times was advised 
 to stick to his criticism, 93 he had enjoyed a sufficient success 
 to induce managers still to give respectful attention to what- 
 ever dramas he might bring them. 
 
 Dennis's earlier plays, however, very deservedly contributed 
 less to his reputation than did his critical writings of this same 
 period. In 1693 appeared his first venture in criticism, bear- 
 ing the significant title the Impartial Critick, 9 * which was a 
 reply to Rymer's Short View of Tragedy. Both of these 
 books were published early in 1693, that by Dennis probably 
 a week before his Miscellanies in Verse and Prose?* 
 
 The day has long passed when we can accept the character- 1 
 ization of Rymer as the worst critic that ever lived without 
 asking what were his beliefs, and how he was regarded by his 
 contemporaries. In his time Rymer was considered a leading ' 
 critic, 96 and to us he is important both as one of our earlier 
 
 Upper Languedoc. In 1692 he became tutor to Allen Bathurst, afterwards 
 Lord Bathurst. Boyer's best claim to general remembrance is his Dic- 
 tionnaire Royal Francois et Anglois, published at the Hague in 1702; but 
 his monthly collection of events known as the Political State is valuable 
 to all students of the period, and he was one of the most influential of 
 the Whig journalists. Later he quarrelel with Swift, and he was also given 
 a place in the Dunciad. 
 
 93 A Comparison Between the Two Stages, p. 181. 
 
 84 The Impartial Critick, or Some Observations upon A Short view of 
 tragedy, written by Mr. Rymer, London, 1693. 
 
 95 The Impartial Critick was advertised in the London Gazette for February 
 27, 1692/3. At the close of the book appeared the following notice: "Mis- 
 cellany Poems &c By Mr. Dennis, will be published this next week. Printed 
 by James Knapton, at the Crown in St. Paul's Church Yard." 
 
 96 Even Dryden, who might well have been prejudiced against his suc- 
 cessor as historiographer, praised him highly in the very " Heads " of an 
 
28 
 
 critics and as one of the first and foremost advocates of the 
 - rules which prevailed in English criticism down to the be- 
 ginning of the nineteenth century. In his Short View of 
 Tragedy just mentioned Rymer advocated the introduction 
 into the English drama of the chorus which had been used 
 with some success by Racine in certain of his plays. The 
 most interesting part of the book, however, is the examination, 
 passage by passage, of Othello, Julius Caesar, and Catiline. 
 The book aroused a good deal of discussion and comment and 
 reached a third edition within five years. 
 
 Dennis's primary purpose in his prompt reply was to defend 
 Shakespere; but unfortunately he stopped short of a discus- 
 sion of Othello and Julius Caesar, promising that later he 
 would show that "contrary to Mr. Rymer's assertion, Shake- 
 spere is a great genius." The Impartial Critick consists of an 
 introductory letter to a friend and of five dialogues between 
 two characters, Beaumont and Jack Freeman, the latter repre- 
 senting Dennis's views. Possibly Dennis chose this latter 
 name as a compliment to the friend to whom he had dedicated 
 his Iphigenia. The key note of the greater part of this reply 
 iis sounded in the introductory paragraph, where our critic de- 
 'clares that the Grecian climate, politics, religion, and social 
 ) customs were so different from the English that it would be 
 absurd to attempt to establish the Athenian drama in London. 
 Three years later, in 1696, Dennis probably published the 
 Letters on Milton and Congreve, which Godwin mentions in 
 his Lives of Edward and John Phillips (p. 292, n.). Un- 
 fortunately the book cannot be found in the British Museum, 
 though it is given in the catalog. Some of the letters, pos- 
 sibly, are identical with those included by Dennis in 1721 in 
 the Proposals for printing certain of his works which we shall 
 notice later. We can only regret the loss of such letters 
 written by the critic who was a close friend of Congreve and 
 one of the first enthusiastic admirers of Milton. 
 
 In this same year, 1696, appeared the Remarks on a Book, 
 entitled Prince Arthur, cm Heroic Poem, with some general 
 
 answer prepared against him. Pope, too, commended him. Cf. Garnett's 
 Age of Dry den, p. 152. 
 
29 
 
 Critical Observations, and several New Remarks upon Virgil, 
 which Mr. Gosse has characterized 97 as "the first English 
 review of a book in a modern sense." Dryden had announced 
 his intention of treating this subject of Arthur, but he was 
 anticipated by Blackmore and attacked in the preface of this 
 popular epic. Probably, then, Dennis was led to make his 
 Remarks through his friendship for Dryden as well as through 
 his life long opposition to what he felt was unmerited success. 
 This reply, with its two hundred closely printed pages and 
 its forty more of preface, constitutes Dennis's longest, though 
 not his most important, work. Scattered through the criti- 
 cism are several interesting observations on Vergil and a 
 number of quotations from Paradise Lost; while for the 
 diversion of the reader Dennis incorporated near the middle 
 of the book a fragment of a drama Hypollitus, which he had 
 imitated from Euripides. The most important part of the 
 book is that section of the preface where Dennis outlines his 
 unfulfilled design of discussing more at large the nature of 
 poetry. Some of the ideas here suggested he elaborated five 
 years later in his Advancement and Reformation of Modern 
 Poetry; others he never discussed except incidentally. 
 
 The reception of Dennis's critique was very favorable. 08 
 Contrary to general statement, however, Blackmore did not 
 take the criticism kindly, for while Dennis's discussion was 
 entirely free from personalities and from any bitterness, it 
 was keen. We are not surprised, therefore, that when Black- 
 more wrote his Satire on Wit in 1700 he referred to Dennis 
 thus: 
 
 " Those who will D n s melt, and hope to find 
 A goodly mass of bullion left behind, 
 Do, as the Hibernian wit, who, as 'tis told, 
 Burnt his gilt feathers to collect the gold." 
 
 Dennis replied in the Epigrams published against Blackmore 
 by Tom Brown ;" but he and Blackmore held so many views in 
 
 91 History of Eighteenth Century Literature, London, 1889, p. 394. 
 
 98 Langbaine's Lives and Characters of the English Dramatic Poets, 1698, 
 p. 38. 
 
 ""The wits easily confederated against him [Blackmore], as Dryden 
 whose favor they almost all courted was his professed enemy." Johnson's 
 Lives of the Poets, ed. 1854, II, 253. 
 
30 
 
 common on religion, politics, and poetry, that they afterwards 
 became staunch friends, Blackmore declaring Dennis a greater 
 critic than Boileau, 100 and Dennis ranking Blackmore's Crea- 
 tion with the writings of Lucretius. 101 
 
 In the preface to Prince Arthur Blackmore had attacked the 
 license of the drama, but his note of half friendly criticism 
 was nothing to the blast which Jeremy Collier sounded two 
 years later (1698) in his Short View of the Immorality and 
 Profaneness of the English Stage. Into the war which fol- 
 lowed Dennis was drawn, probably in part through his friend- 
 ship with Congreve who had been severely attacked; and his 
 reply 102 is possibly the best of the numerous answers made 
 to Collier. Most of those replying denied Collier's statements 
 in toto. Dennis, however, recognized the flagrant abuses of 
 the existing stage and felt that his fellow Cantabrigian was 
 justified in attacking them. It was only when Collier assailed 
 * the stage itself that Dennis very sanely took issue with him. 103 
 
 One of the first results of Dennis's reply, which seems to 
 have escaped previous comment, was an indictment for libelling 
 the government, a charge not without its grim humor as we 
 recall his ardent and unremitting defense of the established 
 succession : 
 
 " Tu. 29 Nov. 1698. Yesterday being the last day of the term, the grand 
 jury of Middlesex presented Mr. Dennis, his book, called a Vindication of 
 
 100 Preface to Alfred, 1723, ii. It may also be noted that Blackmore's 
 name appeared in 1704 among the subscribers to Dennis's proposed Criti- 
 cism of our Most Celebrated English Poets deceas'd. 
 
 101 Quoted in the British Poets, XXVIII, 59. If it be urged that Dennis 
 is here merely bestowing a friendly compliment, we may well reply that 
 Addison characterized this same epic (339th Spectator} as " one of the 
 most noble and useful productions of our English verse," and that Johnson 
 declared in his life of Blackmore that " if that author had written nothing 
 else, his Creation would have transmitted him to posterity among the first 
 favourites of the English Muse." 
 
 102 The Usefulness of the Stage to the Happiness of Mankind, to Govern- 
 ment, and to Religion. Occasioned by a late book written by J. Collier. 
 London, 1698. This reply to Collier was reprinted in 1725. 
 
 103 If Mr. Collier had attack'd the corruptions of the Stage, for my part 
 I should have been so far from blaming him that I should publickly have 
 returned him my thanks : for these abuses are so great and flagrant that 
 there is a necessity to reform them. Introduction to the Usefulness of the 
 Stage. 
 
31 
 
 the Stage, in answer to Collier as a libel against the government, for assert- 
 ing that the people of England are most prone to rebellion of any in the 
 world, and always quarreling among themselves, if not diverted by plays, 
 upon which the court ordered an indictment against him, and the Attorney 
 general to prosecute him." 104 
 
 The indictment was probably quashed, 105 for Dennis's political 
 adversaries, in their later blasts and counterblasts, would cer- 
 tainly have made capital of his conviction as an enemy to the 
 government. Collier himself seems to have made no response 
 to Dennis beyond noting the smuttiness and profanity of A 
 Plot and No Plot. Dennis, however, continued the conflict 
 by answering in 1705 Collier's Dissuasive from the Play House 
 with a small pamphlet entitled A Person of Quality's Answer 
 to Mr. Collier's Letter. 109 Twenty-five years later, he was 
 drawn into a similar conflict with Law, the mystic. 
 
 In closing the account of this section of Dennis's life we 
 may note that on the whole his lot was a fairly comfortable 
 one. While he had been far from rich, he had not only been 
 free from want but had been in a position to mingle with the 
 wits and gentlemen of the town. In politics he was known 
 as a strong but thoroughly independent Whig, on good terms 
 with some of the most prominent members of the party. 
 Though he gained a name for brusqueness and a certain testi- 
 ness of temper, he entered upon no serious quarrels but lived 
 on peaceable terms with his contemporaries and was respected 
 by them. He had identified himself with the admirers of 
 Dryden and had come to place that literary dictator "at the 
 head of [his] small circle of friends." He had produced three 
 plays which had met with indifferent success, had gained a 
 name as a writer of Pindarics, and had published some of the 
 best criticism produced in the last decade of the seventeenth | 
 century. To his contemporaries he seemed a man of decided 
 promise. 
 
 104 Luttrell, Brief historical relation of State Affairs from Sept. 1678* 
 April 1714, Oxford, 1857, IV, 456. 
 
 108 Possibly the following allusion in the Critical Specimen (p. 12) hu- 
 morously exaggerates the event : " How the Critic was taken for a Plotter, 
 and his being discharged as not Guilty, upon a diligent search of all his 
 Papers." 
 
 loa In this connection, too, may be mentioned Defoe's poem, the Pacifica- 
 tor, which deals with this controversy and has slight hits at Dennis. 
 
II 
 
 1700-1710 
 
 By the year 1700, which marks the death of Dryden, Dennis 
 had come to be regarded as one of the foremost among the 
 men of letters of that rather barren period of our literature. 
 Within the next ten years he produced the bulk of his most 
 important work. The earlier years of this decade were espe- 
 cially busy ones for him, and he turned rapidly from one form 
 of composition to another. To prepare five plays in a little 
 more than the same number of years would seem to most 
 men a sufficient task of itself; but Dennis found time not 
 only for these but also for a number of long poems on the 
 great contemporary national events, each in itself an extended 
 and, as he himself confessed, an exhausting labor. To these 
 must be added his three or four political pamphlets, of which 
 at least one shows much care in the collecting of material. 
 But with far the greatest labor he produced in these years 
 three long critical discussions, which must have made severe 
 demands upon him, for in their composition Dennis was not 
 only exploring, as he felt, a terra incognita, but he was also 
 using every device at his command for making clear his argu- 
 ment. Such conscientious and unremitting toil as he endured 
 at this time certainly deserved its reward, so we are glad to 
 record that the reception of his writings in this period was in 
 general favorable : his poems gained him recognition from the 
 government; some of his acute and just political tracts were 
 widely read; and though most of his plays were damned, one 
 at least made a hit. Most important of all, his critical writings 
 were deservedly recognized by his contemporaries as among the 
 most valuable produced in England during the first decade of 
 the eighteenth century. 
 
 Regarding his private life of these years, the principal event 
 to be noted is that while suffering in body, 1 Dennis was 
 
 1 Preface to Britannia Triumphans, 1 704. 
 
 32 
 
33 
 
 lightened in spirits by his appointment in 1705 as one of the 
 royal waiters in the London Custom House. This small 
 sinecure, which paid 52 per annum, 2 was obtained through 
 the intercession of Buckingham with Marlborough and 
 Godolphin, whose attention was directed by him to Dennis's 
 recently published poem on the battle of Blenheim. There was 
 a delay between the promise of reward and its fulfillment, 
 which drew a tactful reminder from the poet to Marlborough ; 3 
 but finally, on the sixth of June, 1705, came the appointment 
 by royal sign manual warrant. Dennis held this waitership 
 for about ten years, being reappointed after the accession of 
 George I by a royal sign manual warrant dated March 17, 
 1714. We shall notice later his disposal of the office. 
 
 Of his friends and associates during these ten years we 
 possess little definite information. He lived on peaceable 
 terms with Congreve and Wycherley, Addison and Steele, 
 retained the interest of Buckingham, Lansdowne, and Hali- 
 fax, 4 and gained the patronage of Anthony Henley 5 and of 
 William, Duke of Devonshire. To the peer last named, whose 
 vocation was politics, and whose avocations were cock fighting, 
 horse racing, and letters, Dennis addressed the Monument, his 
 poem on the death of King William. The author's statement 
 that he had "long desired to lay something at his Grace's 
 feet," but that he had been held in awe by his patron's dis- 
 cernment, is no mere compliment, for Devonshire was a good 
 scholar with a taste that justified Lord Roscommon in en- 
 trusting his poems to him for correction. To Henley, his 
 other new patron of these years, who is to be remembered as 
 the companion of Dorset and Sunderland, as well as the 
 
 2 It has sometimes been stated that this office yielded 120 per annum. 
 See, however, infra, p. , n. 
 
 8 Original Letters, p. 26. In the fourth volume of Gibber's Lives of the 
 Poets, p. 215, occurs the statement, based upon the authority of a Mr. 
 Coxeter, that Marlborough gave Dennis a reward of one hundred guineas 
 for his poem on the battle of Blenheim. Such a gift, however, would 
 certainly have been unusual for the avaritious Marlborough. 
 
 * Original Letters, pp. 106, 363. 
 
 5 Henley was one of the first of the Whigs to recognize Swift after the 
 publication of the Tale of a Tub. The Purcells also received his patronage, 
 and to him Garth dedicated the Dispensary. 
 4 
 
34 
 
 benefactor of Addison, Dennis dedicated his most successful 
 play, Liberty Asserted. The author states in the preface that 
 the hint for the play came from Henley, "whom [he] had 
 sometimes had the honour to hear talk of criticism;" and he 
 adds that the success of the drama would have been greater, if 
 he might have written under his patron's direction, a bit of 
 praise that was doubtless pleasing to this free handed bene- 
 factor of poets, who received so many " soft dedications." 
 
 But the list of new friends and associates is not a long one, 
 for by the time of his appointment to the sinecure Dennis had 
 not only ceased striving to be known as a man of the town, but 
 had even "retired from the world." The cause of such a 
 step is hard to conjecture, especially as it came at the time of 
 his recognition by the government and of his greatest success 
 as a playwright. The passage throwing most light upon this 
 affair appears in a letter dated August 6, 1720, and addressed 
 to the Reverend Mr. Mansell, concerning some business trouble 
 between Dennis and his brother-in-law, in which the latter 
 accuses the former of acting unjustly: 6 
 
 " I was till five and forty plung'd in the Conversation of the great World, 
 and was every Day in Company with Gentlemen, who are universally known 
 to be Men of no ordinary Merit, who wanted no Discernment to know me, 
 and who have several of them given in publick proofs of their Esteem for 
 me. Now if I mistake not, before the age of forty five the Manners of 
 Men are unalterably formed. For these last fifteen Years I have retir'd 
 from the World, and confin'd my Conversation to 3 or 4 of my old Ac- 
 quaintance who are publickly known to be men of Honour and Under- 
 standing. Can any reasonable Man believe that I, who while I was con- 
 versant with the World kept my Reputation clear, should be a Villain in 
 Solitude ? " 
 
 By "retiring from the world," however, Dennis did not 
 mean to imply that he had severed all connection with the 
 republic of letters ; for at the time he wrote the above lines, he 
 was engaged in one of his bitterest literary quarrels. It was 
 rather that the old generation of men about town was giving 
 place to a younger set, and that Dennis in passing the half 
 century mark was then ready for the quieter life of an old 
 man. It is difficult always to maintain a just perspective of 
 his life, for he was thirty-five before he published anything 
 
 6 Original Letters, p. 46. 
 
35 
 
 and fifty-five before he engaged in the first of the many fierce 
 broils by which he is commonly remembered. 
 
 One of the old friends with whom he maintained relations 
 after this retirement was Charles Gildon, who later gave the 
 following hint of their customary life: 7 
 
 " Your letters have of late been full of complaints that you can never 
 find me at home; and that you every day miss me at our usual place of 
 Rendezvous, where we so frequently, with no vulgar pleasure, offer our 
 modest libations to Bacchus amidst our more plentiful sacrifices to Appolo." 
 
 There were, however, other and more serious demands upon 
 Dennis's resources; for though the early biographies furnish 
 no material for surmising their nature, beyond a few vague 
 hints at extravagance, his expenditures exceeded his income. 
 Possibly a statement in one of his letters 8 that his purse had 
 always been open to the needs of his friends may help in 
 accounting for the disappearance of the estate of the critic who 
 prided himself on his contempt for money matters. What- 
 ever be the true explanation, about six years after his appoint- 
 ment to the waitership, Dennis complained 9 that Pope had 
 attacked him at a time "when all the world knew that he 
 was persecuted by Fortune"; and this impecuniosity was 
 doubtless the cause of his letter on urgent business to Steele, 10 
 who, it seems, neglected to answer. But speculation concern- 
 ing these affairs with such a slender basis of fact is decidedly 
 futile, so we may well pass to a consideration of such informa- 
 tion with regard to Dennis's life as is conveyed by his writings. 
 
 In celebrating in verse the great national events of the time, 
 especially the victories of Marlborough which were then 
 thrilling and exalting the nation, Dennis was, of course, simply 
 
 T Complete Art of Poetry, 1718, iii. 
 
 8 Original Letters, p. 46. 
 
 9 Preface to the Reflections upon the Essay on Criticism, 1711. 
 
 10 In July, 1710, Dennis wrote thus to Steele: "I sent a Letter on the 
 28th to your House, Directed to Captain Steele, and desiring to see him 
 that Night, that I might have his Advice upon Business of Importance, 
 softly intimating at the same Time, that it was not in my Power to wait on 
 him. But having neither seen him nor heard from him, I fancy that my 
 old Friend is departed, and some other Gentleman has succeeded him in 
 the old House, with the same Name, and with the same Martial Title." 
 Original Letters, p. 28. 
 
36 
 
 following the custom of the poets and poetasters of the day. He 
 recognized what an aid to preferment good occasional poems 
 might prove, and in this decade he took advantage of these 
 important events to exercise his "genius for the Pindarick." 
 In 1702 he published the earliest of his patriotic effusions of 
 this period, the Monument: A Poem sacred to the Immortal 
 Memory of the Best and Greatest of Kings, William the 
 Third. 11 Its twelve or fifteen hundred lines of blank verse 
 are a strange mixture of " transport " with serious argument to 
 prove that William accomplished more through his love of 
 liberty than Caesar did through ambition. The author was 
 totally unconscious of any incongruity in his treatment, for he 
 declared in the preface that he had "less mistrust" of these 
 verses than of anything else he had " done in Poetry." Else- 
 where 12 Dennis stated that the Monument brought him no 
 reward, but that it gained him more fame than any of his 
 previous poems. 
 
 Two years later, I7O4, 13 he published a longer and more pre- 
 tentious performance, Brittania Triumphans; or, a Poem on 
 the Battle of Blenheim, which was dedicated to Queen Anne, 
 for she had inspired it. Dennis had desired to write a poem 
 on the battle, but had been uncertain what form it should 
 take till the Queen proclaimed a general thanksgiving for the 
 victory. He seized upon the hint thus suggested for combin- 
 ing poetry and religion and gave these verses laudatory of the 
 Queen and Marlborough a setting of praise and rejoicing. 
 Though Dennis's Blenheim contains, of course, no such 
 passages as the famous one of the angel and the storm in 
 Addison's description of the same battle, it ranks as one of 
 the best of the numerous poems evoked by the victory. 1 * 
 These verses, which were generally regarded as his most suc- 
 cessful, 15 brought him the greatest reward he ever received, for 
 
 "Advertised in the Term Catalogues for June, 1702. 
 
 12 Preface to Liberty Asserted, 1704. 
 
 33 Advertised in the Term Catalogues for November, 1704. 
 
 14 Of the other poems upon this battle two of the best known are those 
 by Prior and by John Philips, neither of which is noteworthy. See also 
 Macaulay's Essay on Addison, Works (New York, 1860), V, 354. 
 
 "Giles Jacob, the Poetical Register: or the Lives and Characters of all 
 our English Poets. With an Account of their Writings, London, 1723, II, 
 
37 
 
 Maryborough possibly gave him a hundred guineas 16 and was 
 partly responsible for Halifax's securing for him the 
 waitership. 17 
 
 Encouraged by such substantial recognition, Dennis com- 
 posed in 1707 his longest and most pretentious verses, A Poem 
 on the Battle of Ramillies. In Five Books. The plan of this 
 poem was, as he himself perceived, decidedly daring; for the 
 powers of Satan and Discord are here represented as con- 
 spiring for the French against Marlborough. Heaven itself 
 holds a council and sends the Angel of Concord, who protects 
 him from all that is bad and thus brings victory to the English. 
 Dennis was now profiting from his admiration for Milton, for 
 this long and somewhat tiresome effusion was an obvious 
 though not very successful imitation of Paradise Lost. 
 
 From time to time through these years Dennis contributed 
 some slight verses to the contemporary ephemeral publications, 
 the most notable apearing in the Muses Mercury which strug- 
 gled along through the year 1707 under the editorship of John 
 Oldmixon. In 1698, Dennis had written a prologue for Old- 
 mixon's Amyntas, a Pastoral, and during the following years 
 the two had remained good friends, so Dennis was naturally 
 asked to contribute to this new publication. In the January 
 number of this magazine he printed his Prologue for the 
 Subscribers to Julius Caesar, Supposed to be spoken by Shakes- 
 pere, which was written for the performances supported by 
 Halifax. 18 To the April issue he contributed a Song Till 
 
 Lord Halifax proposed a subscription for reviving 3 plays of the 
 best authors with the full strength of the Company; and by his influence 
 it was soon completed each subscriber was to have 3 Tickets for the 
 first day of each play upon his single payment of 3 Guineas (Gibber.)' " 
 Genest, Some Account of the English Stage, II, 363. 
 
 260. Also Ayre, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Alexander Pope 
 Esquire, London, 1745, I, 51. 
 
 "Gibber's Lives of the Poets, IV, 216. But the account of Dennis there 
 given is in some other respects untrustworthy, so we may question this 
 statement till it is supported by some further evidence. 
 
 17 Possibly Dennis's success at this time with his play Liberty Asserted 
 may also have influenced Godolphin. 
 
 '"Jan. 14. For the encouragement of the Comedians acting in the Hay., 
 and to enable them to keep the diversion of plays under a separate interest 
 from the operas ... By Subscription . . . with a new Prologue. 
 
38 
 
 death I Sylvia shall adore, which shows a lighter touch than 
 does most of his verse. The following year, 1708, the Oxford 
 and Cambridge Miscellanies contained the Character of a True 
 Friend, another of his short pieces, which, though revealing 
 something of the writer's tastes and ideals, is quite valueless as 
 poetry. 
 
 Dennis also busied himself with a few translations, to illus- 
 trate in practice his belief in the advantages to be derived from 
 a union of poetry and religion, a doctrine which he strongly 
 advocated during these years. Such a poem is his paraphrase 
 of the Te Deum of St. Ambrose, which appeared in his Ad- 
 vancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, 1701, where 
 he formally promulgated his doctrine. This version of St. 
 Ambrose's famous hymn, which became fairly popular, was 
 given a prominent place in a Collection of Divine Hymns and 
 Poems 19 in 1709 and was also later included in Dennis's 
 Works. As further practical exemplifications of his theory 
 Dennis produced in these years his blank verse version of the 
 eighteenth Psalm and a short paraphrase from Habakkuk, 
 both of which first appeared in the Grounds of Criticism in 
 Poetry, 1704. 
 
 While busy with these poems, Dennis was also writing for 
 the stage. Though he had stated and restated that his chief 
 purpose in writing his plays was to fan the fires of liberty, 
 he had also declared that the drama was the single field of 
 letters offering a livelihood to a poet ; and as his needs pressed 
 harder and harder upon him, he grew more and more solicitous 
 about the receipts of the third night. His first play of the 
 eighteenth century, produced some time in 1702, was the 
 Comical Gallant; or the Amours of Sir John Falstaff an 
 alteration of the Merry Wives of Windsor. Revising Shaks- 
 
 19 A Collection of Divine Hymns and Poems upon Several Occasions, By 
 the E. of Roscommon, Mr. Dryden, Mr. Dennis, Mr. Norris, Mrs. Kath. 
 Phillips, Philomela, and others, London, 1709. This volume was reprinted 
 in 1719. 
 
 *The Comical Gallant; or the Amours of Sir John Falstaff. A Comedy 
 as it is Acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane by his Majesty's Ser- 
 vants By Mr. Dennis To which is Added a Large Account of the Taste 
 in Poetry, and the Causes of the Degeneracy of it, London, 1702. 
 
pere's plays was at this time a very popular practice among 
 dramatists : in 1700 Dennis's friend Gildon had met with some 
 small success in altering Measure for Measure; and the next 
 year Lord Lansdowne, one of our author's patrons, produced 
 an adaptation of the Merchant of Venice?* Urged by the 
 example of these friends, Dennis revised the Merry Wives of 
 Windsor, which, he tells us, had been extremely popular in 
 the reign of Charles II. 22 He believed the play capable of im- 
 provement, for he considered the plot irregular and the style 
 stiff and harsh, though he excused these faults on the ground 
 that in writing so hastily 23 Shakspere had done all that any 
 man could do. In his alterations Dennis attempted to reduce 
 this play to a sweet reasonableness by polishing and refining 
 about a half of the dialogue and by making every thing in the 
 plot instrumental to Fenton's marriage. This adaptation, how- 
 ever, fared worse than almost any other play by Dennis, who 
 explained its failure thus: 24 
 
 " Falstaff's part, which you know to be a principal one in the play, and 
 that on which almost all the rest depends, was by no means acted to the 
 
 21 The following list of alterations of Shakespere from 1700-1703 is 
 given in Professor Lounsbury's Shakespere as a Dramatic Artist, N. Y., 
 1901, p. 302: 
 
 King Henry IV, Part I, by Betterton, 1700. 
 
 King Henry IV, Part II, by Betterton (not published till 1719). 
 
 King Richard III, by Colley Gibber, 1700. 
 
 Measure for Measure, or Beauty the Best Advocate, by Gildon, 1700. 
 
 The Jew of Venice [The Merchant of Venice] by George Granville 
 [Lord Lansdowne], 1701. 
 
 The Comical Gallant; or the Amours of Sir John Falstaff, by Dennis, 
 1702. 
 
 Love Betrayed, or the Agreeable Disappointment [Twelfth Night], by 
 Burnaby, 1703. 
 
 22 " ... in the reign of King Charles the Second, those men of extra- 
 ordinary parts, as the late Duke of Buckingham, my Lord Normanby, my 
 Lord Dorset, my late Lord Rochester, Sir Charles Sedley, Dr. Frazer, Mr. 
 Savil, Mr. Buckley, were in love with the Beauties of this Comedy." 
 Preface to the Comical Gallant. 
 
 23 "John Dennis first mentioned in print the story of Queen Elizabeth's 
 having commanded Shakspere to write this comedy." Ward's History of 
 English Dramatic Literature, 1899, II, 137. 
 
 24 Preface to the Comical Gallant. 
 
40 
 
 satisfaction of the audience; 25 upon which several fell from disliking the 
 Action into disliking the Play, which will always be very natural upon such 
 occasions, though sometimes not very reasonable, and divers Objections 
 were made, which if the Play had succeeded had perhaps never been 
 thought of." 
 
 In May of the same year, 1702, Dennis published the play 
 with a preface to Granville and a prefatory essay entitled A 
 Large Account of the Taste in Poetry and the Causes of the 
 Degeneracy of It. This preface, with its thoughtful com- 
 parison of contemporary conditions affecting taste with those 
 of the reign of Charles II, is especially interesting as reveal- 
 ing how closely Dennis was watching the currents of national 
 life. 
 
 Such a record of total or partial failures would have dis- 
 couraged most dramatists; but Dennis was made of other 
 stuff, so on February 24, 1704, he made his fifth venture with 
 his tragedy Liberty Asserted 26 and succeeded. The popularity 
 of this play was due in large measure to its abuse of the 
 French. 27 The war of the Spanish Succession had been wear- 
 
 26 In the Apology for his Life, 1 740, Gibber suggests that Bullock was the 
 offending actor. Bellchamber expresses a doubt in his note at this point 
 whether "Bullock's position would entitle him to play that part in 1702." 
 Genest suggests (II, 250) that Powell was the delinquent. 
 
 26 Liberty Asserted: a Tragedy, as it was acted in the New Theatre in 
 Lincoln' s-Inn-F elds, London, 1704. 
 
 27 Party feeling, which ran very high at this time, probably helped in the 
 invention and circulation of two stories about Dennis which have shown 
 remarkable vitality. One of these stories appeared in the Life of Mr. John 
 Dennis, p. 23 : " The author's fondness for this Play, together with the 
 Success of it, if we may believe some of his sneering Enemies, who are 
 for turning every thing of Importance into Ridicule, almost touched his 
 Brain ; for they gave out that he imagined the French King, Lewis the 
 Fourteenth, was very much offended at it, that he would never make Peace 
 with England, unless the delivering up of Mr. Dennis was one of the 
 Articles of it. And that being once at a Gentleman's House near the Coasts 
 of Sussex, as he was walking by the Seaside one morning, he 'spied a ship, 
 making, as he thought, toward him, which he immediately apprehending 
 to be a Privateer, he made his way to London, even in his Gown and 
 Slippers, as he was, without taking leave of his Friend, whom he accus'd 
 of a villainous Design of decoying him down to his House, that he might 
 deliver him to the French." 
 
 The other story is given in Gibber's Lives of the Poets (i753), IV, 221: 
 
41 
 
 ing along; and in spite of the brilliant achievements of Marl- 
 borough, there was growing through England a strong senti- 
 ment for peace, compelling the Whigs to seize every oppor- 
 tunity for keeping alive the national prejudice against the 
 French. Consequently they were willing and ready to applaud 
 a tragedy which showed one of the enemy's generals in 
 Canada denouncing Louis as a tyrant and setting up a kingdom 
 friendly to the English. Dennis protested in his preface that 
 this tragedy was not a whig but an English play and in sup- 
 port of his statement included in the published version a last 
 scene of exhortation to " stronger public spiritedness," which, 
 on account of the length of the drama, had been omitted in 
 the acting. The attitude of the play, however, is whiggish; 
 and the hint for its composition came from that very good 
 partisan Anthony Henley, to whom Dennis addressed his dedi- 
 cation. The author also acknowledged his indebtedness for 
 assistance from his friend Southerne and from Betterton, who 
 acted one of the leading parts and was also instrumental in 
 securing a very strong cast, which included Booth, Powell, 
 Bowman, Mrs. Bracegirdle, Mrs. Porter, and Mrs. Barry. 
 The work of the actress last named so pleased the author that 
 he took occasion in the preface to bestow upon her this special 
 commendation : 
 
 " This play indeed received all the Grace and Ornament of Action in 
 most of its principal Parts, and in all of the Women's. But that of Sakia 
 
 "... when the Peace was about to be ratified, Mr. Dennis, who certainly 
 over-rated his importance, took it into his imagination, that when the terms 
 of the peace should be stipulated, some persons, who had been most active 
 against the French, would be demanded by that nation as hostages ; and he 
 imagined himself of importance enough to be made choice of, but dreaded 
 his being given up to the French as the greatest evil that could befall him. 
 Under the influence of this strong delusion, he actually waited upon the 
 Duke of Marlborough, and begged his Grace's interposition, that he might 
 not be sacrificed to the French, for says he, ' I have always been their 
 enemy.' To this very strange request, his Grace very gravely replied, * Do 
 not fear, Mr. Dennis, you shall not be given up to the French ; I have been 
 a greater enemy to them than you, and you see that I am not afraid of 
 being sacrificed, nor am I in the least disturbed.' Mr. Dennis upon this 
 retired, well satisfied with his Grace's answer." 
 
 Swift, too, gives the first of these stories in his Thoughts on Various 
 Subjects, Scott's edition of his Works, IX, 238. 
 
42 
 
 by Mrs. Barry was acted so admirably and so inimitably, as that no Stage 
 in Europe can boast of any thing near her performance ; " 
 
 This tragedy was published by Stratham and Lintot, the 
 latter paying the former, on February 3, 1703/4, 7 s. 3 for a 
 half share, and three weeks later purchasing the other half at 
 the same price. 28 On May 2, 1707, the play was revived for 
 Mrs. Porter's benefit; and Dennis took advantage of this 
 occasion to send to his patron Godolphin a copy of this tragedy 
 as " the first British play/' that is, the first one acted after the 
 confirmation of the Union with Scotland, in which his Lordship 
 had been instrumental. Thirty-five years later, May 24, 1742, 
 the play was again produced, this time at Covent Garden. 
 
 Dennis's greatest success was followed the next year by what 
 was probably his worst failure, Gibraltar, or the Spanish Ad- 
 venture, a Comedy. This play, which was staged a few 
 months after the capture of the great fortress, portrays an 
 intrigue of two British officers by which they win two senoritas 
 from an avaricious and cowardly old uncle. Dennis himself 
 realized that his treatment of the subject was not a very happy 
 one, and he pleaded in excuse that he was too much exhausted 
 by the long poem Blenheim, which he had just written, to 
 produce "anything for the Stage like a Masterpiece." 29 Nor 
 were the circumstances of the production of the play less 
 unfortunate than those of its composition. After a series of 
 delays and disastrous rehearsals Gibraltar was given at Drury 
 Lane on the sixteenth of February, 1705, and met with a storm 
 of hisses and cat calls. 30 Four days later appeared an altera- 
 tion of the play which failed so decisively that it was at once 
 withdrawn, thus losing for Dennis the returns of the third, 
 or author's, night. Just what was the cause of this failure, 
 which seems even more ignominious than the lack of merit in 
 
 * Nichols's Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, London, 
 1814, VIII, 295. 
 
 29 Preface to Gibraltar. 
 
 80 The Critical Specimen, 1715, giving the outline of an imaginary life of 
 Dennis, suggests as the heading of a chapter (p. 12), "Of the Bombard- 
 ment of Gibraltar, and how several Chiefs engaged in that dreadful enter- 
 prise were, contrary to the laws of Arms, almost pelted to Death with 
 Apples and Orange-Peel." 
 
43 
 
 the play warranted, is hard to conjecture, even in the light of 
 the following passage from Dennis's preface: 
 
 " This Play was so unfortunate as to find the Town out of Humor with 
 it, whether it proceeded from the calamities which attended the Re- 
 hearsal, which were so numerous as had never befallen a play in my 
 memory, or from the Malice and strange Prejudices with which many 
 came prepossess'd. The first day it was well acted in most of its Parts, 
 but was not suffer'd to be heard. The second day it was faintly and 
 negligently acted, and consequently was not seen ; " 
 
 Whatever may have been the cause, 31 the failure was so 
 disastrous that when Dennis sent his biography for Jacob's 
 Poetical Register, twenty years later, he omitted any mention 
 of this comedy, 82 nor did he include it in his Works. Evi- 
 dently the misfortunes of the play were long remembered, for 
 in one of the pamphlets directed against Dennis in his war with 
 Steele, about 1720, appeared the taunt, 33 "And pray let us 
 know what was the reason we did not see your ' Gibraltar ' 
 printed with the rest of your Works," a query which Dennis 
 ignored. 
 
 To this same busy year, 1705, Mr. Roberts, in his careful 
 article on Dennis in the Dictionary of National Biography, 
 attributes another mutilation of Shakspere. His statement 
 reads thus: "In 1705 he brought out the 'Invader of his 
 Country, or the Fatal Resentment,' founded on ' Coriolanus/ 
 which languished at Drury-Lane for three or four nights." 
 The present writer has not been able to discover any record 
 of such performances either in Genest or elsewhere. The 
 first reference he has found is the following, probably by 
 Pope, in the Narrative of Dr. R. Norris concerning the Frenzy 
 of Mr. J. Dennis, 1713 : 3 * "Mr. John Dennis has industriously 
 caused it to be reported that I entered his room, in et armis, 
 either with a design to deprive him of life, or of a new play 
 
 81 Later in the preface Dennis states that the play had been criticized 
 on the ground that " the Character of this Comedy is low, and that there 
 is neither very much Wit, nor Love, nor Gallantry in it." 
 
 82 " In the Account this Gentleman sent he omitted, but for what Reason 
 is unknown to us, a Play wrote by him, call'd Gibraltar, or The Spanish 
 Adventure ; a Comedy, acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane." Jacob's 
 Poetical Register, ed. 1723, II, 286. 
 
 88 The Theatre, II, 397. 
 
 84 Pope's Works, X, 460. 
 
44 
 
 called ' Coriolanus/ which he has had ready for the stage for 
 four years." This passage indicates that Dennis's unsuc- 
 cessful efforts to interest a manager in his adaptation were 
 well known. It is also to be noted that near the close of the 
 second decade of the century the Invader was produced at 
 Drury-Lane by Steele, Booth, and Gibber, who would hardly 
 have revived the play, if it had been already damned. Further- 
 more, though all of Dennis's other dramas were published soon 
 after their production on the stage, the Invader did not appear 
 in print till 1720, the year after its failure in performance at 
 Drury-Lane. The next year, 1721, Dennis added it to the 
 revised edition of his Works, which had been first published 
 in 1717. 
 
 In February, 1707, Dennis printed in the Muses Mercury 
 his masque of Orpheus and Eurydice. Though the myth here 
 treated was a popular one with the dramatists of the early 
 eighteenth century, 35 and this particular version was well set 
 to music by Daniel Purcell, it is probable that the masque was 
 never staged. 36 
 
 Two years later, February 5, I7CX), 37 Dennis brought out at 
 Drury-Lane his last original play, Appius and Virginia. He 
 began this tragedy, which deals with the well known story in 
 the third book of Livy, in 1705, but he did not complete it 
 beyond the fourth act before August, I7o8. 38 Maynwaring, 39 
 who saw the play in manuscript, prophesied that it would be 
 the best " Tragedy that had appeared these many years ; " and 
 
 85 Orpheus and Eurydice, a Masque, by Martin Bladen, 1705. 
 
 Orpheus and Eurydice, A Dramatic Entertainment of Dancing, At- 
 tempted in Imitation of the Ancient Greeks and Romans, by J. Weaver', 
 Drury Lane, 1718. 
 
 Eurydice, a Tragedy, by Mr. Mallet, 1731. 
 
 88 " Orpheus and Eurydice, a masque, with little merit and no success 
 followed in 1709." Dibdin's Complete History of the Stage, 1800, IV, 
 359. The date here given is incorrect for the time of publication at 
 least, while the statement of " no success " still leaves it doubtful whether 
 the masque was ever performed. 
 
 87 The published edition of the play is included in the Term Catalogues 
 for Easter and Trinity, 1709. 
 
 38 Original Letters, pp. 115, 131. 
 
 w Supra. 
 
45 
 
 the actor Betterton, too, thought well of this " rough, manly 
 play," in which he took what was probably his last original 
 part. 40 These favorable expectations, however, were not 
 realized, so after a run of four or five nights the tragedy was 
 withdrawn. 41 At present the play is generally remembered in 
 connection with the origin of the phrase " Stealing thunder," 42 
 and as offering the place of first attack against its author by 
 Pope in his Essay on Criticism. The following lines of that 
 essay were all too obviously aimed at Dennis: 
 
 "... Appius reddens at each word you speak, 
 And stares tremendous with a threatening eye, 
 Like some fierce giant in old tapistry." 43 
 
 Dennis was, of course, furious, at this "attack upon [his] 
 person " and replied in his Reflections upon . . . an Essay on 
 Criticism; but the discussion of this conflict carries us beyond 
 the bounds of the present section. After the failure of Appius 
 and Virginia Dennis wrote no more plays, though he was still 
 to see the unfortunate reception of the Invader. His record 
 as a dramatist is not a happy one six or seven semi or total 
 failures and but one decided success so it is a relief to turn 
 to his work as a political pamphleteer, which deserves greater 
 commendation. 
 
 40 Ward's History of English Dramatic Literature, 1899, HI, 4 2 7- 
 
 41 Nevertheless the play must have attained a certain popularity, or the 
 shrewd Bernard Lintot would never have given 21 s.io for it, which 
 is the highest price Dennis is known to have received for any of his 
 writings. Cf. Nichols's Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, 
 VIII, 295. 
 
 42 " There is another and withal quite historical anecdote in connection 
 with Appius and Virginia. It seems that the old way of producing 
 artificial thunder and making mustard were identical, hence the reference 
 in the Dunciad to the ' thunder rumbling from a mustard bowl.' But 
 about the time in question, the thunder was ' more advantageously per- 
 formed by troughs of wood with stops in them.' Dennis is usually cred- 
 ited with the improvement ; and upon hearing thunder employed at a per- 
 formance of Macbeth after his own play had been withdrawn, he caused 
 a commotion in the theatre by denouncing the proceedings of the Mana- 
 gers, who, he alleged, stole his thunder but refused to act his plays." 
 Wm. Roberts in the Bookworm, IV, 294. 
 
 43 Ft. Ill, 11. 585 ff. 
 
46 
 
 It was but natural that one so ready with his pen and pos- 
 sessed of such a strong interest in national affairs should have 
 taken to writing political pamphlets, which, as the precursors 
 of the modern newspaper editorial, were then issuing rapidly 
 from the press. Such work was profitable to the writer both 
 from the immediate return and from the prospect of political 
 preferment which it offered. In the power of his pamphlets 
 Dennis was, with all due respect to Swinburne, 44 far inferior 
 to Swift; but he seems to have possessed greater intellectual 
 honesty and a far less bitter partisanship. That Dennis wrote 
 many political tracts which have perished seems possible both 
 from the ephemeral nature of some of his pamphlets, such as 
 the Person of Quality's Answer to Mr. Collier, and from the 
 fate of his Seamen's Case, of which nothing is known beyond 
 the fact that it is mentioned on the title page of the Essay on 
 the Navy as by the same author. It seems probable both from 
 the evidence just cited and from its style that the Essay on 
 the Navy, which bears the earliest date of any of Dennis's 
 extant tracts, 1702, was by no means his first venture 
 as a pamphleteer. 45 Moreover, in the dedication of this 
 tract to the Earl of Pembroke, Dennis alludes to the "Loss, 
 Discouragement, and Misrepresentations that attended" his 
 
 44 St. James's Gazette, November 8, 1895. 
 
 45 An Essay on the Navy, or England's Advantage and Safety proved 
 Dependent on a Formidable and well-Disciplin' d Navy; and the Encrease 
 and Encouragement of Seamen. In Two Parts. 
 
 Part I. Demonstrating the Necessity of a Formidable Navy, what our 
 Naval Force is in Number of Ships, their Names, Rates, Men, and Guns, 
 the Manner of Manning the Navy ; the Seamen's Treatment and Manner 
 of Payment and therein divers Hardships that they suffer ; the Prejudice 
 accruing to the Government (and the Nation in general) thereby ; as 
 well as the late manner of Impressing; the Inconvenience thereof demon- 
 strated &. 
 
 Part II. Containing an humble Proposal for removing the afore-men- 
 tioned Grievances, and giving due Encouragement to the Seamen : effect- 
 ually manning the Navy at all times, in a few Days, and thereby saving 
 the Government Three or Four Hundred Thousand Pounds per Annum 
 in time of War, and be of no Charge, but rather save Monies in time 
 of Peace. With a brief touch on Grenwich Hospital, for Encreasing the 
 Revenues thereof. 
 
 By the Author of the Seamen's Case. London, 1702. 
 
47 
 
 "previous Endeavours." Our regret that these pamphlets 
 have perished is deepened by the broad knowledge of actual 
 conditions displayed by Dennis in his Essay on the Navy, 
 which with its unimpassioned recital of abuses on the English 
 men of war, supported by scores of specific illustrations, por- 
 trays most vividly the corruption of the age. For a number 
 of these existing abuses Dennis proposed, as had Defoe five 
 years before, some very sane remedies, such as a less hap- 
 hazard scheme for enlistment than by impressment, better and 
 more regular pay for the common seamen, and improvements 
 in caring for the sick. His large and kindly attitude in this 
 pamphlet can but cause us to regret that he had apparently 
 little influence with those in authority. 
 
 Though another of Dennis's tracts bears the same date as the 
 Essay on the Navy, it seems probable that the latter appeared 
 first, for the author would hardly have made complaint of the 
 loss and discouragement mentioned in the preceding paragraph 
 after the hearty reception accorded the Danger of Priestcraft 
 to Religion and Government: with some Politick Reasons for 
 Toleration, Occasioned by a Discourse of Mr. Sacheverel's 
 intitul'd the Political Union & lately printed at Oxford. In a 
 Letter to a New-Elected Member of Parliament. Sacheverel, 
 against whom this short treatise was directed, was, of course, the 
 Oxford high church man and tory, whose trial, nearly a decade 
 later, through the efforts of the whig ministry, was to result 
 in their overthrow. Even at the beginning of the century he 
 had gained a national reputation for fulminating against "low 
 churchmen, dissenters, latitudinarians, and whigs" through 
 such tracts as his Character of a Low Churchman, 1701, and 
 his more intolerant On the Association of Moderate Church- 
 men with Moderate Whigs and Fanatics. Early in June he 
 delivered a sermon on the Political Union,** in which he 
 waved "the bloody flag and banner of defiance" against all 
 who refused to gather under the high church standard. In its 
 published form this sermon evoked two notable replies, 
 
 46 The Political Union. A discourse shewing the dependence of Govern- 
 ment on Religion in general: and of the English Monarchy on the Church 
 of England in particular. 
 
48 
 
 Defoe's Shortest Way with the Dissenters and Dennis's 
 Danger of Priestcraft. That the public interest in this latter 
 pamphlet was widespread is substantiated by its assailant the 
 Reverend Charles Leslie, who declared in the preface to his 
 New Association that "the Price Three Pence is put on it 
 [Dennis's tract] in a small Character, that it may run cheap 
 among the Common People. . . . And accordingly this Pam- 
 phlet is so effectively dispers'd that few of the Fanatics or 
 Common Wealth Men want it in their Pockets, to Recommend 
 it everywhere." Dennis deserved all the popularity gained by 
 his tract, for he had made an able and moderate reply to 
 Sacheverel's bigotry and had argued with convincing reason- 
 ableness for a broader toleration as of particular advantage 
 to the established government of England, especially after so 
 much damage had been done the country by religious factions 
 and by priestcraft. In striking contrast, too, with Dennis's 
 plain and moderate argument is the " railing and abuse " 47 of 
 the answer that soon appeared by the Reverend Charles 
 Leslie. 48 Though Dennis afterwards returned to another 
 phase of the same question, he took no notice of Leslie's reply ; 
 and Leslie, in his turn, soon practically forgot Dennis. 
 
 In 1703 our author published his next political tract, A Pro- 
 posal for Putting a Speedy End to the War, by Ruining the 
 Commerce of the French and the Spaniards, and securing our 
 own, without any additional Expense to the Nation. Possibly 
 he had in mind some difficulty in securing a publisher for this 
 pamphlet, which had been written in 1700, when he alluded in 
 the preface to the Essay on the Navy to the "misrepresenta- 
 tions and discouragements" he had encountered. The plan 
 suggested for ruining the enemy's commerce was the equip- 
 ment of a fleet of two hundred privateers, to be chosen from 
 the English trading vessels, and to be fitted out and maintained 
 by a small additional tariff on imports and exports. The 
 
 "Daniel Defoe, His Life and Recently Discovered Writings, by William 
 Lee. London, 1869, I, 62. 
 
 48 The New Association of those called Moderate-Church-Men, with the 
 Moderate-Whigs and Fanatics, to under-mine and blow-up the Present 
 Church and Government, Occasion'd By a Late Pamphlet, Entituled, The 
 Danger of Priestcraft &. By a True-Church-Man, London, 1702. 
 
49 
 
 unenthusiastic reception accorded this Proposal failed to shake 
 Dennis's faith in its value; for a year or so later he declared 
 in the preface to Liberty Asserted that had this plan been 
 followed, there "had been no need of writing this tragedy" for 
 arousing public spirit for the war. He even went so far, in 
 1706, as to send his patron Godolphin an abstract of this 
 scheme, accompanied by a short letter ending thus : 49 
 
 " I shall have the Honour to wait on your Lordship suddenly to know 
 your Pleasure in this Affair. If your Lordship encourages me to lay this 
 Proposal before the House of Commons, I shall prepare an Appendix, 
 by which I believe that I can satisfy that Honourable House, that the 
 Advantages mention'd both in the Proposal at large, and in the Abstract, 
 will really accrue to us from putting this Design into Practice." 
 
 So far as is known Dennis received no encouragement, and he 
 wrote no more political pamphlets till 1711. The most probable 
 reason for his silence at a time when both parties were eagerly 
 seeking pamphleteers, and might well have made use of such a 
 virile author, is that given in the preface to Liberty Asserted: 
 
 " I am perfectly convinced that if I could be brought to espouse any 
 Party warmly that Party might be brought to espouse me, but that till 
 I make that step I must be left to myself; of this I am perfectly con- 
 vinc'd, and yet nothwithstanding this Conviction, I hope in God that I 
 shall not change my Conduct." 
 
 During this busy period of the earlier years of the century, 
 Dennis also produced his longest and most important critical 
 works and from them gained his most substantial reputation. 
 In fact he stood as perhaps the most important critic of the 
 period following the death of Dryden. Possibly Dennis's 
 desire to occupy the seat of his master urged him at this time to 
 his most original critical thinking ; possibly his slowly ripening 
 powers had now reached their maturity; certainly he was not 
 distracted, as in the next decade, by personal brawls. At any 
 rate, in 1701, the year after the death of Dryden, he published 
 the most important and significant of his critical writings, the 
 Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry. A Criti- 
 cal Discourse in Two Parts. The first shewing that the Prin- 
 cipal Reason why the Ancients excell'd the Moderns in the 
 
 49 Original Letters, p. 121. 
 5 
 
50 
 
 greater Poetry, was because they mix'd Religion with Poetry. 
 The Second, Proving that by joining Poetry with the Religion 
 reveal' d to us in Sacred Writ, the Modern Poets may come to 
 equal the Ancients. The author always regarded this treatise 
 with a pride that was in part justified by its reception, for it 
 was probably the only one of his critical writings that ever 
 attained to a third edition. 50 
 
 As a sequel to the Advancement and Reformation Dennis 
 published in 1704 his Grounds of Criticism in Poetry Being a 
 Preliminary to a Larger Work to be entitl'd, A Criticism 
 upon our most Celebrated English Poets deceased. This small 
 volume of one hundred and fifty pages contains the beginnings 
 of Dennis's projected magnum opus, together with a copy of 
 the prospectus he had issued, outlining the nature and scope 
 of the work, giving a few specimen pages, and inviting sub- 
 scriptions at the rate of one guinea for the volume. 51 This 
 proposal was issued sometime in 1703 ; and the work of secur- 
 ing subscriptions was pushed by a Mr. Welby, a Mr. Maxwell, 
 a Mr. Harmon, and Dr. Garth. But these solicitors met with 
 such slight encouragement that, though they had the lists in 
 hand for about a year, they secured but seventy subscribers. 52 
 Consequently Dennis was obliged to give up the project, though 
 he did so very reluctantly and stated in his preface to the 
 Grounds of Criticism: 
 
 " My friends know very well that I was three Months employ'd about 
 that Work, after the last Subscription came in, and I appeal to them, if it 
 was not high time to lay it aside for something that might be more Bene- 
 
 50 This it did in 1725. The second edition appeared in 1709. 
 
 61 "... it is impossible for any Bookseller to make it worth the Under- 
 takers Trouble in employing so much Time and Thought as so great and 
 important Design requires, the lovers of Criticism are therefore desir'd 
 ... at least to encourage it by their Subscriptions at the Rate of a 
 Guinea a Book, paying half a Guinea down at the time of subscribing and 
 half at the delivery of the Book in Quires; the Undertaker promising 
 at the same time that not a Book shall be printed more than the number 
 subscrib'd." From the Prospectus included in the Grounds of Criticism. 
 
 " When Crites the most consumate Critic of the Age, and at the same 
 time a poet of the first Magnitude, propos'd the publishing of a Com- 
 plete Body of Criticism in Poetry, he got not above Seventy Guineas in 
 Subscription." Gildon's Complete Art of Poetry, 1717, I, 185. 
 
51 
 
 ficial; I have printed all that I had by me entire to shew that I was in 
 very good Earnest, and that it was not my Fault that I did not do the 
 rest." 
 
 In proof of the honesty of his intentions Dennis published 
 under the title of the Grounds of Criticism all the material 
 he had completed for this great work. In these pages he 
 stated the chief rules upon which he had intended to 
 rear his critical structure, which he hoped should be 
 "perhaps the greatest in this kind of writing that has ever 
 been conceived by the Moderns." The latter part of the trea- 
 tise is devoted in good part to a comparison between Tasso and 
 Milton, usually much to the Puritan's advantage. On the 
 whole this is a really valuable book, so we can only regret that 
 its reception was not sufficiently flattering to induce the author 
 to proceed with the proposed opus. 63 
 
 In this period Dennis wrote two other critical pamphlets, 
 an Essay on the Italian Operas and the Person of Quality's 
 Answer to Mr. Collier's Letter, being a Dissuasive from the 
 Play House. The latter was published about the beginning of 
 the year 1704 in reply to the Dissuasive from the Play House. 
 Occasioned by the late Calamity of the Tempest. In a Letter 
 to a Person of Quality. The great storm that had swept over 
 England in 1703, Collier declared, had been sent as a judgment 
 upon the nation for permitting " the enormities of the theatres." 
 To the people leaving the churches on the fast day ordered at 
 that time by the authorities, copies of Collier's tract were dis- 
 tributed gratuitously; and such was the outcry raised against 
 the stage "that there was a warm Report about Town, that 
 it had twice been debated in Council, whether the Theatres 
 should be shut up or continued." Such a state of affairs natu- 
 rally aroused Dennis to his second reply to Collier, in which he 
 mingled good natured raillery with serious argument. Though 
 this reply was well received, especially by Buckingham, Lands- 
 
 08 In the list of subscribers which Dennis included in the preface to the 
 Grounds of Criticism occur the names of Lord Somers, the Duke of 
 Devonshire, Mrs. Manley, William Walsh, Anthony Henley " for two," 
 Lord Winchilsea, Sir Richard Blackmore, and Thomas Brown. Richard 
 Norton, the author of the forgotten tragedy Pausanius, the Betrayer of his 
 Country, 1696, subscribed for six copies of Dennis's proposed work. 
 
52 
 
 downe, and Halifax, it was so ephemeral that sixteen years 
 later the author declared 54 " it is now as scarce as any Manu- 
 script of which there is but one Copy." 
 
 Two years later Dennis wrote another critical pamphlet in 
 defense of the drama, this time against the enemies within 
 its own house. His small tract of thirty pages, an Essay on 
 the Operas after the Italian Manner, which are about to be 
 established on the English stage; With some Reflections upon 
 the Dangers zvhich they may bring the Publick, 1706, was 
 the author's first pronunciamento of a long and uncompro- 
 mising opposition to the Italian music which had invaded the 
 English stage and was making inroads upon the regular drama. 
 In his early attack upon this fashionable kind of entertain- 
 ment, Dennis was taking one of the few critical positions to 
 be held by all the principal contemporary writers, including 
 Steele, Addison, Swift, and Pope. 55 This essay was the only 
 attack of Dennis's against the opera which ever attained to 
 the dignity of a pamphlet, though he scattered through his 
 writings frequent dicta upon the subject, and, according to 
 Disraeli, 56 when Harley came to power in 1710, sent him a 
 letter, declaring that England could never prosper while the 
 corrupting Italian opera flourished. 
 
 These essays in criticism were all written with moderation 
 and were free from personal abuse. The one notable attack 
 upon Dennis in this period 57 was that by Swift in the Digres- 
 
 54 Original Letters, p. 227. 
 
 55 The discussions of foreign music in the Toiler and Spectator are well 
 known as is also the attempt to meet this invasion of foreign music with 
 such operas as Addison's Rosamond, 1706. Pope's attacks were not so 
 vigorous, although his sneer at " dying to an eunuch's song " is charac- 
 teristic of his attitude. Though Swift could write to Philips in 1708 
 that " Critic Dennis vows to God that operas will be the ruin of the na- 
 tion and brings examples from antiquity to prove it," he took occasion, 
 nevertheless, in the third number of the Intelligencer to declare that 
 " we are overrun with Italian effeminacy and Italian nonsense." 
 
 66 The Calamities of Authors, London, 1867, p. 57. 
 
 "Bedford, in his Evils and Dangers of Stage Plays, Bristol, 1706, at- 
 tacked Dennis, along with the other dramatists of the time, for the im- 
 morality of his plays, especially of Liberty Asserted and Gibraltar. But 
 there is nothing personal in his reflections. 
 
53 
 
 sion Concerning Critics the famous third chapter of his Tale 
 of a Tub, which appeared in 1704. Swift here characterized 
 Dennis with Bentley, Rymer, and Perrault, as among the " de- 
 scendents of Momus and Hybris who begat Zoilus"; and he 
 then proceeded to enumerate the qualifications of the "True 
 Critics," such as dullness and fault-finding. 
 
 Dennis, however, made no reply. Possibly he did not read 
 the attack; and even if he did, he may have considered it 
 unnecessary to answer, for in spite of his strong prejudices 
 and hearty aggressiveness he lived at this time in comparative 
 quiet with a set of writers whose relations with each other 
 could never be characterized as amicable. His position as one 
 of the foremost of contemporary English critics was well 
 established, and we of today have no reason for revising the 
 judgment of his associates. His writings through these years 
 had clearly shown him a better critic than poet, for his verses 
 and dramas do not rank very high even in that time of inferior 
 bards and unremembered playwrights. Fortunately one of 
 his effusions had possessed sufficient merit to induce the gov- 
 ernment to provide in part at least for his livelihood. The 
 hope of patronage had, however, but little weight with Dennis 
 in moulding the views expressed in his political pamphlets, 
 which, while generally leaning toward the whig policies, mani- 
 fested a genuine regard for public above private interest. Had 
 he died in 1710, Dennis would now be remembered as a small 
 dramatist and pamphleteer and as a much better critic a man 
 who, for the most part, was esteemed and respected by his 
 contemporaries ; and he would have been spared a petulant old 
 age filled with quarrels with some of his celebrated contem- 
 poraries Swift and Steele, Addison and Pope, brawls which 
 for two centuries have been used to stigmatize him in literary 
 history. 
 
Ill 
 
 1710-1734 
 
 The third and last period of Dennis's life, from his first 
 quarrel with Pope in 1711 to his death in 1734, covers nearly 
 a quarter of a century of remarkable activity. Though Dennis 
 was almost fifty-five at the beginning of this period, he was 
 still to issue nearly thirty publications of different sorts, rang- 
 ing in importance from some hasty pamphlets to a carefully 
 revised edition of the Works, and ending with a task in trans- 
 lation when he was seventy-six and almost blind. 
 
 In the divisions of his life already discussed his lot had been, 
 on the whole, a comfortable one : he had enjoyed at least fair 
 health; he had numbered among his benefactors many of the 
 great patrons of the age ; and he was generally recognized as 
 one of the foremost, if not the greatest, of the critics of the 
 time. That he felt his importance is evident from nis state- 
 ments regarding the value of the theory he had advanced for 
 the improvement of poetry and from his estimate of his contri- 
 bution to the drama. 1 In the previous period this self esteem 
 had been buoyed up by his reception among the literary men 
 of the time, by a comparative independence of means, and by 
 the expectation of what he might still accomplish. But by 
 1710 the generation of Dryden had either died or given place 
 to the groups of writers that centered around Addison and 
 Steele, or Swift and Pope. Though Addison had once sat 
 with Dennis in the group around Dryden, he was fifteen years 
 younger than the critic, so that it is not surprising that he 
 never identified himself very closely with the older generation. 
 Dennis was naturally a laudator temporis acti, and his literary 
 tastes and inclinations were by this time thoroughly fixed. It 
 
 1 Preface to the Invader of His Country, " Thus did they [the managers 
 of Drury-Lane] take occasion to exercise a real Barbarity upon an old 
 Acquaintance to whom they and their stage are more oblig'd than to 
 any Writer in England." 
 
 54 
 
55 
 
 was but natural, therefore, that he regarded with dislike the 
 "machine turned " verse then growing in popularity and gain- 
 ing rewards. Rewards and prosperity were, in fact, the gods 
 of the age; it was a time when the nation, even to the village 
 clergymen, could go mad with the South Sea frenzy. The 
 infection spread to the literary classes, so that it is possibly 
 not too much to say that never before nor since could the 
 mercenariness that sometimes accompanies poverty be so justly 
 charged to the writers of the age. From this scramble of 
 timeservers Dennis stood aloof, rather defiantly defending 
 poverty, and declaring that if Homer was not in debt, it was 
 because no one would trust him. Indeed we cannot help 
 admiring and pitying him too as he writes thus: 
 
 " I have been so far from any ambitious Aims or any sordid views of 
 Interest that I have consented to see several of the Publick Rewards en- 
 gross'd by some who are luke warm, and by others who are Jacobites in 
 Whig clothing, while I have remain'd very poor at a very advanced Age." 2 
 
 In such a town of intrigue and pursuit of gain, where every 
 author was known to his contemporaries, personal peculiari- 
 ties did not escape severe comment and ridicule. Pope's mis- 
 shapen form attracted more satire than even he could have 
 answered in a half dozen Dunciads; Steele's short, dark face was 
 a frequent subject for ridicule; and Dennis's personal appear- 
 ance grew more and more inviting of attack. His short figure, 
 broadening with the years, 3 his great scowling face, 4 the large 
 eyes that stared from beneath their shaggy brows, these with a 
 
 a Original Letters, p. 84. 
 
 3 In 1 720, Dennis in inviting Moyle to revisit his old companions whom 
 he had not seen for twenty years, says : " You will see in this Town old 
 Friends with new Shapes and Faces. For example, you will find your 
 
 old Friend Mr. W dwindled into those narrow Dimensions in which 
 
 you formerly beheld me and your humble Servant enlarged to his Quon- 
 dam noble Bulk and Proportions." Original Letters, p. 213. 
 
 * One of the headings proposed for a life of Dennis in the Critical 
 Specimen, p. 14, reads thus: " CH. XXI. A Discourse of the Critick con- 
 cerning the exact Contraction and Expansion of the Muscles of a True 
 Hypercritical Countenance, the most learned manner of Frowning as it 
 were with Judgment ; together with the whole Art of Staring." On page 
 3 of this same tract Dennis is referred to as " the Renown'd Rinaldo Fu- 
 rioso, Critick of the Woeful Countenance." 
 
56 
 
 slovenliness of dress that grew more noticeable with the passing 
 of time, 5 formed a marked contrast with the slender youth of 
 the town, who had followed the fashions with Fleetwood 
 Shepherd. As a young man, too, Dennis had possessed a 
 rough kind of humor that could return a bluff jest; but this 
 gradually gave way before his growing literalmindedness, 
 which first gained him a name as the foe of puns and later, 
 in one instance at least, vitiated his work as a critic. Such are 
 some of the changes in the man and his times ; others will be 
 noticed in passing. 
 
 Among these changes which the years brought to Dennis was 
 the loss of the patrons who had known and favored him. 
 Halifax was appointed first Lord of the Treasury in 1714 and 
 soon after probably rendered Dennis an important service by 
 insisting upon a certain reversion of the income when the 
 critic sold his waitership. But the hope of any further pro- 
 vision from Halifax was cut off by his death in 1716, not 
 long after that of another of Dennis's patrons, Lord Somers; 
 and these losses were followed in 1721 by the death of Buck- 
 ingham. There were, however, some of the old patrons who 
 still regarded Dennis with favor: the Earl of Pembroke 
 received in this period another dedication from our author 6 
 and till the time of his death, which was almost coincident with 
 that of the critic, sent occasional gifts. Walpole, who allowed 
 the old author 20 a year for several years, and Bolingbroke 
 are among the most noted of Dennis's new benefactors of these 
 times; but they never did anything very generous for the 
 critic, evidently regarding him as one of the poorer dependents 
 of the literary family whose needs required occasional recog- 
 nition. These chance gifts, however, were the more acceptable 
 from the fact that few of Dennis's writings during these years 
 were of such a nature as to permit a dedication. A play or a 
 poem, however inferior, generally found a welcome that would 
 never be accorded a criticism of a popular book ; consequently 
 Dennis was forced to preface many of these pamphlets with 
 
 6 " Ch.XX. Of the Manner of Wearing his Breeches, with a short Essay 
 to show that the most natural Position of Rolls for Stockings is about 
 one's Heels." Critical Specimen, p. 13. 
 
 6 That of Vice and Luxury, 1711. 
 
57 
 
 introductory letters to such men as Theobald and Duckett, 7 
 from whom no reward might be expected. Dennis's one play 
 of this period, the Invader of his Country, was dedicated to 
 the Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Newcastle, who, because of 
 the fight at that time over the control of the theatre, had come 
 to share the author's dislike for Steele. Moreover, with his 
 increasing ill-health and his retirement from society, Dennis 
 found it a matter of growing difficulty to secure the ear of a 
 possible patron, as is witnessed by his dedicating his Mis- 
 cellaneous Tracts to the Earl of Scarborough, whom, he con- 
 fessed in the dedication, he "had met but once, and that by 
 accident." The year before his death Dennis found a new 
 friend in Colonel Bladen, 8 whose unexpected present he grate- 
 fully acknowledges in the dedication of his translation of 
 Burnet's State of Departed Souls. Whatever may have inter- 
 ested Bladen in the old critic, he certainly gave doubly by giv- 
 ing opportunely; for taking the period as a whole, Dennis's 
 rewards from his patrons were probably even smaller than 
 his returns from his publishers. 
 
 Regarding the more purely personal affairs of his life during 
 this period, we possess scanty information, save for the years 
 1717-1720, on which some additional light is occasionally shed 
 by the hints in his collection of literary letters, 1721. This 
 correspondence, however, contains but little concerning his 
 private affairs during the earlier years of the second decade of 
 
 7 George Duckett was for many years a member of parliament for the 
 family borough of Calne, Wiltshire, and from 1722 to the time of his 
 death, ten years later, one of the commissioners of excise. He is to be 
 remembered as the friend of Addison and as the enemy of Pope. In 
 1715-16 he published either alone or perhaps in conjunction with Sir 
 Thomas Burnet, several attacks upon Pope's translation of the Iliad. 
 Duckett and Burnet also cooperated in promoting two weekly journals, the 
 Grumbler and the Pasquin. 
 
 8 Martin Bladen (1680-1746) is to be remembered chiefly as a member of 
 parliament for over thirty years and as one of the Lords Commissioners 
 of Trade and Plantations. In 1705 he published his Orpheus and Eury- 
 dice, a Masque, which anticipated by about two years Dennis's treatment 
 of the same story. If he was the Bladen mentioned in I. 504 of the 
 Dunciad, as has been conjectured, his enmity toward Pope may have 
 aroused his sympathy for Dennis. 
 
58 
 
 the century beyond an occasional allusion to his "great mis- 
 fortunes." 9 Dennis probably refers to these affairs when he 
 states in the fourth letter to Sir John Edgar, i. e., Steele, " If 
 I had the misfortune to be an insolvent debtor, I should have 
 this apology to make for myself, that my insolvency would not 
 be owing to my extravagance or want of taking pains, but 
 to the hard, not to say unjust usage . . . which I have met 
 with in the world." This trouble whatever it was, began some 
 time before 1711, the date of the publication of Dennis's Re- 
 flections upon Pope's Essay on Criticism, and continued till 
 January, 1715, when he secured relief by selling his waitership 
 to Benj. Hudson Esq., probably for 6oo. 10 His patron 
 Halifax insisted that he should stipulate for a reversion of 
 the salary for a number of years with the view of securing 
 an income for the remainder of his life ; and this interposition 
 afterwards proved of greatest value to the short sighted critic. 
 Gibber's Lives of the Poets, IV, 216, has a muddled story about 
 Halifax's insisting that Dennis secure a reversion of the income 
 from the waitership for forty years, that Dennis acknowl- 
 
 9 The Theatre, II, 248. 
 
 10 The warrant permitting Dennis to sell his place reads as follows : 
 "After our hearty commendations, Whereas his Majesty by letters patent 
 bearing the date of the i7th day of March in the first year of his reign 
 was pleased to continue to John Dennis, Esq. the office of one of the 
 King's Waiters in the Port of London during His Majesty's Royal Pleas- 
 ure, which said office being now revoked and determined and the same 
 granted by other His Majesty's Letters Patent unto Benj. Hudson Esq: 
 These are to authorize and to require you to make payment unto the 
 said John Dennis or his Assignees of all such Sum or Sums of Money 
 as are incurred and grown due to him on his salary of 52. P. annum 
 in respect to said office from the time he was last paid to the day of re- 
 vocation thereof by the Letters Patent last mentioned. And this shall be 
 as well to you for payment as to the Auditor for allowing thereof on your 
 account a Sufficient Warrant. 
 
 Treasury Chambers, 21 March, 1715. R - Walpole 
 
 To our very Irving friend W. St.Quintin 
 
 Henry Feme, Esq. P. Methuen 
 
 Recr. Genl. & Cashier to His Majesty's Customs. F. Newport. 
 
 "The Letters Patent appointing Benj. Hudson as Dennis's successor 
 are dated i7th of March 1715, Enrollments L, p. 41." Gentleman's Maga- 
 zine, 1850, XII, pt. ii, p. 1 8. 
 
59 
 
 edged this interference in the dedication of his poem on the 
 battle of Ramillies, and that he survived the reversion. The 
 dates of Dennis's appointment and of his death, 1705 and 1734, 
 in themselves show the absurdity of any statement that he 
 outlived a forty year reversion of the income. It seems much 
 more probable that this provision was for fifteen years, a 
 period apparently ample for anticipating the remainder of the 
 critic's life. Moreover, such a reversion would be in harmony 
 with the well authenticated statements that the last years of 
 his life were a time of great poverty. Our author's acknowl- 
 edgment in the preface to Ramillies of Halifax's interference 
 in his behalf was rather an allusion to his patron's assistance 
 in securing the position which he had received but a few 
 months before, and for which he had had no opportunity of 
 thanking Halifax publicly. It appears more probable that the 
 interposition of Halifax came at the time of the sale of the 
 waitership, especially as he was then the first Lord of the 
 Treasury. 10 * 1 
 
 From 1711 to 1715 Dennis lived, for a part of the time at 
 least, within the verges of the royal court, where he was safe 
 from arrest for debt. 11 For a while, too, he lived at Jack 
 Richardson's Tower Den, which he later left for what Gay 
 in his facetious dedication to the Mohocks, 1712, was pleased 
 
 10a Possibly Halifax endeavored about this time to give Dennis some 
 substantial aid; for the Weekly Packet for July 3o-Aug. 6, 1715, states that 
 Nahum Tate died on the previous Saturday, and that it was said that 
 he would be succeeded as Poet Laureate and as Royal Historiographer by 
 Mr. John Dennis, one of the King's Waiters at the Customs' House. The 
 next week, August 13, 1715, Dawkes's Newsletter stated that N. Rowe 
 would be Poet Laureate and J. Dennis Royal Historiographer. 
 
 "The Theatre, II, 248. In Samuel Ireland's Graphic Illustrations of 
 Hogarth, 1794, II, 86, is given a characteristic story of Dennis's poverty 
 and his fearful suspicion : " Having one Saturday night strayed beyond his 
 privileged bounds to a public house, such was his apprehension, that hav- 
 ing, as soon as he entered, cast his eye upon a man, whose countenance 
 did not argue very favorably for him, he crept into an obscure corner to 
 avoid the notice of the person, whom his fears converted into a Bailiff. 
 " At length, however, the clock struck twelve, when the critic threw off 
 his alarm and cried out ' Now, Sir Bailiff, or no Bailiff, your power is 
 expired. I don't care a farthing for you.' " 
 
60 
 
 to call an " Elegant Retreat in the Country." But the attrac- 
 tions of the town were always strong for Dennis, hence, if we 
 are to give any credit to Swift's biting poem, John Dennis, the 
 Sheltering Poet's Invitation, the next year found the critic liv- 
 ing at the Mint, where he is represented as urging Steele to 
 come and share his security. Probably with the hope of better- 
 ing his condition Dennis now wrote his only long poem of this 
 period, Upon the Accession of King George to the Imperial 
 Crown of Great Britain, a commonplace production which, 
 though it may have had a little weight in securing the con- 
 firmation of the waitership, brought no other reward. 
 
 In 1715 Dennis was relieved from his immediate burdens by 
 the sale of his waitership; and, for a time at least, he lived in 
 quiet security. When, in the controversy with Steele in 1720, 
 he was twitted about his debts, he replied thus : 12 " to shew 
 you that I am not in the condition you imagine, I have for 
 the last four years lodged continually in the neighborhood of 
 Whitehall; and I appeal to the Honourable Board of the 
 Green Cloth if, during this time, so much as one complaint has 
 been preferred against me." After this period of trouble, 
 Dennis resumed his old habits of spending a part of the year 
 in the country, 13 induced partly by his love of nature and 
 partly by the hope of improving his health, for to the weight 
 of the other vexations of these years was added that of sick- 
 ness. As early as 1712 or I7I3 14 he was obliged to treasure his 
 sight, but even such care did not prevent his becoming almost 
 totally blind in his old age. He was, moreover, like Defoe, 
 forced to bear another and more painful infirmity, that of the 
 
 12 The Theatre II, 248. 
 
 13 For example, in 1716 he left London in June, was in Hanworth on 
 the 2oth of September, and back at Whitehall on October 3. The next 
 year he left town on July 3 and three weeks later was in Cobham, a! 
 market town in Surrey, whence he proceeded on a short tour through 
 the wilds of Surrey. He was back in Hampstead before the close of 
 October. Cobham seems to have been one of his favorite retreats, since 
 he wrote : " For tho' I have been ten times here, yet as my former Lodg- 
 ings had the finest Meadows aind Streams in the World behind them, I 
 scarce ever came into the Village so that until this last Arrival, I knew 
 nothing of the People of Cobham." Original Letters, p. 133. 
 
 14 Original Letters, p. 197. 
 
61 
 
 stone, with which he was troubled for years. 15 The letters 
 between 1715 and 1721 show Dennis so wracked with this 
 disease that he feared he might die. In 1722, 1724 and 1728 
 he was still suffering with this complaint, which seems to have 
 grown worse with his advancing years. 
 
 In these years of debt and sickness and retirement Dennis 
 naturally took but a slight part in politics. He was, however, 
 interested in the great national events and in 1715 attacked the 
 Jacobite clergy in one of his most successful pamphlets. This 
 tract of sixty small pages, entitled Priestcraft Distinguish' d 
 from Christianity, 15 * was occasioned by the growing sentiment 
 in favor of the Pretender, which was soon to culminate in 
 open rebellion. Dennis here urged that through their seditious 
 words and deeds these Jacobite clergy were showing them- 
 selves the true disciples of Antichrist. This pamphlet met with 
 a very favorable reception, maintained its popularity for 
 several years, and reached a third edition in 1718. The land- 
 ing of the Pretender in 1715 drew from Dennis a letter to a 
 friend that shows he knew the English nation well enough 
 to have no apprehension of the reestablishment of the house of 
 Stuart; and his allegiance to the existing government was 
 strengthened by the repeal of the Occasional Conformity Act 
 and the Schism Act. Moreover, he vigorously opposed the 
 growing corruption in the political life of the times and 
 strongly condemned the South Sea enterprise long before the 
 crash came. 
 
 The protest of this eighteenth century Carlyle against the 
 increasing luxury of the times, which was probably intensified 
 
 15 Ibid., pp. 19, 13, 204, 201 ; Vice and Luxury, p. 100, and its dedication 
 iv. 
 
 iBa Priestcraft Distinguish' d from Christianity. Shewing, I. That Wicked 
 Priests are the real Antichrists mention'd in Scriptures. II. That the 
 Corruptions of the Laity in all Christian States, proceeds from the Cor- 
 ruptions of the Clergy. III. That there was a more General Virtue in the 
 grossest Times of Paganism, than there has been since our Saviour came 
 into the World. IV. That there is a more General Virtue in other Parts of 
 the Globe, than in the Christian World. V. That there was more General 
 Virtue in our own Nation in the Times of our Ancestors, than there is 
 in our own Times; and that Priestcraft, and Corruption of Manners, have 
 increas'd together. 
 
62 
 
 by the hardship of his own lot, is the most marked character- 
 istic of his other three political essays of this period. The first 
 of these, his Essay upon Publick Spirit; being a Satyr in Prose 
 upon the Manners and Luxury of the Times, the Chief Source 
 of our present Parties and Diversions, appeared early in 1711 
 and brought from Lintot a return of 2\. I2s. 6d. Dennis's 
 doctrine in this essay may be stated briefly thus: the love 
 of one's country, which is the basis of national union, is 
 in the main a love of their manners. But the purity and 
 distinction of English manners were being destroyed by the 
 increasing luxury and by the growing imitation of the French 
 and Italians. To preserve the national strength and integrity 
 the island must return to its old customs. 
 
 To this same theme Dennis returned in another political 
 pamphlet published eleven years later, 1722, which bore the 
 somewhat formidable title Julius Caesar Acquitted and his 
 Murderers Condemned. In a Letter to a Friend, shewing 
 That it was not Caesar who destroyed the Roman Liberties, 
 but the Corruption of the Romans themselves. Occasioned 
 by two Letters in the London Journal, the one on the 2nd, 
 the other on the pth of December. To which is added a 
 Second Letter, shewing, that if ever the Liberties of Great 
 Britain are lost, they will be lost in no other Way than by the 
 Corruption of the People of Great Britain themselves. The 
 title gives a very fair idea of the contents of this pamphlet, 
 whose author was coming more and more to feel that England 
 was a fen of stagnant waters. 
 
 Dennis exhibited much the same attitude in his last and 
 longest political tract, Vice and Luxury Public Mischiefs: or 
 Remarks on a Book Intitul'd The Fable of the Bees; or 
 Private Vices Public Benefits, 1724. Our author was here 
 replying 16 to the 1723 edition of Mandeville's book, which con- 
 tained along with the Fable of the Bees an Inquiry into the 
 Origin of Moral Virtue, an Essay on Charity Schools, and a 
 Search into the Nature of Society. These 'essays bore a much 
 
 "Besides this tract by Dennis the following replies to Mandeville may 
 be mentioned: Richard Fiddes's General Treatise on Morality; William 
 Law's Remarks on the Fable of the Bees; and Francis Hutchinson in 
 Hibernicus's Letters. 
 
63 
 
 closer relation than their titles would indicate, for they were 
 permeated in common with a cynical system of morality, and 
 all of them advocated the doctrine that prosperity is increased 
 by expenditure rather than by saving. It is easy to see why 
 such a book evoked a prompt and indignant response from 
 Dennis, who restated and amplified some of his objections to 
 "luxury and ungodliness." Against Mandeville's pamphlet 
 Dennis protested both on moral and on political grounds. To 
 the old critic the established religion of every country was 
 the basis of the public morality and the foundation of the 
 nation's government ; and consequently the growing luxury and 
 scepticism of the times were both undermining Christianity 
 and threatening the constitution. What little we know of the 
 reception of this the last of Dennis's political pamphlets is 
 quite favorable. 
 
 Dennis's activitiy as a political pamphleteer in this period 
 was, however, slight compared with his labors as a judge of 
 letters. His critical writings of these years may be divided 
 into two classes those which are important chiefly as speci- 
 mens of pure criticism, and those which, while interesting for 
 their judicial dicta, have an added value as recording the 
 struggles of their writer with his famous contemporaries, 
 Addison and Steele, Swift and Pope. These conflicts some- 
 times degenerated into personal abuse; but always ostensibly, 
 and for the most part in fact, they were waged on the field 
 of criticism, and on the whole it seems most satisfactory to 
 treat them accordingly. 
 
 In the class of what we may call pure criticism the earliest 
 and perhaps the most important of Dennis's writings of this 
 period was the Essay on the Genius and Writings of Shakes- 
 pear: with Some Letters of Criticism to the Spectator, London, 
 1712, which the author dedicated to Lord Lansdowne as " the 
 one who best understood Shakespear." Though Dennis may 
 have conceived these letters during his lucubrations over 
 Coriolanus, 17 he begins almost as if in fulfillment of the promise 
 made twenty years before in the Impartial Critick "to prove 
 that contrary to Mr. Rymer, Shakespear was a great genius." 
 
 17 Original Letters, p. 371. 
 
64 
 
 Dennis devoted the second and third of the letters composing 
 this pamphlet to showing that " Shakespear had no familiar 
 acquaintance with the Grecian and Roman authors," a task 
 which, on the whole, he handled admirably. To these letters 
 on Shakspere he appended two others addressed to the " Spec- 
 tator," which may more properly be left for later notice. 
 
 In 1721 Dennis printed his Original Letters, Familiar, 
 Moral and Critical. In Two Volumes. These two volumes, 
 which were frequently bound together and, in all the copies 
 which the present writer has examined, were paged con- 
 secutively, form a miscellany of biography, politics, literary 
 reminiscences, and criticism, with the last named class so 
 emphasized as to give tone to the collection. The familiar 
 letters consist chiefly of notes to Dennis's patrons Bucking- 
 ham, Godolphin, Halifax, and Marlborough, and to some of 
 his literary acquaintance, such as Prior and Moyle. The 
 moral ones are directed chiefly against political evils, such as 
 stock jobbing and civic corruption. Though some of the 
 critical letters, as, for example, the Person of Quality's Answer 
 to Mr. Collier and the Letters on the Genius and Writings of 
 Shakespear were simply reprints of his former work, the book 
 contains many of his literary dicta previously unpublished, 
 such as his discussion of the vis comica, his disapproval of the 
 ballads, and his estimate of his friend Wycherley. These 
 Letters form a valuable source for the study of the literary 
 history of these times and are now so scarce as to deserve 
 republication. 
 
 In 1726, five years after the appearance of the Letters, 
 Dennis came forward for the fourth time, 18 as he says, in 
 behalf of the theatre, with his Stage Defended from Scripture, 
 Reason and the Common Sense of Mankind for Two Thou- 
 sand Years. Occasioned by Mr. Law's Late Pamphlet against 
 Stage Entertainments. In his attack Law had shown himself 
 more intolerant and less well informed than was Collier, and 
 these weaknesses afforded Dennis an advantage upon which 
 
 "The four defenses of the playhouse to which Dennis alludes probably 
 include beside the one against Law and the two against Collier his con- 
 troversy with Steele, for he goes on to discuss the ingratitude of the 
 managers of the theatre. 
 
65 
 
 he was quick to seize. Most of his arguments were repeti- 
 tions of those he had advanced against Collier twenty years 
 before, but he restated them in a fresh and interesting way 
 that gained respectful attention. 
 
 This pamphlet against Law, like nearly all of his earlier con- 
 troversial tracts, was free from personal abuse and stuck to the 
 discussion of the question at issue. In the conflicts now to 
 be considered between him and some of the best known writers 
 of the age Addison and Steele, Swift and Pope, it is notable 
 that Dennis generally took arms in a thoroughly justifiable 
 defense of himself. It must be confessed, of course, that his 
 physical peculiarities, his unconcealed self-satisfaction, his 
 uncompromising independence, all invited attack; and Addison 
 may have had Dennis in mind in his discussion of butts in 
 conversation, which appeared in the 47th Spectator: " I know 
 several of these Butts who are men of Wit and Sense, though 
 by some odd Turn of Humour, some unlucky cast in their 
 Person or Behavior, they always have the Misfortune to make 
 the Company merry." Moreover, it was at the beginning of 
 this very paper that Addison had used Dennis as a butt by 
 quoting and facetiously praising two lines from the latter's 
 translation of a satire from Boileau: 
 
 " Thus one Fool lolls his Tongue out at another, 
 And shakes his empty Noodle at his Brother." 
 
 Just when Addison and others came to assume this attitude 
 toward Dennis, is hard to say ; but such stories as that re- 
 garding the critic's escapade upon his introduction to Lord 
 Halifax, though they may be of later invention, indicate that 
 he had early become an object of banter. 19 
 
 But it was Dennis's uncompromising opposition to the " un- 
 merited success " of some of the chief authors of his day 
 that brought on most of his conflicts. In fact only one 
 pamphlet directed against him is to be mentioned which did 
 
 "Theobald states in the Censor, 1717, II, 33: "The Wags who see him 
 [Dennis] sitting in a Coffee House brim full of Aristotle and Dacier, and 
 in Pain till he drops some of his Learning among them, soon ease him 
 of that Burthen in order to impose a heavier one upon him by speaking 
 well of his Contemporaries." 
 
66 
 
 not emanate from some one of these famous writers or their 
 immediate allies. This single tract, which may really be no 
 exception to the rule, since it appeared anonymously, is entitled 
 the Critical Specimen, 1711. It purports to be a prospectus of 
 a large work to be issued by Dennis and gives a burlesque 
 specimen chapter, followed by the titles of thirty-five proposed 
 chapters, most of them hits at him either as an author or as 
 a critic. 
 
 But with this possible exception practically all the attacks on 
 Dennis emanated from these most popular writers of a 
 younger generation. It is interesting and significant to note 
 that within the year 1711 Dennis found himself embroiled with 
 four of his renowned adversaries, Steele and Addison, Swift 
 and Pope. It should also be noted that, to the knowledge of 
 the present writer at least, none of the biographers of these 
 celebrated authors has traced consecutively or exhaustively 
 the relations of his particular subject with Dennis, and that 
 such a treatment should throw some light upon these greater 
 figures of the early eighteenth century. 
 
 Of these writers the first to pass away was Addison, whom 
 we have already noticed in connection with the Dryden group. 
 Like Dennis he contributed verses laudatory of Dryden to the 
 Third Miscellany, and he probably did some writing in con- 
 junction with our author. 20 Again, at a private reading of 
 Dennis's poem on the battle of Ramillies, when it was still 
 in manuscript, 21 Addison had praised the work; and the two 
 lived in a state of at least nominal cordiality till the fortieth 
 number of the Spectator appeared with its attack on Dennis's 
 favorite theory of poetic justice, which it branded as a "ridi- 
 culous Doctrine in Modern Criticism," with " no Foundation in 
 Nature, in Reason, or in the Practice of the Ancients." 
 Dennis thought Steele the author of the article, for it was to 
 him that he returned a prompt answer, which was probably 
 sent direct to the supposed writer. Addison made no reply, 
 though he came back to the subject of poetic justice about a 
 
 20 " Did you not vouchsafe to club with him in several of his under- 
 takings, and thought it no disgrace ? " An Answer to a Whimsical Pamph- 
 let called the Character of Sir John Edgar, in the Theatre, II, 391. 
 
 21 Original Letters, p. 421. 
 
67 
 
 year later in the 443rd number (July 16, 1712) and again in 
 the 548th. It was only a little over a week, however, after 
 the publication of the first article on poetic justice that he 
 printed what seems to have been an attack on Dennis in con- 
 nection with the essay on butts. The cut was the more severe 
 because Dennis had expected some favorable mention of his 
 work by the " Spectator," 22 so that it was but natural that he 
 should write a sarcastic letter to Steele, 23 whom he supposed to 
 be the author. It seems probable that Dennis may also have 
 ascribed to Steele 24 the 7<Dth number of the Spectator, Addi- 
 son's famous critique of the old ballads, which our author 
 attacked in a long letter to Henry Cromwell. Six months 
 later Addison devoted the 253rd number of the Spectator to 
 a discussion of the ill nature of critics. 
 
 While the relations between Dennis and the " Spectator " 
 were thus strained, Addison's Cato was produced on the four- 
 teenth of April, 1713, and met with a success too well known 
 to require description. That the popularity of Cato was due 
 to the force of party spirit rather than to any great intrinsic 
 merit of the drama itself, is now generally admitted; but in 
 1713 it required considerable courage to attack a play which 
 was so widely praised at home, and which had been translated 
 into French and Italian. Prompted, however, by his habitual 
 antagonism to unmerited popularity, his genuine desire to 
 advance the noble art of the drama, and his frankly avowed 
 willingness to " retort personal injuries," Dennis yielded to the 
 importunities of his small circle of friends and prepared some 
 remarks on Cato. 25 These Remarks, however, were not pub- 
 
 22 Original Letters, p. 425. 
 
 23 Ibid., p. 421. Dennis evidently wrote to the Spectator several letters, 
 which have perished, of a much more bitter nature than those included 
 in his Essay on the Genius and Writings of Shakespear: With Some Let- 
 ters of Criticism to the Spectator, 1712, for he says on page 66 of that 
 pamphlet : " I am about [to shew my just Resentment] by publishing 
 three or four modest Letters which I have pick'd and cull'd from the 
 numerous company of those which are more bitter, and which I resolve to 
 suppress in order to shew that I have a Soul that is capable of remem- 
 bering Obligations, as well as avenging Injuries." 
 
 24 Original Letters, p. 167. 
 
 25 Remarks upon Cato, A Tragedy By Mr. Dennis, London, 1713. 
 
68 
 
 lished immediately upon their composition. In fact, on the 
 nineteenth of June, 1713, probably soon after he had finished 
 his criticism, Dennis wrote to Buckingham, who had evidently 
 remonstrated with him: 26 
 
 " I humbly desire your Grace to believe, that if you had given me no 
 Caution I had by no means done anything, which might cause me to for- 
 feit your good Opinion of me. So far were my Thoughts from that, that 
 I never yet resolv'd to publish those Remarks. 'Tis very likely, that 
 after your Grace, and my Lord Halifax, and Two or Three more have 
 perus'd them, I may send them to the Author, and content myself, with 
 letting him know my Power." 
 
 But this same letter shows Dennis's deep resentment at the 
 treatment he had received from the " Spectator," which he 
 described as " not only an Assassination but one of the blackest 
 sort. It was done in the dark, no Provocation in the least 
 given, no Name to the Paper, and no Author known, when 
 at the very same Time, they openly profes't Friendship to 
 me." It is not surprising, therefore, that before long the 
 oversensitive and oversuspicious old critic should have per- 
 mitted the publication of these Remarks. 
 
 In the Remarks Dennis's shrewd, independent observa- 
 tion frequently breaks through his respect for the rules then 
 so generally accepted in judging the merits of a play. In his 
 regard for the unity of place Addison had confined his various 
 scenes of conspiracy, senatorial council, and love making all 
 to the hall of the Governor of Utica's palace, a weakness which 
 Dennis was quick to ridicule. And if he shows some sandy 
 wastes of criticism, such as his contention that the play has 
 no fable, therefore it has no moral and consequently is not 
 legitimately a tragedy, we must remember that he was judg- 
 ing a drama which has been characterized as "marking the 
 nearest approach in the English theatre to the unreserved 
 acceptance of the French canons." 
 
 Dennis stated in the preface to his Remarks that he recog- 
 nized that he invited abusive replies ; but he did not know at 
 the time that Pope had prevailed upon Lintot to obtain and 
 publish the attack on Cato, and that he had done so largely 
 to gain a pretense for publishing an abusive tract called the 
 
 26 Original Letters, p. 55. 
 
Narrative of Dr. R. N orris, concerning the Strange and De- 
 plorable Frenzy of Mr. John Dennis, An Officer in the Custom 
 House. But the story of this affair may best be given in 
 Dennis's own words from the preface to his Remarks on the 
 Rape of the Lock: 
 
 "At the height of his [Pope's] profession of friendship for Mr. Addi- 
 son, he could not bear the success of Cato, but prevails upon B. L. to 
 engage me to write and publish Remarks on that Tragedy, which after I 
 had done, A. P E, the better to conceal himself from Mr. Addison and 
 his friends, writes and publishes a scandalous Pamphlet equally foolish 
 and villainous, in which he pretends that I am in the hands of a quack 
 who cures mad men." 
 
 The " imp of the perverse " which dwelt in Pope probably 
 tempted him with the triple pleasure of seeing Cato attacked, 
 Addison angered at Dennis, and himself afforded another 
 excuse for ridiculing the author of the Reflections upon the 
 Essay on Criticism. If Pope expected by such an attack to 
 win favor with Addison, he was disappointed ; for the latter 
 commissioned Steele to write the following letter to the pub- 
 lisher of the Remarks upon Cato: 
 
 Aug 4, 1713. 
 "Mr. Lintot, 
 
 Mr. Addison desires me to tell you that he wholly disapproves the Man- 
 ner of treating Mr. Dennis in a little Pamphlet by the way of Dr. Morris's. 
 Account. When he thinks fit to take notice of Mr. Dennis's objections to 
 his writings, he will do so in a way that Mr. Dennis shall have no reason 
 to complain of. But when the Papers above mentioned were offered to 
 be communicated to him, he said he could not either in Honour or in 
 Conscience be privy to such a Treatment, and was sorry to hear of it. 
 
 I am, Sir, 
 Your very humble Servant, 
 
 RICHARD STEELE." 
 
 Just when Dennis learned the truth regarding the author- 
 ship of the Narrative of the Strange Frenzy, is hard to de- 
 termine. In 1716, three years after the publication of this 
 tract, appeared the True Character of Mr. Pope, very prob- 
 ably by Dennis, containing the query, " who wrote a prologue in 
 praise of Cato, and teas'd Lintot to publish Remarks on it?" 27 
 
 21 In an article published in the Athenaeum, May 8, 1858, and practically 
 reprinted in his Papers of a Critic, London, 1878 (I, 243), Dilke en- 
 
70 
 
 A year later in his Remarks upon Mr. Pope's Homer, p. 62, 
 Dennis made the following allusion to the affair: "And now 
 let him, if he wishes to, have recourse to his old Method of 
 Lyes and Slander, and print a second Dr. Norris account." As 
 for Addison, his only notable retort to Dennis appeared in 
 the Spectator, September 10, 1714, in his discussion of modern 
 critics, where, in much the same vein as that of the 253rd 
 number previously noticed, he censured those writers who 
 make it a rule to fall upon every successful play. As for the 
 critic's own plays, he went on, few of them had ever "been 
 disgraced by a Run of Three Days." Then as a final shot 
 he declared that "the words, Unity, Action, Sentiment, and 
 Diction, pronounced with an Air of Authority, gave them 
 [the critics] a Figure among unlearned Readers, who are apt 
 to believe that they are deep because they are unintelligible." 
 
 These differences between Addison and Dennis, however, 
 had been marked but by comparatively few personalities, so we 
 may well accept as probable Wilson's statement 28 that Con- 
 
 deavored to disprove Pope's authorship of this pamphlet. His argument 
 rests largely upon two contentions: first, that Dennis's earliest recorded 
 accusation of Pope as the author did not appear before 1727, when he 
 published his Remarks upon the Rape of the Lock; and second, that in a 
 letter to Caryll, dated August 17, 1713, Pope denies writing "the whim 
 upon Dennis." The first of Dilke's statements is disproved by the quo- 
 tation cited in the paragraph above ; while the second has been answered 
 thus by Courthope and Elwin : 
 
 " Although Pope here denies that he wrote the pamphlet, yet, when, in 
 i73S> ne published an extract from the letter to Caryll, in which he 
 offered his pen in his defense and applied the passage to Addison (see 
 Pope's Works, VI, 398) he added in a note that the defense to which he 
 alludes was the very narrative of Dr. Norris. The note was repeated in 
 1735, in the acknowledged edition of the Letters, and was thus an open 
 confession that the Narrative was his own work. The question whether 
 his private denial or his public avowal was false, seems to be decided by 
 the consideration that he could never have ventured to have laid claim 
 in print to another man's production. To this must be added that Pope's 
 contemporaries always spoke of it as his undoubted work, that his literary 
 confidant Warburton did the same, and that no second person was ever 
 named as the author." Pope's Works, VI, 197. 
 
 28 " But now let us examine how he used Mr. Addison who at Mr. 
 Congreve's Request (rather than to be baited any more by this Man- 
 Tyger) became a subscriber to Dennis, for his two Volumes of Select 
 
71 
 
 greve induced Addison to subscribe for Dennis's Works, which 
 appeared in 1717. But we may question the further state- 
 ment of this not unprejudiced biographer that in an interview 
 with Rowe and Addison Dennis promised the former to burn 
 some remarks on the sentiments of Cato and " never to en- 
 gage in any Controversy against him." It is true that soon 
 after the appearance of the Remarks upon Cato Dennis wrote 
 some additional letters on the sentiments of the play, which 
 he published with his correspondence in 1721. It is also true 
 
 that the Mr. C who desired to examine the letters and 
 
 received copies from Dennis some time about November 4, 
 I7i8, 29 may have been Congreve. But such an act is incon- 
 sistent with what we know of Dennis; and, moreover, these 
 letters evidently had a history of which Wilson made no 
 mention. Dennis states 30 that by a trick he had been "de- 
 prived of [his] copy of these letters " and his " friend of the 
 original ; " and he then adds the following hint : 
 
 " By what Artifice these two Letters were got out of my Hands, by 
 what Fortune I recovered the Substance of them, and how it came to 
 take the form that it now Has, I shall not here declare; not the first 
 thro' regard for the Memory of the Dead ; nor the two latter thro' Re- 
 spect for the precious time of the Living." 
 
 Whatever may have been the incident to which the aging and 
 sometimes oversuspicious critic alludes, it evidently did not 
 destroy a certain esteem for Addison, for in the paragraph suc- 
 ceeding the lines just quoted Dennis expressed a desire to do 
 justice to the memory of that writer, "who was certainly a 
 Learned and very Ingenious Man : And several of the Tattlers 
 and Spectators which were writ by him deserve the Applause 
 they met with." Nor did Dennis later neglect the oppor- 
 tunity for criticizing a comparison at Addison's expense made 
 in favor of Steele by Gibber. In his dedication of the Heroic 
 Daughter to Steele Gibber made the unfortunate mistake of 
 
 Works, who promised him and Mr. Rowe, that he would burn some other 
 Remarks upon Cato, which he had by him, and never again engage in any 
 Controversy against him." Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Amours 
 of William Congreve Esquire, II, 136. 
 
 29 Original Letters, preface. 
 
 80 Ibid. 
 
72 
 
 placing in Addison's mouth, as applicable to his relations with 
 Steele as a writer, the speech of Marc Antony concerning 
 Octavius from Dryden's All for Love: 
 
 " Fool that I was Upon my Eagle's Wings 
 I bore the Wren till I was tired of soaring, 
 And now he mounts above me." 
 
 Dennis referred to this passage in the first of the Sir John 
 Edgar letters, directed against Steele during their war in 1719- 
 20, by declaring 31 sarcastically, " Gibber is to place you among 
 the Gods, as the Romans did their Emperors, by making you 
 fly like an Eagle to them." Steele confessed that this thrust 
 provoked him to tears, 32 and he attempted to hit back ; but the 
 advantage on this point was clearly with Dennis. 
 
 Last of all we may note Dennis's criticisms of Addison's 
 remarks on Paradise Lost, which our author included with the 
 Proposals for printing his Miscellaneous Tracts. In these 
 three letters of Observations on the Paradise Lost of Milton, 
 to Dr. S., the first of which is dated December 9, 1721, Dennis 
 stated that Addison had made mention of the same beauties 
 which he himself had noted many years before but had not 
 given him any credit for observing them. Dennis declared, 
 however, that he would have been willing to overlook this' 
 omission, if Addison had only done justice to Milton. The 
 old critic then proceeded to reiterate his familiar statement that 
 Milton's chief excellence lay in his sublimity and to show how 
 the "Spectator" had failed to appreciate this vital piece of 
 criticism. But the tone of these letters is far from bitter ; and 
 Dennis praised Addison in this his last utterance regarding that 
 writer, as " the most ingenious if not the most learned " of the 
 commentators on Milton. 
 
 Longer and more complicated than the history of Dennis's 
 dealings with Addison is the less pleasant record of his rela- 
 tions with Steele, which began about 1700 with their coopera- 
 tion in the reply to Blackmore's Satire against Wit and ended 
 nearly a quarter of a century later with Dennis's Remarks on 
 the Conscious Lovers. Steele's contribution to the answer 
 
 81 The Theatre, II, 342. 
 83 Ibid., I, 101. 
 
73 
 
 to Blackmore 33 was written in behalf of Addison, while Dennis 
 was replying to the comparison of his wit with the gold on a 
 gilded feather. There is every reason to believe that the two 
 lived on friendly terms during the first decade of the eigh- 
 teenth century, for Dennis spoke of the Captain as "my old 
 friend," and he evidently exerted considerable influence in 
 forming Steele's critical opinions. 34 In politics, too, they had 
 a common interest, for they were both good whigs ; and though 
 Steele lived on a much more lavish scale, they were alike in the 
 impecuniosity which put their friendship to the test of calling 
 on each other in times of need. Indeed the first record of their 
 relations after the collaboration against Blackmore is the previ- 
 ously mentioned letter of I7io, 35 sent by the embarrassed 
 Dennis, which failed to evoke any reply from his equally im- 
 provident friend. Both of these men, however, were quick to 
 respond to kind approaches and to forgive injuries, so it is 
 probable that even after the incident just mentioned their 
 pressing wants induced them occasionally to call upon each 
 other for help. 36 For example, Dennis made the following 
 statement in one of his letters to Steele: 37 
 
 "Thou hast owed me these two years twelve Guineas for the first pay- 
 ment of twelve certain Receipts, which upon taking the Receipts, thou 
 didst promise to pay in a Week. But since that time I never could see 
 either the money or the Receipts; so that if I should enquire for thee, 
 the answer that Snug thy servant would make, would certainly be, the 
 Ghost will not appear today." 38 
 
 33 Commendatory Verses on the Author of the Two Arthurs, and the 
 Satire against Wit, 1700. 
 
 34 " Dennis . . . gab ohne Zweifel dem jungeren und weniger gelehrten 
 Steele . . . manche Anregung." Hamelius, Die Kritik in der Englischen 
 Literatur des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, Leipsic, 1897, P- J 33 
 
 88 Supra. 
 
 38 Possibly Dennis is acknowledging a loan from Steele in the following 
 sentence in his letter to the Spectator, October 23, 1711: "About January 
 last I happen'd to have an Obligation to a Certain Author, an Obligation 
 which reposed a Trust in me which I have since discharged." An Essay 
 on the Genius and Writings of Shakespear: with Several Letters of Criti- 
 cism to the Spectator, 1712, p. 65. 
 
 87 The Theatre, II, 421. 
 
 38 " It is said that having been bail for this gentleman [Dennis] he 
 [Steele] was arrested on his default; and the only answer by his friend, 
 
74 
 
 Steele's embarrassment with his creditors in 1714 afforded oc- 
 casion for Swift to couple his name with that of our author in 
 an imitation of Horace called John Dennis the Sheltering Poet's 
 Invitation to Richard Steele, the Secluded Party Writer, to 
 come and live with him in the Mint. Steele is here admonished 
 to be mindful of Dennis's advice and to exchange his luxurious 
 home from which he was unable to stir for the humble 
 security of the Mint. 
 
 The humor of this poem is heightened by a knowledge of 
 the relations then existing between Steele and Dennis; for it 
 was published not many months after the " Cato " contro- 
 versy, when the " Spectator " was saying unpleasant things 
 about critics who had failed as authors. For most of these 
 remarks Steele was blamed by Dennis, though they had really 
 been the work of Addison. It is true that in the Taller Steele 
 had not hesitated to satirize the critics and had in at least one 
 instance possibly given Dennis the cut direct; 39 but he had 
 written neither the 4Oth nor the 7Oth Spectators credited to 
 him in Dennis's replies to those numbers. 40 In fact none of 
 the hits in the Spectator at the critic and his doctrines and 
 peculiarities were written by Steele, so that, from one point of 
 view at least, Dennis's resentment toward him as manifested 
 in the letter Upon the first publishing the Guardians, was not 
 his due. 41 
 
 But the five years that followed so mellowed any resentment 
 existing between the two that after Steele had been made 
 patentee of the Drury-Lane theatre, he invited Dennis to 
 
 when he was informed of the circumstances was * S'death : why did 
 he not keep out of the way as I do ! '" Ireland's Hogarth, II, 86. The 
 story first appeared in the Answer to a Whimsical Pamphlet, Called The 
 Character of Sir John Edgar, 1720, one of the most unfair attacks ever 
 made on Dennis. 
 
 89 "They took up the whole discourse; sometimes the Critic growing 
 passionate, and when repremanded by the Wit of any Trip or hesitation 
 in his Voice, he would answer, Mr. Dryden made such a character on such 
 an Occasion break off in this same manner; so that the Stop was accord- 
 ing to Nature as a Man in Passion should do." 29th Taller. See also the 
 246th Tatler. 
 
 40 Original Letters, pp. 57, 62. 
 
 tt Ibid., p. 284. 
 
75 
 
 dinner at his home, along with Gibber and Booth, there to 
 read over the adaptation of Coriolanus, prepared so long 
 before, with a view to staging it. Probably the suggestion of 
 putting the Invader on the boards came from its hard pressed 
 author ; but be that as it may, the alteration was received 
 kindly by the managers of the theatre, who promised to present 
 the drama early the following season. The winter came, and 
 Dennis waited anxiously but in vain for the staging of his 
 play. Late in March, 1718, he wrote a strong but friendly 
 letter of protest to Steele, 42 stating that he was overwhelmed 
 with grief and sickness, and complaining that Sir Richard's 
 "actually breaking [his] Word or being prefectly quiet while 
 the Managers broke it," had brought him "within the appre- 
 hension of immediate necessity." 
 
 Dennis probably received a conciliatory answer, for on the 
 fourth of the following September, about the time of the open- 
 ing of the theatre, he sent to Steele the two volumes of his 
 Works with a letter devoted for the most part to an explana- 
 tion of his reasons for republishing his writings, but contain- 
 ing also a reminder of the wrongs he had suffered from the 
 managers. It seems probable that it was through the inter- 
 vention of the good hearted Steele that within the next month 
 the parts of the play were given out and rehearsals began. 
 Some of the parts were assigned in a way that irritated Dennis ; 
 but though he uttered a seemingly well grounded protest against 
 the selection of the tenth of November as the opening night, 
 since the town was then engrossed in preparations for the 
 arrival of the King, he yielded in this matter, as in others, 
 to the managers. That they might not conflict with the 
 author's night at the Haymarket of Chas. BeckingharrVs Henry 
 IV of France, the managers then induced Dennis, according 
 to his own story, 43 to consent to put off the presentation of the 
 Invader; but he was surprised when he learned from the bills 
 that the postponement was for a single night only, thus bring- 
 
 a lbid., 103. 
 
 48 Preface to the Invader, which furnishes most of our information con- 
 cerning this affair. 
 
76 
 
 ing his benefit on Friday, which he considered the worst day 
 of the week. 
 
 Dennis also complained that the play had been withdrawn 
 just in the midst of the confusion of the return of the King 
 and parliament, at a juncture when it might be expected that 
 a drama that had been paying expenses would, under improved 
 conditions, soon prove profitable. It is to be noted, however, 
 that the anonymous author of a Critic no Wit; or Remarks on 
 Mr. Dennis's Late Play, 1720, states (p. i), "I have been 
 credibly inform'd that when your Third Night fail'd, thro' the 
 Weakness of the Play, your own known Want of Merit, and 
 the just Resentment of the Town, you have so often insolently 
 abus'd, they generously offer'd to take that night upon them- 
 selves, and give you a Month's Time to make your own 
 Interest ; and then to take what Night or Play you thought fit." 
 In weighing the evidence of this author, however, we must 
 remember that his attack on Dennis is very bitter and in some 
 other respects not very trustworthy. Furthermore, it is evi- 
 dent that the attitude of at least one of the managers of the 
 theatre, Gibber, was not the most considerate, as is shown by 
 the beginning of the epilogue he wrote for Mrs. Oldfield, 44 
 lines which Dennis might justly resent: 
 
 " 'Gad, I've a mind to Damn his Epilogue ! 
 His Play I need not no poor wretched Elf ! 
 That Matter's Rug ! He's done the Jobb himself ! "* 
 
 " This play was acted on Wednesday," Dennis states in the preface, 
 "to, an audience of 100, for so much they own'd to me. It was favor- 
 ably received by the audience. There did some malice appear twice, but 
 it was immediately drown'd by the utmost Clamours of Applause. On 
 Thursday the Play was acted again to an Audience of between 50 and 
 three score 1. And on Friday to an Audience of between 60-70 1. Con- 
 sidering the disadvantages under which we lay, here was fair Hope for 
 the Future. And on Friday, after the play was done, these tender-hearted 
 Managers caused another to be given out, to the Astonishment of the 
 Audience, the Disappointment of those who had reserved themselves for 
 the sixth Day, and the Retrenching of 3 Parts in 4 of my Profits." 
 
 44 In Gibber's Lives of the Poets, IV, 218, it is stated that Mrs. Oldfield 
 " spoke with universal applause " this epilogue written by Colley Gibber, 
 " for which poor, peevish, jealous Dennis abused them both." 
 
 45 It is not surprising that after such back handed commendation Dennis 
 should nurse his wrath against Gibber till it found expression at the be- 
 
77 
 
 Our only other account of the reception of this play is that 
 given in the fourth volume of Gibber's Lives of the Poets, 
 p. 218: 
 
 " This piece met with some opposition on the first night ; and on the 
 fourth another play was given out. The second night's audience was very 
 small, though the play was exceedingly well acted. The third night had 
 not the charges in money ; the fourth was still worse, and then another 
 play was given out, not a place being taken in the boxes for the ensuing 
 night." 
 
 It is interesting to compare this statement with Dennis's, and 
 to notice how much more exact is that of our author. 
 
 It may be questioned whether Steele was in any way respon- 
 sible for the hasty withdrawal of Dennis's play, for whatever 
 interest he may have taken in the details of the management 
 of the theatre probably suffered at this time from his absorp- 
 tion in the fierce political fight then waging. The Sunderland 
 ministry, by whose grace Steele held his position as patentee 
 of the theatre, were urging the bill for limiting the power of 
 creating new peers ; and Sir Richard, with a praiseworthy inde- 
 pendence, was so prominent in resisting what he considered an 
 unjust measure that he was chosen as the first speaker for an 
 opposition which proved too strong for the ministry. Their de- 
 feat, however, left them in power, so they very naturally, if not 
 very nobly, took Steele to task. The first punishment came in 
 the form of an order from the Lord Chamberlain that Gibber 
 should no longer act in the Theatre-Royal nor share in the 
 
 ginning of the next year in his letters to Steele On the Character and Con- 
 duct of Sir John Edgar (Theatre, II, 339 ff.), where he attacked that 
 actor so bitterly, especially on the ground of impiety, that Gibber is said 
 to have inserted the following advertisement in Defoe's newspaper, the 
 Daily Post : " Ten Pounds will be paid by Mr. Gibber at the Theatre- 
 Royal to any Person who shall (by a legal Proof) discover the author 
 of a pamphlet intituled, The Character and Conduct of Sir John Edgar, 
 &" (Theatre, II, 396, n.). Such an advertisement had, of course, but 
 little terror for Dennis, who, two years later, again paid his respects in 
 two short diatribes against Gibber, whom he addressed as Judas Iscariot 
 (Original Letters, pp. 61, 70). Steele devoted the seventh number of the 
 Theatre to a defense of Gibber's authorship of the Fool of Fashion, which 
 had been questioned by Dennis and others. See also the Original Letters, 
 p. in. 
 
78 
 
 management. 46 In taking such a step the ministry were act- 
 ing within their legal rights, so Steele seized upon what was 
 probably his most effective means of securing redress by begin- 
 ning on January 2, 1719/20, a new journal called the Theatre. 
 
 In the meantime Dennis had published the Invader and had 
 dedicated it to Newcastle, the Lord Chamberlain, who received 
 the play graciously and ordered the writer a reward. 47 Early 
 in December, 1719, the breech between Dennis and Steele was 
 further widened by the appearance of an abusive tract 48 charg- 
 ing the critic with "111 Nature, Ignorance, Impudence, and 
 Self Sufficiency," which Dennis believed had been instigated by 
 Sir Richard. Before the close of the month, therefore, our 
 author published an onslaught on Steele, entitled the Character 
 and Conduct of Sir John Edgar, calling himself sole Monarch 
 of Drury-Lane; and his Three Deputy Governors; in Two 
 Letters to Sir John Edgar. This pamphlet discussed Steele's 
 life, characterized his plays as adaptations of the works of 
 other dramatists, and condemned bitterly his associate Gibber. 
 Mr. Aitken calls 49 these letters venomous and in all probability 
 hireling. The pamphlet, however, is much milder than the 
 Remarks of a School boy, which had just appeared against 
 the critic, and there is no proof that Dennis undertook the task 
 upon any but his own initiative. 
 
 The first response evoked by these letters was an anonymous 
 tract, much coarser and less just than Dennis's, bearing the 
 
 48 The ground for this action, given in the Answer to the Case of Sir 
 Richard Steele, Theatre, II, 532, was that in the Epistle Dedicatory to the 
 Heroic Daughter Gibber had abused his Majesty and the Ministry ; that 
 the Lord Chamberlain upon directing Gibber to assign a certain part to a 
 certain actor, had been told "that it could not be done, because the part 
 belonged to one of the Managers " ; and that upon the Lord Chamber- 
 lain's insisting, Gibber had laughed and refused to obey. 
 
 47 Dennis heard of Newcastle's direction through a friend who was pres- 
 ent at the time the order was given. Owing to the machinations of one 
 of the Duke's servants Dennis did not receive the gift till the latter part 
 of March. Theatre, II, 402. 
 
 48 A Critic no Wit: or Remarks on Mr. Dennis's late Play, call'd the, 
 Invader of his Country. In a Letter from a School Boy to the Author, 
 1720. Advertised in the Post Boy for December i, 1719: "This day is 
 published, A Critic no Wit; or Remarks on Mr. Dennis's late Play &c." 
 
 48 Life of Richard Steele, 1889, II, 231. 
 
79 
 
 title, An Answer to a Whimsical Pamphlet, call'd The Character 
 of Sir John Edgar, &, Humbly inscrib'd to Sir Tremendous 
 Longinus. Written by Sir John Edgar's Baker, mentioned in 
 the Third Theatre. " Owl," " Mongrel cur," and " Pole cat " 
 are among the names bestowed upon Dennis in this, the most 
 grossly personal tract of the whole controversy. Steele him- 
 self took no notice of Dennis's letters to Sir John Edgar before 
 the eleventh and twelfth numbers of the Theatre, February 
 6 and 9, 1720. Then, acting on his belief that most enemies 
 may best be conquered by laughing at them, he indulged in a 
 good deal of banter, though the tone of his papers is, on the 
 whole, little superior to that of Dennis's letters. 50 
 
 Toward the close of March Dennis addressed to the Duke 
 of Newcastle his third and fourth Edgar letters. 51 In almost 
 every controversy the disputants are likely to grow less judicial 
 with the progress of the argument, and Dennis's pamphlet 
 shows him no exception to the rule. It is, however, much 
 more moderate than the tract by Sir John Edgar's Baker 
 mentioned above; and if some of the shots, such as that at 
 Steele's English as Hibernian, fall short of the mark, others, 
 such as the thrust at his military record, must be confessed 
 palpable hits. 
 
 This same month, March 29th, Steele published in pamphlet 
 form an account of the differences between himself and the 
 Lord Chamberlain, 52 which was answered some ten days later 
 
 M Others were drawn into this contest with Steele, of whom the most 
 prominent was the writer for Applebee's, who signed his unimpassioned 
 and pedantic articles by the name " Sir Andrew Artlove." The title of his 
 letters reads, A Full Consideration and Confutation of Sir John Edgar, 
 By Sir Andrew Artlove, Knight and Baronet. In Three Letters to Mr. 
 Applebee. These appeared in Applebee's Original Journal, February 13, 
 20 and 27, 1720 and were republished by Nichols in the Theatre, II, 450 
 ff. Far more judicial and fair minded was the writer of the Anti-Theatre, 
 a journal of which fifteen numbers have been preserved. See the Theatre, 
 II, 227-313. 
 
 51 The Character and Conduct of Sir John Edgar and his Three Deputy 
 Governors, during the Administration of the late Separate Ministry. In a 
 Third and Fourth Letter to the Knight. With a Picture of Sir John, 
 Drawn with a Pen, After the Life, 1720. 
 
 62 The State of the Case between the Lord Chamberlain of His Majes- 
 ty's Household and the Governor of the Royal Company of Comedians. 
 
80 
 
 by an anonymous tract which Mr. Aitken considers Dennis's. 53 
 He bases his belief largely upon the following statement in the 
 pamphlet : 
 
 " I have not room here to take notice of his unjust and barbarous treat- 
 ment of Gentlemen of merit and learning during the whole course of his 
 Administration whose plays he has not only kept from being read and 
 acted, but could not be prevailed within six years to return them to their 
 authors." 
 
 It is true, as Mr. Aitken observes, 54 that Dennis could write 
 feelingly upon such a matter, for he himself had suffered thus 
 with his Invader; but it may be replied that this anonymous 
 author did not write with anything like the warmth Dennis 
 exhibited at this stage of the controversy. It is also to be 
 added that this pamphlet attacked Etheredge's Man of Mode, 
 which Dennis was soon to praise at the expense of Steele's 
 Conscious Lovers. Again, it seems to the present writer at 
 least, the diction of this tract is marked by few or none of 
 Dennis's pet phrases; and even the most casual reader will 
 perceive that the style lacks that stamp of virility so notable in 
 almost all of the critic's work. Against Dennis's authorship 
 of the pamphlet may also be urged the statement in its opening 
 paragraph : " The reader must know, that I have not the honour 
 of the least acquaintance with his Grace [the Duke of New- 
 castle] nor am I at all known to him." While we must admit, 
 of course, that few of the pamphleteers of the time were above 
 lying to throw the reader off the scent, we must also remember 
 that Dennis has never been convicted of a deliberate falsehood. 
 There now ensued a lull in the quarrel between Dennis and 
 Steele, broken only by the former's shot at Gibber in the letter 
 to Cromwell 55 concerning the authorship of the Fool of 
 Fashion. Dennis added the Invader to the 1721 edition of his 
 
 With the Opinions of Pemberton, Northey, and Parker, concerning the 
 Theatre. Steele here maintained that Newcastle was infringing upon his 
 legal rights ; and he estimated that the intrusion had lost him some 9800. 
 
 53 The State of the Case between the Lord Chamberlain of His Majesty's 
 Household and Sir Richard Steele, as represented by that Knight, re-stated, 
 in vindication of King George, and the most Noble Duke of Newcastle. 
 
 "Aitken's Life of Richard Steele, II, 231. 
 
 65 Original Letters, p. 138. 
 
81 
 
 Works, thus showing that he maintained a good opinion of the 
 play despite its reception; and in the same year he published 
 a part of his correspondence with Steele in his Original Letters. 
 There was, however, no further serious outbreak till No- 
 vember, 1722, when the critic's wrath was aroused by the 
 manner in which Steele's forthcoming drama, the Conscious 
 Lovers, was being advertised. " His Play has been trotted as 
 far as Edinburg northward, and as far as Wales westward," 
 Dennis declared. 56 And he added, " Now Advertisements have 
 been sent to the Newspapers to the Effect that the Comedy in 
 Rehersal is, in the Opinion of Excellent Judges, the very best 
 that ever came on the English Stage/' This gentle art of 
 advertising kindled Dennis's habitual resentment to cabals, so, 
 with a lamentable lack of discretion, he proceeded to show that 
 the play would be worthless because the writer knew nothing 
 of the nature of comedy. 57 In support of his contention 
 Dennis reverted to the 65th Spectator, published a dozen years 
 before, where Steele had attacked Etheredge's Sir Fopling 
 Flutter chiefly on moral grounds. In his pamphlet the critic 
 maintained the idea familiar in his time that ridicule is the 
 proper object of comedy as terror and pity of tragedy; that 
 comedy instructs through its characters; and that in repre- 
 senting Sir Fopling Flutter Etheredge had drawn a character 
 which made vice ridiculous. Though this is on the whole a 
 well written criticism, free from the bitterness that had marked 
 many of the preceding pamphlets, Steele's friends were so 
 forward in his defense that Dennis afterwards stated 58 that 
 "instead of meeting with Thanks which I expected ... I 
 found myself in the same situation which Surley was, upon 
 discovering the Cheat in the Alchymist." 
 
 "Preface to the Defense of Sir Fopling Flutter. 
 
 07 A Defense of Sir Fopling Flutter, A Comedy Written by Sir George 
 Etheredge. In which Defense is shewn, that Sir Fopling, that Merry 
 Knight, was rightly compos'd by the Knight his Father, to answer the 
 Ends of Comedy; and that he has been barbarously and scurrilously 
 attack'd by the Knight his Brother, in the 65th Spectator. By which it 
 appears That the Latter Knight knows nothing of the Nature of Comedy, 
 London, 1722. 
 
 58 Preface to the Remarks on the Conscious Lovers. 
 7 
 
82 
 
 Dennis's pamphlet appeared on the 2nd of November, 1722 ; 
 five days later the Conscious Lovers was acted with great suc- 
 cess; and on the 2Qth of the same month was published an 
 Epistle to Sir Richard Steele on his Play called the Conscious 
 Lovers, By B. Victor. This last named writer was a young 
 man who had just been introduced to Steele and was, accord- 
 ing to his own later account, 59 readily induced to reply to 
 Dennis. His pamphlet need not detain us longer than to note 
 that he called Dennis " Apemantus, the Man Hater," who with 
 " a certain cant of words " " has set up for a formidable and 
 judicious Critick"; 60 and that he attributes to Dennis the 
 adage, " He who will make a pun will pick a pocket." 61 When 
 
 09 History of the Theatre of London and Dublin, From the Year 1730 to 
 the Present Time, 1761, I, 97. Cf. D. N. B. sub Victor. 
 
 60 Cf. c. Addison's remarks on Dennis in the 253rd Spectator, Supra. 
 
 61 " Mr. Purcell and Mr. Congreve going into a Tavern, by chance met 
 De s, who went in with 'em ; after a glass or two had pass'd, Mr. Pur- 
 cell having some private business with Mr. Congreve, wanted De s out 
 of the Room, and not knowing a more certain Way than Punning (for 
 you are to understand, Sir, that Mr. De s is as much surpris'd at a Pun 
 as at a Bailiff) he proceeded after the following Manner : he pull'd the 
 Bell, and call'd 2 or 3 Times, but no one answering, he put his hand 
 under the Table and looking full at Dennis he said, I think this Table 
 is like the Tavern ; says De s (with his usual profane Phrase) God's 
 death, Sir, How is this Table like the Tavern? Why, says Mr. Purcell, 
 because there is no Drawer in it. 
 
 " Says De s (Starting up) God's death Sir, the Man that would make 
 such an execrable Pun as that in my Company, would pick my Pocket, 
 and so left the Room." 
 
 This story is quoted in Notes and Queries, 6th Series, XI, 511. 
 
 The town seems to have been well acquainted with Dennis's aversion to 
 puns, for the laughs on that score at his expense are not infrequent. 
 One of the most notable of these references is that by Fielding in his 
 Annotations of H. Scriblerus Secundus, accompanying his Tragedy of 
 Tragedies, or the Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great: "The man 
 who writ this wretched pun, says Mr. D , would pick your pocket; 
 which he proceeds to show not only bad in itself but doubly so on this 
 solemn occasion. And yet in that excellent play of Liberty Asserted we 
 find something very much resembling a pun in the mouth of a Mistress 
 who is parting with the lover she is fond of : 
 
 ' Ul. Oh mortal woe ! one kiss and then farewell. 
 
83 
 
 Dennis published the defense of Sir Fopling Flutter he declared 
 that he should later criticize Steele's new comedy; and he 
 fulfilled this promise the following January 62 by issuing his 
 Remarks on a Play, call'd The Conscious Lovers, a Comedy. 
 Dennis here defended himself against the charge of ill nature 68 
 and maintained that, as Steele and his company had done him 
 wrongs that did not fall within the cognizance of the law, he 
 was in a state of nature for getting what justice he could. 
 The criticism itself, however, is practically free from any per- 
 sonal abuse and is devoted largely to comparing the Conscious 
 Lovers with its source, Terrence's Andria. These Remarks 
 do not constitute a great piece of criticism, but they form one 
 of the most judicial pamphlets of the entire controversy. 
 
 On the thirteenth of December, I722, 64 appeared a tract 
 against Dennis less moderate than Victor's, in which almost 
 the only pretense to criticism is that made in the title: Sir 
 Richard Steele and his New Comedy, call'd the Conscious 
 Lovers, vindicated from the malicious Aspersions of Mr. John 
 Dennis, Wherein Mr. Dennis's vile Criticisms in Defense of 
 Sir Fopling Flutter are Detected and Exposed, and the Author 
 of them Shewn to Know Nothing of Criticism. One sentence, 
 chosen almost at random, may be quoted to show the nature of 
 nearly the entire pamphlet : " Men set up for critics, who have 
 no other Recommendation [but ill nature] . . . they snarl, and 
 under correction they bark, and if they themselves cannot sing, 
 they are resolved to bark outrageously." 
 
 Quite different from this vindication of Steele was another 
 
 Irene. The Gods have given to others to fare well, 
 O miserably must Irene fare.' " 
 
 The Complete Works of Henry Fielding, New York, 1902, II, 40. 
 
 82 Published on the 24th of January, 1723 (Daily Journal). The British 
 Journal, Sat., Jan. 19, 1723, advertises for Monday these Remarks. The 
 Post Boy of Jan. 26, 1723, advertises it for "this day." 
 
 * " The Truth of the affair is, that no English Author of any note 
 has commended as many English Poets as I have. I shall give a list 
 some of these : Shakespere, Ben Johnson, Milton, Butler, Roscommon, Den- 
 ham, Waller, Dryden, Wycherley, Otway, Etheredge, Shadwell, Crown, 
 Philips." Preface to the Remarks on the Conscious Lovers. 
 
 "Aitken's Life of Richard Steele, II, 284. 
 
84 
 
 pamphlet which appeared in 1723 called the Censor Censured* 5 
 a dialogue in which Jack Freeman (Dennis had given this name 
 to the principal speaker in his Impartial Critick and had dedi- 
 cated his Iphigenia to his friend Mr. John Freeman) indicated 
 the weaknesses of Steele's play in an unprejudiced and some- 
 what humorous manner. Toward the close of the dialogue 
 Dennis is represented as entering. Freeman proceeds to show 
 that the Remarks on the Conscious Lovers are no better than 
 the play itself, whereupon Dennis retorts, " I must tell you in 
 plain terms that you have no more sense than the Knight." 
 
 With this pamphlet ended the four years of controversy. 
 The managers of the theatre soon came to quarrel among 
 themselves; and the remaining six years of Steele's life were 
 filled with litigation, sickness, and debt. We possess no record 
 of further relations between him and Dennis, and it may be 
 doubted if there were any. In the history that has just been 
 sketched there is comparatively little that reflects discredit 
 upon Steele, and not so much as has been generally believed on 
 Dennis. That the old critic should have felt himself wronged 
 is perfectly explicable. It is unfair to characterize his retorts 
 as the blows of a flail, 66 as has been done by one writer, or to 
 state that he was constantly the aggressor. For the most part 
 the relations between Dennis and Steele during these twenty- 
 five years were amicable. These peaceful times, however, 
 leave but little to record, so that in emphasizing the quarrels 
 of a few months or years, we are likely to lose sight of the 
 long periods of friendship between these two impetuous and 
 impecunious associates. 
 
 Quite different from his relations with Steele were those of 
 Dennis with Swift; for, if we accept the critic's own state- 
 ment, 67 he was a stranger to the great satirist in 1711, and 
 after that time would probably have refused to meet him. We 
 
 66 The Censor Censured or the Conscious Lovers Examined; In a Dia- 
 logue between Sir Dicky Marplot and Jack Freeman. In which Mr. 
 Dennis is Introduced by Way of Postscript; with some observations on 
 his late Remarks. 
 
 86 The Theatre, II, 370. 
 
 87 " I thank my God I am altogether a stranger to thy person." Original 
 Letters, p. 298. 
 
85 
 
 have already noticed Swift's thrust at the critic in the Tale of a 
 Tub, where he characterized Dennis as the son of Momus and 
 Hybris. Our author took no notice of this hit; nor did he 
 make any answer when, two years later, Swift published the 
 story of the French privateer 68 in his Thoughts on Various 
 Subjects. He did, however, reply promptly and furiously 
 when the writer of the Examiner for January 10, 1711/12, 
 assigned to him the authorship of a tract in defense of Marl- 
 borough, 69 stating that " from the style of the pamphlet, and 
 the manifest thefts from his own unlucky plays, an old sour 
 critic must be the author, though the tract was fairly printed 
 in large characters, and avoided in outward circumstances all 
 appearance of Grub Street." 
 
 Dennis retorted 70 by calling Swift " a Joker in a long party 
 colored Coat," "an arrant Fool," and an "ecclesiastical Jack 
 Pudding," who had denied the very being of God. The 
 language was coarse and brutal ; but Dennis was only replying 
 to such phrases as "the most insipid and contemptible of all 
 human Creatures," delivered by his unprovoked assailant. In 
 all probability Swift did not write that particular number of 
 the Examiner, though he was doubtlessly willing to take the 
 responsibility. In the latter part of April, 1714, he published 
 his John Dennis the Sheltering Poet's Invitation to Sir Richard 
 Steele, the Secluded Party Writer, to come and live with him 
 in the Mint, which, though directed primarily against Steele, 
 did not neglect bestowing a generous portion of ridicule upon 
 the critic. With this Invitation the relations between Dennis 
 and Swift practically closed; for while there were later a few 
 chance shots, 71 the London recluse and the Irish dean never 
 again came into conflict. 
 
 68 Supra. 
 
 69 The Management of the War. Francis Hare is regarded as the author 
 of this tract, but Maynwaring probably had a share in it. 
 
 70 Original Letters, p. 296. 
 
 71 " Who have been the Prose- Authors that have been most in Vogue? 
 Why Abel [Roper] and the Examiner, par nobile fratrum : whose Rhet- 
 orick has been Billingsgate, and whose Reasons have been Impudence." 
 Remarks upon Mr. Pope's Homer, p. 3. See also Pope's Works, VIII, 309, 
 and Scott's Swift, IX, 375. It is possible that Swift may have been re- 
 sponsible for some of the hits at Dennis in Peri Bathous. 
 
86 
 
 Dennis's brief and somewhat casual conflicts with Swift sink 
 into insignificance when compared with the long and bitter 
 strife he waged with Pope a series of quarrels that cover a 
 quarter of a century and stand to most readers as the critic's 
 principal, if not his sole, claim to remembrance. It was prob- 
 ably in the latter years of the first decade of the eighteenth 
 century that Pope, then a youth, in seeking the acquaintance of 
 the men of letters of the town, prevailed upon his much older 
 friend Henry Cromwell to introduce him to Dennis, who re- 
 ceived him civilly but apparently without any special interest. 
 The critic's own account of their meeting and of Pope's sub- 
 sequent attack reads as follows : 72 
 
 " At his first coming to town he was very importunate with the late 
 Mr. Henry Cromwell to introduce him to me. The Recommendation of 
 Mr. Cromwell induced me to be about thrice in his Company, after which 
 I went into the Country and never saw or thought of him, till I found 
 myself attacked by him in the very superficial Essay on Criticism." 
 
 In his Reflections upon the Essay on Criticism Dennis gives 
 us a hint as to the cause of his differences with Pope, 73 when 
 he calls that author "an eternal writer of Amorous Pastoral 
 Madrigals," referring probably to his adverse opinion of Pope's 
 artificial pastorals. This hint is strengthened by the evidence 
 of a passage from Pope's Prologue to the Satires: 741 
 
 " Soft were my Numbers, who could take offense, 
 While pure description held the place of sense : 
 Like gentle Fanny's was my flow'ry theme, 
 A painted mistress or a purling stream. 
 Yet then did Dennis rave with furious fret: 
 I never answered, I was not in debt." 
 
 Pope was prompt to resent Dennis's disapproval of his poems 
 and was not over nice in the means he employed against his 
 critic. In his physical and temperamental peculiarities Dennis 
 offered a chance for satire which Pope quickly improved in his 
 
 72 This passage, as well as a large part of the subsequent narration of 
 the relations of Dennis and Pope, is based upon the critic's story of his 
 dealings with his arch enemy as given in his Remarks upon Mr. Pope's 
 Dunciad, 1729, pp. 39 ff. 
 
 "See Pope's Works, IV, 74, and VIII, 11-12. 
 
 "Ibid., II, 12. 
 
87 
 
 Essay on Criticism. Not only did he include such open 
 thrusts as " Appius " reddening and the hit at the tremendous 
 stare, but he also directed against Dennis some more covert 
 blows. 75 
 
 It is little wonder then that with such provocation Dennis 
 immediately wrote some Reflections upon the Essay 76 and pub- 
 lished them as soon as he could. Nor was his resentment 
 lessened by his belief that Pope had made this " clandestine " 
 attack on his person as a part of a scheme "to destroy the 
 reputation of a man who had published certain pieces of 
 criticism, and to set up his own." Moreover, Dennis felt an 
 added resentment that the onslaught should have been made 
 at a time " when all the world knew " that he " was suffering 
 great misfortunes." And, as the attack had been made on his 
 person, he retorted thus in turn to the "young squab," who 
 was a "fine fellow to make personal remarks about another." 
 For the most part, however, Dennis confined himself to a 
 consideration of the Essay, devoting no small part of his time 
 to criticizing single lines or couplets. Though some of his 
 remarks are mere cavils, twisting the text from its obvious 
 meaning, he shrewdly recognized that Pope's power of ex- 
 pression frequently surpassed his power of thought, and he was 
 quick to perceive the equivocal manner in which such words 
 as " nature " and " wit " had been used, and to take the author 
 to task. Near the close of the Remarks Dennis stated that 
 he had lately drawn a graphic picture of Pope, but that he 
 believed that he should " keep the Dutch piece from ever seeing 
 the light." 
 
 75 Pope went to the trouble of pointing out at least one such allusion. 
 In his Strange Narrative of Dr. N orris he had this sentence : " That the 
 said Mr. John Dennis on the 27th of March, 1712, finding on the said Mr. 
 Lintot's counter a book called an Essay on Criticism, just then published, 
 he read a page or two of it with much frowning, till he came to these two 
 lines : 
 
 Some have at first for wits, then poets past, 
 
 Turned critics next, and prov'd plain fools at last. 
 
 He flung the book down iu a terrible fury, and cried out, By God he 
 means me." 
 
 76 Remarks upon the Dunciad, p. 39, on which the statements immediately 
 following are also based. 
 
88 
 
 Despite his protest to the contrary, 77 Pope was so deeply cut 
 that he really never forgave the writer ; but he was wise enough 
 to profit by some of Dennis's hints, and in the light of this 
 criticism to revise several lines. 78 He made no direct reply 
 to Dennis, but with that deliberate malice which so often char- 
 acterized him, went to work to secure his revenge. About this 
 time began his friendship with the good natured and inof- 
 fensive Gay, whom he soon came to use for righting his battles. 
 In May, 1712, four months after the publication of the Re- 
 flections upon the Essay on Criticism appeared Gay's Mohocks, 
 preceded by an insulting dedication to Dennis of this play 
 which was both "Horrid and Tremendous." Our belief that 
 the dedication was directed in retalliation for Pope is strength- 
 ened by the following allusion it contains to the favorable 
 
 77 " Did you never mind what your angry critics published against you ? 
 Never much : only one or two things at first. When I heard for the first 
 time that Dennis had written against me, it gave me some pain; but it 
 was quite over when I came to look in his book, and found him in such* 
 a passion." Spence, Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters of Books 
 and Men, London, 1820, p. 275. 
 
 78 The following lines criticized by Dennis were afterwards altered by 
 Pope. Of course it does not necessarily follow in each instance that 
 Dennis's criticism was the sole, or even the main, reason for Pope's 
 making the change. 
 
 I> 75> " That art is best that most resembles her, 
 
 Which still presides but never does appear," 
 was changed to 
 
 " Art from that fund each just supply provides, 
 
 Works without show, and without pomp presides." 
 I, 80, " There are whom Heav'n hath bless'd with store of Wit, 
 
 Yet want as much again to manage it." 
 changed to 
 
 " Some to whom Heav'n in Wit has been profuse, 
 
 Want as much more to turn it to its use." 
 I, 82, " For Wit and Judgment ever are at strife," 
 "ever" changed to "often." 
 
 I, 179, "Those are best Stratagems which Errors seem," 
 
 " are best ' to " oft are." 
 
 II, 503, "The more his Trouble [Wit] as the more admir'd, 
 
 When wanted scorn'd, and envied when acquir'd." 
 became 
 
 " Then more our Trouble still when most admir'd, 
 And still the more we give, the more requir'd." 
 
89 
 
 mention of the Essay on Criticism which had appeared in the 
 253d Spectator: " As we look upon you to have a Monopoly of 
 English Criticism in your Head, we hope that you will shortly 
 chastise the Insolence of the Spectator, who has lately had the 
 Audacity to shew that there are more Beauties than Faults in 
 a Modern Writer." Beyond his friendship for Pope, no other 
 reason has been assigned for this hit of Gay's at Dennis, who, 
 so far as we know, never mentioned or alluded to the author of 
 the Mohocks in any of his writings. Two years later Gay 
 returned to his attack upon Dennis in his sarcastic remarks 
 about critics and poetic justice delivered in the preface to 
 his What-d'-ye-C all-It; and he afterwards collaborated with 
 Pope and Arbuthnot in satirizing Dennis in the deservedly un- 
 successful Three Hours After Marriage, which we shall notice 
 later. 
 
 In the meantime Pope was nursing his wrath and waiting for 
 other opportunities to take vengeance upon Dennis, one of 
 which came with his pretended defense of Addison in the Nor- * 
 rative of . . . the Strange Frenzy of Mr. John Dennis, dated 
 July 30, 1714. As has already been indicated, this coarse and 
 cowardly attack made no reply to the charges brought against 
 Addison's play, and very insultingly ridiculed the old critic. On 
 his part Dennis continued to guard jealously the memory of 
 Dryden as opposed to the growing fame of this young bard 
 of the "monotonous Couplets"; and in 1715, when he heard 
 from Tonson that Pope and his friends had set on foot a con- 
 spiracy against the reputation of Dryden, he wrote to the book- 
 seller a strong letter against "these Authors of great Medio- 
 crity, whose Absurdities," he said, he had " exposed openly and 
 fairly, and upon just and personal Provocations." 
 
 Pope was now busy with his translation of Homer, of which 
 the first four books appeared in 1715, and nothing occurred to 
 break the armed neutrality till May, 1716, when there appeared 
 a furious tract, a True Character of Mr. Pope, very probably 
 by Dennis. This diatribe was evoked by an anonymous Imita- 
 tion of Horace which had probably been directed against the 
 critic. The offending poem, however, has never been dis- 
 covered. 79 Though the authorship of the True Character has 
 
 79 See Pope's Works, VIII, n. 
 
90 
 
 never been quite definitely settled, it was very probably the 
 work of Dennis. 80 Possibly this is the Dutch portrait of which 
 he speaks in the Reflections upon the Essay on Criticism* 1 as 
 prepared to be held in reserve. Curll once stated that Gildon 
 wrote the True Character, but he afterwards transferred the 
 honor to Dennis. 82 Pope once professed to consider the tract 
 the joint work of Gildon and Dennis, 83 but our author de- 
 
 80 Mr. Roberts, in the Bookworm, IV, 375, states his conviction that the 
 " internal evidence does not warrant the assumption that Dennis could 
 stoop so low." To this it may be replied that some of the critic's later 
 attacks are about as abusive as is the True Character. Moreover, the 
 sentiments expressed near the close of the pamphlet on the possibilities 
 of translating Homer into a modern tongue are almost precisely those 
 voiced in Dennis's Remarks upon Mr. Pope's Homer (see especially pp. 
 10-11). The writer of the True Character promised to make some ob- 
 servations on Pope's translation, a task which Dennis afterwards ac- 
 complished. Again, the likes and prejudices of the author of this tract 
 are those of the critic; there is a quotation from. Dennis's almost inevit- 
 able Hudibras and from his almost equally favorite Horace ; reference is 
 made to Shadwell's Squire of Alsatia, which was a favorite play with our 
 author; Blackmore and his works are highly praised by this writer, just at 
 the time when the strongest friendship had grown up between the physi- 
 cian and Dennis ; here, as in the Reflection upon the Essay on Criticism, 
 Pope is admitted to possess some skill as a versifier ; he is also compared 
 with Boileau, a contrast which Dennis afterwards developed at length in his 
 Remarks upon the Dunciad; the writer accuses Pope of being an imitator 
 in all his productions of Vergil in the Bucolics, of Boileau in the Rape 
 of the Lock, of Denham in Windsor Forest, of Dryden in the Ode on St. 
 Cecilia's Day, and of Chaucer in the Temple of Fame, strictures which 
 Dennis repeated in practically all his attacks upon Pope (see, for example, 
 the Daily Journal, May n, 1728); the style of the pamphlet is marked 
 by a notable use of contrast, a favorite device with the critic ; some of 
 the phrases employed, such as " fool and knave," always in that order, 
 and " assertor of liberty " have a familiar ring to one who has read much 
 of Dennis ; and, still more important, this pamphlet contains the first 
 recorded hint as to the authorship of Pope's Strange Frenzy "Who 
 wrote a prolog in praise of Cato, and teas'd Lintot to publish Remarks 
 on it ? " To this we may add that " in the Testimonies of Authors, prefixed 
 to the Dunciad {.e.g., Pope's Works, IV, 74], and in the Appendix, and 
 throughout the Notes, Dennis is uniformly quoted and attacked as the 
 author" (Notes and Queries, ist Series, Vol. IV, 94). 
 
 81 Supra. 
 
 M Bookworm, IV, 357. 
 "Works, IV, 72. 
 
91 
 
 clared that they had never written a single line together. 8 * 
 The True Character itself reflects but little credit upon its 
 author with its abuse of Pope as shaped like a monkey and 
 other such genial personalities. It is, however, often acute, 
 especially in puncturing Pope's mock humility and in exposing 
 his vanity, all with a brutal frankness that probably cut him 
 the deeper because he recognized the truth in the analysis. 
 
 Pope renewed the attack, again behind the shield of Gay, \ 
 by producing in connection with that writer and Arbuthnot the 
 farce Three Hours After Marriage, which was staged in 1717, 
 nominally as the work of Gay. Several persons were here 
 satirized, including Lady Winchilsea as Clinkett the poetess, ' 
 Gibber as Plotwell, and Dennis as Sir Tremendous Longinus 
 the Critic. There is little remarkable about the play except its 
 tameness and meagerness. In reading such criticisms as the 
 Comparison Between the Two Stages, one laughs at the keen- 
 ness and truth of some of the thrusts at Dennis ; but the satire 
 of the Three Hours, representing the critic as all praise for the 
 ancients and blame for the moderns, and as strict for the rules, 
 fails to hit home. The play met with a storm of hostile criti- 
 cism and was soon withdrawn, much to the mortification of 
 Pope. 
 
 Early in the same month, January, 1717, which witnessed 
 the failure of the Three Hours, Theobald printed in the thirty- 
 third number of the Censor, which he was then publishing, 
 an attack on Dennis as "a sour, ill-natured Critick." He 
 ended the article with a eulogy of Pope's translation of the 
 first eight books of the Iliad. Theobald, who was sometimes 
 pressed for copy, may have heard Dennis in one of the coffee 
 houses discussing the new translation and have seized upon this 
 opportunity to berate the critic and to praise Pope. At least 
 this seems the most plausible explanation, for Dennis had given 
 no known cause for this attack on him as the " modern Furius," 
 who was filled with ill nature and roughly assaulted successful 
 merit. 
 
 In closing his paper Theobald had prophesied that he should 
 have " Critic Furius " upon his back, nor was he mistaken ; 
 
 84 Infra, p. 95 n. 
 
92 
 
 for in the next month when Dennis published his Remarks 
 J upon Mr. Pope's Translation of Homer, 85 he paid his respects 
 to the " Censor " as a " notorious Idiot, one Hight Whacum, 
 who from an under-spur Leather of the Law, is become an 
 understrapper to the play-house." Dennis, however, bestowed 
 but a passing notice on Theobald, choosing rather to take ven- 
 geance upon Pope. 86 Naturally a piece of criticism written for 
 revenge cannot be considered work of a very high order; but 
 mixed with the petty cavils at Pope's choice of words are many 
 just censures of a translation that is often inexact and inap- 
 propriate. The modern student who peruses Dennis's criticism 
 carefully cannot fail to be impressed with the penetration and 
 Tightness of his judgments of the large features of the transla- 
 tion. Such, for example are the remarks upon the possibility 
 of translating Homer into English verse, which anticipate much 
 of what Matthew Arnold had to say on that subject, and 
 a condemnation of the monotony of the heroic couplet which 
 resembles Lowell's comment on Pope's use of that form of 
 verse. "The HOMER which Lintot prints," Dennis asserted, 
 " does not talk like Homer, but like Pope ; " and he then went 
 on to compare the simplicity of the original with the artificiality 
 of the translation. Of far less value than these Remarks upon 
 Homer are those upon Windsor Forest and the Temple of 
 Fame included in the same little volume. Dennis described 
 Windsor Forest as a wretched rhapsody, unworthy the observa- 
 tions of a man of sense; and he then proceeded to devote 
 several pages to a discussion of it. Much of his space is taken 
 up with a comparison of this poem with Denham's Cooper's 
 Hill. Of the observations upon the Temple of Fame it may 
 suffice to note that Dennis here enters into a pedantic dis- 
 cussion of the nature of dreams, and that, as Dr. Johnson has 
 
 85 Remarks upon Mr. Pope's Translation of Homer. With Two Letters 
 concerning Windsor Forest and the Temple of Fame. London, 1717. Ad- 
 vertised in the Daily Courant, for Feb. gth. 
 
 88 " I afterwards wrote and published some Remarks upon Part of his 
 Translation of Homer, upon his Windsor Forest and upon his infamous 
 Temple of Fame. When I had done this, I thought that I had reason to 
 be satisfied with the Revenge I had taken." Remarks upon the Dunciad, 
 P- 39- 
 
93 
 
 observed in his comments upon Pope, the best remark in the 
 criticism is that "Trees starting from their roots, and moun- 
 tains rolling into a wall, and a town rising like an exhalation, 
 are things not to be shown in sculpture." 
 
 Despite his fabricated letter to Congreve, declaring himself 
 indifferent to any abuse from Dennis, 87 Pope was deeply cut 
 by the Remarks, so, as an offset to them and to the recent 
 failure of the Three Hours, he welcomed, if he did not invite, 
 the assistance of his friend Parnell, who published during the 
 following May his Homer's Battle of the Frogs and Mice. 
 With the Remarks of Zoilus. To which is prefixed, The Life 
 of the Said Zoilus. This satire was directed against Dennis 
 and, rather retributively it would seem after the number of the 
 Censor just discussed, against Theobald. Why the latter 
 should have been chosen for ridicule is not quite clear, unless 
 it was for his disapproval of the Three Hours and as a good 
 representative of poor, unfortunate authors. Pope wrote to 
 Parnell at this time, 88 " Gay's play has cost much time and long 
 suffering to stem the tide of malice and party that certain 
 authors have raised against it. The best revenge upon such 
 fellows is now in my hands, I mean your Zoilus, which really 
 transcends the expectation I had conceived of it." Parnell's 
 criticism, while more extended and exhaustive than most of 
 those made against Dennis, followed closely along the old lines 
 of accusations of envy and snarling, of a pedantic regard for 
 
 87 " My spleen was not occasioned, however, by anything an abusive 
 angry critic could write of me. (' Dennis, who writ an abusive pamphlet 
 that year, entitled Remarks upon Mr. Pope's Homer.')" " I take very kindly 
 your heroic manner of congratulation upon this scandal: for I think noth- 
 ing more honourable than to be involved in the same fate with all the 
 great and good that ever lived, that is, to be envied and censured by bad 
 writers." Pope to Congreve, January 16, 1714-15. 
 
 The editors of Pope's Works, VI, 411, go on to comment thus: "Un- 
 fortunately for Pope's consistency, he states that he refers in a letter 
 dated January, 1715, to Dennis's pamphlet on his Homer, when the next 
 letter but one, which is dated April, says that the first part of the trans- 
 lation was not yet published. It did not, in fact, appear till June, and 
 Dennis's Remarks did not follow till February, 1717. Pope omitted the 
 note in the quarto, and as he was unable to particularize any abuse of 
 himself which came out in January, 1715, he left the allusion unexplained." 
 
 88 Works, VIII, 464. 
 
94 
 
 verbal criticism, and of a proneness to see faults and to dis- 
 regard beauties. Pope must have valued the Zoilus highly, 
 for after Parnell's death he reprinted it, "corrected by Mr. 
 Pope," after the fifth book of his translation of the Odyssey. 
 
 After the appearance of the Zoilus in May, 1717, came an 
 armistice in this long war between Pope and Dennis, of which 
 the latter has given the following account : 89 
 
 " As these several Remarks [upon Homer, Windsor Forest, and the 
 Temple of Fame] had made great Impressions upon the Minds of Per- 
 sons of undoubted Sense, and so esteem'd by the Publick, P. began to re- 
 pent the Affront he had offer'd me, and the Injury he had attempted to do 
 me: And to give some Proofs of his Repentance, he subscrib'd to the Two 
 Volumes of Select Works, almost in spite of my Friend Mr. Henry Crom- 
 well, in whose hands he found the Proposals. He likewise subscrib'd 
 afterwards to the two Volumes of Letters, which engaged me to strike out 
 several very just and severe Reflections against him." 
 
 The two authors exchanged civil letters, each expressing regret 
 for the past ; and Dennis came to feel that, while he could never 
 be Pope's friend, he was willing to cease to be his enemy. This 
 neutrality was maintained for about ten years; and even in 
 
 1727 Pope's name appeared upon the small list of subscribers 
 to Dennis's Miscellaneous Tracts, at the time he was prepar- 
 ing with Arbuthnot the Peri Bathous, Martin Scriblerus, his 
 treatise on the art of sinking in poetry, which appeared in 
 
 1728 as the third volume of Pope and Swift's Miscellanies. 
 In this preliminary study to the Dunciad Dennis received a 
 
 89 Remarks upon the Dunciad, p. 39. 
 
 90 The following passages were omitted by Dennis from the letter to 
 Tonson in 1715 regarding the conspiracy against the reputation of Dryden: 
 " But when I heard that this attempt to lessen Mr. Dryden's was done 
 in favour of little Pope, that diminutive of Parnassus and of humanity, . . . 
 and the little Mr. Pope to the illustrious Mr. Dryden; . . . But Pope is the 
 very reverse of all this ; he scarce ever once thought solidly, but is an 
 empty eternal babbler; and his thoughts are almost always false and 
 trifling, his expression is too often obscure, ambiguous and uncleanly. 
 He has indeed a smooth Verse and rhyming Jingle, but he has no power 
 or variety of Harmony ; but always the same dull cadence, and a continual 
 bag-pipe drone. Mr. Dryden's Expression was always worthy of his 
 Thoughts, but Pope never speaks or thinks at all; or what is all one, his 
 Language is frequently as barbarous as his Thoughts are false." Dennis 
 then went on, in a passage which he also omitted later to show that Pope's 
 fame was due to popular error. 
 
95 
 
 goodly share of attention along with most of the poets and 
 poetasters of his time, being classed with Gildon and Oldmixon 
 as the representatives of the porpoise poets. 91 The last chapter 
 of this book consists of a burlesque project of twelve rules for 
 the advancement of the stage, purporting to be the digest of a 
 scheme made public in 1720 by Dennis and Gildon for encour-^ 
 aging poor authors and for fostering a right dramatic taste. 92 
 So far as abuse is concerned, there is little to choose between 
 Pope's treatment of Dennis in the work just mentioned and 
 that in the Dunciad, which was published a month later, May, 
 1728. Though he fared better than did some of Pope's other 
 victims, Dennis was ridiculed in half a dozen passages, rang- 
 ing in length and severity from the "thunder rumbling in a 
 mustard bowl," to the eight lines descriptive of his participation 
 in the diving contest, "In naked Majesty great Dennis stands, 
 etc/' 93 
 
 The story of the numerous replies evoked by the Dunciad is 
 too well known to require any extended repetition. Dennis at 
 once published his Remarks on the Rape of the Lock?* 
 which he had written a dozen years before, but which he had 
 held back "In Terr or em! 3 In many ways this is one of the 
 
 91 " The porpoises are unwieldy and big ; they put all their members into 
 a great turmoil and tempest, but whenever they appear in plain sight 
 (which is seldom) they are only shapeless and ugly monsters." Chapter 
 VI. 
 
 82 Mr. Aitken states in his Life of Richard Steele, II, 234, that A New 
 Project for the Regulation of the Stage was advertised on February 5, 
 1713, and that it reached a second edition, but that he never had seen the 
 book. Beyond this statement and the allusion in Pope, just mentioned 
 above, the present writer has been able to find little. It is also to be 
 noted that in his Remarks upon the Dunciad, p. 50, Dennis declares that he 
 never wrote any such book with Gildon : " As Mr. P. has been pleas'd in 
 several Places of his wonderful Rhapsody [the Dunciad'} to declare that 
 I wrote such and such things in Concert with Mr. Gildon I solemnly de- 
 clare upon the Word and Honour of a Gentleman, that I never so much 
 as wrote one Line that was afterwards printed in concert with any one Man 
 whatsoever." 
 
 93 11. 283 ff. Pope afterwards transferred these lines to Oldmixon. 
 
 ** Remarks on Mr. Pope's Rape of the Lock. In Several Letters to a 
 Friend. With a Preface. Occasion 'd by the late Treatise on the Profound 
 and the Dunciad. London, 1728. 
 
96 
 
 least happy of his efforts in criticism ; for while the personali- 
 ties included are not so stinging as might be expected from one 
 with his provocation, and while some of his remarks, as Dr. 
 Johnson has observed, are not easy to answer, the critic's mind 
 was far too literal, and far too unsympathetic, to judge the 
 poem aright. At this juncture he also published in the Daily 
 Journal for the eleventh of May, 1728, an anonymous "Letter 
 against Mr. Pope at Large," wherein he repeated his accusa- 
 tions against that poet as an imitator of Chaucer, Denham, 
 Dryden, and Boileau, characterized his style as mean and low, 
 and declared that as a writer of pastorals he fell far short of 
 Philips. 95 
 
 In the earlier months of this same year appeared a small 
 pamphlet Pope Alexander's Supremacy and Infallibility 
 examirid; and the Errors of Scriblerus and his Man William 
 Detected. With the Effigies of his Highness and his Prime 
 Minister, Curiously Engraved in Copper, London, 1729. This 
 tract consists of two anonymous latters, one of them very 
 moderate and judicial, the other decidedly abusive, preceded by 
 an engraving representing Pope as an ape, with an ass below 
 his prime minister, Will Cleland. This pamphlet has been ac- 
 credited to Dennis and George Duckett, though apparently 
 without a very careful investigation of its authorship. Pope, 
 who was very shrewd in guessing the origin of attacks against 
 himself, wrote to Oxford, 96 
 
 " I see a book with a curious cut ; called Pope Alexander's Supremacy 
 &c 4to. In it are three or four things so false and scandalous that I think 
 I know the authors, and they are of a rank to merit detection. . . ,. 
 The book is writ by Burnet and a person who has great obligations to me, 
 and the cut is done by Duckett." 
 
 Pope would hardly have mentioned Sir Thos. Burnet and failed 
 to do the same by Dennis, had he believed the old critic guilty of 
 
 85 These letters were afterwards inserted in the Compleat Collection of 
 all the Verses, Essays, Letters, and Advertisements, -which have been oc- 
 casion 'd by the Publication of the Three Volumes of Miscellanies by Pope 
 and Company. This collection has sometimes been attributed to Dennis, 
 but there exists practically no evidence for determining who was its 
 compiler. 
 
 "Works, VIII, 254. 
 
97 
 
 participating in the authorship. Furthermore, Dennis's own 
 testimony in his Remarks upon the Dunciad weighs heavily 
 against his participation, for it is here that he declares that 
 he never wrote anything in conjunction with another author. 
 Moreover, he expressly commends, on the last page of his 
 tract, " the ingenious and sagacious Author of Pope Alexan- 
 der's Supremacy." 
 
 The second edition of the Dunciad appeared in November, 
 1729, enlarged by the prefatory Prolegomena of Martin 
 Scriblerus and the Testimonies of Authors, in which, along 
 with Pope's other enemies, Dennis came in for a full share of 
 ridicule and abuse. Here Pope reviewed ironically many of 
 the critic's utterances against him of the past fifteen years and 
 showed by his quotation of the "young squab" that this 
 epithet, applied eighteen years before in the Reflections upon 
 an Essay on Criticism still rankled in him. To this new edition 
 Dennis hastened to reply with his Remarks upon Several ( 
 Passages in the Preliminaries to the Dunciad, both in the 
 Quarto and in the duodecimo edition, and upon Several 
 Passages in Pope's Preface to his Translation of Homer's 
 Iliad. In both of which is shewn the Author's want of Judg- 
 ment. With Original Letters from Sir Richard Steele, from 
 the late Mr. Gildon, from Mr. Jacob, from Mr. Pope himself, 
 which shew the Falsehood of the Latter, His Envy and his 
 Malice. By Mr. Dennis, London, 1729. This long title gives 
 a very fair idea of the nature of the pamphlet, which, in the 
 changing relations of authors, was addressed to Pope's 
 " Monarch of the Dunces," Theobald. To us the chief interest 
 in these Remarks lies in their recital of Dennis's relations with 
 Pope, in the transcript of Steele's letter expressing Addison's 
 regret at the publication of the Narrative of Doctor R. Norris, 
 and in Pope's conciliatory note to the critic. The discussion 
 of the Dunciad itself is neither long nor important. 
 
 Pope continued the conflict, for the most part either unaided 
 or with slight assistance. In his essay On the Poet Laureate, 91 
 dated November 19, 1729, he gravely proposed Dennis as a 
 
 97 Pope's authorship of this essay has been questioned, but it is in all 
 probability his. 
 8 
 
98 
 
 candidate for that honor and suggested the brassica as most 
 fitting for the crown. The humor is decidedly grim, for 
 Eusden, who then held the position, did not die till the follow- 
 ing September. Returning to this subject in the Grub Street 
 Journal on the nineteenth of November, 1730, Pope pretended 
 to show the absurdity of Dennis's candidacy for the laureate- 
 ship, and from time to time during the period he was using 
 this paper for warring on the enemies of letters, he there 
 published other little flings at the old critic. 98 
 
 As the conflict wore along, there appeared various miscel- 
 lanies of the tracts involved, such as the Compleat Collection 
 mentioned above. E. Curll, the bookseller, printed a Popiad, 
 extracted from J. Dennis, Sir Richard Blackmore, &; and 
 Savage issued in 1732 a Collection of Pieces in Verse and 
 Prose which have been published on Occasion of the Dunciad. 
 The last pamphlet of any length in the quarrel, so far as Dennis 
 is concerned, was the anonymous Legal Conviction of Mr. 
 Alexander Pope, &c, Q9 which appeared in 1733, the year before 
 
 98 The following may serve as illustrations : " Whereas upon occasion 
 of certain Pieces relating to the gentlemen of the Dunciad, some of them 
 have been willing to suggest, as if they look'd upon them as an abuse: we 
 can no less than own, it is our own opinion, that to call these gentlemen 
 bad authors, is no sort of abuse, but a great truth. We cannot alter our 
 opinion without some reason; but we promise to do it with respect to 
 every person who thinks it an injury to be represented as no Wit or 
 Poet, provided he secure a Certificate of his being really such, from any 
 three of his companions in the Dunciad, or from Mr. Dennis singly, who 
 is esteemed equal to any three of the number." Quoted in Ward's Poet- 
 ical Works of Alexander Pope, 1897, p. 360. 
 
 In this Journal Pope also published the " foul epigram " against Dennis, 
 wrongly attributed to Savage by Dr. Johnson in his life of that author: 
 " Should Dennis print how once you robbed your brother, 
 Traduced your Monarch ; or debauched your mother ; 
 Say, what revenge on Dennis can be had, 
 Too dull for laughter, for reply too mad? 
 On one so poor you cannot take the law, 
 On one so old your sword you cannot draw, 
 Uncag'd then, let the harmless monster rage, 
 Secure in dullness, madness, want, and rage." 
 
 For a discussion of the authorship of these lines see Notes and Queries, 
 x'st Series, IX, 223, and 7th Series, I, 385, 473. 
 
 "The Mirror, or Letters Satyrical, Panegyrical, On the Present Times, 
 
99 
 
 our author's death. The writer of this tract hales Pope before 
 a somewhat prejudiced set of judges, consisting of Dennis, 
 Theobald, and Hill, who sentence him to be banished from 
 Mount Parnassus. 
 
 As Dennis came to distress, poverty, and nearly total blind- 
 ness, Pope professed to take compassion on him and wrote to 
 Aaron Hill, 100 " I do faithfully assure you that I was never 
 angry at any criticism made on my poetry by whomsoever. If 
 I could do Mr. Dennis any humane office, I would, though I am 
 sure he would abuse me tomorrow." Hill evidently regarded 
 the second of Pope's statements as no truer than the first, for 
 two days later he replied sarcastically that Pope might well 
 show his morals as superior as he represented them by securing 
 Dennis a great subscription. 101 Pope answered that he had 
 solicited aid for the old critic from Lord Wilmington, Lord 
 Lansdowne, and others, 102 and added that Dennis had after- 
 wards abused him in print, representing that his subscription 
 had proceeded from fear of further exposure. Hill expressed 
 his regret 103 that Pope's good office should have brought such 
 an affront; and the matter was dropped till November, 1732, 
 when Pope sent 104 Hill a short note concerning the play pro- 
 posed for Dennis's benefit. For this play Pope wrote a pro- 
 logue and was generally praised for his benevolence. We 
 shall return to the discussion of this performance ; suffice it to 
 state that this apparent service was tinged with malignity, a 
 damning with cynical praise all too evident to the modern 
 reader. Even after the old writer's death Pope had to take his 
 
 shewing, The Great Improvement of Wit . . . To Which is added a Legal 
 Conviction of Mr. Alexander Pope &c. A manuscript note on the title page 
 of the copy in the British Museum ascribes the authorship to Giles Jacob. 
 The volume begins with a letter dated the loth of Dec., 1729, addressed to 
 Mr. J n D s, On Mr. Pope and his Poetry. The contents of this letter 
 are negligible. 
 
 100 January 26, 1730/31. First appeared in Hill's Letters, 1753. Also 
 given in Pope's Works, X, 10. 
 
 101 Pope's Works, X, 14. 
 Ibid., X, 1 8. 
 Ibid., X, 21. 
 Ibid., X, 1 8. 
 
100 
 
 little fling in the Satires at " surley Dennis" 105 and to de- 
 clare 106 that he could 
 
 " sleep without a poem in [his] head, 
 Nor, know if Dennis be alive or dead." 
 
 Such is the long and somewhat painful history of the rela- 
 tions of Dennis and Pope, in which it seems to the present 
 writer that neither of the men was entirely blameless, but that 
 the record of the former is, on the whole, much the more credit- 
 able. If his retorts were harsh, they were provoked, and they 
 were generally delivered in the open. He never resorted to the 
 subterfuges practiced by his opponent; and if he indulged in 
 coarse personalities, it must be remembered that such attacks 
 were still in fashion, and that Pope had begun such a warfare 
 in which he lay especially liable to attack. That Pope should 
 have patched up a truce and then broken it, is hardly to his 
 credit; while his oft-repeated and palpably false assertions of 
 his indifference to Dennis's attacks provoke an occasional 
 smile. 
 
 Before leaving this account of Dennis's quarrels with his 
 famous contemporaries, or rather members of the next genera- 
 tion, we may note that he seldom, if ever, began the conflict, 
 and that as a rule he was quick to respond to any friendly 
 advances from his opponent. Once engaged, however, he 
 fought bitterly; he fought aggressively; and he was prone to 
 seize the weapon closest at hand. One must at least admire his 
 courage, an old man he was seventy-two when he wrote his 
 Remarks upon the Dunciad almost blind, suffering a great 
 deal of physical pain, and oppressed by poverty. Still he was 
 always ready and defiant, and quick to recognize the weak 
 joints in his enemy's armor and to pierce them. 
 
 During the years of his bitterest literary quarrels Dennis had 
 been forced to rely upon his pen for his livelihood, and with 
 his advancing years and failing sight had been obliged to 
 husband his efforts. It was but natural, therefore, that he 
 should begin to collect his poems, plays and criticisms with a 
 view to republication. Many of these writings were scattered 
 
 105 First Epistle of the Second Book of Horace, 11. 386-387. 
 
 106 Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, 11. 269-270. 
 
101 
 
 among the various booksellers and were incorrectly printed; 
 and Dennis feared that, lacking the support of a cabal, they 
 might be lost. In October, I7I7, 107 therefore, he desired John 
 Darby, the bookseller, to collect these publications for him and 
 about three months later he issued a prospectus entitled, Pro- 
 posals for Printing by Subscription the Select Works of Mr. 
 John Dennis, In Two Volumes, Octavo.* These books were 
 to be delivered "on the first of May [1718] at the farthest;" 
 and subscriptions were to be taken by John Darby in Bartholo- 
 mew Close, and at St. James's, the Old Man's, Button's, the 
 Grecian, and Caraway's Coffee Houses. On the last page of 
 the prospectus appeared the following notice: 
 
 " Whereas, Proposals were given out some time since, for Writing and 
 Printing A Large Criticism upon our most celebrated English poets de-> 
 ceas'd, and some Money was receiv'd 'n that Subscription; and whereas 
 Mr. Dennis was utterly incapacitated for prosecuting this Work, by a 
 Disappointment which neither he nor his Friends could foresee; He hereby 
 gives notice, that what Money was paid on that Account, shall be allow'd 
 in this, if the Gentlemen think fit to subscribe ; but if not, it shall be 
 paid back to them, on their Order, by John Darby in Bartholomew-Close." 
 
 It seems impossible to determine whether this notice refers 
 to the subscriptions which Dennis had obtained in 1703 for his 
 proposed magnum opus, or to some attempt to revive that 
 
 107 Lowndes's Bibliographers' Manual makes reference to a collection of 
 Dennis's Works, 1702, as in the library of Isaac Reed, the Shakspere col- 
 lector (1742-1807), and this edition is also mentioned in Morley and 
 Tyler's History of English Literature and elsewhere. The present writer 
 has been unable to find any allusion to such a collection either in Dennis 
 or in any of his contemporaries, nor is such a book mentioned in the cata- 
 logues of any of the libraries to which he has had access. 
 
 108 y ol< i To conta i n tne following Poems viz., The Battle of Aghrin, 
 The Sea Fight at LaHogue, The Death of Queen Mary, the Death of King 
 William, The Battle of Blenheim, The Battle of Ramillies, The Accession 
 of King George to the Crown, and The Passion of Byblis. . . . Also the 
 following TRACTS, viz., Priestcraft dangerous to Religion and Government, 
 A Proposal for putting a Speedy End to the War, An Essay on the Ital- 
 ian Operas, An Essay on Publick Spirit, Priestcraft distinguish'd from 
 Christianity. 
 
 " Vol. II. Familiar Letters which pass'd betwix Mr. Dryden, Mr. 
 Wycherley, Mr. Moyle, Mr. Congreve, and the Author. The Grounds of 
 Criticism in Poetry. And Four PJay s, viz., Plot and^ No Plot, Iphigenia, 
 Liberty Asserted, Appius and Virginia.* 5 ' 
 
102 
 
 project. In favor of the former view it may be urged that at 
 the time of issuing his Proposal in 1703 Dennis was especially 
 hard pressed for funds, and also that the ambiguous "some 
 time since" of the notice just quoted rather favors the belief 
 that, like many another poor author of his time, Dennis was not 
 prompt in returning subscriptions for work never completed. 
 Possibly it was doubtful for a time whether the Works them- 
 selves would ever be issued, for while the Prospectus prom- 
 ised them by the first of May [1718], either Dennis or the 
 printer was slow in completing his task, so the Works were not 
 advertised till late in January I7i8-i9. 108a What success 
 attended this venture is not known; but judging from the 
 scarcity of the Works today, we may conclude that it probably 
 was not very great. 
 
 The Original Letters, 1721, which have been discussed, also 
 contain a great deal of reprinted matter, including the Person 
 of Quality's Answer to Mr. Collier and the Essay On the 
 Genius and Writings of Shakespear. This same year appeared 
 another proposal by Dennis, that of printing by subscription in 
 two volumes octavo the following Miscellaneous Tracts: the 
 Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, Rinaldo 
 and Armida, a Tragedy, etc. In this Proposal Dennis in- 
 cluded three letters of Observations on the Paradise Lost of 
 Milton and one to Congreve entitled a Defence of Mr. 
 Wycherley's Characters in the Plain-dealer. The letters on 
 Paradise Lost are devoted almost exclusively to a consideration 
 of Addison's critiques of that poem and show in an interesting 
 manner how, in reading the epic, the old critic found it 
 "next to impossible to resist the violent Emotions which the 
 Greatness of the Subject roused" in him. In all probability 
 this new proposal met with but scant encouragement, for it was 
 not till I727 109 that there appeared a volume of Miscellaneous 
 Tracts, which contains, besides the tragedy just mentioned, the 
 Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry and the 
 
 108a The Daily Courant states that the Select Works were published on 
 February 2, 1718-19. 
 
 109 In the Plain Dealer for September 25, 1724, appeared a letter by one 
 of Dennis's friends, urging the Town to subscribe for the Miscellaneous 
 Tracts. 
 
103 
 
 Usefulness of the Stage to the Happiness of Mankind. 
 Dennis and the printers miscalculated the number of pages 
 necessary, and the subscribers were few 110 and slow 
 to pay, so that it is little wonder that though the author had the 
 second volume ready for the press, he never undertook to print 
 it, especially as the publication was entirely at his own expense. 
 In 1732 an attempt was made in the way of charity to reprint 
 some of his works, but the project failed for want of 
 subscribers. 
 
 In his last years Dennis returned to the task of translation 
 and at the request of Thos. Burnet's 110a literary executor, F. 
 Wilkinson of Lincoln's Inn, turned into English the De Fide et 
 Officiis Christianorum. 1 *- 1 He dedicated this translation, which 
 was probably published about 1728, to Queen Caroline, on the. 
 ground that Burnet had inscribed many of his writings to 
 members of the royal family, and that he would have been 
 pleased to lay this work at the feet of her Gracious Majesty. 
 It is interesting to compare Dennis's preface with that of his 
 Passion of Byblis, published forty years before, and to note 
 that he had not changed his ideas on the function of the 
 translator. 
 
 110 Among the names of the hundred and twenty subscribers which appear 
 at the beginning of the volume may be noted those of Barton Booth, Con- 
 'greve, Gildon, Hill, Mallet, Pope, Savage, and Thomson. 
 
 UOa His dates are i635?-i7i5. Those of Sir Thos. Burnet, p. 96, are 
 i632?-i7is?. See the D. N. B. 
 
 111 The Faith and Duties of Christians. A Treatise in Eight Chapters 
 Written originally in Latin by the late Rev. Dr. Thomas Burnet, Master of 
 the Charterhouse. Translated into English by Mr. Dennis, London, n. d. 
 Burnet's De Statu and his De Fide were surreptitiously published in 1726 
 and 1727 respectively. Wilkinson then printed these books authoritatively, 
 the De Fide in June, 1727, and the De Statu during the following Octo- 
 ber. He also secured Dennis to translate these works. The critic's ad- 
 vanced age, ill health, and almost total blindness were probably respon- 
 sible for the interval of five years which elapsed between the publication 
 of the former and the latter of these translations. It is to be noted, however, 
 that Read's Journal for January 29, 1727, states that Mr. Dennis the cele- 
 brated critic was going into holy orders, and that he had translated Burnet's 
 De Statu Mortuorum. The first of these statements is, obviously, simply 
 another of the many genial hits at the critic, while the second indicates 
 that the delay in publishing this translation may not have been entirely 
 Dennis's fault. 
 
104 
 
 Another translation from Burnet, that of De Statu mortu- 
 orum et resur gentium* 12 1733, practically closes Dennis's long 
 and varied literary career. The task must have been a trial 
 for the old man of seventy-six years, " deprived of sight unless 
 the object is near/' and working under the bitter constraint of 
 want. Yet even these hardships failed to soften his old, fiery 
 independence, for he stated in the preface that he had been 
 urged to complete this task, which he had begun many years 
 before, by the knowledge that the tract had been unworthily 
 translated by another. It would be unjust to expect Dennis to 
 produce any remarkable work under the conditions with which 
 he was then struggling, but this translation shows the old critic 
 anything but the drivelling idiot he has sometimes been repre- 
 sented as being. 113 
 
 These last years were a time of great need; for though, at 
 Lord Halifax's insistence, Dennis had reserved the income 
 from his waitership for a time seemingly ample for his prob- 
 able life, he survived this reversion and was consequently re- 
 duced to a distressing poverty. Early in January, 1725, John 
 Rich, then patentee of the Lincoln's-Inn-Fields theater, 
 voluntarily offered to produce " for the Benefit of so Learned 
 a Benefactor of the Stage, as Mr. Dennis" any play that the 
 critic might select. 114 For this occasion Dennis chose not his 
 own beloved Liberty Asserted, but the " Old Batchelor, the 
 Work of his Old Friend Mr. Congreve." In 1730 appeared 
 in the newspapers advertisements of a subscription for his 
 benefit. According to Mr. Thomas Cook 115 the Earl of Pem- 
 broke sent Dennis presents for the last nine or ten years of his 
 life, at one time thirty guineas, and several times a year five or 
 ten guineas; and Walpole in consideration of the critic's age 
 and infirmities, allowed him 20 1. a year for several years. 
 Dennis's old friend Bishop Atterbury, then in exile in France, 
 
 112 A Treatise Concerning the State of Departed Souls. Before and At, 
 and After the Resurrection. Written originally in Latin by the late Rev. 
 Dr. Thomas Burnet, Master of the Charter House, Author of the Theory 
 of the Earth. Translated into English by Mr. Dennis. 
 
 113 Wilson's Memoirs of . . . Congreve, II, 136. 
 u * The Plain Dealer, January i, 1724/5. 
 
 us Gentleman's Magazine, XLV, Pt. I, 105-106. 
 
105 
 
 was another of his benefactors, sending him at the time the 
 subscription was announced 100, though he was obliged to 
 borrow the money for the purpose. 116 But these chance bene- 
 factions, which were apparently almost the sole source of 
 Dennis's income, afforded him a very precarious livelihood. 
 Mr. Cook goes on to declare, in the letter just cited, that at 
 this time Dennis " got a good deal by his writings ; " but this 
 statement is so evidently untrue as to require no discussion. 
 
 After the failure of the proposal to aid Dennis by republish- 
 ing some of his works, another and more practical plan was 
 suggested and carried out, yielding him about 100. Through 
 the interest of Thomson, 117 Martyn, Mallet, and Pope, the 
 
 u ' Atterbury's Correspondence, 1783, I, 262. 
 
 UT Dennis's friendship for Thomson is reflected in a poem which Mr. 
 Roberts has quoted in the 4th volume of the Bookworm as a specimen 
 of our authors better verse : 
 
 " JOHN DENNIS TO MR. THOMSON. 
 " When I reflect thee o'er, methinks I find 
 
 Thy various Seasons in their author's mind ! 
 
 Spring, in thy flow'ry fancy spreads her hues; 
 
 And, like thy soft compassion, sheds her dews. 
 
 Summer's hot strength in thy expression glows; 
 
 And o'er thy page a heavy ripeness throws. 
 
 Autumn's rich fruits th' instructed reader gains, 
 
 Who tastes the meaning purpose of thy strains. 
 
 Winter but it no semblance bears to thee ! 
 
 That hoary season's type was drawn from Me 
 
 Shatter'd by Time's bleak storms I with'ring lay, 
 
 Leafless and whit'ning in a cold decay. 
 
 Yet shall my propless Ivy pale and bent, 
 
 Bless the short sunshine which thy pity lent." 
 
 It may be doubted whether Dennis really wrote these verses. He was 
 seventy six at the time of their publication and had practically written no 
 verse for twenty years. Then, too, they are different from Dennis's usual 
 tone he was not much given to pitying himself. Moreover, our suspi- 
 cions regarding his authorship are strengthened by the fact that in the 
 same number of the Gentleman's Magazine, in which the above first ap- 
 peared, there was also a short poem by Savage, To Mr. Thomson, Au- 
 thor of the Poem of the Four Seasons, on occasion of the Part which that 
 Gentleman took, in the concern of Mr. Dennis's late Benefit. It is re- 
 ported that when Dennis heard these latter lines, which appeared anony- 
 mously, he declared that they must have been written by " that fool 
 Savage." 
 
106 
 
 Provoked Husband was acted for his benefit, December 8, 
 I 733> by the little company in the Haymarket. Pope was 
 especially active in behalf of his old enemy 118 and wrote for 
 the performance a prologue, which was spoken by Theophilus 
 Gibber. This prologue is a clever piece of work, apparently 
 friendly, but with a covert sneer in almost every line, a per- 
 formance which gained the writer the passing title of " the 
 charitable Cynic." Four lines may be quoted as typical of the 
 spirit of the whole : 
 
 " How changed from him who made the boxes groan 
 And shook the stage with thunder all his own! 
 Stood up to dash each vain Pretender's hope, 
 Maul the French tyrant, or pull down the Pope." 
 
 Dennis survived his benefit but a short time, dying January 
 6, 1734. He was buried at the parish church of St. Martin's 
 in the Fields. 
 
 The next number of the Gentleman's Magazine, January, 
 1734 (p. 47), described him as "the last classick Wit of King 
 Charles's Reign;" and Aaron Hill composed some Verses 
 written on the Death of Mr. Dennis, which were published the 
 same year in a short and hastily written Life. 119 This 
 anonymous biography of about sixty pages of large type is, on 
 the whole, very sympathetic and gives a good deal of curious 
 information about Dennis. Later there appeared in Gibber's 
 Lives of the Poets an interesting though biased account of the 
 critic. The article by Kippis for the second edition of the 
 Biographia Britannic a, probably written between 1780-1785, 
 is incomplete and inaccurate. Excepting such incidental work as 
 that by Genest in his Account of the English Stage, nothing was 
 done in the way of a life of Dennis till Mr. William Roberts 
 published his interesting articles in the Bookworm in 1891 and 
 wrote the article for the Dictionary of National Biography. 
 
 118 In his Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot Pope took occasion to pride himself 
 on his charity : 
 
 " This dreadful satirist Dennis will confess, 
 Foe to his pride, but friend to his distress." Works, III, 269. 
 
 119 The Life of Mr. John Dennis, The Renown' d Critick. In which are 
 likewise Some Observations on most of the Poets and Criticks, his Contem- 
 poraries. Not written by Mr. Curll. London 1734. 
 
107 
 
 Two comparatively unimportant pieces by Dennis were 
 brought to light in the Monthly Magazine for June, 1817, one 
 a Letter to the Rev. Dr. . . . the other an essay on the Causes 
 of the Decay and Defects of Dramatick Poetry, and the De- 
 generacy of the Publick Taste. In an explanatory note the 
 editor states that the letter and essay had been discovered 
 among the manuscript papers of the late Mr. Richardson, who 
 " had endorsed on the back of the essay, ' Copies lodged by Mr. 
 Dennis for money borrowed/ " Only a part of the essay ap- 
 peared in this June number of the Monthly Magazine, the 
 editor promising to complete the publication in an early issue. 
 For some reason he never kept this promise; and Dennis's 
 manuscript has disappeared. Its loss, however, is not a matter 
 for serious regret, since this essay is simply a pot-boiler, 
 adding little or nothing to what the critic had previously urged 
 and reurged. 
 
 But three of Dennis's writings have been republished since 
 his death: 120 his translation of the select letters of Voiture, in 
 1736; his Essay on the Genius and Writings of Shake spear in 
 Smith's Eighteenth Century Essays on Shakespeare, 1903 ; and 
 the Impartial Critick in the third volume of Professor Spin- 
 garn's Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, 1909. These 
 two recent republications are such as to make us hope for the 
 fulfillment of the desire expressed by Dr. Johnson, 121 and later 
 echoed by Southey, 122 that Dennis's critical writings may be 
 collected. 
 
 120 " At the sale of Mr. Bindley's library (1818) Dennis's various works 
 in twelve volumes produced i .13 s." Lowndes's Bibliographers' Manual 
 of English Literature, 1858, II, 628. 
 
 121 Hill's Johnsonian Miscellanies, III, 40. 
 
 122 Specimens of the Later English Poets, London, 1807, I, 306. 
 
DENNIS AS A CRITIC 
 
 OUTLINE OF His CRITICAL CAREER 
 
 The biography which has just 'been given reveals a life of 
 prolonged and varied activities. For half a century Dennis 
 labored as a poet, dramatist, letter writer, political pamphleteer, 
 translator, and critic, indefatigably turning from one form of 
 composition to another. As a pamphleteer and translator he 
 has today been practically forgotten; as a poet and dramatist 
 he has fared but little better; and as a critic he has been re- 
 membered chiefly as one of the bitter enemies of Pope. It 
 seems probable, indeed, that the larger part of Dennis's work 
 will never interest any but students of early eighteenth 'cen- 
 tury literature, and that most of his numerous writings are 
 doomed to oblivion. In his own day, however, he was re- 
 garded as an important member of the republic of letters, be- 
 ing commonly referred to as "the Critic;" and this title hasi 
 clung to his name for over two centuries. Moreover, within 
 the last quarter of a century one may observe a growing dis- 
 position to regard him as "a serious and well equipped" 
 judge of letters, representing many of the critical tendencies of 
 his age, and anticipating some of the verdicts and opinions of 
 later critics. It seems proper, therefore, to consider what were 
 the chief critical tendencies of Dennis's time, what was his atti- 
 tude toward them, and what has been his influence upon sub- 
 sequent criticism. In beginning, then, let us characterize 
 briefly and in a somewhat anticipatory fashion the main divi- 
 sions of his critical writings and note some of the particular 
 influences of his life and times upon him. His career as a 
 critic, it seems, falls naturally into the three periods indicated 
 in the sketch of his life the first including his work to 1700, 
 the second from the beginning of the eighteenth century to 
 1710, and the third from 1710 to the time of his death in 1734. 
 
 108 
 
109 
 
 The first of these divisions may be characterized as the 
 v formative period, when he was acquiring and reflecting some of 
 the ideas of his masters, such as Le Bossu, St. fivremond, 
 Rymer, and Dryden. Of these masters the one most potent 
 with Dennis was Dryden, whose influence upon our author 
 and the other young men of his coterie evoked Shaftsbury's 
 sneer. 1 This influence of Dryden is particularly noticeable in 
 Dennis's first critical discussion, the Impartial Critick, 1693. In 
 this answer to Rymer's proposal to introduce the Greek chorus 
 into the English drama Dennis employed practically the same 
 arguments that Dryden had set down in his " Heads " of an 
 answer to that project. There can be little doubt that Dryden 
 and Dennis discussed together this question of the use of the 
 chorus and other critical problems of the time, and that the 
 former led the latter to a thorough study of the French critics. 
 In the years of his acquaintance with Dennis Dryden had at 
 his command a fairly wide knowledge of contemporary French 
 critics, whom he regarded with a respect that unquestionably 
 influenced his follower. Dennis soon came to be familiar with 
 the criticisms of Rapin and Le Bossu, the half English St. 
 fivremond, Dacier and Boileau, so that his earlier critical writ- 
 ings are in good measure reexpressions of their ideas. For 
 example, his second important venture in criticism, the Re- 
 marks upon Blackmore's Prince Arthur, 1696, is, as will later 
 be shown in detail, simply an application of Le Bossu's theories 
 in judgment of this fashionable epic. Dennis accepted Le 
 Bossu's laws for the plot, character, manners, etc., and then 
 judged Blackmore's poem by these canons. Our author's 
 knowledge of French literature was, however, by no means 
 confined to criticism, for like Dryden he also possessed a very 
 fair acquaintance with the chief French dramatists, if we may 
 judge by the numerous and apt allusions he makes to them, 
 especially to Corneille, Racine, and Moliere. With St. fivre- 
 mond Dennis praised Corneille's tragic above his comic genius ; 
 and with that same critic, too, he considered that of all French 
 comedies Moliere's best exemplified the true spirit of their 
 type. 
 
 1 Supra, p. 7. 
 
110 
 
 His application to the classics was even closer. His ac- 
 quaintance with Greek, however, though it far surpassed that 
 of either Dryden or Pope, was somewhat inferior to his knowl- 
 edge of Latin. 2 Nevertheless, on the whole, his classical attain- 
 ments were so great that he was frequently and seriously re- 
 ferred to as "the learned Mr. Dennis," a title which the 
 enemies of his later years sometimes applied to him with mock 
 respect. 
 
 Despite his regard for the classics, however, Dennis did not 
 hesitate to join with the wits of the day in burlesquing them. 
 The fashion for burlesque, which had flourished in France with 
 Scarron and had reached its height in England during the late 
 seventeenth century, was essentially antagonistic to the prevail- 
 ing exaltation of the classics. Travesties and burlesques of 
 Vergil, Ovid, and other Latin writers were then numerous; 
 and, despite his love for the ancients, Dennis joined in the 
 fashion, publishing as one of his very earliest ventures in 
 letters, 1692, the Poems in Burlesque. In his plays, however, 
 Dennis kept fairly close to the neo-classical standards, so that 
 his dramas were praised by Jacob and others as "perfectly 
 regular performances." 
 
 Being himself a playwright, Dennis very naturally under- 
 took his third important venture in criticism the reply to 
 Collier's attack on the stage. The arguments of the greater 
 part of Dennis's book are negligible, for, as he himself recog- 
 nized, his discussion of the opinions of the church fathers is of 
 
 2 The extent of his reading may be inferred from his Reflections upon an 
 Essay on Criticism (p. 4) where he states his preference among the clas- 
 sics : " Of all the poets among the Greeks I only admire Homer, Sopho- 
 
 , cles, Pindar and Euripides, tho' I am very much pleased with some of the 
 rest ; and of the poets among the Romans, I admire only Virgil and Hor- 
 ace and some parts of Lucretius; though I am very much pleased with 
 
 ( Catullus, Terrence and others. As for Lycophron, Nonnus, Apollonius 
 Rhodius, Valerius Flaccus, Silius Italicus, Statius, I prefer the Paradise 
 Lost of Milton before them altogether." In his Remarks on the Con- 
 scious Lovers (p. 28) Dennis states, " The very character of Simo in the 
 Andria is admirable, and the relation he makes to Scotia a masterpiece. 
 I never read it but I see the old Athenian before my eyes in the same 
 colors that Daves paints Critho the Andrian in the same comedy. What 
 he says goes to my heart." 
 
Ill 
 
 slight worth ; and the modern reader is likely to give but little 
 more heed to his consideration of the attitude of antiquity 
 toward the stage. His best argument lay in his contention that 
 Collier was right in attacking the abuses of the play house, but 
 that he was wrong in his onslaught against the stage itself. 
 This reply to Collier was Dennis's last important criticism in 
 the seventeenth century, and it added not a little to his reputa- 
 tion. Indeed, during the closing years of the century, when 
 Rymer and Blackmore flourished, Dennis might well be ranked 
 after Dryden as the nation's most important critic. v 
 
 Soon after the death of Dryden Dennis produced his prin- V 
 cipal independent work, the Advancement and Reformation of 
 Modern Poetry, which is an amplification and defense of his j 
 belief that by infusing religious enthusiasm into their poetry, | 
 the moderns might come to equal the ancients. Three years 
 later, 1704, appeared the Grounds of Criticism in Poetry, which 
 carried this novel doctrine as far as Dennis apparently was 
 able to advance it. In the Grounds he appeared entangled 
 with the conventional critical ideas of his time and seemingly 
 helpless to offer much practical advice for perfecting this union 
 of religion and poetry. His theory, however, gained some 
 support, partly because it seemed substantiated by the writings 
 of Milton, whom our author praised so highly, and partly 
 because it was enunciated by Dennis ; for in the first decade of 
 the eighteenth century, brief as that period may be, he was 
 generally recognized as England's foremost critic, and even * 
 in his later years he was frequently assigned this position. / 
 
 While Dennis's reputation with his contemporaries was 
 founded largely upon the two works just mentioned, the 
 present age may well place an equal or a greater value upon 
 another of his writings of the same period, his Large Account 
 of the Taste in Poetry, 1702. This tract, with its keen con- 
 sideration of the influence of political and social conditions 
 upon the production of letters and its clear-sighted comparison 
 of the taste of his own age with that of the Restoration, 
 deserves most of the praise bestowed upon it by Mr. 
 Swinburne. 3 
 
 *St. James's Gazette, November 8, 1895. 
 
112 
 
 Two other criticisms of slight importance a second reply 
 to Collier and an attack upon the Italian operas appeared in 
 this same decade; but his numerous labors of the first five 
 years of the century seem to have exhausted the critic, so that 
 the second half of the decade was comparatively unproductive. 
 In 1711 appeared his Essay on the Genius and Writings of 
 Shakespear, in which Dennis maintained, after Dryden, that the 
 Elizabethan was " one of the greatest Geniuses the world had 
 ever seen for the Tragick stage," and that his beauties were all 
 his own and his faults those of his environment. 
 
 About the time of the publication of this Essay came a 
 change in Dennis's fortunes as a critic. His preeminence as a 
 judge of letters through the first ten years of the century was 
 due in part at least to the lack of any serious competitor; but 
 with the passing years came changing critical theory and 
 literary practice, and the age of Dryden gave way to the age of 
 Pope. Dennis's convictions and prejudices then began to grate 
 more and more against the current critical tendencies, and the 
 innate dogmatism of this censor of letters was intensified by a 
 new and formidable opposition. Against a possible broaden- 
 ing of his views weighed his increasing years and his dimming 
 eyesight. It is thoroughly significant that Dennis should have 
 been greatly influenced by Rapin and Le Bossu and but little 
 by La Bruyere, whom Addison and the other younger critics 
 valued so highly. Nor were his views in his later years likely 
 to be broadened by his close association with Gildon, whose 
 Complete Art of Poetry, 1718, stands as one of the last de- 
 fenses of the mechanical rules. In the beginning of his Intro- 
 duction to that book Gildon refers to his 'daily intercourse 
 with Dennis, and in the Preface he gives a hint as to their com- 
 mon critical interests: 
 
 " Whatever I have found to my design in Aristotle (chiefly) ; in Hor- 
 ace ; in Dyon^sius of Halicarnassus, Boileau, Rapin, Dacier, Gerard Vos- 
 sius's Poetical Institutions, the late Duke of Buckinghamshire's most ex- 
 cellent Essay on Poetry, Mr. Dennis or any other, I have made bold with." 
 
 This list, which is significant no less for what it omits than for 
 what it includes, probably represents the basis of Gildon's 
 critical discussions with Dennis over their modest libations. 
 
113 
 
 \^ 
 
 Two strongly marked characteristics of Dennis's criticism 
 
 during these later years of his life may be noted one the | 
 growing mistrust of any literary innovations and the other an ' 
 increasing veneration for the rules. Both were largely the / 1 
 result of his surroundings. It is easy to see in the light of his j ' 
 biography why this self-opinionated and proud old man should 
 have clung to the past and should have felt that the national 
 taste was degenerating. Furthermore, in his attacks upon the 
 works of another generation he was forced more and more to 
 defend the critical tenets the age was outgrowing. In fact 
 the writings of his later years advance few critical beliefs 
 which have contributed to his reputation. Of these few criti- 
 cisms which are to be noted as exceptions, the chief are his ^ 
 Remarks upon Cato and those upon Pope's Translation of 
 Homer. In the former Dennis opposed a strict adherence to 
 the unities of time and place and argued effectively against any L~. 
 servile observance of them. In his attack upon Pope's version ' 
 of Homer he indicated with considerable acumen the weak- 
 nesses of that translation both in spirit and in style ; while his 
 censures on Pope's heroic couplets anticipate nearly everything 
 noticed by subsequent criticism. But even this better work is 
 marred by his growing pedanticism. He added to his criti- 
 cism of Cato an almost valueless discussion of the sentiments 
 of the play and overweighted his vital censures of Pope's 
 translation with a burden of petty cavils. This same tone pre- 
 vails throughout his comments on the Rape of the Lock and on 
 the Dunciad and throughout his criticisms of Steele. In his 
 judgment of these writers his growing insistence upon the 
 value of conformity to the laws of the type is especially 
 marked; and he sometimes went to the point of denying the 
 name of literature to such writings as did not conform to these 
 standards. Indeed he shows so little of his old penetration in 
 these later diatribes that on the whole his reputation would 
 have gained rather than lost, had he published nothing during 
 his last fifteen years. In the years just preceding his death, 
 when Pope had cast opprobrium upon verbal criticism, some 
 of the contemporary writers, such as Fielding in his Tragedy of 
 Tragedies, helped fix on Dennis the reputation of a literal- 
 9 
 
114 
 
 minded, caviling critic, given him by Pope and the other 
 enemies of his old age; and this reputation has clung to him 
 even till today. Viewed in its entirety, Dennis's critical career 
 may be summarized as beginning with the commonly accepted 
 beliefs of his time, then working toward freer conceptions, 
 some of which anticipated doctrines that have been assigned 
 to later critics, and finally hardening into conservatism and 
 emphasizing the more conventional beliefs of his earlier years. 
 
 II 
 
 THE PRINCIPAL CRITICAL TENDENCIES OF THE AGE 
 A. Neo classicism 
 
 To understand the beliefs common at the time Dennis began 
 his critical career, we may well inquire what were the chief 
 critical tendencies of the period, what in brief was their his- 
 tory, and what their relations with each other. Though we 
 may question the exactness and completeness of any analysis of 
 these critical tendencies of the time (for seventeenth century 
 criticism is, as Professor Spingarn has well put it, "a very 
 troubled stream"), still we may find it helpful at least to indi- 
 cate some of the main currents of the period and to suggest their 
 principal characteristics and their chief interrelations. Five 
 such tendencies in English criticism near the close of the! 
 seventeenth century may be noted, the neo-classical, the 
 rationalistic, the patriotic, the moralistic, and that of the school 
 of taste. Each of these movements had at its center some well 
 marked idea which gave it character; although in their practi- 
 cal workings in the writings of the age, these various tenden- 
 cies sometimes reenforced, sometimes opposed one another. 
 Of course while operative in the seventeenth century, they were 
 not always analyzed and discriminated as they have been by 
 later critics who have enjoyed the perspective afforded by the 
 passing of time. Occasionally the writers of those days recog- 
 nized the clash of these forces and attempted to find grounds 
 for a reconcilement; sometimes they were satisfied simply to 
 phrase the conflict or contrast ; sometimes they did not perceive 
 that certain of these tendencies were potent in their work. Of 
 
115 
 
 these several tendencies one of the most prominent was the 
 neo-classical, and with it we may well begin the consideration 
 of these different literary currents. 
 
 The Italians of the later Renaissance had evolved a body 
 of formal criticism based on the ancients, which had been re- 
 ceived by the French and developed still further in the six- 
 teenth and more especially in the seventeenth centuries. It 
 was to DuBellay, says Professor Spingarn, 1 " that France owes 
 the introduction of classical ideas into French literature;" 
 but it was Chapelain who introduced the formal rules of the 
 Italians. 2 These critical ideas were carried on through 
 Corneille and Rapin, till under Boileau, they became not rules 
 but "laws inevitable and infallible." 3 It was from the 
 Italians, however, rather than from the French that these rules 
 were received by Sidney and his age, whose work practically 
 marks the beginning of English literary criticism; though it 
 was customary for Englishmen in the latter part of the seven- 
 teenth century to ignore the other earlier critics and to declare 
 with Rymer 4 that Ben Jonson had had all the critical learning 
 to himself. With the progress of the seventeenth century, 
 however, closer relations had arisen between England and 
 France, not only politically but also intellectually, so that the 
 writings of the French critics gained on the island increased 
 attention and respect. Finally with Dryden's Essay of Dra- 
 matic Poesy the arguments of French criticism were fully in- 
 troduced into English. 5 
 
 The principal characteristics of this neo-classicism may be 
 briefly summarized, for practically all of them sprang from an 
 attempt to discover how modern writers might comprehend 
 
 1 History of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance, with Special Refer- 
 ence to the Influence of Italy in the Formation and Development of Mod- 
 ern Classicism, New York, 1899, p. 215. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 243. 
 *Ibid., p. 248. 
 
 4 Preface to his translation of Rapin's Reflections on Aristotle, 1674. 
 In the Discourse concerning Satire Dryden speaks of " Ben's close monopoly 
 of the rules." Ker, Essays of John Dryden, Oxford, 1900, II, 17. 
 
 8 Spingarn, Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, Oxford, 1908, 
 I, Ixiii. 
 
116 
 
 and make their own the greatness of the classics. 6 The rules 
 evolved by the neo-classicists were based in part upon the 
 practice of a few writers, such as Vergil and Homer, but more 
 especially upon the precepts of Aristotle and Horace, whose 
 every utterance was examined and elaborated with a minute and 
 not always consistent pedanticism by such critics as Rapin, 
 Le Bossu, and Dacier, 7 into a system that was considered 
 
 6 Dacier in his Oeuvres d'Horace (Amsterdam, 1735), p. 70, states "Car 
 il est faux qu'il y ait deux bons gouts, il n'y en a qu'un, et c'est celui de 
 1'antique." 
 
 T Rapin, Le Bossu, and Dacier did much to establish Aristotle's authority 
 in England. Many of Dryden's views regarding the rules were derived 
 from these French critics, and to him and them Dennis was largely in- 
 debted for his ideas on the subject of regularity. Throughout his entire 
 career he quoted Rapin frequently and almost always with respect, if not 
 with agreement. In the Complete Art of Poetry } 1718, Gildon referred to 
 the French critic as our author's " old acquaintance." 
 
 Le Bossu, with his treatise on the epic, did much to popularize the rules 
 both in France and in England. Dryden in his last years valued this 
 writer highly and called him the best of the modern critics (Saintsbury's 
 History of Criticism, II, 314) ; while Buckingham paid him the highest 
 of tributes as disclosing the secrets of the epic (Essay on Poetry, 11. 289 
 ff.). Dennis practically repeated the sentiments there expressed when he 
 declared that no modern had understood the epic till Le Bossu had un- 
 ravelled it (Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, p. 201). 
 We have already noticed that our author adopted Le Bossu's scheme in 
 judging Blackmore's Prince Arthur. 
 
 Dacier is the French critic of the times who stands as perhaps the most 
 thoroughgoing neo-classicist. His comments on Aristotle and on Horace did 
 much to load- the rules on English critics, including Dryden and Dennis. 
 The former quoted him with respect in the prefaces to his translations of 
 Vergil and of Juvenal, while the latter frequently cited his authority and 
 praised his " excellent comment on Aristotle's Art of Poetry " (Stage De- 
 fended, p. 9). Dennis did not hesitate, however, to attack some of Dacier's 
 ideas, such as the plea for the restoration of the chorus ; but his general atti- 
 tude toward this extreme representative of neo-classicism is one of marked 
 respect. 
 
 Probably the most important influence for regularity exerted upon the 
 English dramatists was that of Corneille, whose critical utterances show 
 a long struggle between his regaroTTor regularity and his love of freedom 
 (Ker, Dryden's Essays, I, xix ff.). It was this struggle that, in part at 
 least, attracted Dryden, who introduced into England many of Corneille's 
 opinions and rules. By Dennis (the Theatre, II, 380) and his generation 
 it was commonly asserted that Corneille had introduced into France the 
 
117 
 
 permanently adequate for judging letters. Literature was re- 
 garded as static rather than dynamic: the practice of the 
 ancients had brought letters to a perfection beyond which ad- 
 vancement was, for the later neo-classicists at least, practically 
 impossible, so that the best for which they might hope was to 
 discover and reproduce something of the charm of antiquity. 
 It was but natural that such a conception of letters should 
 emphasize regularity and jpnier..and should attempt to reduce 
 literary theory and practice to simplicity and unity. Neo- 
 classicism concerned itself almost exclusively with poetry to the 
 neglect of prose, and, for the most part, it further narrowed its 
 field to the discussion of two types of poetry the drama and 
 the epic. Such a limitation was due in large measure to the 
 fact that these two forms had received particular attention 
 from the master critics Aristotle and Horace. Furthermore, 
 partly through the influence of these critics, partly through the 
 influence of the growing rationalism, 8 soon to be discussed, but 
 more especially because of its adaptability to the neo-classical 
 scheme, the plot or fable received especial emphasis. 9 Again, 
 these neo-classicists, following Aristotle's insistence upon each 
 type^s yielding a pleasure proper to its kind, placed an exag- 
 gerated stress upon conformity to the rules of the special 
 species. With these conceptions went those of a sustained 
 dignity of language and of subject matter, the former pruning 
 away veTbal ^extravagancies, and the latter quickening the dis- 
 taste for the commonplace subjects of lowly life and fostering 
 in writers an almost exclusive attention to court affairs. The 
 conception of literature and attitude toward it just outlined 
 had become prevalent in France about the middle of the seven- 
 teenth century, and from that country it passed to England. 
 
 rules of dramatic composition, especially those of the unities, and that 
 through his influence they had prevailed with the English playwrights 
 (Collier's Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English 
 Stage, 1698, p. 229; Filmer's Further Defense of Dramatic Poetry, 1698, 
 p. 29; cf. St. fivremond's Works, 1719, II, 12). With both Corneille's 
 doctrines and his plays Dennis was thoroughly acquainted. 
 8 Cf . Rymer's Short View of Tragedy, 1693, p. 4; p. 19. 
 
 " The fable is so essential to poesy that there is no poesy without it." 
 Rymer's translation of Rapin's Reflections on Aristotle, 1674, p. 31. Cf. 
 Spingarn's Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, I, xviii. 
 
I 
 
 118 
 
 Its progress was assisted by the Restoration, which gave to 
 England a court steeped in French ideas. It is far from sur- 
 prising, therefore, that the English critics of that day should 
 have numbered among them many of the nobility, such as Ros- 
 common, Mulgrave, and Lansdowne. 
 
 B. Rationalism 
 
 " The French neo-classicists made literature rational and in- 
 telligible by working it out according to an a priori scheme 
 attributed to the ancients. The English rationalists, thorough- 
 going sensationalists in philosophy, achieved practically the 
 same result by bringing art down to the actualities of life." 10 
 So far as literature was concerned, rationalism was essentially 
 a system that would measure poetry by the yard stick of 
 prose. 11 English rationalism is commonly held to owe its 
 beginnings largely to the philosophy of Hobbes, 12 who con- 
 sidered the poetic imagination a work of the understanding. 
 The earlier rationalists maintained that sense was sufficient 
 for judging letters, an attitude quite antagonistic to the neo- 
 classical respect for the rules. Rymer once declared that a 
 knowledge of the classics is unnecessary for the critic 13 
 " Common sense suffices ; " and he added, " rarely have I known 
 Women-judges mistaken on these points, when they have 
 had the patience to think." Dryden, too, in his varying allegi- 
 ance, sometimes took this rationalistic position. Thus in dis- 
 cussing Ovid's treatment of the passions, 14 he declared that to 
 prove a certain point he should " need no other judges than the 
 generality of [his] readers ; for all passions being inborn with 
 us, we are almost equally judges when we are concerned in 
 the representation of them." For the unchanging standards 
 which the neo-classicists found in the ancients, the rationalists 
 
 10 Bohn, Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 
 XXII, 1 1 6. 
 
 "Hamelius, Die Kritik in der Englischen Literatur des I?, und 18. 
 Jahrhunderts, Leipzig, 1897, p. 45. 
 
 u Spingarn, Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, I, Ixix. 
 
 13 Ibid., I, Ixx. Here is given an admirable account of this movement. 
 
 14 Works', I, 233. Quoted by Bohn in Pub. Mod. Lan. Assoc. Amer., 
 XXII, 1 1 6. 
 
119 
 
 f substituted that of sense. Naturally they disapproved of ex- 
 travagance of every sort, frowned upon the creative imagina- 
 tion, and looked with disfavor upon any free play of the fancy. 
 The school of common sense demanded probability and de- 
 cqnim ; 15 it cast its influence against the fantastic figures of 
 speech current in the earlier years of the century and did 
 much toward trimming away luxuriance of style. Its influ- 
 ence affected not only the form but also the content of 
 letters ; for it regarded man as a reasonable being, especially in 
 the social relation, and permeated the life of the time with the 
 conviction that conduct should be sensible, and that literature 
 should represent life as sweetly reasonable, gor Rymer the ^ 
 mechanical universe, the rationalistic order of things of the phi- 
 losophy of Hobbes and Locke was to mark the bounds of 
 literature : " the laws of poetry must approximate as closely asj 
 possible to the laws of life." 16 Such demands are exemplified', 
 in the contention for poetic justice and even more forcibly ' 
 by some of Rymer's rules for the proprieties of the stage. 
 
 The first notable manifestation of this school in England 
 came with the production of the Rehearsal. English rational- 
 ism affected France and in turn gained something from that 
 country, and in the latter part of the seventeenth century con- 
 stant reference is made in French criticism to " les bons sens." 17 
 Rationalism, however, held so much in common with neo-clas- 
 sicism, that in the course of time the two were reconciled by a 
 theory in criticism allowing for both, which found its best ex- 
 pression in Boileau 18 and in Pope. Each of these essentially ^ . 
 prosaic systems was really based upon a respect for authority, 
 the one for the classics, the other for good sense. But the ' 
 classics, it came to be urged, were the best examples of good ' 
 
 15 " Rules are to be observed for avoiding confusion ; good sense is to 
 be followed for moderating the flight of a luxuriant fancy." St. fivre- 
 mond's Works, 1719, II,. 83. 
 
 18 Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, I, Ixviii. 
 
 17 Ibid., I, Ixix ff. : " Moliere, in the Critique de I'tLcole des Femmes 
 (1663), first adopted reason as a standard sufficient in itself for the critical 
 discussion of literature." 
 
 18 While recognizing Horace as Boileau's master, Dennis valued the lat- 
 ter as the exponent of reason as the basis of the rules. E. g., Remarks 
 on the Rape of the Lock, pp. 8, 44. 
 
120 
 
 sense, and in them reason found a supreme manifestation. 
 Here was "nature methodized" and at its best. 
 
 C. The Moralistic Tendency 
 
 Another movement of the times, the moralistic, shows some 
 points of agreement and some of disagreement with neo-classi- 
 cism and rationalism. We have already noticed how good 
 sense^ad j>g_t_|ts_seal ojLapproval on the moraLlhing as the 
 reasonable one; and in so far as the moralistic movement was 
 mental, jrather Jthan ^motional, it worked in practical accord 
 with_j^lionalism. But in matters going beyond pure reason, 
 the two clashed in a way remarkably emphasized in Dennis's 
 critical ideas. The relation of this movement with neo-classi- 
 cism was, at least superficially, more noticeable than its relation 
 with rationalism. It is true that one of the great neo-classical 
 authorities, Aristotle, had declared for pleasure rather than 
 for profit as the chief end of poetry ; but he had none the less 
 asserted that the "divine art" is a more effective school of 
 virtue than is history. 19 Moreover, Horace had advocated 
 what has been called 20 the ethical conception of the beginnings 
 of poetry, which regarded the poet as " originally a law giver 
 or divine prophet." It is not surprising, therefore, that the 
 neo-classicists insisted strongly upon morality as an important 
 factor in literature. So strongly indeed~did the moralistic 
 tendencies of the time react upon the adherents of the rules 
 that they came to accept the doctrine that a moral .idea Jjes_at 
 1 the basis of the plot of every great masterpiece. Many of the 
 neo-classicists went so far as to assert that only a good man 
 can be a great poet, a belief that found its first complete ex- 
 pression with Strabo 21 and was afterwards frequently echoed 
 
 19 " For if Poetry be more philosophical, and more instructive, than His- 
 tory, as Aristotle is pleas'd to affirm of it, and no Man ever knew the; 
 Nature either of Poetry, or of History, or of Philosophy, better than he 
 did; why then that Art, or rather that Artifice, with which a great many 
 Writers of Verses and Plays debauch and corrupt the People, is a thing 
 to which Poetry is directly contrary." Proposal, prefatory to the Grounds 
 of Criticism in Poetry, 1704. 
 
 20 History of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance, p. 188. 
 
 *Ibid., p. 24. 
 
121 
 
 in English literature from Jonson 22 to Dryden. 23 Among the 
 deferent efforts to unite these two forces may be cited that 
 of Blackmore, in the preface to his Prince Arthur, 1696, where 
 he had attempted to show how each of the literary types in its 
 own peculiar way conduces to morality. 
 
 English criticism has never been free from this moralistic 
 tendency; for Sidney and Puttenham had shown its influence, 
 and Bacon had held that through poetry man might partly 
 regain the happiness he lost at the fall. 24 Though Waller had 
 said frankly that pleasure is the end of poetry, 25 he had, 
 none the less, loved the prophets as the masters of the poets. 
 Cpwley and Davxnant had emphasized the relation of religion 
 and poetry; and Hamelius's statement 26 that we can name by 
 the dozen the religious poets of the century is scarcely an exag- 
 geration. In this connection one instinctively recalls the high 
 ideals of the poet's consecrated office held by Milton, whose ^ 
 practice and critical beliefs influenced powerfully the course of \ 
 Dennis's thought. Moreover, the moralistic movement in Eng- 
 land was strengthened by a similar current in France. The 
 Christian epic became immensely popular on the continent ; the 
 moral tone of letters was raised ; Rapin and Bouhours, to cite 
 examples at random, were in the church; and Le Bossu was a 
 religious recluse. Before the discussion was taken up in Eng- 
 land, Desmaretes and others had urged that the Christian reli- 
 gion should be made the basis of poetry, especially of the 
 drama. With the reaction of the strong English conscience 
 against the excesses of the Restoration came an inevitable 
 protest against the licentiousness of one of the most court- 
 dominated institutions of the time, the theatre. This protest 
 came from the nation itself and was so strong and vigorous 
 that when Collier wrote against the immorality of the stage, 
 he was attacking a moribund evil. 26a In the earlier years of the 
 
 22 Dedication to Volpone. 
 
 ^Ker, II, 129. Cf. also the preface to Tyrannic Love, Works, III, 
 376. 
 
 24 In the pSth Tatler Steele discusses this attitude of Bacon's. 
 
 25 Muses, Library ed., p. 225. 
 
 26 Die Kritik in der Englischen Literatur, p. 58. 
 
 x& Collier's attack was partly the result of the continued war waged , 
 against public immorality by the Societies for Reformation of Manners, 
 
122 
 
 eighteenth century this moralistic tendency manifested itself 
 in literature in many ways : it stamped the chief critical writ- 
 ings of Dennis; it characterized the consciously ethical dramas 
 . of such writers as Rowe and Steele; it dominated the writings 
 ' of Dissenters like Dr. Watts and Mrs. Rowe ; and most impor- 
 tant of all perhaps, it permeated the tone of the Spectator. 
 
 D. The Patriotic Tendency 
 
 Another influence upon English literature at this time was 
 the patriotic, which emphasized the relation of letters with the 
 national life and politics and magnified the importance of the 
 works of native writers. %Jn so far as this trend furthered the 
 assertion of national characteristics as opposed to the respect 
 for authority, it may be regarded as allied to romanticism.^ In 
 so far as it emphasized the importance of environment in the 
 production of letters, it is allied with the tendency represented 
 by the school of taste. Indeed it might be treated as one of the 
 characteristics of that school soon to be considered, but its im- 
 portance in connection with Dennis's critical beliefs entitles it to 
 a separate discussion. ^The Renaissance had aroused in the 
 people of western Europe a realization of national existence and 
 had quickened their patriotism.) In France, however, the influ- 
 ence of the Pleiade had been thrown against the old French 
 traditions and in favor of those of the classics, and this influ- 
 ence was potent in divorcing literature from the national life. 
 
 which were active throughout England and Ireland during the reign of 
 William and Mary, and in support of which a large body of literature was 
 issued under the direction of men like the Reverend Doctors Woodward and 
 Bray. These tracts by Woodward and others reached sections of the public 
 which Addison and Steele, for example, could not touch. 
 
 27 In praise of this aspect of the Spectator Sir Richard Blackmore said : 
 " It was with great Pleasure and Satisfaction that Men, who wish'd well 
 
 . of their Country and Religion, saw the People delighted with Papers 
 which lately came abroad as daily Entertainment ; in which rich Genius 
 and Poetical Talents were employ'd in their proper Province, that is, to 
 
 ) recommend Virtue and regujar Ljif, and discourage and discountenance 
 the Follies, Faults, and Vices of the Age; . . . Nor was it without good 
 Effect, for the People in some measure recover' d their true Relish, and 
 
 j discern'd the Benefit and Moral Advantages as well as the Beauties of 
 these daily Pieces, and began to have profane and immodest Writings in 
 Contempt." Essays, 1717, II, 268. 
 
123 
 
 Though the example of the French was not without its effect 
 upon England, our native writers of the last half of the seven- 
 teenth century were repeatedly emphasizing the dependence of 
 letters upon the political well being of the nation. vFor 
 example, Milton had reasserted the old classical idea of the 
 relation of government and creative literature, 28 and this idea 
 was repeated in the pages of Dennis and Shaftsbury. 29 )? In 
 1668 Dryden had contended for the English as opposed to the 
 French, and for the moderns against the ancients, and had 
 based his arguments partly upon patriotic grounds. 30 Late in 
 life he spoke thus in the preface to the Fables: 
 
 " as I am, and always have been, studious to promote the honour of my 
 native country, so I am resolved to put their merits to the trial, by turn- 
 ing some of the Canterbury Tales into our language, as it is now re- 
 fined ; " 
 
 Roscommon boasted 31 of the greater energy, succinctness, 
 and wit of his own nation; and Temple emphasized 32 the 
 superior genius of the English. The gradual recognition of 
 Milton and the renewed interest in Spenser were, in a measure 
 at least, due to the growing feeling that these writers were an 
 honor to the country; and this same pride unquestionably 
 fostered the growth of the popularity of the ballads, which 
 were repugnant alike to the neo-classicist and to the rationalist. 
 
 R The School of Taste 
 
 The last of these influences to be considered is that of the 
 school of taste, the principal characteristics of which may be 
 briefly summarized. Perhaps it might better be called a 
 tendency than a school, for its chief exponents were generally 
 allied with other movements. 33 This school (if we call it 
 
 28 Prose Works, ed. St. John, I, 214. 
 
 29 Works, 1900, I, 143, 155. 
 
 80 Cf. the preface to All for Love: " For my part I desire to be tried by 
 the laws of my own country ; for it seems unjust to me that the French 
 should prescribe till they have conquered." 
 
 31 Essay on Translated Verse, 1. 50. 
 
 fj Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, I, xciv. 
 
 **For a discussion of the school of taste see Spingarn's Critical Essays 
 of the Seventeenth Century, I, Ixxxiii ff., on which the present resume is 
 very largely based? 
 
124 
 
 such) insisted upon viewing literature as progressive and 
 changing and as something to be considered in its relations 
 with the human mind. Again, it came to regard the function 
 of the critic as appreciative rather than depreciative, and also to 
 \ demand that letters should be judged by the standards of taste, 
 which were quite apart from those of reason. 
 
 The term taste had come into vogue at about the same time 
 in both France and England. Howard, in the preface to the 
 Great Favourite, 1668, declared that "taste is the only thing 
 that can govern the composition of the drama;" and though 
 Dryden then ridiculed the word, 34 he afterwards came to 
 employ it freely and to adopt some of the views of the school. 35 
 In France Mere and Bouhours, St. fivremond and La Bruyere 
 stand as the chief exponents of taste, though the beliefs of all 
 of these were related with other and different schools. 36 
 
 \This school or tendency of taste is exemplified in France in 
 Mere's insistence upon the supremacy of the heart over the 
 mind in the judgment of letters.^) This contrast of heart and 
 head became a familiar one among the critics of the time; 
 Bouhours, for example, who had attributed to Vqiture tms 
 distinction between " esprit et coeur," assigned to each an equal 
 place. 37 With Mere he recognized in letters a grace beyond 
 the power of rule and reason. Again, the current respect for 
 the neo-classical rules had accustomed critics to noticing the 
 faults rather than the merits of an author. Mn their protest 
 against such an attitude toward letters the school of taste was 
 stimulated by the translation and popularization by Boileau in 
 1674 of Longinus's treatise On the Sublime, which emphasized 
 the importance of discovering the beauties rather than the 
 blemishes of a book. 38 X ne beauty-blemish theory as it has 
 
 34 Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, I, xcvii. 
 
 85 Ibid., I, cii. 
 
 36 " Some of them, like Mere and Bouhours, represent or inherit the tra- 
 ditions of the Precieuses, more or less purified by classical culture and 
 tempered by good sense; others, like Saint-vremond, renew the spirit of 
 the earlier and freer stages of classicism ; still others, like La Bruyere, 
 seem the natural product of the classical spirit itself." Ibid., I, xciv. 
 
 87 Ibid., I, xcvii. 
 
 88 This idea became an especially favorite one with Addison and his 
 friends. 
 
125 
 
 been called, which gained a wide popular acceptance early in 
 the eighteenth century, aided greatly in establishing a finer and 
 more appreciative criticism of letters. 
 
 Again, the current interest in science and history assisted in 
 strengthening the school of taste. In England the Baconian 
 traditions helped vitalize and increase the common interest in 
 science and other forms of research, which probably surpassed 
 that of any other country. The virtuosi, such as Sir William 
 Temple, with their manifold and concurrent interests in 
 science, art, antiquarianism, letters, and criticism, also did 
 much to foster the conception that literature is a growth, and 
 that it bears an intimate relation with the conditions under 
 which it is produced. It is not surprising, therefore, that the 
 school of taste, both in France and in England, should have 
 revived the idea of the influence of climate and race upon 
 letters, and that it should have begun to study the relations of 
 the writer, the piece of literature, and the reader. 
 
 This tendency or school at first emphasized 39 taste as a 
 mental perception or sentiment quite independent of reason; 
 but after Hobbes and Howard and St. fivremond, the prevail- 
 ing rationalism of the times encroached upon this conception 
 till with La Bruyere it had come to conform to a standard of 
 its own the norm of taste, which was recognized as quite 
 distinct from the rules of the neo-classicists. 40 Thus La 
 Bruyere believed : 41 
 
 " There is a point of perfection in art, as of excellence or maturity in 
 nature. He who is sensible of it and loves it has a perfect taste ; he who 
 is not sensible of it and loves this or that else on either side of it has a 
 faulty taste. There is then a good and a bad taste, and men dispute 
 about taste not without reason." 
 
 Shaftsbury stands as one of the greatest English exponents of 
 this doctrine of taste; and his words may be cited as illustra- 
 tive of the position of the later members of this school, which 
 was not far from that of the rationalists : " I like ! I fancy ! I 
 
 89 Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, I, xcvii. 
 
 40 This attempt to allow for a grace beyond the reach of the rules pro- 
 voked the neo-classicists to such attacks as those of Dacier in his re- 
 marks on Horace and on Aristotle. 
 
 41 Quoted in the Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, I, xcviii. 
 
126 
 
 admire! How? By accident, or as I please? No. But 1 
 learn to fancy, to admire, to be pleased, as the subjects them- 
 selves are deserving, and can bear me out." 42 
 
 These different tendencies just outlined manifest each with 
 its own peculiar characteristics many traits of which they par- 
 take more or less in common; and in their development 
 through the last years of the seventeenth century they show the 
 effects of the attempts to reconcile them. The great crux of 
 the whole matter is the inevitable clash which has come in all 
 ages between authority and individualism. At the beginning 
 of the eighteenth century, criticism was almost completely domi- 
 nated by authority, with its insistence upon regularity. 
 
 The influence of nearly all these different currents is well 
 illustrated in the critical attitude of Dennis's friend and 
 master Dryden, 43 He never fully submitted to the neo- 
 classical rules, nor on the other hand did he ever completely 
 discard them. In the period when he was under the influence 
 of Rymer he could write, 44 " I have endeavored in this play to 
 follow the practice of the Ancients who are . . . and ought to 
 be our Masters." But he could also assert in that same 
 preface that the models of the antique drama "are too little 
 for the English tragedy ; " and he elsewhere contended that if 
 Aristotle had been familiar with the modern drama, he would 
 have changed his laws. In his later years Dryden seems to 
 have been markedly influenced by the doctrines of Le Bossu 
 and to have accepted the French critic's contention that the poet 
 must select his moral and upon this build his fable or plot. 45 
 Indeed it is not too much to say that Dryden's critical views 
 expressed during the last ten years of his life show a greater 
 respect for the rules than do his utterances of any of his earlier 
 decades. But his strong national spirit and critical acumen 
 prevented his yielding any servile submission to French 
 
 ** Works, 1900, I, 218. 
 
 43 " In ihrer Mannigfaltigkeit bilden Drydens Vorreden eine formliche 
 Encyklopadie aller Meinungen seiner Zeit, sodass er in der Geschichte der 
 Kritik . . . oft als sein eigener Gegner erscheinen muss." Hamelius, Die 
 Kritik, p. 66. 
 
 44 Preface to All for Love. 
 
 4B Ker, I, 213. 
 
127 
 
 authority. While he was translating Vergil and Juvenal for 
 his countrymen, he was also making accessible to them the 
 writings of their own Chaucer. He bestowed generous praise 
 upon Shakspere and early commended Milton. Moreover, he 
 showed himself prompt to defend the English drama against 
 that of the ancients, 46 and he must be classed as fighting for the 
 moderns. At times his attitude is decidedly that of the 
 rationalist, as when he declares 47 that " the rules are founded 
 on good sense and sound reason," rather than on authority, a 
 view which Dennis expressed later in much the same 
 terms. 48 Through the last years of Dryden's life the relations 
 between him and Dennis, as has been shown, were especially 
 intimate. One is impressed, indeed, by the closeness with 
 which Dennis's critical views of this last decade of the seven- 
 teenth century reflect practically all the important opinions ex- 
 pressed by Dryden. Each of them has recorded a warm 
 admiration of Le Bossu and his treatment of the epic; each 
 resented the efforts of Racine and Rymer to introduce the 
 chorus into the modern drama ; each maintained the superiority 
 of the English poets and dramatists to the French; both were 
 interested in developing the English Pindaric. Again, Dry- 
 den's discussion of the possibility of introducing Christian 
 divinities or supernatural agencies into modern poetry prob- 
 ably did much to direct our critic's theorizing regarding the re- 
 lations of religion and poetry. Furthermore, after 1700 Dennis 
 championed his master's theory and practice against the ideas 
 of Pope and his followers, as is witnessed by his strong letter 
 to Tonson, On the Conspiracy against the Reputation of Mr. 
 Dryden, 49 and by his defense of his master's freedom in coin- 
 ing words. 50 
 
 * Ker, I, Ixvi. 
 "Ibid., I, 228. 
 
 48 Impartial Critick in Spingarn's Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Cen- 
 tury, III, 194. 
 
 49 Original Letters p. 289 ff. 
 
 50 Reflections upon an Essay on Criticism, p. 16. 
 
128 
 
 III 
 ON IMITATION AND INVENTION 
 
 The critical questions with which Dennis and his age were 
 chiefly concerned arose in the main from the clash qf the 
 various tendencies just discussed. What is the nature of 
 poetic invention and imitation? From whence should the 
 writer and critic derive their standards, from authority ? from 
 reason? from inspiration? from taste? Are the classical 
 authors greater than the moderns ? Should the poet make use 
 of Christian beliefs, or should he cling to the gods of antiquity? 
 Are the rules applicable to all times, or must they be modified 
 to meet changing conditions ? What are the characteristics of 
 each type of letters, and how far is the writer bound to observe 
 them? What should be the object of poetry to please or to 
 instruct? What should be the relation in poetical composition 
 of emotion and reason? How Dennis proceeded to answer 
 these questions, what authorities he accepted in his attempts, 
 how far his answers agreed with those of his contemporaries, 
 how they changed with the years, and what effect they had 
 upon others, these are some of the questions that we must now 
 attempt to answer. 
 
 Dennis's cojnception^ pf art, with which we may well begin, 
 was one not uncommon in his times. The Platonic element in- 
 troduced into Renaissance criticism 1 had emphasized the con- 
 ception of the poet as one who brushes aside the hard work-a- 
 day world and shapes in its place a world of beauty. This 
 conception found expression in Sidney and was given a moral 
 turn by Bacon in his Advancement of Learning. 2 Milton took 
 up the same idea, declaring that "The end of Learning is to 
 repair the Ruin of our first Parents by regaining to know God 
 aright;" 3 and he went on to show how poetry may be made 
 efficacious to that end. Echoing Milton, Dennis states* that 
 " the great Design of the Arts is to restore the decays that hap- 
 pened to human Nature by the fall ; " and he placed this idea 
 
 1 History of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance, p. 157. 
 
 2 Works, 1863, IV, 204-206. 
 
 3 Of Education, to Mr. Samuel Hartlib. 
 
 * Works, II, 418. Steele voices the same idea in the Tatler. 
 
129 
 
 at the foundation of his theory for the advancement of poetry 6 
 and maintained it throughout his whole career. 6 
 
 Dennis accepted Cicero's statement of the interdependence 
 and relation of the arts; 7 and he paraphrased, in his dedica- 
 tion to the Poems in Burlesque Horace's words 8 about painting 
 as a kind of poetry. To the other arts he paid little attention, 
 save as they bore upon literature and especially upon poetry, 
 for in his general indifference to any consideration of the prose 
 forms of letters, he was a thorough neo-classicist. Poetry, he 
 maintained, 9 is the noblest of the arts, for it " makes provision 
 at the same time for the satisfaction of all the Faculties, the 
 Reason, the Passions, the Senses." In so much as he con- 
 sidered that music did not meet the demands of reason, Dennis, 
 in common with other critics of his day, placed it far below 
 poetry; and he asserted 10 that to judge it " requires only a fine 
 Ear, which the Footman often has a great deal finer than his 
 Master." 
 
 With regard to the matter of imitation, a doctrine which 
 lies at the basis of all critical theorizing, Dennis was in agree- 
 ment with many of the prevalent views of his time. In France 
 the Pleiade had substituted for the imitation of nature that of 
 the classics ; and in England Jonson had taken the position of 
 advising young writers to cho^e an author and follow him till 
 the copy might be mistaken for the principal. 11 These views 
 were more or less strongly advocated by critics from Vossius 12 
 to Boileau 13 and found a most radical exponent in Dacier. 14 
 Though this attitude met with opposition, especially from such 
 critics as St. fivremond, 15 it was commonly accepted when 
 Dennis began his career. The ideas of the neo-classicists 
 
 5 Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, p. 147. 
 
 6 Original Letters, p. 169, p. 418. 
 
 7 Preface to the Remarks on the Conscious Lovers. 
 
 8 Ars Poetica, 1. 361. 
 
 9 Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, p. 168. 
 
 10 Cf. Jonson's Discoveries, Boston, 1892, p. 49. 
 "Ibid., p. 77. 
 
 13 Opera, Amsterdam, 1687, III, 8, 44. 
 
 18 Literary Criticism in the Renaissance, p. 135. 
 
 14 Preface to Oeuvres du Horace, Amsterdam, 1735, I, 53. 
 
 15 Works, London, 1719, II, 272. 
 
130 
 
 had, however, been perverted from Aristotle's conception of 
 imitation as a representation of actual life. That school pro- 
 ceeded to emphasize and amplify his statement that poetry 
 should deal with the probable rather than the actual and made 
 it one of their commandments. Poetry, which is an expression 
 of the universal, said Rapin, 16 is superior to history, which 
 shows the particular; and Rymer, holding the same view, in 
 condemning King and No King declared 17 that the lack of 
 probability in that play lowered its value, so that instead of 
 being superior to history, it was inferior to it. The neo-classi- 
 cists also maintained that imitation should be according to the 
 different types which Aristotle had outlined in the Rhetoric, 18 
 and which Horace had taken up in the Ars Poetic a. This idea, 
 of course, also tended toward making poetry universal rather 
 than particular. The neo-classicists joined these conceptions 
 and other dicta of Aristotle, such as the forming of the plot 
 before the bestowing of names, with the moralistic conception 
 of literature into a scheme that became generally recognized 
 as proper and regular for constructing a play or an heroic 
 poem. The writer should select a moral idea and exemplify it 
 in a fable or plot, where the characters should represent uni- 
 versal types, even though they bore particular names. The 
 neo-classicists urged that the great works of antiquity had been 
 formed in this manner, so that Achilles, for example, was a 
 universal type with certain characteristics. Against the ac- 
 ceptance of such beliefs, however, there was much protest : the 
 earlier rationalists combatted them; and Dryden uttered his 
 dissent. In his Remarks upon Fresnoy's Art of Painting, 
 however, he expressed the conventional idea that the ancients 
 had studied and knew nature, and that the moderns might best 
 succeed by imitating them. 
 
 Dennis's earlier views of imitation were in general accord 
 with these current neo-classical conceptions. Whoever invents 
 
 16 Kennet, Whole Critical Works of Mons. Rapin, 1731, I, Ch. XXIV. 
 
 17 Tragedies of the Last Age, Consider' d and Examin'd by the Practice 
 of the Ancients, and by the Common Sense of all Ages, London, 1678, p< 
 59. 
 
 "Weldon, The Rhetoric of Aristotle. Translated with an Analysis and 
 Critical Notes, London, 1886, p. 181. 
 
 f 
 
131 
 
 an action, he maintained, 19 invents a fable. He then went on 
 to affirm that it is the poet's business in representing characters 
 to maintain them well, because nature is uniform; and he 
 added that to follow nature is to follow the rules. 20 Historic 
 examples are too particular to instruct, so the poet must have 
 recourse to the more general ones of fiction. 21 In his later 
 years Dennis maintained most of these views with a fair con- 
 sistency ; for example, a quarter of a century later, these ideas 
 form the basis of his objections to plays written for special 
 actors. He praised Vergil as deviating from historical truth 
 to gain greater beauties for the Aeneid, though he condemned 
 Shakspere's Roman plays as sinning against history and was 
 equally severe with Addison's Cato. The composition of 
 tragedy, he frequently asserted, demands a less faithful imita- 
 tion than does that of comedy, for tragedy makes lighter 
 demands upon probability and finds the wonderful more toler- 
 able. To the Aristotelian view of the world of imitation as 
 pleasing more than the actual world, which also found ex- 
 pression in Dryden 22 and elsewhere, Dennis gave a willing 
 assent. 
 
 All of these beliefs were, for the most part, commonplaces 
 in the critical thought of the time and found expression in the 
 writings of many contemporary critics both French and Eng- 
 lish. But Dennis went beyond the common thought of his \ 
 time by insisting in some of his writings that poetry should } 
 be considered and studied as the product of a creative mind. / 
 Like Addison he accepted in the main the psychology enunci- 
 ated by Hobbes, and he attempted to apply it in an explanation 
 of the process of literary creation many years before Addison 
 took up the discussion of the imagination. Hobbes had de- 
 fined 23 imagination as " conception remaining and little by little 
 decaying from and after the act of sense " and had maintained 24 
 that images are either simple or compound, and that " the brain 
 
 19 Remarks on Prince Arthur, p. 14. 
 
 20 Ibid., 1 06. 
 
 21 Ibid., p. 48. 
 ^Ker, II, 119. 
 
 * Works, 1740, IV, 9. 
 "Ibid., Ill, 6. 
 
132 
 
 or spirit being stirred by divers objects composeth an imagina- 
 tion of divers conceptions that appear single to the sense." 
 The joy of composition comes from the sudden exaltation or 
 pride of the soul at its own power. 25 He further urged that 
 "all advancement cometh from the imagination" "guided by 
 the precepts of true philosophy." The suspicion of the im- 
 agination which frequently cropped out in his work found 
 numerous restatements in this age of growing rationalism, of 
 which one of the assertions of Dryden may be taken as 
 typical : 26 " Imagination in a poet is a faculty so wild and law- 
 less, that like a high ranging spaniel, it must have clogs tied 
 to it, lest it outrun the judgment." Just what relation this 
 ranging of the imagination should bear to the production of 
 literature, the connection between the furor poeticus and reason, 
 was a problem that began to impress itself upon the age. The 
 recognition of the poetic frenzy, of the demands of the school 
 of taste for a grace beyond art, and of the insistence of the 
 rationalists upon exactness, all find expression in such theoriz- 
 ing about invention as that by Temple: 27 
 
 " This was the celestial fire [t. e., a heat of the brain] which gave such 
 a pleasing motion or agitation to the minds of those men that have been 
 so much admired in the world, that raised such infinite images of things 
 agreeable to mankind From this arises the elevation of genius which 
 can never be produced by any art or study, by pains or by industry, 
 which can not be taught by precepts or examples. . . . But though inven- 
 tion is the mother of poetry, yet the child . . . must be nourished with 
 care, clothed with exactness and elegance, educated with industry, in- 
 structed with art, improved by application, corrected with severity, and 
 accomplished with labours and time." 
 
 In his attempts to explain " the celestial fire of the writer," 28 
 Dennis took as his starting point Hobbes's doctrine of the 
 exaltation of spirit and declared 29 that the elevation of the 
 
 20 Cf. Jonson's Discoveries, Boston, 1892, p. 55 : " For all we do invent 
 doth please us in the conception of birth, else we would never set it 
 down." 
 
 * Works, IV, 450. 
 
 27 Works, London, 1759, III, 401. 
 
 28 Cf. Blackmore's preface to Prince Arthur. 
 
 29 Preface to the Remarks on Prince Arthur, which discusses the matter 
 at length. 
 
133 
 
 writer, which had formerly been considered a thing divine, was 
 either a very common passion or a " complication of Common 
 Passions." Happiness or felicity in composition, he main- 
 tained, affects the writer much as do any of the common 
 joys of life: any piece of fortune produces first surprise, then 
 joy, then an elevation or an exaltation of mind; and if the 
 good fortune comes unexpectedly, it brings us astonishment 
 and amazement at our own happiness. In literary composi- 
 tion the soul is exalted through the conception of a hint which 
 it regards as peculiarly its own; and if the hint be great and 
 elevated, it is "amazed with the unexpected view of its own 
 surpassing power." This transport of the soul gives birth to 
 an elevation of the expression, for all emotions, even such con- 
 trary ones as love and rage, in excess are furious. " Now it 
 is certain that greatness of the mind is nothing but pride well 
 regulated. Now as joy causes fury, and pride elevation, so 
 astonishment gives vehemence to expression." " Genius," he 
 defined as "the expression of a furious joy caused by the 
 conception of an extraordinary hint;" 30 and he declared that 
 the enthusiasm manifested in the highest forms of poetry con- 
 sists of these three passions joy, pride, and astonishment, 
 either simple or complicated, arising from such thoughts as 
 naturally carry these emotions with them. 31 Like Hobbes, 
 Dennis distinguished vivid thoughts by calling them images, 
 and he also maintained that these are best supplied by religious 
 subjects. 32 All invention, he went on to affirm with Hobbes, 33 
 is the result of the confederated powers of the memory, 
 imagination, and judgment. "For memory," he declared, 
 "may justly be compared to the Dog that beats the Field, or 
 the Wood, and that startles up the Game; Imagination is the 
 Falcon that clips it upon its Pinions after it; and Judgment is 
 the Falconer who directs the flight and governs the whole." 
 
 Dennis's beliefs regarding the inventive imagination were in 
 general agreement with his doctrines of the emotions and might 
 be characterized as a part of them. Even as early as the 
 
 81 Preface to the Remarks on Prince Arthur. 
 
 81 Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, p. 32. 
 
 ** Works, II, 425. 
 
 33 Remarks upon the Dunciad, p. 22. 
 
134 
 
 preface to his Miscellanies in Verse and Prose, written in 1692, 
 Dennis's theorizing exhibits the conflict between the demands 
 of emotion and those of regularity, which he once attempted to 
 adjust by stating that while emotion is to be allowed its free 
 play, its manifestations will be found to accord with reason. 
 To his age Dennis stood as the champion of emotion as the 
 basis of poetry, as an advocate of the exaltation and inspira- 
 tion of the poet that so ill accorded with the prevailing spirit 
 of the times that he was derisively dubbed " Sir Lp_ngmus." 
 Of this Greek writer Dennis was a student; and his ideas re- 
 garding the sublime are in part echoes from On the Sublime, 
 viewed, however, through the commentaries of Boileau. 
 
 That the poet is inspired had been taught by Platonism, re- 
 enforced by Caecilius, Longinus, and Horace, reaffirmed for 
 Renaissance criticism by the Pleiade, 34 and accorded a conven- 
 tional acceptance by the English writers of the seventeenth 
 century. 35 On the other hand, however, it must also be re- 
 membered that for the age last mentioned enthusiasm conveyed 
 the idea of fanaticism, and that madness was regarded as 
 simply a surplus of emotion. 36 Furthermore, the rationalistic 
 spirit of the times was, of course, opposed to granting much 
 importance to emotion in poetry; and this opposition found 
 expression in such declarations as that of Rapin : 37 
 
 " 'tis in no wise true, that most believe, that some little mixture of mad- 
 ness goes to make up the character of the Poet; for though his discourse 
 ought in a manner to resemble that of one inspir'd: yet his mind must 
 always be serene that he may discern when to let his muse run mad, and 
 when to govern his transports." 
 
 Dryden, however, was working his way toward a freer 
 critical conception. In the preface to Aureng-Zebe, in 1675, 
 he first drew upon Longinus, whom he declared next to Aris- 
 totle the greatest critic among the Greeks; and his discussion 
 of emotion as the basis of poetry 38 shows him well in advance 
 
 84 Literary Criticism in the Renaissance, p. 1 74. 
 
 36 See for examples Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, II, 286, 
 308. 
 
 ^Hobbes's Works, 1740, III, 64. 
 
 37 Rymer's translation of Rapin's Reflections on Aristotle, 1674, P 6. 
 
 38 Works, XI, 295. 
 
135 
 
 of his time. It seems probable, however, that Dennis derived 
 from Milton's theory and practice, rather than from Dryden, 
 his insistence upon emotion as the basic element of poetry. 
 Milton maintained that poetry is the sublime art, 39 and he rep- 
 resented the poet as soaring in the high region of his fancies, 
 with his garland and with his singing robes about him. Fur- 
 thermore, he handed on these ideas to his nephew Edward 
 Phillips, who repeated 40 them and emphasized them. 
 
 By 1692, if not earlier, Dennis was attracted to the writings 
 of Milton and consequently to a fuller consideration of the 
 emotional element in poetry. It is difficult to state whether 
 his interest in Pindarics arose from this study ; but it is quite 
 clear 41 that he associated the sublimity of Milton with the 
 manner of Pindar, and that he strove in practice to combine 
 them. His efforts met with a certain success, for, as we have 
 noticed, he gained the praise of Dryden and had come by 1697 
 to be regarded as the assertor of poetic rage. 42 Upon this emo- 
 tional element he based his conception of poetry, which he 
 defined 43 as " an imitation of nature by a pathetic and numer- 
 ous speech." " Passion," he continued, " is the character- 
 istical mark of poetry and consequently must be every where." 
 It is impossible, he believed, that the greatest or enthusiastic 
 passion should always be present in a poem, but there should 
 be the lesser emotion or ordinary passion which is clearly com- 
 prehended by the reader. In explaining the difference be- 
 tween enthusiastic and ordinary passion Dennis insisted upon 
 the following distinction: 44 
 
 " Vulgar Passion or that which we commonly call Passion, is that which 
 is moved by the Objects themselves, or by the Ideas in the ordinary course 
 of Life, I mean the common Society which we find in the World . . . En- 
 thusiastic Passion or Enthusiasm is a Passion which is moved by the Ideas 
 
 89 Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, I, 194. 
 
 "Ibid., II, 259. 
 
 41 " In writing these Pindarick verses I had still Milton in my eye and 
 was resolv'd to imitate him as well as it could be done without receding 
 from Pindar's manner." Preface to the Court of Death, 1695. 
 
 43 " Congreve outrime and outrage Dennis," Poem on the Peace, Anon., 
 1697- 
 
 43 Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, p. 23. 
 
 44 Grounds of Criticism in Poetry, p. 15. 
 
136 
 
 in Contemplation or in Meditation of Things, that belong not to common 
 Life : Most of our Thoughts in Meditation are naturally attended with 
 some sort and some degree of Passion, and this Passion, if it is strong, I 
 call Enthusiasm : Now the Enthusiastic Passions are chiefly Six, Admira- 
 tion, Terror, Horror, Joy, Sadness, Desire, caused by the Ideas occurring 
 to us in Meditation, and producing the same Passions that the Objects of 
 these Ideas give us of them. And here I desire the Reader to observe, 
 that Ideas in Meditation, are often very different from what Ideas of 
 the same Objects are, in the course of common Conversation. As for 
 Example, the Sun mention'd in ordinary Conversation, gives the Idea 
 of a round flat shining Body, of about Two Feet Diameter. But the Sun 
 occurring to us in Meditation, gives the Idea of a vast and glorious Body, 
 and the top of all visible Creation, attended with Admiration, and that 
 Admiration I call Enthusiasm. So Thunder mention'd in a common 
 Conversation, gives the Idea of a black Cloud, and a great Noise, which 
 makes no great Impression upon us. But the Idea of it, occuring in Medi- 
 tation, sets before us the most forcible, most resistless, and consequently 
 the most dreadful Phenomenon in Nature : so that the Idea must move 
 a great deal of Terror in Us, and 'tis this sort of Terror that I call En- 
 thusiasm, And 'tis this sort of Terror or Admiration, or Horror, and so 
 of the rest, which exprest in Poetry, makes that Spirit, that Passion, that 
 Fire, which so wonderfully please." 
 
 In all probability Dennis based these ideas on his study of 
 Locke's Essay concerning the Human Understanding,^ which 
 had appeared about a dozen years before the critic issued his 
 chief discussion of the nature of poetry. 
 
 At his boldest Dennis went so far as to assert 46 that while 
 " all other writers are made by precept, and formed by Art, the 
 poet prevails by force of Nature, . . . and is sometimes by a 
 spirit not himself exalted to Divinity." But more often 
 through his career as a critic he was restrained by his respect 
 for reason and regularity, so that he declared 47 that the poet 
 must combine fury with sense. In the Advancement and Re- 
 formation of Modern Poetry Dennis emphasized the necessity 
 of the " fine frenzy " and said little of any dependence of the 
 poet upon design; but his innate conservatism, reenforced by 
 the spirit of the age, manifested itself in the Grounds of 
 Criticism in Poetry, where he took the less advanced position 48 
 
 45 For example, see Locke's Essay, Bk. II, Ch. I. 
 48 Usefulness of the Stage, p. 44. 
 
 47 Preface to Miscellanies in Verse and Prose. 
 
 48 Works, II, 422. 
 
 
 
137 
 
 that the poet must frame all with the idea of moving passion 
 the fable, the incidents, characters, and expression; while still 
 later he repeatedly emphasized the neo-classical idea of each 
 species exciting the emotion proper to its kind. 49 
 
 Despite this growing conservatism, however, Dennis's atti- 
 tude toward the emotions is markedly in advance of his age, 
 which found, perhaps, its extreme representative in Shafts- 
 bury, who insisted 50 ever on keeping the upper hand of all 
 emotion, and who saw in good humor 51 the greatest security 
 against enthusiasm. In direct opposition to Dennis he main- 
 tained that emotion might befit the ancients, but that it was ill 
 becoming to the men of a later and more sophisticated age. 
 He further declared 52 that " we are to work [rather] by 
 weaning than by engaging the passions." In some of his later 
 tracts, such as Vice and Luxury, Dennis remonstrated against 
 such a restriction of the passions and urged that they should 
 be directed rather than repressed. To us his insistence upon 
 allowing a play of the emotions is of especial value as illustrat- 
 ing how no one attitude toward letters in his age ever gained 
 complete ascendency, for his demand for passion in poetry was 
 in direct opposition to the prevailing rationalism no less than his 
 attempt to exalt the writings of the Hebrews, which we shall 
 now discuss, was at variance with the spirit of neo-classicism. 
 
 IV 
 
 His MORALISTIC AND PATRIOTIC CONCEPTIONS OF POETRY 
 
 Dennis's effort to reconcile poetry with the Christian religion 
 was but one phase of a long struggle which had dated from the 
 time of Muzio 1 to that of Boileau, St. fivremond, and Dryden. 
 'Against the use in poetry of the heathen divinities, which had 
 become established as a characteristic of neo-classicism, came 
 the religious revolt which found expression in such Christian 
 poetry as that of Tasso and of Spenser, 2 and in France, despite 
 
 49 E. g., Original Letters, p. 9. 
 
 60 Works, 1900, I, 375. 
 
 *Ibid., II, 35- 
 
 10 Ibid., II, 281. 
 
 1 Literary Criticism in the Renaissance, p. 129. 
 
 9 Ibid., p. 161. 
 
138 
 
 the pagan influence of the Pleiade, in Vauquelin's Art Poetique 
 and in Du Bartas's Uranie. 3 Again, the question of the pro- 
 priety of biblical themes for the stage came to an issue in 
 France with Corneille, 4 who had vigorously defended their in- 
 troduction. With the growth in popularity of the religious 
 epic, about the middle of the seventeenth century, Desmaretes 
 de Saint Sorlin 5 urged the use of the Christian marvels in 
 poetry ; but he and his followers were practically overwhelmed 
 by Boileau, whose powerful influence was thrown for continu- 
 ing the paganization of literature. Boileau's attitude was 
 potent both at home and abroad ; and his famous passage, 
 
 " De la foi d'un chretien les mysteres terribles 
 D'ornements egayes ne sont point susceptibles : 
 L'fivangile a 1'esprit n'offre de tous cotes 
 Que penitence a faire, et tourments merites ;" 
 
 was freqently cited by Dennis. The rationalistic view of this 
 question found perhaps its best expression in St. fivremond, 
 who, while blaming the moderns for lacking force to abandon 
 the pagan gods for the Christian beliefs, 6 declared that the 
 spirit of the existing religion was directly opposed to tragedy. 7 
 In England the influence of the French religious epics is 
 seen in such works as the Gondibert of Davenant, who de- 
 fended himself in his preface for thus introducing the Chris- 
 tian persons on the ground that their actions would exert a 
 more powerful influence for good than could those of pagan 
 characters. His friend Cowley, too, in the notes to his 
 Davideis and in the general preface to his poems, insisted upon 
 the poet's having recourse to the treasure house of the Chris- 
 tian beliefs; and he called upon his contemporaries to rescue 
 the divine art from the service of Satan, to which it had been 
 perverted. Dryden and Dennis both spoke freely of Cowley 
 and his work; and his beliefs and practices were not without 
 their influence upon our critic's formulation of his theories in 
 regard to the relation of religion and poetry. 8 Indeed the in- 
 
 3 Literary Criticism in the Renaissance, p. 229. 
 
 4 Oeuvres, Paris, 1819, III, 480. 
 
 5 Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, II, 334. 
 
 6 Works, 1719, II, 13 ff., 272. 
 
 7 Ibid., II, 14. 
 
 8 Dennis's Works, II, 446. 
 
139 
 
 terest of Dennis and Dryden in the Pindaric ode, 9 of which 
 Cowley was generally regarded as the foremost English writer, 
 seems to have centered largely around the possibilities of using 
 that form as a vehicle for religion. Dryden's interest in the 
 relations of poetry and the Christian belief found its most 
 notable expression in his utterances regarding the use of pagan 
 divinities, or machines, in modern poetry. In answer to 
 Boileau's contention that the Scriptures offered no supernatural 
 persons suitable for poetry, he suggested 10 that the Christian 
 poets had not recognized their own strength, for in the 
 prophecy of Daniel they might find authority for ministering 
 angels which would supply them with better machinery than 
 that of the ancient gods. Dennis seems to have been attracted 
 by this proposal, 11 for he put it into practice in his most 
 pretentious poem, Blenheim, where Marlborough is represented 
 as protected by a guardian angel and opposed by the spirits of 
 discord. The latter part of this scheme is also of Dryden's 
 suggestion. 12 Here it is also interesting to note that in his 
 earlier years as a critic Dennis's attitude toward the use of 
 machines, or supernatural agencies, was not consistent. His 
 attempt to incorporate heavenly spirits in his poetry is quite at 
 variance with his position in his Remarks on Prince Arthur, 
 where he declared 13 that the Christian machines are quite out 
 of nature and consequently cannot delight. The next year, 
 however, he maintained 14 that machines are the very soul of 
 poetry; while in 1701 he took the ground 15 that "the Mysteries 
 of the Christian Religion are not to be mix'd with Fiction, and 
 consequently it would be a hard matter to contrive Machines 
 for an Epic Poem upon a Modern Christian Subject;" though 
 he asserted in qualification, we may have the loftiest Christian 
 poetry without machines. But the growing dogmatism of his 
 later years finds no better illustration than his changing atti- 
 
 9 Ibid., I, 502. 
 
 10 Works, XIII, 24 ff. 
 
 11 Dryden once wrote to Dennis commending the plan. Ker, II, 279. 
 "Dryden's Works, XIII, 28. 
 
 13 p. 125. 
 
 14 Usefulness of the Stage to the Happiness of Mankind, p. 114. 
 
 15 Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, p. 134. 
 
i" 
 
 
 140 
 
 tude toward the poetic use of the supernatural ; for the earlier 
 hesitation gave way to the positive assertion that not only may 
 machines be used, but that they are to be employed according 
 to eight rules, which he proceeded to expound. 16 
 
 The chief interest in Dennis's beliefs, however, lies not in 
 his attitude toward the introduction of machines but in his 
 scheme for joining religion and poetry, a plan which he con- 
 sidered quite his own. 17 It is evident, however, that as he was 
 consciously influenced in formulating his views by Milton's 
 practice in Paradise Lost, so he was also guided, perhaps un- 
 consciously, by that writer's theories. Dennis's deep religious 
 nature, with its strong tinge of positiveness frequently deepen- 
 ing into dogmatism, was unquestionably attracted in part to 
 Milton, as Mr. Saintsbury has observed, 18 by that poet's 
 " avowed intention to make his poem a theodicy ; " but the 
 exalted spirit of Paradise Lost and the mighty harmonies aris- 
 ing therefrom, as Dennis believed, fascinated him and led him 
 to support his theory with numerous illustrations from Milton's 
 epic. 
 
 Dennis's great scheme, promulgated in the Advancement and 
 Reformation of Modern Poetry, 1701, and partly systematized 
 three years later in his Grounds of Criticism in Poetry, was an 
 attempt to settle the quarrel of the ancients and the moderns 
 then raging by showing that through the help of religion 
 contemporary poets might hope to equal the classical litera- 
 ture. 19 Briefly put, his argument in the earlier treatise is this : 
 Through the fall of man came the conflict between reason and 
 passion, which has since been reconciled by the Christian 
 religion. True religion seeks not to suppress the passions but 
 
 19 Remarks on the Rape of the Lock, p. 23. 
 
 17 Dennis calls his scheme " a piece of Criticism, which has, I know 
 not how, escaped the French criticks." Epistle Dedicatory to the Ad- 
 vancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry. It seems not unlikely that 
 Dennis's interest in the possible advantages to be gained from uniting 
 religion and poetry was quickened by the appearance in 1700 of Black- 
 more's Paraphrase of the Book of Job, and other parts of the Scripture. 
 
 18 History of Criticism, II, 246. 
 
 19 Dennis also believed that his scheme would exalt the poetry of Eng- 
 land over that of her great rival, France. Epistle Dedicatory to the 
 Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry. 
 
141 
 
 to exalt them, which is also the purpose of poetry, since by its 
 very nature poetry rouses passion. In so much as divine 
 poetry deals with the loftiest conceptions and emotions of 
 which mankind is capable, it has the advantage over the classics 
 of better meeting the demands of reason and of raising greater 
 passion. This last contention is defended by several com- 
 parisons, in the manner of Rymer, of passages in Vergil, illus- 
 trative of enthusiastic passion, with others of a similar nature 
 by Milton. In these comparisons the advantage is invariably/ 
 declared to lie with the latter. 
 
 In the Grounds of Criticism in Poetry, 1704, Dennis'Ny 
 elaborated his scheme and endeavored to support it by reason, 
 authority, and further illustration. Religious enthusiasm, he 
 here contended, best supplies the qualities of emotional eleva- 
 tion as given by Aristotle, Hermogenes, and Longinus. 20 But 
 his respect for regularity, which had been held in abeyance 
 in the Advancement and Reformation, here asserted itself, so 
 that he declared that poetry is to be established by the laying 
 down of laws; 21 and he then gave eight rules for the proper 
 regulation of enthusiasm. Of these laws the first may be cited 
 as perhaps the best: "the Religion [of a poem] ought to be 
 one, that the poet may be moved by it and that he may appear 
 in earnest." In spite of this hobbling of Pegasus, the book is 
 interesting and significant for its reaffirmation of passion as 
 the soul of poetry, its consideration of the nature of enthusi- 
 asm, and its generous commendation of Milton. Any one of 
 
 20 Dennis's arguriient based upon Aristotle is slight, consisting of a quota- 
 tion from the Rhetoric to show that the use of figurative language, which 
 is the natural speech of passion, is less appropriate to prose than to 
 poetry. Dennis then declared it his belief that the Greeks called poetry 
 the language of the gods because they always represented their divinities 
 as speaking in verse. From Hermogenes he cited the passage concerning 
 the qualities giving elevation to a discourse and showed how it helped to 
 confirm his theory. He then quoted and considered in its relation to 
 religion and poetry Longinus's description of the sublime as exalting the 
 soul and giving it a larger idea of itself, " filling it with Joy, and a cer- 
 tain noble Pride, as if itself had produced what it barely reads." Dennis's 
 Works, II, 427. 
 
 21 Dennis would have urged in his own defense that nature, reason, and 
 poetry are at the bottom one, and that nothing can really please that is 
 contrary to the eternal laws of reason. 
 
142 
 
 these features of Dennis's work we may note in passing, is 
 enough to refute Mr. Saintsbury's statement 22 that our author 
 shows the worst features of his critical tribe. 
 
 Dennis's insistence that the greater poetry should be religious 
 is but a step beyond the position maintained by nearly all the 
 critics of the age that poetry should be moral, or, rather, that 
 it should have at its base a moral idea. This conception rested 
 in part upon the well known Aristotelian precept that things 
 should be represented not as they are but as they should be 
 \ and upon the equally famous statement that poetry should be 
 ya mixture of history and fable. Poetry should be based upon 
 history, the argument ran, because it cannot neglect the truth ; 
 I and it should contain an element of fiction, because virtue un- 
 <jidorned would not be sufficiently surprising and delightful. 
 Though Bacon had contended that the writer more often con- 
 ceives the fiction before the moral than vice versa, the grow- 
 ing neo-classicism had tended to the opposite belief and had 
 found a great champion in Jonson. 23 The neo-classical doc- 
 trine received additional confirmation from the authority of 
 Rapin and of Le Bossu and reached its height with Dacier, 24 
 who declared that owing to the corruption of the race, man- 
 kind must be instructed through fables which had been invented 
 to form manners. Homer, who had first used the fable, had 
 represented Achilles as a man universal and allegorical, depicted 
 largely for the purposes of moral instruction. Though these 
 extreme views met with continual opposition from the Eng- 
 lish critics, the tendency of the times was toward a common 
 acceptance of their modified forms. For example, Dryden in 
 his later years expressed his 'approval 25 of Le Bossu's doctrine 
 of first fixing the moral and then erecting the story, though he 
 elsewhere affirms 28 that the fable is not the great masterpiece of 
 tragedy but the foundation of it. Congreve prided himself 
 upon his regularity in writing his Double Dealer, declaring in 
 
 22 History of Criticism, II, 434. 
 
 23 Discoveries, Boston, 1892, p. 73. 
 
 24 La Poetique D'Aristote Traduite En Frangois, Avec Des Remarques, 
 Paris, 1692, Preface, iii. 
 
 28 Works, VI, 266. 
 
 28 " Heads of an Answer to Rymer." 
 
143 
 
 his preface, "I designed the moral first, and to the moral I 
 invented the fable;" while Farquhar, in his Discourse on 
 Comedy, which for the most part is in advance of the criti- 
 cism of his age, affirmed that the fox in the play is the same 
 as the fox in the fable. The neo-classicists also maintained 
 that if the reader insisted that he would read only for pleasure, 
 the writer was to use such pleasure only as a means of instruc- 
 tion, a conception which received one of its most notable 
 expressions by Dr. Johnson. 27 
 
 With the conception of the fable and moral as just out- 
 lined Dennis grew into greater and greater accord. He recon- 
 ciled the demands for profit and pleasure with his insistence 
 upon passion by declaring that emotion is essential both to 
 delight and to instruction; 28 and he further asserted that 
 passion is the greatest requisite for the fable. As for the na- 
 ture of the fable, he considered it " a discourse aptly con- 
 trived to form the manners of men by instruction disguised 
 under the name of allegory." 29 "The action of a dramatics 
 fable," he explained, 30 " is universal and allegorical, the char- 
 acters are so likewise, Aesop does not represent a single 
 animal [e. g. } a wolf] but shows the nature of that creature so 
 far as the occasion where it appears, admits of. ... The- 
 Dramatic Poet does not pretend to entertain us with particular \ 
 persons, though he may give them particular names; but pro- 
 poses to lay before us general and allegorical phantoms, to j 
 make them talk as persons compounded of such and such quali- / 
 ties would act on like occasion, in order to give proper ,_ in- j 
 struction." In his Remarks on the Conscious Lovers Dennis 
 declared that every true comedy should be a fable, though he 
 considered that type of drama less adapted to inculcate great 
 lessons than tragedy, which should always be a solemn lecture. 31 
 He recognized, however, that all English plays were not con- 
 
 27 Preface to his edition of Shakespeare, 1765, xiv. 
 
 28 Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, p. 27. 
 
 29 Stage Defended, from Scripture, Reason, and the Common Sense of 
 Mankind, 1726, p. 7. 
 
 30 Usefulness of the Stage to the Happiness of Mankind, 1698, pp. 7 ff. 
 
 31 Epistle Dedicatory to the Advancement and Reformation of Modern 
 Poetry. 
 
144 
 
 structed according to these theories, but he considered that 
 
 through long custom the nation found these irregular dramas 
 
 tolerable. He further maintained that the French, who had 
 
 become habituated to art and conduct, disliked such plays as 
 
 heartily as the Italians disliked the English Gothic cathedrals. 
 
 While Dennis's insistence upon religion, or at least morality, 
 
 as an element in literature, had a certain liberalizing and 
 
 broadening effect upon his criticism, it brought with it another 
 
 and narrowing influence: it added to the positiveness of his 
 
 assertions as a critic the dogmatism of the theologian. Pope 
 
 came in for frequent attacks not only as a bad poet but also 
 
 as the enemy of religion, who was suborning Homer to popish 
 
 beliefs ; 32 and Steele was debauching 33 the people and encourag- 
 
 /ing vice and folly. But if Dennis's intense moral earnestness 
 
 / thus impaired the value of his criticisms, it more than com- 
 
 / pensated for this loss by inciting him to break away from the 
 
 conventional neo-classic and rationalistic standards of the 
 
 \ time, and to advocate as the basis of poetry not reasonableness 
 
 \\or wit but emotion. Furthermore, though we disagree with his 
 
 moralistic conceptions, we must remember that many of the 
 
 better English critics have held not dissimilar views as to the 
 
 function of poetry. 
 
 Closely connected with Dennis's religious _and moral con- 
 ception of poetry was his patriotic ideal. Indeed, to his way of 
 thinking, patriotism, religion, and art are inseparably con- 
 nected; for not only did he consider religion the basis of all 
 government, but he believed with Milton that liberty is essen- 
 tial to the flourishing of letters, 34 and that the prosperous 
 nations are those that cultivate the arts. 35 In his attacks upon 
 Steele, for example, Dennis urged 36 "all who are concerned 
 for the Honour of the King to protest against the present 
 management of the stage " as disgracing the nation and tend- 
 ing to ruin the related arts. he_drama, he maintained in his 
 reply to Law, 87 is powerful to inspire " the love of country, the 
 
 32 Remarks upon Mr. Pope's Translation of Homer, p. 34. 
 88 Preface to the Invader of His Country. 
 "Preface to the Remarks on the Conscious Lovers, 1723. 
 85 Dedication to the Remarks on the Conscious Lovers. 
 "Preface to the Defense of Sir Fopling Flutter, 1722. 
 87 Stage Defended, 1726, p. 30. 
 
145 
 
 love of liberty, of virtue, and true glory;" and he then pro- 
 ceeded with the threefold assurance of a critic, a theologian, 
 and a political partisan to show that the greatest enemies of the 
 English stage had been the non-jurors. His ardent love for 
 liberty, his earnest, if not always well directed, passion for the 
 welfare of his country and countrymen must be recognized as 
 an important element both in his criticism and in his plays and 
 poems. Over half the prefaces of his dramas, to notice but a 
 single class of his writings, contain statements that the follow- 
 ing plays were written in behalf of liberty, which had ever been 
 his " sole felicity," 38 as well as " the continual theme of [his] 
 pen, and the constant employment of [his] life." 39 
 
 Like Dryden, who had early declared 39a with Neander for 
 England and liberty, Dennis placed great value on some of the 
 older, national writers because they were his countrymen. Jon- 
 son had been " an honour to Great Britain ; " 40 and in a burst of 
 patriotism our critic once declared 41 that not only were several 
 things in Shakspere superior to any thing produced on the 
 French stage, but his native ability had been so great that who- 
 ever " allows that Shakespear had learning and a familiar 
 Acquaintance with the Ancients ought to be looked upon as a 
 Detractor . . . from the Glory of Great Britain." .Milton, 
 too, had brought glory to Englishmen, 42 though they had but 
 tardily given him the recognition so early and freely accorded 
 him by the Italians. This patriotic motive, moreover, lies at 
 the foundation of Dennis's greater critical writings of the 
 earlier years of the eighteenth century. Poetry, he declared in 
 the opening paragraph of the Grounds of Criticism, " has been 
 driven and banished from every country except England alone ; 
 and it is even here so miserably fallen . . . that we have reason 
 to apprehend it to be departing from hence too." It was in 
 the service of religion and patriotism, then, that he developed 
 his scheme for the restoration of poetry and exalted above the 
 
 38 Preface to his Remarks upon Mr. Pope's Homer. 
 
 89 Original Letters, p. 203. 
 
 89a ln the Essay of Dramatic Poesy, 1668. 
 
 40 Original Letters, p. 402. 
 
 41 Epistle Dedicatory to the Advancement and Reformation. 
 43 Original Letters, p. 78. 
 
 11 
 
146 
 
 ancients Milton, the English protestant bard. This note of 
 protest against the decay of poetry and the consequent dis- 
 honor and peril of the country grew louder and louder through 
 the later years of Dennis's life till it became his Jeremiad ; but 
 in his bluff and earnest, though often misdirected, way he 
 strove to render liberty and letters " perpetual in this Island." 43 
 
 V 
 
 His ATTITUDE TOWARD THE RULES 
 
 To show the manner in which poetry might be perpetuated 
 in Great Britain, Dennis more than once quoted the famous 
 statement of Milton's 1 that the youth should be taught "that 
 sublime art which is in Aristotle's Poetics, in Horace, and the 
 Italian commentaries, . . . what the laws are of a true Epic 
 poem, what of a Dramatic, what of a Lyric, what decorum is, 
 what are the great masterpieces to observe." With the atti- 
 tude here expressed Dennis was in such thorough accord that 
 he used this passage at the very beginning of his Grounds of 
 Criticism in Poetry, which he designed as an introduction to 
 his twice projected but never realized scheme for a compre- 
 hensive and thorough systematizing of poetical theory. Unlike 
 /"Milton, however, Dennis and his contemporaries drew their 
 / critical ideas from the JFrerjb 2 rather than from the Italians ; 3 
 for in the latter quarter of the seventeenth century French 
 \ thought and French arms were alike dominant. Like all other 
 contemporary English critics Dennis was, of course, power- 
 fully affected by the canons of the French neo-classicists, or 
 the Gallo-Classicists as they have been called. As already 
 stated, these critics are remembered chiefly as the champions 
 of the rules, so that in determining Dennis's attitude toward 
 that school, we must study his position regarding these formu- 
 lated precepts. Did he accept these canons with little or no 
 
 43 Original Letters, p. 203. 
 
 1 In his Treatise of Education, to Master Samuel Hartlib. 
 
 2 Cf . Pope's Imitation of Horace, ist Ode, 2d Book, 11. 263-267. 
 
 8 Dennis probably possessed a fair knowledge of the Italian critics, 
 though they apparently had little direct influence upon him. See Original 
 Letters, p. 78 ; Preface to Miscellaneous Tracts, p. viii. 
 
147 
 
 reserve, as did some of his contemporaries, or did he maintain 
 a more independent attitude? 
 
 We have already noticed some of the chief sources from 
 which Dennis derived his respect for the rules, namely, from 
 the critical comments of Rapin, Le Bossu, and Dacier 4 and 
 from the practice and theory of Cprneille. With the writ- 
 ings of all these he was well acquainted in the original; and 
 he grew even more familiar with them through their recog- 
 nition and more or less complete acceptance and promulgation 
 by Dryden., Rymer, Roscommon, and Mulgrave. To the in- \ 
 fluence of Dryden especially was due no small part of Dennis's 
 respect for these French writers and their rules. Indeed 
 through a large part of his career Dryden maintained that 
 the French were as superior to the English as critics as they 
 were inferior to them as poets. 5 In his critical thinking, how- 
 ever, his respect for the rules frequently conflicted with his 
 strong nationalism and critical acumen, so that it is not sur- 
 prising that he should maintain that if Aristotle could have 
 seen the Cinna, 6 he would have altered his opinion regarding 
 
 4 "There [at the Universities] they grow familiar with the Title pages 
 of ancient and modern Authors, and will talk of Aristotle, Longinus,, 
 Horace, Scaliger, Rapin, Bossu, Dacier, as freely as if born acquaintance : 
 Their mouths are filled with the Fable, the Moral, Catastrophe, Unity, 
 Probability, true Sublime, Bombast, Simplicity, Magnificence, and all the 
 critical Jargon which is learned in a quarter of an Hour, and answers to 
 talk of one's whole life after." James Ralph, the Touchstone, 1728, p. 161. 
 
 " Mr. Congreve informs me that I talk of the pedantical cant of Fable, 
 Intrigue, Discovery, of Unities of Time. He means the pedantical Cant 
 of Aristotle, and Horace, of Bossu and Corneille, of Rapin and Mr. Dry- 
 den ; that is, of the best Criticks both Ancient and Modern upon the Sub- 
 ject." Collier's Defense of the Short View, p. 80. 
 
 " Whoever will be at pains to read the Commentators on Aristotle, and 
 Horace's Art of Poetry ; or that will but carefully consider Rapin, Dacier, 
 and Bossu, those great masters among the French, and the judicious re- 
 marks of our own Mr. Rymer, . . . will soon be able to see wherein the 
 Heroick Poems that have been publish'd since Virgil by the Italians, 
 French, and English Wits have been defective, by comparing them with 
 the rules of writing set down by those great Masters." Blackmore's pre- 
 face to Prince Arthur. 
 
 "Ker's Dryden, II, 178. 
 
 8 Preface to Troilus and Cressida. 
 
V 
 
 148 
 
 the nature of the catastrophe. Elsewhere he maintained 7 that 
 genius needs all possible reen for cement from learning, but 
 that a writer should often break a lesser or mechanic rule 
 for gaining a higher beauty, since the rules are founded both 
 " on right reason and the practice of the best masters." 
 
 These dicta of Dryden's were accepted by Dennis, who 
 insisted even more strongly than his master upon regarding 
 reason and nature as the basis of the rules. At the outset 
 of his career he emphasized the idea that " the rules of 
 Aristotle are nothing but nature and good sense reduced to 
 method;" 8 and two years later he declared 9 that they are 
 l" simply an observation of Nature. For Nature is Rule and 
 / Order in itself ; and there is not one of the Rules that might 
 I not be v used to evince this." Further quotation on this point 
 is perhaps unnecessary ; but we may note that in practically all 
 of the many criticisms where he speaks of the nature of the 
 rules, he insists that they are the dictates of reason, or that 
 they "represent the order found in nature." In his most 
 elaborate discussion of the rules and their value, written when 
 he was at his best as a critic, 10 we discover an interesting 
 mixture of his rationalistic and moralistic tendencies with 
 those of the school of taste. These discussions show that 
 the scientific discoveries of the time had emphasized for 
 Dennis, as for others of his age, the idea of a rational order 
 governing through the universe, so that he considered that 
 God himself is best manifested through his laws, and that the 
 works of God are perfect in that they exhibit the operation of 
 perfect rule and order. At the creation, Dennis argued, man, 
 too, had been in harmony with the great universal order and 
 in every action had manifested its workings. Through his 
 transgression of this regularity, especially through bringing 
 his passions and reason into conflict, man had fallen. To 
 restore the race to its pristine conformity and harmony, and 
 
 7 Works, VIII, 374. 
 
 8 Impartial Critick, p. 49. The source of this idea is Rapin, from whom 
 Dryden, Dennis, and Pope derived it. 
 
 Works, II, 532. 
 
 10 Discussed at length in Part II of his Advancement and Reformation 
 of Modern Poetry, 1701. 
 
149 
 
 consequently to happiness is, Dennis believed, the great pur- 
 pose of all the arts, but more especially of poetry. To accom- 
 plish this reformation, the arts themselves must be reestab- 
 lished through the observance of the rules. 
 
 His beliefs concerning the validity of these rules, however, 
 were much more liberal than were the conceptions of most of 
 his fellow critics. For example, he went beyond most of his 
 contemporaries in working toward a realization that the effect, 
 rather than the means, is after all the important thing. Thus 
 he urged 11 that 
 
 " as in some of the numerous parts that constitute this beauteous all, there 
 are some appearing irregularities, which parts notwithstanding contribute 
 with the rest to complete the Harmony of universal Nature ; and as there 
 are some seeming Irregularities even in the wonderful Dispensations of 
 the Supreme and Sovereign Reason, as the oppression of the good, and 
 the flourishing of the bad, which yet at bottom are rightly adjusted, and 
 rightly compensated, and are properly appointed by Divine Foreknowledge 
 for the carrying on the Profound Design of Providence; so if we may 
 compare great things with small, in the accomplish'd Poem, some things "\ 
 at first sight may be seemingly against Reason, which yet at the bottom 
 are perfectly regular, because they are indispensably necessary to the / 
 admirable conduct of a great and just Design." 
 
 Dennis recognized Aristotle, of course, as the great expositor 
 of the rules, and throughout his critical career he manifested a 
 profound respect for the precepts of the Stagirite. But 
 Dennis was by no means his blind partisan. He maintained, 
 for example, that Aristotle's observations on the epic were 
 limited by their having been based upon the practice of Homer ; 
 and that Paradise Lost, in so much as it deals not with the 
 strife of man with man but of the devil with man, " being so 
 very different from what Homer or Aristotle ever thought of, 
 could not possibly be subjected to their Rules, either for the 
 Characters or the Images." Moreover, Milton's subject, by 
 its very nature, " threw him upon new Thoughts, new Images, 
 and an original Spirit, all new and different from those of 
 Homer and Virgil." 12 
 
 In a word, then, we may say that Dennis studied carefully 
 
 n Epistle Dedicatory to the Advancement and Reformation of Modern 
 Poetry. 
 
 13 Specimen, prefatory to the Grounds of Criticism in Poetry, 
 
150 
 
 and valued highly the practice of the ancients, but that instead 
 [ of being a " violent defender of antiquity," as has been 
 asserted, 13 he protested repeatedly and vigorously against 
 I rendering any servile and unquestioning obedience to the 
 \writers and critics of Greece and Rome. JJe recogmzed_that 
 these rules were mere means for attaining an end, 14 and that 
 no observance of them could make amends for a want of 
 genius. 15 Furthermore, he declared with Dryden that these 
 precepts vary in power and validity, and that a lesser or 
 mechanic rule may be set aside for a greater. 16 His ideas of 
 the rules illustrate well how his moralistic, or perhaps better 
 his theological view colored most of his theorizing, but still 
 more noticeably they emphasize his thoroughgoing rationalism ; 
 for in every one of his criticisms in which he discusses the 
 nature of these canons, he insists that they are the formulated 
 precepts of nature and reason. 
 
 In his attempt to indicate the relation of genius and the 
 rules Dennis's respect for neo-classical precepts clashed with 
 his regard for the emotional element in literature. Poetical 
 genius he defined 17 as "the power of expressing passion 
 worthily," a force which enables a writer to treat his theme 
 with "a dignity worthy of its greatness." "Yet 'tis Art," 
 he urged, 18 " that makes a subject very great, and consequently 
 gives occasion for a great Genius to show itself." Elsewhere 
 he declared 19 that there never was a great genius without great 
 judgment, and that the greater the genius of the writer the 
 more closely he had followed the rules. Occasionally, how- 
 ever, his admiration for poetic enthusiasm conflicted with his 
 
 13 Charlanne, L' Influence Frangaise en Angleterre au XV lie Siecle, p. 533. 
 
 14 Grounds of Criticism in Poetry, Ch. II. 
 
 18 Preface to Iphigenia. Cf. Dryden's letter to Dennis in Dennis's 
 Works, II, 504- 
 
 16 Remarks upon Cato, p. 40 : " Tis eternally the duty both of the Ancients 
 and the Moderns, to break through a less important Rule, when without 
 that Infringement the greater one must be violated." Cf. Reflections upon 
 an Essay on Criticism, p. 14. 
 
 17 Advancement and Reformation, p. 46. 
 
 18 Ibid., p. 64. Cf. Literary Criticism in the Renaissance, p. 158. 
 
 19 Remarks on Prince Arthur, p. 106. 
 
151 
 
 respect for regularity, as is seen in his assertion that 20 Milton's 
 genius cannot be reduced to an art. Felicity rather than art, 
 he affirmed, characterized Milton's choice of a subject in 
 Paradise Lost, "a theme which often furnished him with the 
 greatest of Ideas, which in turn suppli'd him with the greatest 
 Spirit." But that this choice of subject was the result of 
 a happy chance rather than art is shown by his attempting the 
 treatment of Paradise Regained, which Vergil, for example, 
 would have recognized " could never supply him with the ideas, 
 nor with the spirit." 
 
 In the controversy of the ancients and moderns then raging, 
 which was a very natural outgrowth of the neo-classical dis- 
 cussions, Dennis took what he called a "middle jx>sition." 21 
 Rymer's Short View of Tragedy, 1693, had brought to Eng- 
 land the discussion of this recurring question that had been 
 revived in France; 22 and Dryden, Temple, and a dozen others 
 had expressed their views. Dennis asserted 23 
 
 " 'Tis ridiculous and pedantic to imagine that the natural powers of the 
 soul were stronger or more excellent in the Ancients than they are in the 
 Moderns. As to Experience, we have vastly the advantage of them. . . . 
 Not but that at the same time I assert the equality of the Faculties of the 
 Moderns, and the advantage of their Experience, I freely acknowledge the 
 actual Preheminence that several of the Ancients had over the Moderns ; 
 but . . . that . . . proceeds from accidental Causes, and not from any 
 Superiority of Faculties in those Ancient Authors." 
 
 In spirit Dennis was really with the moderns, for his scheme 
 for the reformation of poetry was frankly intended to raise 
 them to the level of the ancients, whose superiority, he main- 
 tained, 24 was due to their combining religion with poetry. In 
 the epic, pastoral, and amorous poetry, in which the moderns 
 could not make full use of their religion, he believed the pre- 
 eminence of the ancients was firmly established. In such forms 
 as comedy and satire, which are independent of religion, the 
 
 20 Reflections upon an Essay on Criticism, p. 3. 
 
 21 Ibid. 
 
 32 Rigault's Histoire de la Quarrelle des Anciens et des Modernes, Paris, 
 1856. See also Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, I, Ixxxviii. 
 
 28 Epistle Dedicatory to the Advancement and Reformation of Modern 
 Poetry. \ 
 
 24 Reflections upon an Essay on Criticism, p. 14. 
 
152 
 
 moderns, with Jonson and Boileau, had born away the prize. 
 He further maintained that the ancients had surpassed in the 
 greater, or Pindaric, ode and in tragedy; but that by infusing 
 religion with their writings the moderns might attain to the 
 same excellence. In this matter, as in others concerning the 
 rules and their validity, Dennis's strong, independent judg- 
 ment battled with the critical authority of his times and was 
 never completely conquered by it. If he owned the validity of 
 these rules attributed to the ancients, he did so only after sub- 
 mitting them to the tribunal of reason; and he ever insisted 
 that no acquaintance with the rules and no observance of them 
 could save the writer who lacked the touch of genius. 
 
 VI. 
 
 DENNIS AND THE SCHOOL OF TASTE 
 
 Though Dennis's struggles toward freer critical beliefs are 
 interestingly exemplified in his discussions of the neo-classical 
 rules, they are, perhaps, even better illustrated in his attitude 
 toward the conceptions of the school of taste, which was tend- 
 ing to recognize the importance of environment in the pro- 
 duction of letters, and to account for a grace in them beyond 
 the reach of the rules. First of all we may note that though 
 Dennis sometimes distinguished between taste and judgment 
 in the criticism of letters, 1 he more commonly considered the 
 latter one of the qualities of the former. In his earlier writ- 
 ings, 2 he went so far as to make taste a subjective thing, 
 declaring that what is called good sense is not sufficient to 
 form a good taste in poetry, even though it should be joined 
 with an inclination for the art and "with a tolerable share 
 of experience in it." If it were, he maintained, the taste of 
 all men would be alike. Men may be biased in their judg- 
 ments and have no knowledge of the rules and of genius and 
 may still be good judges of certain forms of lyric poetry; but 
 without these advantages they can never be " qualified to judge 
 of the greater Poetry." 3 This last judgment, which switches 
 
 1 In the True Character of Mr. Pope, p. 12. 
 
 2 Remarks on Prince Arthur, pp. 40-42. 
 
 8 Dryden voiced much the same idea in his preface to All for Love, Ker, 
 I, 196. 
 
153 
 
 from the suggestion of the preceding statement, is decidedly 
 neo-classical; and Dennis then proceeds to maintain a ration- 
 alized standard of taste, and to prove by rule that Blackmore's 
 Prince Arthur could not possibly be pleasing to men of taste. 
 The above statement, however, was rather an obiter dictum, and 
 Dennis's more carefully considered and formal utterance re- 
 garding the matter of taste appeared in his Large Account, 
 prefatory to the Comical Gallant, 1702. In handling this sub- 
 ject, in which he considered himself a pioneer, Dennis asserted 
 that the qualities requisite for judging poetry (for whoever 
 possesses them has a good taste) are largely the same as those 
 needed for its production. These are great parts, a generous 
 education, and due application. By great parts Dennis ex- 
 plained that he meant "a warm Imagination and a solid and 
 piercing Judgment/' A generous education, he continued, con- 
 sists not so much in a knowledge of the classics as of the world 
 and mankind. Due application requires both leisure and 
 serenity; the former, because poetry is of such dignity as to 
 demand the whole man ; and the latter that the writer may be 
 free to enter into a full consideration of his theme and charac- 
 ters. Dennis then proceeded to base on these distinctions a 
 comparison of the taste at the time of Charles II with that of 
 his own day, and by a penetrating study of the conditions of 
 the two ages to show that the taste of the Town just after 
 the Restoration was better than that when Anne was crowned. 
 He urged the greater prevalence of education in the earlier 
 age, the respect paid those of taste by their inferiors, the 
 security from political anxiety, and the general sway of 
 pleasure, and declared that this state of things had gradually 
 given away in his own time to an overwhelming concern 
 regarding the national affairs, to an increase in the number 
 of newly rich and of foreigners, and to other such unfavorable 
 conditions. Thus had come about the prevailing decay of 
 taste. Whether or not we agree with Dennis's analysis of 
 existing conditions and it certainly is very suggestive we 
 must be impressed by the attitude toward literature here as- 
 sumed in the recognition of the influence of the circumstances 
 of production upon the character of letters, a point of view 
 
154 
 
 quite different from the conventionl subservience to the estab- 
 lished neo-classical rules. 
 
 Dennis's insistence upon considering literature from the 
 standards of the writer and the reader, his attempts to analyze 
 the conditions making for the production of letters, and his 
 recognition of social and political conditions as influencing 
 taste, all ally him with the school of taste and open a field of 
 criticism which we can but wish he had penetrated more deeply. 
 The recognition of environment as an element to be considered 
 by the critic was at least as old as Horace and passed current 
 in the thought of the late seventeenth century. Dryden quoted* 
 the Roman critic's famous statement concerning Lucillius "Si 
 foret hoc nostrum delapsus in aevum;" and both the French 
 and English critics of the time recur to the idea. 5 But it was 
 with St. fivremond that the emphasis on environment was the 
 most noticeable. He boldly declared that Aristotle's rules are 
 good, but not for all time; 6 and he stressed the effect of re- 
 ligion and government upon the drama in a way that is clearly 
 reflected in Dennis's Impartial Critick. In this early tract 
 Dennis answered Rymer's plea for the introduction of the 
 Greek chorus into the English drama. 7 The opening para- 
 graph of our critic's discussion may be quoted as typical of the 
 better argument he employs: 
 
 " Upon reading Mr. Rymer's late Book, I found the Design of it was 
 to make several Alterations in the Stage, which instead of reforming would 
 ruine the English Drama. For to set up the Grecian model among us 
 with success, it is absolutely necessary not only to restore both their 
 Religion and their Polity but to transport us to the same Climate in 
 which Sophocles and Euripides writ ; or else by reason of these different 
 circumstances, several things which were graceful and decent to them, 
 must seem ridiculous and absurd to us, as several things which would 
 have appeared highly extravagant to them, must look proper and becomv- 
 ing to us." 
 
 *Ker, I, 163. 
 
 5 Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, I, xxxvi ; II, 287, 303. 
 Rymer, however, urged that nature and man remain the same through all 
 ages. Tragedies of the Last Age, p. 6. 
 
 6 Works, 1719, H, 12. 
 
 7 See also Dryden's Works, XIII, 324. The French drama of the fif- 
 teenth century had employed the chorus, and the Italians used it in 
 
155 
 
 These are the words of the critic as influenced by the school 
 of taste 8 and especially by St. fivremond. 9 
 
 Dennis's idea of the influence of climate upon literature, 
 which was another of the notable conceptions of the school of 
 taste, also deserves passing mention. Sprat had censured the 
 English for their melancholy dumpishness, 10 and Temple, 11 
 Addison, 12 Defoe, and others reechoed the idea. Dennis fre- 
 quently referred to the national moroseness and spleen, the 
 most notable instance being that in his Usefulness of the Stage, 
 where his statement that the spleen made the nation prone to 
 rebellion was responsible for his indictment by the Middlesex 
 grand jury. 13 
 
 In this connection we may also recall Dennis's consideration 
 of the psychology of the writer and the reader. We have 
 already discussed one feature of this question in considering 
 his attitude toward enthusiasm in composition, and we have also 
 noted that the assumption and statement of the common nature 
 of taste in the reader and in the writer lies at the base of his 
 argument in the Large Account. Dennis was also one of the 
 earliest English critics to comment on " those Longings which 
 by their pleasant Agitations, at once disturb and delight the 
 Mind, and cause the prime satisfaction of all those readers who 
 
 tragedy down through the seventeenth century. Early in the seventeenth 
 century the French dropped the use of the chorus ; but later Racine re- 
 stored it, and Dacier defended its employment. In England Milton had 
 advocated in the preface to Samson Agonistes the restoration of the 
 chorus ; and Rymer, influenced By Rapin and Dacier, had introduced a 
 chorus into his Edgar and defended the practice in his Short View of 
 Tragedy, 1693. 
 
 8 See also his Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, p. 12 ; 
 Usefulness of the Stage, Ch. Ill; Remarks on Prince Arthur, p. 15. 
 
 9 Dennis's whole attitude in this essay shows clearly the influence of 
 St. fivremond, especially of his Fragments sur les Anciens, Oeumes Mes- 
 lees, Paris, 1689, pp. 464 ff. For St. Evremond's ideas concerning the 
 influence of climate on letters see cit. sup., p. 563. 
 
 10 Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, II, 118. Cf. also the pre- 
 face to Bossuet's Maxims and Reflections upon Plays. Written in French 
 by the Bp. of Meaux And now made English. London, 1699. 
 
 "Temple Of Poetry, Works, 1757, III, 426. 
 
 12 1 79th Spectator. 
 
 u Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, I, ci. 
 
156 
 
 read only to be delighted." 1 * This recognition of the appeal 
 to the reader's emotion as opposed to his intellect found expres- 
 sion in the current antithesis of the head and heart (esprit et 
 coeur) which we have noticed as attributed by Bouhours to 
 Voiture. This phrase gained currency in England during the 
 last years of the seventeenth century and was frequently used 
 by Dennis. How well the contrast it implied agreed with his 
 conception of poetry is illustrated by his condemnation of 
 wit: 15 "A Poet is obliged to speak always to the heart. And 
 it is for this reason, then, that Point and Conceit and all 
 they call Wit, is to be banished from true Poetry; because he 
 who uses it speaks to the head alone." In this same early 
 critique he reiterates this contrast by maintaining that "The 
 pathetic, speaking to the heart," is scarcely in Blackmore; 
 and he also uses this same distinction in one of his latest 
 works, 16 where he states that whatever Terrence says touches 
 his heart. 
 
 With another view held by the later disciples of taste who 
 were making a compromise with the prevailing rationalism, 
 Dennis was in agreement, namely, the belief that in language 
 and expression there is a point of perfection, and that whatever 
 falls on either side of this point misses the highest beauty. 
 This view, which found its best formulation in La Bruyere, 17 
 is exemplified in Dennis's early contention 18 that for each 
 sentiment or thought there is a fitting degree of passion and 
 that every expression " above or below " is improper. Some- 
 what similarly he maintained 19 that every language has its 
 particular point and time of perfection. The poet is most 
 fortunate who writes in an age when the language has reached 
 that point, though his verse need not grow obsolete, if, at the 
 time he wrote, the tongue had attained a certain harmony. 
 
 Dennis also advocated another conception of the school of 
 taste, 20 namely, that the critic should be concerned with 
 
 14 Remarks upon Cato, p. 16. 
 
 " Remarks on Prince Arthur, p. 186. 
 
 18 Remarks on the Conscious Lovers, p. 31. 
 
 17 Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, I, xcviii. 
 
 18 Preface to On the Death of Queen Anne. 
 
 19 Reflections upon an Essay on Criticism, p. 19. 
 
 20 Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Cent., I, xcviii. 
 
157 
 
 finding the beauties rather than the faults of a writer; and 
 though his practice in his later years was at variance with thi 
 opinion, he maintained it, in theory at least, throughout his life. 
 This conception was by no means novel. Dryden had declared 
 in i669 21 that "there is much ill nature and little judgment in 
 finding the mistakes of a writer," and had repeated 22 the 
 statement in his last years. This " beauty-blemish " conception, 
 which was as old as Horace's " Ubi plura nitent in carmine, 
 non ego paucis offendar maculis" 23 received fresh emphasis, 
 as we have noted, from Boileau's translation of Longinus 
 in 1674. Dennis early accepted 24 and voiced this thought with 
 its implied emphasis on individual charm. Later he sub- 
 ordinated this demand for beauties in a poem or play to that 
 for genius, 25 declaring that where the latter was lacking he had 
 no eye for the former. He recognized, even in his last years, 26 
 that greater beauties may occasionally be shown without the 
 rules, but he maintained that in general the beautiful is most 
 effectively attained through regularity. On the whole these 
 different conceptions of the school of taste, such as the recog- 
 nition of environment as affecting the production of letters, 
 the awakening interest in the psychology of the writer and 
 the reader, and the shifting of emphasis from criticism to 
 appreciation, tended decidedly to broaden Dennis's critical 
 thinking ; and we can only regret that he never carried farther 
 his consideration of these tendencies, which he began in his 
 Large Account of Taste and projected on a more compre- 
 hensive plan in his unrealized Large Account of our Most 
 Celebrated English Poets Deceased. He never renounced these 
 conceptions of taste just outlined, but in his later years he 
 rather stressed with increasing insistence the importance of the 
 rules as the embodiment of law and order in the world of 
 
 21 Preface to Tyrannic Love. 
 
 23 Introduction to the " Heads of an Answer to Rymer." 
 
 23 Quoted by Dennis in the preface to his translation of Burnet's Treatise 
 on Departed Souls. 
 
 24 Preface to the Impartial Critick and preface to Remarks on Prince 
 Arthur. 
 
 25 Original Letters, p. 292. 
 
 26 Nichols's Theatre, II, 379. 
 
158 
 
 letters. Nevertheless we may well remember that the writ- 
 ings of his better period show him in full sympathy with the 
 attitude toward literature held by the school of taste and in 
 thorough agreement with its principal beliefs. 
 
 VII 
 
 THE GREAT TYPES OF LITERATURE 
 
 Turning now from the discussion of Dennis's attitude toward 
 some of the chief tenets of the different schools of his time to 
 his views regarding the various types of literature, we may 
 note that in common with his age he laid great stress upon the 
 importance of distinguishing the different species of letters. 
 Aristotle's emphasis of the various classes of literature, to- 
 gether with his statement that each type is to produce a pleas- 
 ure peculiar to its kind, had been seized upon by the neo- 
 classicists and given a place near the corner stone of their 
 critical structure. Through Scaliger and the Pleiade, down 
 through Boileau, came the exaltation of the type, till Shafts- 
 bury went so far as to declare 1 that "the main matter [of 
 writing] is to keep these provinces [of the types] distinct 
 and to settle their boundaries." Against this excessive rever- 
 ence for the type was directed frequent satire from Polonius's 
 speech to Gay's What-d'-Ye-C all-It; but the idea had flour- 
 ished, and respect for the type dominated the critical thinking 
 of Dennis's time. Milton, indeed, saw in some of the books 
 of the Bible examples of these genres the book of Job he 
 considered a short epic 2 and after him Dennis voiced the same 
 beliefs. Our critic also accepted and continually maintained 
 the idea that each type is to please and to instruct through 
 its own proper passion the epic through admiration, tragedy 
 through terror and pity, and comedy through the ridiculum. 
 But Dennis's calm statement of belief in each type's affording 
 a pleasure peculiar to its kind, which appeared in such an 
 early work as the Remarks on Prince Arthur, grew to a very 
 
 1 Works, i goo, I, 232. 
 
 2 In the Second Book of the Reason of Church Government Urg'd Against 
 Prelaty, 1641. 
 
159 
 
 positive certainty in the Reflections upon an Essay on Criticism 
 and to the utterance of infallibility in the Remarks on the 
 Conscious Lovers. It is interesting, however, to note in this 
 connection that his increase in controversial bitterness unques- 
 tionably affected his judgment in this as in other matters. The 
 old critic instinctively sought some fixed canons for testing 
 new poems and plays ; and he was, in his later years at least, 
 attracted by the very definiteness of the neo-classical scheme. 
 
 In centering his critical interest upon poetry and practically 
 ignoring prose, Dennis was merely accepting the current neo- 
 classical attitude. Poetry is more harmonious than prose he 
 maintained, 3 because it is more pathetic. Measures and num- 
 bers, he repeatedly declared, 4 are not sufficient to constitute 
 poetry; passion must everywhere prevail. He divided poetry 
 into two classes, 5 the greater and the lesser, the former in- 
 cluding the epic, tragedy, and the greater lyric; the latter 
 comedy, satire, the little ode, and the pastoral. 6 Only the 
 greatest poetry is capable of the most exalted emotion, though 
 lesser passion should characterize both kinds. He accepted 
 the conventional analysis of poetry into fable, manners, thought, 
 and expression and used this division, more or less consistently, 
 in his criticism of literature. 
 
 Speculation regarding one of these great types, the epic, 
 began in England with Harrington's Apology for Poetry, which 
 marks the first appearance in that country of Aristotle's theory. 
 Through the first half of the seventeenth century interest in the 
 epic grew rapidly and found expression in the numerous at- 
 tempts in that form both in England and in France. 7 In 1675 
 appeared Le Bossu's Traite du Poeme Epique, a systematic 
 consideration of the epic, based upon Aristotle, which met with 
 great favor. Boileau praised the work most highly; 8 Dryden, 
 
 8 Preface to the Remarks on Prince Arthur. Preface to Blenheim. 
 * Especially in the Remarks on Prince Arthur and in the Remarks upon 
 Cato. 
 
 5 Works, II, 422 ; Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, 
 p. 48. 
 
 6 Cf. the 1 2th Guardian. 
 
 7 For a fuller discussion of this subject see Ker's Dryden, I, xvii. 
 
 8 Oeuvres, Paris, 1819, II, 259. 
 
160 
 
 as we have noted, added his applause for the critic who had 
 given such exact rules; and Dennis declared that no modern 
 had understood the epic till Le Bossu had unraveled it. 9 In 
 the Remarks on Prince Arthur f which has been characterized as 
 one of the earliest, if not the first, English book review, Dennis 
 applied Le Bossu's scheme to the judgment of Blackmore's 
 fashionable epic. He began with the French critic's definition 
 of the epic and in general, through his incomplete criticism, 10 
 followed with little essential variation Le Bossu's ideas and 
 plan of treatment. 11 His method may, in general, be char- 
 acterized as an explanation, comment, and application of Le 
 Bossu's system in judging Prince Arthur. Dennis, however, 
 in recognizing the authority of Le Bossu and his great source 
 Aristotle, insisted repeatedly that their precepts were sound not 
 because they themselves uttered them, but because they had 
 based their rules upon reason. 12 
 
 In a letter to Sir. Richard Blackmore 13 Dennis summarized 
 his views on the epic either explicit or implicit in his judgment 
 of Prince Arthur. These views are, with slight variations, 
 equally applicable to his criticisms of the plot, or fable, and the 
 characters in other types of literature. An epic, he explained, 
 must possess a fable which shall have unity, and which shall 
 exist for the sake of the moral, conveyed in the form of an 
 allegory. Of this action admiration should be the predominant 
 quality. The instruction from the poem must be general, and 
 
 9 Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, p. 200. 
 
 10 Dennis promised to complete the criticism of Prince Arthur, if the 
 public interest demanded, by discussing in another volume the thoughts 
 and expression of the poem. Evidently the public considered one volume 
 enough, for he never continued the discussion. 
 
 11 The following comparison of Dennis's Remarks with the Traite du 
 Poeme Epique indicates the most notable of the direct borrowings from 
 the French critic : 
 
 Remarks: i ; 13 17; 18 ; 24; 28; 
 
 Traite: I, 4; I, 70; I, 170-174; I, 169, 175, 176; I, 216; I, 169; 
 
 Remarks: 36; 44; 45; 46; 51; 52; 
 
 Traite: I, 35; II, 31; II, 32; II, 33; II, 37; II, 89; 
 
 Remarks: 53; 53; 55; 55- 
 
 Traite: II, Saff. ; II, 100; II, 102-104; II, ni-n8. 
 
 " Remarks on Prince Arthur, p. 3. 
 
 u Original Letters, pp. i ff. 
 
161 
 
 the action and characters must " remain general even after the 
 imposition of names;" for if they were particular, they would 
 produce no general Instruction. Dennis then maintained that 
 the epic poet must have his moral clearly in mind before he 
 forms his action. " Can any one believe," he demands, " that 
 Aesop first told the Story of a Cock and Bull, and afterwards 
 made a Moral to it? Or is it more reasonable to believe, that 
 he made his Moral first, and afterwards to prove it, contrived 
 his Fable P 1 * Now I know no difference that there is, between 
 one of Aesop's Fables, and the Fable of an Epic Poem, as to 
 their Nature, tho' there may be many and great ones as to their 
 Circumstances." These views held a place in Dennis's critical 
 thinking from the Remarks on Prince Arthur to those on the 
 Rape of the Lock; and though they met with an occasional 
 protest, such as that of Parnell 15 about Homer's writing fables 
 and others finding the morals, they held common sway through 
 the age. 
 
 As a corollary to his theory regarding the nature of the plot, 
 Dennis asserted 16 that to give instruction the characters of an 
 epic 17 must be universal and allegorical, even after the imposi- 
 tion of names. This contention had, of course, come in part 
 from Aristotle's dicta, as had also the belief that the proper 
 kind of emotion amazement in the epic, terror and pity in 
 tragedy, etc. should reign in the characters. From Aristotle 
 and Le Bossu was derived Dennis's definition of the manners 
 as the means of representing each person in his proper char- 
 acter, and of the sentiments as the expression of the manners. 
 The characters, he further maintained with Le Bossu, are to be 
 good, " like," convenient, and equal ; 18 or, as he explained it, to 
 be fitting to the kind of person, resembling the historical state- q( ( 
 ments regarding him, becoming to his age, country, and sur- 
 
 14 For an expression of similar views by Dryden, see Ker, I, 213. 
 
 15 Poems on Several Occasions, Dublin, 1776, p. 99. 
 18 Original Letters, p. 3. 
 
 " Dennis applied these same rules to the characters in tragedy and com- 
 edy. With slight modifications all that has been said of the epic is equally 
 applicable to his views regarding dramatic plot and characters. 
 
 "Dryden, too, adopted from Le Bossu this scheme for judging charac- 
 ters. Ker, I, 214. 
 
 12 
 
162 
 
 roundings, and steadily maintained. These conceptions, which 
 owed much to Horace, 19 gave little or no place for character 
 development 20 and fostered the representation of man rather 
 than men. They were softened somewhat in Dennis's earlier 
 writings by his insistence that the characters must be touched 
 with passion, 21 though later he valued more and more their 
 conformity with the standards just discussed. 
 
 Closely connected with this conception of character, and in 
 part an outgrowth of it, was Dennis's acceptance of the theory 
 of poetic justice, which, though more commonly associated with 
 his ideas of the drama, was also applied by him to the epic 
 and may, perhaps, best be noticed here. 22 The conception of 
 poetic justice arose in part, as Professor Spingarn has stated, 
 from the Aristotelian ethics of distributive justice, though the 
 Stagirite had nowhere commended the idea in his Poetics but 
 had rather condemned its application to tragedy. Corneille 
 stated that his age had made the belief its own, 23 and wavering 
 as he was in his critical conceptions, he did much to popularize 
 the idea in France. 2 * In England Bacon had leaned toward an 
 acceptance of this doctrine, for, as he puts it, 25 "true history 
 propoundeth the success and issue of actions not so agreeable to 
 the merits of virtue and vice, therefore poesy feigns them more 
 just in retribution, and more according to revealed providence." 
 A little later Ben Jonson, foreshadowing the term poetic 
 justice, had asserted in his preface to Volpone, that it is " the 
 
 19 Ars Poetica, 11. 127 ff. 
 
 20 " . . . a Poet who designs to give a true Draft of Human Life and 
 Manners, must consult the Universal Idea and not particular Persons. 
 For example, when the Poet would draw the Character of a covetous and 
 revengeful Person, he is not to draw after Lucius or Cassius ; but to con- 
 sult the Universal Pattern within him, and there to behold what Revenge 
 and Covetousness would do in such and such natures." Reflections upon an 
 Essay on Criticism, p. 31. See also Critical Essays of the Seventeenth 
 Century, I, Ixxviii. 
 
 21 Remarks on Prince Arthur, p. 128. 
 
 22 For a brief history of the idea of poetic justice, see Critical Essays 
 of the Seventeenth Century, I, Ixxviii. 
 
 23 Oeuvres, Paris, 1862, I, 58. 
 
 24 Charlanne, U Influence Frangaise en Angleterre, Paris, 1906, p. 541. 
 Cf. also St. fivremond's Works, 1719, II, 22. 
 
 25 Advancement of Learning, London, 1808, II, 167. 
 
163 
 
 office of a comic poet to imitate justice." Dryden, who had 
 declared for poetic justice in the preface to Troilus and 
 Cressida, in the dedication to the Spanish Friar, and in the 
 preface to his translation of the Aeneid, was, probably, in- 
 fluenced somewhat by Bacon's authority, but still more potently 
 in this matter by that of Rymer. This last named critic had 
 found the idea strongly advocated in Rapin's remarks on Aris- 
 totle, which he had translated into English. He made the 
 belief his own, introduced the term "poetic justice" into 
 English, 26 and stood as the particular champion of the doctrine. 
 From him the theory was passed on to Dennis. 
 
 Dennis's ideas of poetic justice were a not illogical outgrowth 
 of his conceptions of plot structure and of character portrayal. 
 His argument in favor of the theory may be stated thus: 27 
 If the aim of the epic and of tragedy be to instruct, they must 
 be based on the " Universal Moral, which is the foundation of 
 all Morals," namely, "That he who does good and perseveres 
 in it, shall always be rewarded, and that he who does ill and 
 perseveres in it, shall always be punished." This reward, he 
 continued, "must always attend and crown good Actions, not 
 some times only, for then it would follow, that a perseverance 
 in good actions has no Rewards, which would take away all 
 poetical Instruction, and indeed every sort of Moral In- 
 struction, resolving Providence into Chance or Fate." 28 l. is 
 easy to see why Dennis should champion this th&fry 'of poetic 
 justice when we consider how fundamental he considered it in 
 his moralistic justification of the rules; for to his way of 
 thinking there could be no regular epic or drama -that did not 
 embody a fable, nor any fable without a moral, nor any moral 
 without poetic justice. "What can be the moral," he queries, 
 "when the good and bad are confounded by Destiny, and 
 
 28 " Mr. Rymer was the first who introduced it [the term poetic justice] 
 into our native Language." Original Letters, p. 410. 
 
 27 Unless otherwise stated the following passages are based upon Den- 
 nis's letter to Blackmore, in the Original Letters, p. i ff. 
 
 28 " The good must never fail to prosper and the bad to be punished ; 
 otherwise the Incidents, and particularly the Catastrophe, which is the 
 Grand Incident, are likely to be imputed to chance rather than to Al- 
 mighty Conduct and Sovereign Justice." Original Letters, p. 376. 
 
164 
 
 perish alike promiscuously?" 29 As a further reason for 
 measuring out just rewards and punishments to poetic crea- 
 tions Dennis urged that as "man is finite and too hollow a 
 creature to know another thoroughly, he must needs leave this 
 final Judgment of a wicked neighbor to the Infinite, who com- 
 prehends all motives." 30 But dramatic and epic " Persons," he 
 continued, are the " Creatures of the Poet, who must not only 
 know the extent of their Guilt and what they ought to suffer," 
 but must also make these things clear to the reader or hearer. 
 Then too, these poetic creations are without reserve : we know 
 their inmost thoughts and feelings and in consequence may 
 pass judgment upon them. Furthermore, Dennis was prompt 
 _to_grant that in the world about us men do not always fare 
 as they deserve, and that only with the judgments of another 
 life are these inequalities adjusted; but he argued repeatedly 
 and vigorously that 
 
 " Poetical Phantoms are of short duration, through the whole extent of 
 whose duration we can see at once, which continues no longer than the 
 reading of the Poem, and that being over the Phantoms are to us nothing, 
 so that unless our Sense is satisfy'd of the Reward that is given to this 
 Poetical Phantome, whose whole duration we see thro' from the very be- 
 ginning to the end ; instead of a wholesome Moral there would be the per- 
 nicious Instruction, viz. That a Man may persevere in good Actions, and 
 not be Rewarded for it thro' the whole extent of his Duration, that is 
 neither in this World nor in the World to come." 31 
 
 This conception of poetic justice, when brought into union 
 with his ideas of the functions of the different types of litera- 
 ture, affected in an interesting manner his notions of the kinds 
 of characters proper for the drama and for the epic. The 
 relations of comedy and poetic justice caused him but little 
 perplexity, for he believed that the exposure on the stage of 
 such characters as are fitted for comedy brought with it a 
 laughter that satisfied the demands of retribution. 32 In the 
 
 29 Original Letters, p. 414. 
 
 80 Ibid., p. 413. 
 
 81 Ibid., p. 8. 
 
 82 " Humour in Comedy is nothing but a little ridiculous Passion and the 
 exposure of it in Comedy is thought to be Poetic Justice sufficient for it. 
 Comic characters are to be punish'd, but punishment is to be wrapp'd up 
 in the ridiculum." Large Account of Taste. 
 
165 
 
 case of the relations of tragedy and poetic justice, however, the 
 answer was not so simple ; and Dennis's long letter of reply to 
 Addison's attack upon the theory in the fortieth Spectator is 
 devoted mainly to showing how an observance of this principle 
 is necessary in tragedy for arousing the proper emotions, 
 namely, terror and pity. In support of his contention that an 
 unhappy ending of a tragedy is in harmony with this prin- 
 ciple of poetic retribution, Dennis cited 33 Aristotle's discussion 
 of the tragic fault, showing that the heroes in that species of 
 4rama must be neither absolutely blameless nor entirely bad, 
 for in either case they would be incapable of exciting the 
 passions proper to tragedy. Rather must they be " Persons 
 who having neglected their Passions, suffer them to grow 
 outrageous, and to hurry them to actions which they would 
 otherwise abhor." 34 " With Aristotle, too, he recognized the 
 possibility of tragedies with happy endings, a class of plays in 
 which the distribution of justice became a comparatively easy 
 matter; for though Dennis nowhere states how the heroes in 
 such dramas are to atone for their faults and meet the 
 demands of poetic justice, his probable answer may be inferred 
 from his discussion of retribution in the epic, 35 in which species 
 he believed that the ending must inevitably be happy. Though 
 the great central character of the epic be morally imperfect, so 
 his argument runs, 36 it is almost universally true that epic 
 heroes are men of great public virtue, so great as to make 
 " compensation for all Faults but Crimes, and he who has this 
 public Virtue is not capable of Crimes." Dennis further urged 
 that the epic heroes are almost invariably represented as carry- 
 ing on some great design for the betterment of society, and 
 that their heroic deeds are the source of that admiration which 
 is the only emotion proper for an epic. To represent an epic 
 hero as meeting an unhappy end would arouse terror or pity 
 rather than admiration. Furthermore, the success of the hero 
 not only excites admiration in the hearers or readers, but it also 
 serves a patriotic purpose, since it " kindles every one of them 
 
 33 Original Letters, p. i o. 
 
 34 Ibid., p. 415. 
 85 Ibid., p. 414. 
 
 36 Ibid., pp. i ff. 
 
166 
 
 with a Love of his Country, and with a burning Zeal to imitate 
 what he admires." 37 
 
 These different arguments of Dennis's in favor of poetic 
 justice which we have just been discussing, were shaped to 
 some slight extent by his patriotic tendencies, still more by 
 his religious ones, and perhaps most of all by his rationalism. 
 Beneath all these arguments for poetic justice, we may note in 
 a word, lies his belief that poetry instructs through examples, 
 and that to make these examples effective the poet must dis- 
 tribute justice omnisciently. Furthermore, rational criticism, 
 as we have previously noticed, demanded that the poet should 
 reproduce in letters the order which contemporary science was 
 discovering in the world about; and Dennis, along with most 
 of the critics of his day, attempted to apply this doctrine of 
 poetic justice, thinking thereby to establish a rationalized and 
 perfect moral order in the domain of letters. 
 
 Dennis's best known defense of poetic justice is his reply to 
 the fortieth Spectator, in which Addison had declared that the 
 theory was "without Foundation in Nature, in Reason, or in 
 the practice of the Ancients." Dennis's reply, with its defense 
 and explanation of the doctrine, has been largely reproduced 
 in the preceding discussion. Again, Dennis's regret at Shaks- 
 pere's failure to observe poetic justice in Coriolanus led him 
 to change the ending of that play. In his alteration both 
 Coriolanus and Titus Aufidius perish, and the tribunes are 
 represented as being driven toward the Tarpeian rock. His 
 last notable utterance on this subject came in his letter to Sir 
 Richard Blackmore, On the Moral and Conclusion of an Epic 
 Poem, which he afterwards printed as the first of the Original 
 Letters. Here it was that he discussed at length his belief that 
 the epic hero must " meet a prosperous End." Today we smile 
 at this quaint doctrine, which is frequently associated with the 
 name of our author, but we must not forget that fifty years 
 later this same belief found a champion in no less a critic than 
 Dr. Johnson. Some other questions regarding the nature of 
 
 37 Compare Gildon's statement in his preface to Phaethon, that poetic 
 justice " establishes a just notion of Providence in its most important Ac- 
 tion, the Government of Mankind." 
 
167 
 
 character, especially in the epic, interested Dennis ; but in the 
 main they were of very slight importance, so we may well turn 
 to a consideration of his attitude toward another of the great 
 types tragedy. 
 
 With regard to the neo-classical question as to which should 
 be regarded as the greatest of the types, 38 Dennis was at vari- 
 ance with Rapin, Dryden, Mulgrave, and Gildon, who had 
 declared for the epic. 39 Tragedy, Dennis considered, is more 
 pleasing and instructive than the epic; and he further main- 
 tained that with comedy it furnishes the only legitimate enter- 
 tainment of the stage. 40 As for the structure of tragedy, 
 Dennis accepted the rules for the formation of plot and char- 
 acters already noted in connection with the epic. Like 
 Rapin 41 he emphasized the importance of action in the plot, de- 
 claring 42 that through action alone can the spectator be inter- 
 ested and pleased and so instructed. He likewise maintained 43 
 that it is perfectly proper for the dramatist to represent vicious 
 characters and to place low and vulgar sentiments in their 
 mouths, but that such is to be done only to expose them finally 
 to ridicule. 
 
 Of the two great types of the drama Dennis considered 
 tragedy as more pleasing and instructive than comedy, because 
 it moves the greater emotions. 44 It is also greater in that it 
 represents the things that are enduring, "the violent passions 
 which are the same in all ages ; " 45 while comedy is largely 
 
 38 " The world is not agreed which is the nobler poem : Plato and Bossu 
 prefer the former [the epic] ; Aristotle and Dacier declare for Tragedy." 
 Epist. Ded. to Rymer's Short View of Tragedy, p. 2. 
 
 39 Dennis's Works, II, 424. 
 
 40 Letter to George Doddington, prefatory to the Stage Defended, 1726. 
 So valuable to the established government did Dennis believe these dra- 
 matic entertainments, by bringing men together and pleasing them when 
 they were assembled, that he here suggested that the ministry should be- 
 stow two annual prizes of 200 each, the one for comedy and the other 
 for tragedy, " to be given besides the ordinary profits of the theatre, to 
 him who shall perform best in each of them, which is to be decided by 
 Judges appointed on purpose, and sworn to decide impartially." 
 
 41 Rymer's translation of Rapin's Reflections, p. 115. 
 
 43 Large Account of Taste, prefatory to the Comical Gallant. 
 43 Ibid. 
 
 ** Works, II, 422. Cf. Advancement and Reformation, p. 55. 
 45 Remarks on the Conscious Lovers, p. 18. 
 
168 
 
 confined, he believed with Moliere, to portraying contemporary 
 manners and foibles. In tragedy the plot or fable is of much 
 more importance than in comedy ; in fact, Dennis insisted, it is 
 of supreme moment, 46 for through it tragedy inculcates the 
 lesson of its basic moral idea. In explaining the manner in 
 which tragedy teaches its lessons through presenting moral 
 ideas which arouse pity and terror, Dennis accepted the views 
 of Dacier, who, he said, 47 " has given a very sensible account : 
 
 " For as the Humours in some distempered body are rais'd in order to 
 the evacuating of that which is repugnant or peccant in them ; so Tragedy 
 excites Compassion and Terror to the same end : For the Play being over, 
 the audience becomes serene again and is less likely to be mov'd by the 
 common accidents of life, after it has seen the deplorable Calamities of 
 Heroes and Sovereign Princes." 
 
 Though Dennis believed that an unfortunate ending of a 
 tragedy is more likely to arouse terror and compassion than a 
 happy one, still he acknowledged the legitimacy of the latter 48 
 and took Steele to task for failing to distinguish between the 
 nature of this type of play and that of comedy. Dennis also 
 recognized a distinction between serious plays with a happy 
 ending and tragi-comedy. In discussing Addison's condem- 
 nation of the latter form he stated 49 that perhaps he no more 
 approves of it than does the " Spectator," but that several of 
 the plays held up for admiration by that writer are really 
 tragi-comedies. And he adds that the " Spectator " is " vilely 
 mistaken if he thinks Tragi-Comedy is the Growth of our 
 English Theatres." 
 
 Another matter of interest in connection with Dennis's con- 
 ceptions of tragedy is his attitude toward the tendency of his 
 times to include romantic love among the passions proper for 
 this form of drama. Against 'this extension Rapin took a 
 stand in his commentaries upon Aristotle; and his views were 
 supported by his translator, Rymer. Among the other critics 
 
 48 Cf. Rymer's Tragedies of the Last Age, p. 4. 
 
 47 Impartial Critick, in Spingarn's Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Cen- 
 tury, III, 184. 
 
 48 Remarks on the Conscious Lovers, p. 17. 
 
 49 Original Letters, p. 419. Cf. Hedelin, Whole Art of the Stage, London, 
 1684, II, 145-146. 
 
169 
 
 of the time St. fivremond was the most violent opponent to 
 the use of love as the chief emotion in tragedy. The question 
 long remained among the mooted points of criticism, and in 
 the second quarter of the eighteenth century Voltaire, Thom- 
 son, and others took it up. Dennis's earlier views are in favor of 
 the extension. To him Gildon directed his Vindication of Love 
 in Tragedies; and in the Remarks on Prince Arthur, 1696, 
 our critic stated his position thus : 
 
 " love, of all passions, is the one whose excess we most willingly own : 
 And therefore Mr. Rymer, who would have banished it from the Eng- 
 lish stage, would deprive our Poets of the secret means of going to the 
 Heart of the Audience. For upon reflection we shall certainly find that 
 the Characters in our Tragedies, which melt us most, are those whose Mis- 
 fortunes are brought about by the extraordinary Force of Love." 
 
 Dennis early recognized, 51 however, that the love motive would 
 have been unsuited to the Greek drama ; and the influence upon 
 him of St. fivremond, particularly noticeable in the last decade 
 of the seventeenth century, reenforced both by his ardent 
 desire to direct the drama to patriotic ends and by his growing 
 aversion to rhyme, 52 may well be considered responsible for a 
 change in his attitude. In the Large Account of Taste, 1702, 
 Dennis took the position that love is not a very elevated or 
 noble motive in a drama, and that its frequent representation 
 on the stage may become dangerous to the public. Humor, 53 
 he affirmed, 54 gives a greater body to comedy than does love, 
 for it comprises many passions of which love is but one ; and 
 in confirmation of his assertion he cited the plays of Moliere, 
 which contain but little love making. In his opposition to what 
 he considered an overemphasis of love on the stage, however, 
 Dennis did not banish the motive entirely from his own plays, 
 for he felt that would shock the audience; but he repre- 
 
 50 In his Letters and Essays on Several Subjects, 1694. 
 
 61 Prefatory Letter to the Impartial Critick, 1693. 
 
 62 " it [rhyme] has something effeminating in its jingling Nature, and 
 emasculates our English Verse, and consequently is unfit for the Greater 
 Poetry. English Tragedies that have been writ in Rime, most of them 
 rowl upon Love." Preface to Britannia Triuw,phans, 1704. 
 
 53 For a discussion of Dennis's use of the term see infra, p. 171. 
 
 54 Cf. St. fivremond's Oeuvres Meslees, Paris, 1689, p. 565. 
 
170 
 
 sented it as contending with other passions, such as friendship 
 and duty, and conquered by them. But his opposition to love 
 as a dramatic motive was tempered by his feeling that the 
 passion might be used for reclaiming the audience from things 
 more offensive; and in his last years he stated his belief 55 that 
 " if love was represented as constrained, or punished when 
 unlawful, it could bring no ill consequence." 
 
 Dennis's conceptions of comedy, the other great type of 
 drama, were in the main the current neo-classical ones, 
 founded on the precepts and practice of Jonson and strength- 
 ened by those of the French dramatists. The great disorders, 
 he maintained, 56 are caused by the great passions and are to be 
 punished by tragedy ; 5T while the little disquietudes, the follies, 
 not the crimes, should fall to comedy. The distinguishing 
 characteristic of this form of drama, he went on, is the ridicu- 
 lum, which he interpreted with his time as "laughter mixed 
 with contempt and disapprobation." 58 While the ridiculum 
 should mark the fable of a comedy, as Wycherley had em- 
 ployed it, 59 most writers have used it to best advantage in their 
 characters. With the sentimental comedy, such as Steele's, 
 Dennis had, as might be imagined, but little patience, and he 
 denied flatly the name of comedy to these plays, save as the 
 passions represented tended to excite ridicule. 60 He also main- 
 tained that every true comedy, like every true tragedy is a 
 fable, and that its characters are universal and allegorical, a 
 view which he supported by the authority of Moliere. 61 Fol- 
 lowing Jonson, Dennis declared that to please and thus to 
 instruct the public the comic poet must draw his characters 
 from contemporary life and again he confirmed his position 
 by citing the authority of Moliere. 62 Unlike many of his con- 
 
 55 Stage Defended, pp. 20-21. 
 
 56 Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, p. 56. 
 
 67 Cf. Corneille's Oeuvres, Paris, 1862, II, 222. 
 
 68 Literary Criticism in the Renaissance, p. 289. 
 
 69 Miscellaneous Tracts, p. 324. 
 
 60 Remarks on the Conscious Lovers, pp. 18, 19. . 
 
 61 La Critique de I'&cole des Femmes. Cf. the preface to Dryden's Even- 
 ing's Love, Ker, I, 137. 
 
 62 As an evidence of Moliere's popularity in England in Dennis's time 
 may be cited the inclusion of his life and plays by Jacob in the Poetical 
 
171 
 
 temporaries Dennis did not hold that comedy must concern 
 itself exclusively with the lower classes oj society. In his 
 Remarks on the Conscious Lovers and elsewhere he takes the 
 ground that comedy will draw its characters for the most part 
 from common life, since the people in that class possess less 
 self suppression and show their different humors more plainly, 
 but that those of higher stations may well be used to give 
 variety to the play. Furthermore, a lord may stand in as 
 much need of correction as does his humbler brother, and "a 
 Lord can be corrected nowhere but on the Stage." 63 
 
 As for humor, one of the chief characteristics of comedy, 
 Dennis was much interested in considering its nature 64 and 
 defined it as " a subordinate passion expressed in a peculiar 
 manner." Thus, for example, the passion of love in its lesser 
 intensity and exaggerated expression becomes a humor. 
 
 Register, or the Lives and Characters of All the English Poets, 1719. In 
 defending this inclusion Jacob says : " All the comedies of Monsieur Mo- 
 liere being now translated and deservedly esteem'd, I think it not improper 
 in this place to give the Reader some Account of the Author and his 
 Writings" (I, 292). In the account of Moliere Jacob includes a list of his 
 plays with the principal imitations or adaptations of them in England. 
 This list contains the names of many distinguished dramatists, including 
 Dryden, Congreve, Wycherley, Gibber, and Steele. St. Evremond had 
 been partly responsible for this popularity of Moliere and for the com- 
 monly accepted view that this dramatist " possessed the true spirit of com- 
 edy " (St. fivremond, Oeuvres Meslees, Paris, 1689, p. 563). Dennis ac- 
 cepted this view of Moliere, with whose works he gained a very thorough 
 acquaintance. His judgment of this dramatist is well represented by his 
 criticism of Gibber's Non-juror, an adaptation of Tartuffe : " I soon found 
 that there was little in the English Comedy of the Beauties of Moliere. 
 For Moliere's Characters in his Tartuffe are Masterpieces, mark'd, dis- 
 tinguish'd, glowing, bold, touch'd with a fine yet daring Hand ; all of 
 them stamp'd with a double Stamp, the one from Art and the other from 
 Nature: No Phantoms but Real Persons, such as Nature produces in all 
 Ages, and Custom fashions in ours. His Dialogue, too, is lively, graceful, 
 easie, strong, adapted to the Occasion, adapted to the Characters. In 
 short, 'tis by this Comedy and by the Misanthrope that Moliere perhaps 
 has born away the prize of Comedy from all Persons in all Ages, except 
 Ben Jonson alone." Original Letters, p. 141. 
 
 63 Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, p. 56. 
 
 M See his Large Account of Taste, on which the above paragraph is 
 based. 
 
172 
 
 Humor he considered far better for comedy than wit, because 
 it is the outgrowth of character, while wit is an excrescence of 
 character or fitted to it by force. " Wit," he maintained, " is 
 the effect of the Fancy, and Humour the work of the Imagina- 
 tion." Furthermore, humor gives a body to the play, both 
 through increasing the robustness of the dramatis personae 
 and by demanding greater action than does wit in the repre- 
 sentation. 
 
 In his attitude toward many of the questions concerning the 
 structure of comedy and tragedy Dennis took a much more 
 liberal view than did many of his contemporaries. The unities, 
 for example, never became with him laws inviolable ; but rather, 
 as with Dryden, they were lesser beauties which might be set 
 aside for attaining those greater. In glancing briefly at the 
 history of the unities in England it is interesting to note that 
 they had been introduced by Sidney, 65 but that they had failed 
 to receive any close application till nearly seventy-five years 
 later. 66 Jonson, who contended less strongly for the unities 
 than did Sidney, laid greatest emphasis upon that of 
 action. In the prologue to Volpone, however, he declared that 
 he had observed the laws of time, place, and persons. 67 By 
 many of the critics at the close of the seventeenth century 
 Corneille was held responsible as the rule maker, 68 and this 
 conception was frequently restated down to the time of Dr. 
 Johnson. Dryden, who was a fairly close student of Cor- 
 neille, stood against any servile observance of the unities, which 
 he called "the mechanic beauties." From him the name and 
 conception passed on to Dennis. 69 In opposing the unity of 
 place Dryden declared 70 that the " imagination of the audience 
 aided by the words and the painted scenes, may suppose the 
 
 65 Literary Criticism in the Renaissance, p. 90; p. 291. 
 
 68 Ibid., p. 291. 
 
 6T Cf. ibid., p. 292. 
 
 68 Supra, p. 116 n. Also Johnson's Preface to his Edition of Shakes- 
 peare, 1765, xxv. 
 
 69 Ker, I, 212 and Note. Cf. Rapin's Reflections, pt. i, see. 21, and Crit- 
 ical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, II, 345. 
 
 70 Works, XV, 297. 
 
173 
 
 stage ... to be sometimes one place and sometimes another/' 
 Nor did he consider it essential to maintain a single plot 
 throughout a play, since the English "love variety more than 
 any other nation, and will not be pleased without it." 71 
 
 Practically all these views of Dryden's descended to Dennis, 
 whose first-latest, against a strict observance of the unities 
 appeared in the third dialogue of the Impartial Critick, 1693, 
 where he condemned the practice of Racine. In his own plays, 
 however, Dennis sailed so close to the shore of conformity that 
 his "performances" were frequently characterized as "per- 
 fectly regular." Possibly the example and influence of Con- 
 greve, who was regarded very highly by Dennis during the 
 closing years of the seventeenth century, may have held him 
 more closely to an observance of the rules ; but whatever may 
 have been the cause, Dennis rather plumed himself on the 
 manner in which he had observed the unities in A Plot and No 
 Plot, 12 1697, which, he asserted, " is perhaps the most regular 
 of our low comedies." Of Rinaldo and Armida he stated that 
 the action is decent, that it observes the unities, and that with 
 the exception of the machines it is reasonable. In the former 
 play, however, he defended his breach of the unity of place 
 and declared that regularity without diversion counts for little. 
 
 But Dennis's best known utterances regarding the unities are 
 those in his Remarks upon Cato, which have brought him the 
 approval of critics from Johnson to Lowell. In discussing 
 Addison's adherence to the unities of time and place in that 
 popular play, Dennis declared 73 that these "are Mechanic 
 Rules, which if they are observed with Judgment, strengthen 
 the Reasonableness of the Incidents, heighten the probability 
 of the Action, promote the agreeable Deceit of the Represen- 
 tation, and add Clearness, Grace, and Comliness to it. But if 
 they are practiced without discretion, they render the action 
 more improbable, and the representation more absurd." Dennis 
 then proceeded to show how the strict observance in Addison's 
 Cato of the unities of time and place ridiculously crowded love- 
 
 71 Dedication to Tyrannic Love. 
 
 72 Preface. 
 
174 
 
 making and treason upon each other and forced the conspira- 
 tors to form their plans against Cato in his own great public 
 hall. 74 The love-making of the children on the day big with 
 their father's fate, Dennis contended, 75 destroys the unity of 
 action, which he regarded as a much more serious fault than 
 the breach of the other two. 
 
 Much the same attitude is manifested in Dennis's criticism 
 of Shakspere. Though he objected to Shakspere's "duplicity 
 or triplicity of plot," he justified by common sense the Eliza- 
 bethan's violation of the unity of time. Furthermore, while he 
 disapproved such changes of place as that in Othello, "which 
 begins in Europe and ends in Asia," he was much more severe 
 with those plays "in which the Unity of Place is preserved, 
 sometimes by whimsical comic Absurdities, and sometimes by 
 dreadful and prodigious Extravagancies." 76 In his later utter- 
 ances Dennis agreed with Gildon that the unity of action is 
 essential, and that the others are not. This position was the 
 result of his general attitude toward the construction of a play: 
 a single moral idea at the basis of a play demanded that the 
 action should be single. 
 
 Against the attempt to restore to the drama the chorus of 
 the Greeks, which was urged as tending to confirm the obser- 
 vance of the unity of place, Dennis uttered, as has been noticed, 
 a sharp protest. Aristotle had maintained that the chorus 
 " should be an integral part of the whole " and should share in 
 the action. Late in the seventeenth century Racine took up the 
 idea and used a chorus in several of his plays. Dacier, in his 
 remarks on Aristotle, advocated its adoption ; and led largely by 
 his authority, Rymer introduced a chorus into his drama, 
 Edgar, and defended the practice in his Short View of Tragedy, 
 1693, declaring that the chorus is the basis of all verisimilitude 
 in tragedy. He further maintained that the chorus is neces- 
 sary to mark the intervals of the acts and to preserve the unity 
 of place, which is destroyed by playing the violins between the 
 
 7 * Professor Ker has 1 noticed (I, xlix) that Dennis's arguments against 
 I the strict observance of the unity of place are practically a repetition of 
 Ithose of Neander in the Essay of Dramatic Poesy. 
 
 75 p. 12. 
 
 76 Original Letters, pp. 73 ff. 
 
175 
 
 acts. Though Milton's influence had been cast in favor of this 
 innovation, Dennis strongly opposed such a step. He declared 77 
 that the chorus was effective among the Greeks " because it was 
 adapted to the Religion and the Temper of the People . . . but 
 we have nothing in our Religion and Manners by which we are 
 able to defend it ... it ought certainly to be banished from 
 our Stage." Dennis proceeded to show that Racine had 
 restored the chorus because he had written for a house of 
 women to act, that the chorus is not necessary for the imitation 
 which Aristotle had declared the great characteristic of tragedy, 
 that its use led to absurdities, and that it is as unreasonable 
 for a king to leave the stage for the chorus to entertain the 
 audience as for him to make way for the violins. 
 
 " 'Tis not the tagging of the act with a chorus," he declared, " that 
 makes a Tragedy one body, but the Unity of the Action; and for my 
 part I cannot conceive but that the parts are sufficiently united when they 
 have a beginning, middle, and end, which have a mutual, necessary and 
 immediate connection." 
 
 In his classification of the greater poetry Dennis included one 
 other type, the ode, or as he more frequently called it, "the 
 Pindarick." His interest in this sort of verse was doubtless 
 fostered by his theory of the relation of religion and poetry, 
 and in all probability the theory, in its turn, furthered his 
 liking for the ode. For the neo-classicists this was the form in 
 which poetry might rise from the earth. Mulgrave went so 
 far as to declare that in the ode judgment yields and fancy 
 governs ; but Dennis rather held with Boileau that " Chez elle 
 un beau desordre est un effet de 1'art" 78 that there is a cer- 
 tain regularity in the wildness, and that the disorders are 
 studied. In the preface to the Court of Death, 1695, which 
 contains his longest discussion of the nature of the ode, Dennis 
 quotes at length "the famous Rapin," with whom he agrees 
 that "the Ode ought to have as much boldness, elevation, 
 and majesty as Epic poetry itself; but then it is certain (be- 
 cause of its brevity) that it ought to have more vehemence, 
 more transport, more enthusiasm." Pindar's digressions, 
 
 77 Prefatory letter to the Impartial Critick. See also Dryden's Works, 
 XVII, 324- 
 
 78 Art Poetique, II, 72. 
 
176 
 
 Dennis further affirmed, are studied and really orderly, and his 
 language is so bold that the English tongue is not capable of 
 imitating some of his figures. With Congreve 79 Dennis as- 
 serted that some of Cowley's odes show a reprehensible irregu- 
 larity of form; though our critic never distinguished between 
 the " true " and the Cowleyan Pindaric, and in his own writings 
 employed the latter form. These ideas of the ode did not 
 differ very materially from the commonly accepted theory of 
 the time ; 80 it was only when Dennis attempted to put his beliefs 
 into practice that he drew upon himself, as he acknowledged, 81 
 charges of "horrible extravagances." 
 
 For any lyric short of the ode Dennis manifested the usual 
 neo-classical indifference. Indeed he went so far in his later 
 years as to declare it questionable whether " anything but great 
 and exalted poetry is properly poetry." In his earlier days, 
 however, as a man of the town, he evinced a considerable in- 
 terest in satire and burlesque, which he never quite lost. About 
 the time of Dennis's greatest attention to satire, Dryden was 
 translating Juvenal, and the two critics probably discussed 
 together the nature of that genre. In his translation, however, 
 Dryden gave no great consideration to the characteristics of 
 the type, declaring himself satisfied "to discover some of the 
 hidden beauties in the design of the ancients." With Dacier 82 
 Dryden maintained that the chief aim of satire should be to 
 instruct, a belief which was commonly repeated, as by Black- 
 more and Shaftsbury. Dennis asserted 83 that the great pur- 
 pose of satire is " the unmasking of hypocrites," and he did not 
 hesitate to affirm that to accomplish this end the poet might 
 enter into the concerns of private life. He disapproved 84 of 
 
 79 Works of William Congreve, 1761, III, 435. 
 
 80 Cf. Boileau, Oeuvres, Paris, 1819, II, 74. One passage, however, in 
 the preface to the Court of Death represents Dennis's more enthusiastic 
 judgment : " Pindar, rais'd by the influence of divine, even above his own 
 exalted genius ; grows vehement, swells, and ferments with fury, then pre- 
 cipitately flows with a mighty sound, and knows no bounds to his impetuous 
 course." 
 
 81 Preface to the Court of Death. 
 
 82 Saintsbury's History of Criticism, II, 385. 
 88 Theatre, II, 448. 
 
 84 Original Letters, p. 430. 
 
177 
 
 Dryden's preference of Juvenal to Horace, declaring that as 
 the former's satire partook of the nature of tragedy, and the 
 latter's of that of comedy, they are so different as to render 
 comparison impossible. Elsewhere he maintained 85 that 
 Horace is characterized by pleasantry and Juvenal by force, 
 and that Boileau had combined these qualities so admirably that 
 he had surpassed both of the Romans. 
 
 To the consideration of burlesque, which he regarded as a 
 kind of satire, Dennis devoted a part of the preface to the Mis- 
 cellanies in Verse and Prose, 1693. Through the influence of 
 Scarron in France and of Butler in England that form monop- 
 olized for a time the attention of the two nations. Dennis's 
 admiration for Hudibras led him to maintain against the 
 authority of Boileau and of Dryden that Butler's burlesque was 
 worthy of a gentleman's pen, because it used extravagance 
 only "to give Reason the more luster," and that it had been 
 written with a just design. Against Dryden's contention that 
 the verse of Hudibras is too cramping, Dennis cited his master's 
 own defense of the octosyllabic for the Pindaric and declared 
 that though the meter is suited to exalted poetry, it is much 
 better adapted to the humbler burlesque. Dennis also de- 
 fended the double and treble rhymes to which Dryden ob- 
 jected and affirmed that they were " as peculiarly becoming to a 
 Jest, as a rougish Leer, or a comical tone of Voice." 86 Bur- 
 lesque, however, received its death blow from Boileau's con- 
 demnation of the form, and with the first quarter of the 
 eighteenth century it gave way to the mock heroic. Dennis's 
 growing literalmindedness clashed with the nature of this new 
 form ; and he violently, though not very successfully, opposed it 
 in his Remarks on the Rape of the Lock, 1729. 
 
 One other poetical genre remains to be discussed, the ballad, 
 
 85 Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, p. 57. 
 
 88 " To Latinize a pun, we must seek a pun in Latin that will answer to 
 it; and to give an idea of the double endings of Hudibras, we must have 
 recourse to a similar practice in the old monkish doggerel. Dennis, the 
 fiercest oppunger of puns in ancient or modern times, professed himself 
 highly tickled with the " a stick " chiming to " ecclesiastic." Yet what 
 was this but a specimen of pun, a verbal consonance." Lamb's Popular 
 Fallicies, Works, Ainger ed., Ill, 353. 
 13 
 
178 
 
 which we may insist upon calling a literary type, even if Dennis 
 would have denied it the honor. His single utterance concern- 
 ing the ballad appears in his letter to Henry Cromwell, which 
 in its published form 87 bears the heading Of Simplicity in 
 Poetical Composition, in Remarks on the foth Spectator. 
 Though this reply to Addison was written when Dennis was 
 quarreling with the " Spectator," it stands in thorough agree- 
 ment with the critic's general conception of the nature of 
 poetry. Starting from his customary thesis that poetry is a 
 means of exciting passion, Dennis declared that it accomplishes 
 its end through the use of figurative language and of harmony, 
 and that these qualities are lacking in Chevy Chase, which 
 Addison had praised. To prove figurative language essential 
 to passion, Dennis adduced the authority of Horace, Rapin, and 
 Boileau; and to show the utter lack of harmony in this par- 
 ticular ballad, he compared in Rymer-like fashion some of its 
 passages with others from Vergil, dealing with similar sub- 
 jects. In so doing he quite forgot what he himself had said 
 about the impossibility of comparing works different in their 
 natures. To Addison's argument for the ballads as pleasing 
 all classes of people, Dennis retorted that the rabble might 
 judge things debased, but that whoever would give sentence 
 upon human nature exalted, must have education. 
 
 Certain other classes, or types, Dennis mentioned incident- 
 ally. He praised Ambrose Philips for excelling all con- 
 temporaries in writing pastorals, though he never discussed 
 the nature of that type. At times, too, Dennis seems to have 
 caught the idea that the novel 88 might be capable of something 
 of that art which he ordinarily conceived as characteristic of 
 certain classes of poetry only. Once he went so far as to con- 
 sider and even to outline a discussion of the letter as a literary 
 type, stating in the preface to his Letters upon Several Occa- 
 sions, 1696: 
 
 87 Original Letters, p. 166. 
 
 88 In his Remarks upon Cato, p. 16, Dennis states: "There is not with all 
 its Improbability in this Tragedy any of that Art and Contrivance, which is 
 to be found in an entertaining Romance or an agreeable Novel ; that Art and 
 Contrivance by which their Authors excite our Curiosity, and cause those 
 eager longings in their Readers to know the events of things." 
 

 179 
 
 " I design d in the first place to have said something of the Nature and 
 of the end of a Letter, and thought to have prov'd that the Invention of 
 it was to supply Conversation, and not to imitate it, for that nothing but 
 the Dialogue was capable of doing that ; from whence I have drawn this 
 Conclusion, that the Style of a Letter was neither to come quite up to that 
 of Conversation, nor yet to keep at too great a distance from it. After 
 that I determin'd to shew that all Conversation is not familiar; that it 
 may be Ceremonious, that it may be Grave, nay, that it may be Sublime, 
 or that Tragedy must be allow'd to be out of Nature : that if the Sublime 
 were easy and unconstrain'd, it might be as consistent with the Epistolary 
 Style, as it was with the Didactique, that Voiture had admirably join'd 
 in with one of them, and Longinus with both. After this, I resolv'd to 
 have said something of those who had most succeeded in Letters amongst 
 the Ancients and Moderns, and to have treated of their Excellencies and 
 their Defects : to have spoken more particularly of Cicero and Pliny 
 amongst the Ancients, and amongst the Moderns of Balzac and Voiture; to 
 have shown that Cicero is too simple, and too dry, and that Pliny is too 
 affected, and too refined, that one of them has too much Art in him, and 
 that both of them have too little of Nature. That the elevation of Balzac 
 was frequently forc'd and his Sublime affected ; that his Thoughts were 
 often above his Subject, and his expression almost always above his 
 Thoughts; and that whatsoever his Subjects were, his Style was seldom 
 alter'd ; that Voiture was easy and unconstrain'd, and natural when he 
 was most exalted, that he seldom endeavour'd to be witty at the expence of 
 right Reason ; but that his Thoughts were for the most part true and 
 just, his Expression was often defective, and that his Style was too little 
 diversify'd. That for my own part, as I came infinitely short of the 
 extraordinary Qualities of these great Men, I thought myself oblig'd to 
 endeavour the rather to avoid their Faults ; and that consequently I had 
 taken all the care that I could, not to think out of Nature and good Sense,, 
 and neither to force nor neglect my Expression ; and that I had always 
 taken care to suit my Style to my Subject, whether it was Familiar or 
 Sublime, or Didactique ; and that I had more or less varied it in every 
 Letter." 
 
 We may well regret that Dennis never undertook this pro- 
 posed consideration of the nature of the letter; for we cannot 
 help feeling from the outline just suggested that in examining 
 this type, unfettered by neo-classical rules, his naturally acute 
 critical sense would have produced a discussion worthy to rank 
 with his other pioneer criticisms. As it was, he was satisfied' 
 to confine himself largely to the commonly accepted types, 
 especially to the epic and the drama, where his respect for 
 authority and tradition came more and more to stifle his inde- 
 pendent critical thinking. Through all his later observations on 
 
180 
 
 these different literary genres may be traced his esteem for the 
 type, and his insistence that each poem should conform to the 
 ends proper to that particular kind and should excite the emo- 
 tion characteristic of its own particular species. 
 
 VIII 
 STYLE AND VERSIFICATION 
 
 Dennis's chance remarks upon style, which we may now con- 
 sider, resemble his more extended discussion of the types in 
 that they are largely in agreement with the current demands for 
 decency and decorum. Concerning prose style he had little to 
 say beyond his statements just quoted regarding the nature of 
 the letter, and his further assertions that the writer must adapt 
 his manner to suit the person addressed, and that didactic prose 
 should be "pure, succinct, unaffected, and grave." 1 /JThis same 
 attitude, but slightly altered to fit his conceptions of ve'rse, is 
 evident in his demands that poetry be "clear, pure, easy, 
 strong, noble, pathetic, and harmonious." 2 The first requisite 
 for securing these qualities is lofty ideals, which he endeavored 
 to prove are best supplied by religious subjects. Among the 
 devices for affecting and arousing the reader, Dennis set a 
 great value upon the writer's representing objects in motion. 
 This conception was due, perhaps, to Rapin's insistence upon 
 movement as contributing toward the exciting of passion, 3 re- 
 enforced by Hobbes's emphasis of the mutation of ideas as 
 entirely the result of motion in themV To illustrate his point 
 Dennis compared Sternhold's translation of one of the Psalms 
 with a translation of the same by Milton ; and he asserted that 
 the difference between the two versions arose in great measure 
 from the greater animation, or the greater motion,* evident in 
 Milton. 
 
 \In maintaining that the language of poetry should be figura- 
 tive, Dennis was, of course, simply following a*n Aristotelian 
 precept which found a very general acceptance near the close 
 
 1 Impartial Critick, in Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, III, 157. 
 
 2 Preface to his Remarks on Prince Arthur. 
 * Oeuvres, 1709, II, 73. 
 
 4 Works, London, 1740, I, 390. 
 
181 
 
 of the seventeenth century. 5 " Great passions," Dennis main- 
 tained, 6 "naturally throw [the writer] upon Figurative Lan- 
 guage, as they must of necessity do any Poet as long as he con- 
 tinues Master of them." He asserted, 7 however, that figura- 
 tive language is not the natural expression of the deepest stages 
 of grief, since " to be Capable of making Similitudes, it [the 
 mind] must be serene.'^) He also recognized that the figures 
 agreeable to one nation and language may not be fitting to 
 another, that English, for example, is incapable of some of the 
 daring figures of Pindar. TMoreover, he repeatedly took the 
 position that such figures as point, conceit, and wit are mental 
 rather than emotional and form no part of true poetry ; and he 
 stoutly contended 9 that they had debauched and ruined the 
 writings of such poets as Denham and Waller^ 
 
 As passion formed Dennis's standard in testing figurative 
 language in poetry, so harmony was his great criterion in judg- 
 ing versification. Such an attitude soon brought him into 
 clash with the tendencies of the time, for in that period when 
 the heroic couplet was nearly supreme, he stood as the great 
 champion of unrhymed verse. His position was, of course, in 
 good measure the result of his admiration, or better veneration, 
 for Milton's practice, reenforced by such critical utterances as 
 that of the poet in his condemnation 10 of rhyme as the inven- 
 
 * E.g., Collier's Defense of the Short View, p. 38. 
 a Works, II, 466. 
 
 7 Preface to the Passion of Byblis, 1692. 
 
 8 Cf . Rymer's statement in his Tragedies of the Last Age : " Natu- 
 rally in a great Passion, none have leisure to ramble for Comparisons." 
 
 8 Reflections upon an Essay on Criticism, p. 17. This matter of the use of 
 figurative language formed a favorite subject of eighteenth century critical 
 debate. Thomson, for example, was against figures in tragedy. Mallet, 
 Hill, Voltaire, and others also discussed the subject. 
 
 10 Preface to Paradise Lost. The Critical Specimen, Anon., 1715, con- 
 tains the following comment on Dennis's attitude toward rhyme : " He 
 had never read in Milton or any of the Ancients that Pegasus wore bells, 
 upon which he in a very great Rage tore the Bells from his Hobby horse 
 and he has rid him without bells ever since." This comparison of rhymes 
 to bells on Pegasus had doubtless been impressed on the public mind by 
 Andrew Marvell's lines On Paradise Lost, prefixed to the second edition of 
 Milton's epic in 1674: 
 
182 
 
 tion of a barbarous age, "trivial, and of no true musical de- 
 light." The theories of Dryden and of Roscommon, expressed, 
 as Dennis puts it, 11 " before the beginning and at the end of the 
 Essay on Translated Verse," also furnished support for his 
 attitude, even though their practice generally agreed with the 
 prevailing custom. Dryden's position is of especial interest, 
 for as early as i676, 12 he seems to have tired of the couplet and 
 in his later years was in theory, 13 and to some extent in prac- 
 tice, the advocate of unrhymed verse. 
 
 How far Dennis was really indebted to Dryden for his theo- 
 ries of versification, is hard to determine. His early poem, the 
 Passion of Byblis, 1692, and his Miscellanies are in rhyme, 
 
 " Well mights! thou scorn thy readers to allure 
 
 With tinkling rime, of thy own sense secure, 
 
 While the Town-Bayes writes all the while and spells, 
 
 And like a pack-horse tires without his bells." 
 
 With this may be compared some lines in Charles Goodall's Propitiatory 
 Sacrifice to the Ghost of J M by way of Pastoral, published in 1689 : 
 
 " Daphnis ! the great Reformer of our Isle ! 
 Daphnis ! the patron of the Roman Stile ! 
 Who first to sence converted Doggerel Rhimes, 
 The Muses Bells took off, and stopt their Chimes." 
 
 Through the closing years of the seventeenth century Milton's example 
 made against the use of rhyme. Thus Samuel Woodford, in the preface 
 to his Paraphrase upon the Canticles, 1679, states that, " In the next Age 
 Even our now cry'd up Blank Verse will look as unfashionable, how well 
 soever as a Novelty and upon his Credit who was the Inventor of it here 
 may speed in this. Not but that I have, and always had, as great an honour 
 for Mr. Milton's Paradise Lost as those who admire him most." Again, 
 William Wollaston, in his Design of Part of the Book of Ecclesiastes, 1691, 
 says : " Had I been hardy enough like some others (which too late I wish) 
 to have broken a barbarous custom and freed myself from the troublesome 
 and modern bondage of Rhyming (as Milton calls it) the Business which 
 now immediately follows, had been somewhat better than it is." Three 
 years later, in answer to the question " Whether rhyme is essential to 
 English Verse?" the Athenian Mercury replied, "No, certainly, for none 
 will say Milton's Paradise is not Verse, tho' he has industriously, and in 
 some places to a fault avoided Rhyme." The greater part of this note is 
 a restatement of quotations cited in Mr. Havens's article on Seventeenth 
 Century Notices of Milton, in Englische Studien, 1909, pp. 175 ff. 
 
 11 Preface to the Monument, 1702. 
 
 12 Works, XV, 360. 
 
 13 Works, XIV, 211. 
 
183 
 
 though he stated in the preface to the former that he was not 
 "so miserably mistaken as to think it [rhyme] necessary for 
 Poetry." "If rhyming is ever necessary to so strong and 
 masculine a language as ours," he went on, "it must be on 
 these tender subjects/' 14 i. e., the story of Byblis. After these 
 first efforts Dennis practically abandoned the use of the couplet 
 and persistently employed the unrhymed forms, though recog- 
 nizing, as he wrote Steele in 1720, that " the harmony without 
 rime " had made some of his poems " less pleasing for the time 
 to about a half of [his] readers." In the preface to his poem 
 on the death of Queen Anne he first undertook a formal con- 
 sideration of the subject of versification. 14 * In this discussion 
 to which he seems to have devoted much thought and care, he 
 pointed out the restrictions under which rhyme places the 
 writer, that it demands that the sense frequently be bent to meet 
 the needs of the verse, that it conceals the want of a fine ear, 
 much as the droning of a bagpipe conceals the imperfections of 
 the notes, and that it keeps a poor writer jogging on in dullness. 
 He blamed rhyme chiefly, however, as the foe of harmony and 
 in his accusation advanced what he considered some entirely 
 new arguments : 
 
 " There are in our English poets four things which have been thought 
 to enduce to Harmony ; which are Number, Measure, Cadence, and Rime. 
 Of these the first three consist of several different Sounds which are 
 dependent upon one another. Rime is wholly independent of the other 
 three ; and consists in the greater Poetry of but two sounds, which are 
 Unisons. Now I appeal to all Masters of Music if Unisons can make any 
 Harmony. Harmony is the agreement of different Sounds, and the Per- 
 fection of Harmony is the agreement of discordant Sounds by the Media- 
 tion of others. And there is a great deal of Chromatic Harmony in Poetry 
 
 14 Possibly Dennis's aversion to rhyme was strengthened by Rymer's 
 objection to its use in tragedy, as stated in the "Advertisement" to his 
 Edgar: "I doubted, indeed, whether Rhyme was proper for Tragedy. Not 
 that I thought it unnatural; for questionless 'tis more natural to speak in 
 Rhyme, than to speak English : this we owe to the Nurse, the former to 
 the Poet. Nor can this be said to be unnatural, where Nature is help'd 
 and improv'd. But Rhyme is rather sweet than grave ; unless tempered 
 with so much Thought and with such Pomp of Words as suits not with 
 that Sorrow and Lamentation which Tragedy ordinarily requires." 
 
 14a Dennis restated many of the ideas of this preface in his Short Essay 
 toward an English Prosody, which first appeared in the 1722 edition of 
 James Greenwood's An Essay towards a Practical English Grammar. 
 
184 
 
 as well as in Music. And such particularly is a great deal of Virgil's 
 Harmony. Well then ! Rime consisting of Unisons can have no Harmony 
 in itself, and being independent of Numbers, Cadence, and Measure can 
 never promote the Harmony which they produce. And a Poet's constant 
 Application to Rime diverts his Application, in a good Degree, from Num- 
 bers, Measures, and Cadence, and consequently is a severe restraint upon 
 the three Producers of Harmony. And as it diverts the Application of the 
 Writer, so by alluring the Attention of Vulgar Readers, it diverts these 
 from the other three." 
 
 At the conclusion of his discussion Dennis prophesied that 
 before the middle of the century rhyme would be banished from 
 English poetry. 
 
 fin judging the versification of the great English poets Dennis 
 showed considerable independence. True, he accepted the cur- 
 rent opinion that Chaucer had been handicapped by " the rude- 
 ness of his language, or want of Ear, or want of Experience, 
 or perhaps a just Mixture of all," 15 and that consequently 
 Dryden's revisions had been an improvement. But he recog- 
 nized in Shakespere " the very original of our English Tragical 
 Harmony; that is, the Harmony of Blank Verse, diversified 
 often by Dissyllable and Trisyllable Termination. For that 
 Diversity distinguishes it from Heroic Harmony, and bringing 
 it nearer to common Use, makes it more proper to gain Atten- 
 tion, and more fit for Action and Dialogue. Such verses we 
 make when we are writing Prose; we make such verses in 
 Common Conversation." 1 ^} 
 
 In his earlier years Dennis manifested much admiration for 
 Waller's verse, and he joined his contemporaries in declaring 17 
 this poet " the first who used our ears to the music of a just 
 cadence." In his later years, however, he showed less and less 
 respect for Waller, whom he came to consider the forerunner 
 of Pope. \Against Pope, as the great exponent of the heroic 
 
 15 Reflections upon an Essay on Criticism, p. 20. 
 
 16 Original Letters, p. 373. Commenting on Dennis's statement, Johnson 
 says in the Preface to his Shakespeare : " I know not whether this praise 
 is rigorously just. The dyssyllable termination, which the critic rightly 
 appropriates to the drama, is to be found though not in Gorboduc, which 
 is confessedly before our author ; yet in Hyeronymo, of which the date is 
 not certain, but which there is reason to believe as old as his earliest plays." 
 
 17 Prefatory Letter to the Impartial Critick, 1693. 
 
185 
 
 couplet, Dennis directed his chief fulminations on that form of 
 verse, all with a penetration that appeals strongly to those who 
 have felt the couplet a " rocking horse " measure. In his first 
 assault upon Pope, in the Reflections upon an Essay on Criti- 
 cism, Dennis declared 18 that the bard's numbers were without 
 cadence and variety ; and in some form or other he repeated this 
 charge in each of his subsequent attacks. Thus, in the Remarks 
 on the Rape of the Lock Dennis asserted 19 that Pope's 
 Pegasus is " a battered Kentish Jade, that neither ambles, nor 
 paces, nor trots, nor runs, but is always on the Canterbury ; and 
 as he never mends, never slackens his Pace, but when he 
 stumbles or falls." 
 
 In a word, then, we may say that Dennis derived from Milton 
 a love of blank verse, that in his day he stood almost as the- 
 sole champion of that form against the heroic couplet, that X 
 his theorizing concerning the nature of verse, while crude ; 
 was decidedly modern, and that, though sometimes prejudiced, 
 his judgment of the versification of the great English poets 
 shows a great deal of insight and critical acumen. 
 
 IX 
 His JUDGMENTS OF ENGLISH WRITERS 
 
 This same acuteness which characterizes many of Dennis's 
 specific judgments of the versification of tlie English poets is to 
 be found in his criticisms of their x work as a whole. What 
 Mr. Saintsbury has said about Dryden's specific judgments 
 being better than his theory might also be applied to Dennis. 
 Of Chaucer Dennis had little to say beyond the criticism of his 
 verse cited above. Late in life the critic confessed that he 
 had not read him for many years. 1 For Spenser, of whom he 
 seems to have been a fairly close student, 2 his admiration was 
 
 18 " The Reader may easily see that, through all the Verses I have cited, 
 and 'tis true of all those I have not cited, instead of a pleasing Variety 
 of Numbers, there is nothing but a perpetual Identity of Sound, an Eternal 
 Monotony. The Trumpet of Homer, with its loud and its various Notes, 
 is dwindled in Pope's lips to a Jews Trump " (p. 8). 
 
 19 Preface. Cf. his Remarks upon Mr. Pope's Translation of Homer, p. 36. 
 
 1 Daily Journal, May n, 1728. 
 
 2 Works, II, 453. 
 
186 
 
 more profound, and his appreciation of him seems deeper and 
 truer than that of Dryden. Dennis characterized the author 
 of the Faerie Queen as " a powerful and unsurpassed genius " 
 and placed it to the shame of England that he had been allowed 
 to starve. 3 
 
 On the whole it seems just to say that Dryden's appreciation 
 of Shakspere was inferior to Dennis's. True, Dryden once 
 stated that Shakspere "had a larger soul for poetry than any 
 of our nation," but his general attitude is better represented by 
 his more guarded praise and frequent strictures, as in the 
 Defense of the Epilogue. 4 " To the present writer it also seems 
 plain that Dennis knew his Shakspere the better, and that 
 he made more frequent and widely drawn references to him than 
 did Dryden. Of what have been called the romantic comedies, 
 our critic, in keeping with the tendencies of his age, had little to 
 say. His veneration for Shakspere, for that is the term he 
 frequently employs, best manifested itself in his appreciation of 
 the tragedies. Shakspere had a good talent for comedy, Dennis 
 declared, but he had a genius for tragedy. 6 Indeed he was one 
 of the greatest writers of tragedy that the world had ever 
 seen; 6 and had he possessed the art of Sophocles and Euri- 
 pides, he would have far surpassed them. Great as was his 
 admiration for the French dramatists, Dennis declared that 
 there were " several things in Shakespear superior to any- 
 thing " they had produced ; and in spite of his staunch admira- 
 tion for Dryden and his work, Dennis acknowledged that the 
 
 8 Remarks upon Mr. Pope's Homer, p. 5. 
 
 * " Shakespere, who many times has written better than any poet, in any 
 language, is yet so far from writing wit always, or expressing that wit 
 according to the dignity of the subject, that he writes, in many places, 
 below the dullest writer of ours, or any precedent age. Never did any 
 author precipitate himself from such heights of thought to so low expres- 
 sions as he often does. He is the very Janus of poets ; he wears almost 
 everywhere two faces ; and you have scarcely begun to admire the one, 
 ere you despise the other." Ker, I, 172. 
 
 6 Reflections upon an Essay on Criticism, p. 10. Cf. Dryden's Works, X, 
 412. Possibly Dennis took the idea from Dryden's suggestion. See Sher- 
 wood's Dryden's Dramatic Theory and Practice, Boston, 1898, p. 31. Rymer, 
 however, held that " Shakespear's genius lay for Comedy and Humour." 
 Short View of Tragedy, p. 156. 
 
 9 Original Letters, p. 371. 
 
187 
 
 dramatic genius of his master was far inferior to that of 
 the Elizabethan. 
 
 It was, however, for Shakspere's innate ability and its tri- 
 umphs that the critic repeatedly expressed his veneration. 
 Shakspere's limitations, Dennis believed, were chiefly those of 
 his age and lay principally in his "duplicity and triplicity of 
 plots," marring the unity of action. As for the dramatist's 
 breaches of the unities of time and place, he recognized that 
 they were necessary for attaining greater beauties. For his 
 character drawing Dennis manifested the highest admiration; 
 he praised its justness, exactness, and vividness, though he was 
 occasionally displeased with the anachronisms. The senti- 
 ments, too, Dennis regarded as usually " noble, generous, easy, 
 natural, and adapted to the persons using them." 7 Further- 
 more, in spite of the lapse of time, Shakspere's style was fre- 
 quently " simple tho' elevated, graceful tho' bold, and easie tho' 
 strong." Dennis criticized, however, the violation of poetic 
 justice and declared 8 that the good and bad perish promiscu- 
 ously in these plays. Especially did he condemn the ending of 
 Coriolanus, which he " improved " to fit his own ideas. 
 Against the moral of Julius Caesar he was also severe and sug- 
 gested a better conclusion. 9 
 
 Of greater interest, perhaps, are Dennis's conjectures as to 
 Shakspere's classical attainments. In his third letter On the 
 Genius and Writings of Shakespear, 1712, the critic shrewdly 
 maintained that the dramatist had possessed no intimate knowl- 
 edge of the classics, or he would have chosen to imitate 
 Sophocles or Euripides rather than Plautus, whom he had 
 probably read in translation. 10 Then too, if he had been a 
 
 7 Original Letters, p. 373. 
 
 *Ibid., p. 379- 
 
 9 Ibid., p. 391. 
 
 10 " Dennis's remarks upon Shakspeare, scattered through his writings, 
 are well worth collecting and republishing, as affording a good insight into 
 the opinions about Shakspeare current during what may be called the 
 first critical period. I question, after all, if Dennis had not a higher ap- 
 preciation of Shakspeare than Farmer. His arguments against Shaks- 
 peare's scholarship are far more subtle and delicate than Farmer's, and 
 not nearly so offensive." C. Elliot Browne, Notes and Queries, sth Series, 
 Vol. I, 342. 
 
188 
 
 classicist, he would have gone to Livy for the material for 
 Coriolanus.^ Dennis placed this ignorance, however, not to 
 Shakspere's discredit but to his honor ; for it only added to the 
 glory of the achievement of this English author through the 
 sheer force of his genius. 
 
 It is for his exaltation of this genius, his historical attitude 
 in discussing some of the plays, and his genuine love of them, 
 rather than for his revisions, that we would remember Dennis 
 in connection with Shakspere. These latter performances 
 show only too plainly the hand of the workman, who, as 
 Dennis himself puts it, "judges well, but cannot himself per- 
 form/' Falstaff and Coriolanus are woefully " translated " in 
 their early eighteenth century garb and speech, though they 
 fared, perhaps, not so badly as did other Shaksperian char- 
 acters at the hands of Dennis's contemporaries. While these 
 performances must, of course, weigh heavily in our final 
 estimate of Dennis's appreciation of Shakspere, we must not 
 forget that too often they have been given entire consideration, 
 and that little or nothing has been said on the other side for 
 the critic who in his "veneration for the memory of Shakes- 
 pere " " loves and admires his Charms, and makes them one 
 of his chief Delights, who sees and reads him over and over 
 and over and still remains unsatiated, and who mentions his 
 Faults for no other Reason but to make his Excellence the 
 more conspicuous." 12 
 
 Dennis ranked Shakspere's tragedies far above those by 
 Jonson. In fact, though Dennis had a high respect for Jonson's 
 critical learning, especially for his Discoveries, which he occa- 
 sionally quoted, 13 he repeatedly declared that the great Ben 
 had no right notion of tragedy, for he had often failed to move 
 terror and pity and consequently had fallen far behind the 
 ancients. 14 But along with IJymer and Dryden, with Gildoji. 
 and Addison, and a host of other critics of the day, he was loud 
 in his praise of Jonson's comedies. In common with these 
 critics Dennis affirmed the belief that Jonson had carried away 
 
 "Johnson seems to have accepted and restated Dennis's arguments about 
 Shakspere's learning. See the preface to his Shakespeare, xxxvii. 
 
 12 Original Letters, p. 406. 
 
 13 E.g., Preface to his Remarks upon Mr. Pope's Homer. 
 ^Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, p. 57. 
 
189 
 
 the palm of comedy from both the ancients and the moderns and 
 had done so in spite of his occasional stooping to play the 
 buffoon. 15 St. fivremond was largely responsible for this 
 praise of Jonson by the critics and in a measure for their 
 attitude toward comedy the exaltation of the ridiculum, which 
 caused Dennis and his age to place Jonson's comedies far above 
 Shakspere's. 16 According to our critic Jonson's work is dis- 
 tinguished by its humor and its plot management, 17 more espe- 
 cially by the former, which strengthened his observance of the 
 ridiculum. Dennis criticized the Volpone and the Alchemist, 
 which he ranked among the best of Jonson's comedies, on the 
 ground that "the intrigue seems more dexterously perplexed 
 than happily disentangled ; " 18 but the management of the 
 Silent Woman he considered so admirable that it should rank 
 as the best English comedy. 19 Dennis shows for Jonson, how- 
 ever, little of the enthusiastic appreciation which he bestows 
 upon Shakspere ; and he criticizes Ben for failing to " arouse 
 passion," to touch the heart. 
 
 More notable than Dennis's praise of either Jonson or 
 Shakspere is his admiration for Milton ; for he stood among his 
 contemporaries as the great champion of the Puritan poet, 
 anticipating by a dozen years much of the appreciation which 
 has frequently been credited to the " Spectator." The various 
 stages in the growth of Milton's popularity have recently been 
 traced in an interesting manner by Mr. Raymond D. Havens. 20 
 This writer has pointed out how from the time immediately 
 after Milton's death reference was made to him with increas- 
 ing frequency by such writers as the poet's nephew Edward 
 Phillips, 21 by Charles Goodall, 22 Samuel Woodford, 23 Oldham, 2 * 
 
 ^Remarks on the Conscious Lovers, p. n. 
 
 16 St. fiyremond's Oeuvres Meslees, 1689, p. 578. 
 
 11 Preface to Gibraltar. 
 
 18 Letters upon Several Occasions, p. 76. 
 
 19 Theatre, II, 376. Cf. Dry den's Essay of Dramatic Poesy, Ker, I, 83 ff. 
 
 20 Englische Studien, 1909, p. 175 ; p. 199. 
 
 21 Phrasium Poeticarum Thesaurus, quoted in the Lives of Edward and 
 John Phillips by William Godwin, 1815, p. 145. 
 
 22 Propitiatory Sacrifice to the Ghost of J M by way of Pastoral, 
 pub. 1689. 
 
 23 Paraphrase upon the Canticles, 1679. 
 *Bion, a Pastoral, 1680. 
 
190 
 
 and a number of other writers of the period. Mr. Havens 
 has also cited Rymer's 25 and Winstanley's 26 adverse criticism 
 of Milton, and like Professor Spingarn has pointed out how 
 the increasing admiration for Milton found expression in the 
 various readings of two closing lines in Mulgrave's Essay upon 
 Poetry. 27 In 1688 Tonson published the sumptuous edition of 
 Paradise Lost, which with the encouragement of Lord Dorset 
 had been warmly welcomed by the whigs. Moreover, Milton's 
 epic strongly influenced such minor religious poems as those of 
 Samuel Slater, 28 Henry Hare, 29 and William Wollaston ; 30 and 
 it is hardly necessary to add that the poem was greatly admired 
 by non-conformists generally. Dryden's comparison of Milton 
 with Vergil and Homer, which first appeared in Tonson's 
 edition just mentioned, is well known. Dennis declared, 31 
 however, that this epigram was merely a paraphrase of one 
 by the Italian poet Selvaggi : 
 
 " Graecia Maeonidem, jactet sibi Roma Maronem, 
 Anglia Miltonum, jactat utrique parem." 
 
 It is perhaps sufficient simply to mention Dryden's adaptation 
 for the stage of Paradise Lost. In the Author's Apology, 
 1677, prefixed to this unforunate adaptation, Dryden character- 
 ized Milton's epic as " one of the greatest, most noble, and most 
 sublime poems that either this age or this nation has produced." 
 
 25 Tragedies of the Last Age, 1677, where he promises some reflections 
 on Paradise Lost, " which some are pleased to call a poem." 
 
 26 In his Lives of the most Famous English Poets, 1687, he speaks ofl 
 Milton's fame as " gone out like a candle in the snuff." 
 
 27 " Must above Tasso's lofty flights prevail, 
 
 Succeed where Spenser and e'en greater Milton fail. " 
 Cf. Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, II, 356. Dennis was thor- 
 oughly familiar with this passage as was also Dryden, who may have had 
 it in mind when he declared in the Dedication of his translation of Juvenal 
 that Milton possessed a genius greater than Cowley's and equal to Spen- 
 ser's. 
 
 23 Poems in Two Parts, 1679. 
 
 29 Situation of Paradise Found out, 1683. 
 
 30 Design of the Book of Ecclesiastes, 1691. For most of the preceding 
 references, in this account of Milton's early influence, I am indebted to 
 Mr. Havens's articles. 
 
 81 Original Letters, p. 78. 
 
191 
 
 Though Dennis designated 32 this characterization as the first 
 statement " disclosing in so public a manner an extraordinary 
 Opinion of Milton's extraordinary Merit," he censured the 
 adaptation of Paradise Lost and declared that Dryden, as he 
 himself had confessed, did not at the time of his altering the 
 great epic know one half of its merit. 33 Indeed for many years 
 Dryden was suspicious of the blank verse of the poem and once 
 declared 34 that while he could not justify Milton in its use, he 
 might " excuse him by the example of Hanibal Caro and other 
 Italians" who had employed it. On the whole, however, 
 Dryden showed a generous and an increasing appreciation of 
 Milton, which was probably responsible in large measure for 
 that afterwards exhibited by Dennis. 
 
 Possibly the influence of Dryden would have been sufficient to 
 attract Dennis to a careful study of Milton, even if he had not 
 been urged to it by his own patriotic and moralistic tendencies. 
 Some of Dennis's other friends, however, are to be remembered 
 as probably stimulating his interest in that poet. Bishop 
 Atterbury, whom we have noticed as one of his companions 
 in the years of early manhood, must be mentioned among those 
 evincing a notable admiration for Milton; and it is not im- 
 probable that his desire that "some excellent spirit" might 
 arise, "that had leisure enough, and resolution to break the 
 charm, and free us from the troublesome bondage of Rhyming, 
 as Mr. Milton calls it," 35 may have helped shape Dennis's 
 determination to champion blank verse. In 1694 appeared 
 Addison's commendation of Milton in the familiar Account of 
 the Greatest English Poets; and in the same year was published 
 Gildon's Miscellaneous Letters and Essays on Several Subjects, 
 which contains To Mr. T. S. in Vindication of Mr. Milton's 
 Paradise Lost. The relations between Dennis and Gildon 
 were at this time so intimate, and their views in such close 
 accord, that doubtless they mutually stimulated each other in 
 their admiration for the puritan poet. 
 
 Just when Dennis gained this love for Milton is hard to 
 
 82 Original Letters, p. 75. 
 
 33 For Dryden's later opinion of Milton, see Ker, II, 28. 
 
 84 Discourse concerning Satire, Works, XIII, 20. 
 
 85 Englische Studien, 1909, p. 178. 
 
192 
 
 say. It seems, however, that the date should be fixed about 
 1692, for though at that time he was still employing the couplet, 
 he then acknowledged 38 the greatness of the author of Paradise 
 Lost. Soon after that his poems began to show frank imita- 
 tions of Milton, both of the great epic, and, what is more 
 remarkable at that time, of the minor poems. These imita- 
 tions reached their height with his verses on the battle of 
 Blenheim in such lines as " And swinging slow with hoarse and 
 sullen roar." Jacob, in his Poetical Register, 37 1719, recognized 
 this imitation of Milton as one of Dennis's commendable quali- 
 ties and declared that our author had "come nearest that 
 sublime Poet of any of his Contemporaries," 38 an opinion which 
 was later echoed by Pope's biographer, Ayre. 39 Pope himself, 
 on the other hand, ridiculed 40 Dennis's attempts at the sub- 
 limity of Milton. 
 
 One of the strongest influences in attracting Dennis to Milton 
 was the pronouncedly religious character of the great poet's 
 work. In Milton Dennis found a writer who had drawn a 
 tragedy from the Bible 41 and had owed the exaltation of his 
 noblest passages to the power of the Christian religion, an 
 exaltation so powerful that it had surpassed anything in an- 
 tiquity. 42 Unquestionably Dennis's insistence upon strong 
 emotion as the basis of poetry was fostered by his admiration 
 for Milton ; but it seems probable, also, from all contemporary 
 accounts of the critic that, mixed with his rationalistic and 
 
 36 Preface to the Passion of Byblis. 
 
 37 In this same notice Jacob comments thus on Dennis's poem on the 
 battle of Blenheim: "The following lines in it, in my Opinion, are very 
 near on an Equality with Milton, and they are writ after the manner of 
 his Hymn to the Creator, ' Begin my Soul, and strike the living lyre.' " He 
 then quotes about thirty lines. Poetical Register, I, 260 ff. 
 
 38 Ibid., I, 258. 
 
 39 Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Alexander Pope, I, 47. 
 
 40 Grub Street Journal, February 5, 1730. 
 
 41 " and then arose another famous Reformer, John Milton by Name, 
 who not only left a Tragedy behind him, the Story of which he im- 
 piously borrow'd from the Bible, written, to leave him without excuse, in 
 his mature, nay declining years, but has left a fine Enconium on Shake- 
 spear ; " Original Letters, p. 236. 
 
 "Works, II, 430. 
 
193 
 
 dogmatic tendencies was a strong strain of emotionalism, 48 
 manifesting itself in the many impetuous acts which we have 
 noticed in the biography ; and this side of the critic, in its turn, 
 welcomed the exaltation of Milton's poetry. 44 It was this 
 exaltation, this sublimity, Dennis maintained, that had enabled 
 Milton to compose the "most lofty and most irregular Poem, 
 that had ever been produced by the mind of man." 45 He had 
 surpassed Vergil and Homer in that he was " more lofty, more 
 terrible, more vehement, more astonishing, and had more 
 divine raptures." 46 Furthermore, in writing Paradise Lost 
 
 43 In his Harlequin Horace, 1731, p. 49, the Reverend James Miller apos- 
 trophises our author thus : 
 
 " O ! Dennis eldest of the scribbling Throng, 
 Tho' skill'd thyself in every Art of Song, 
 Tho' also of thy Mother-Goddess full, 
 By Inspiration furiously dull." 
 
 44 In apologizing for his style in a letter discussing Milton's sublimity, 
 Dennis states that he found it " next to impossible to resist the violent 
 Emotions which the Greatness of the Subject raised in" him. Proposals 
 for printing . . . Miscellaneous Tracts, 1721, p. 16. 
 
 45 This statement and others following in the paragraph for which no 
 sources are noted, are based on Dennis's Specimen, Being the Substance of 
 what will be said in the Beginning of the Criticism of Milton prefatory to 
 the Grounds of Criticism, 1704. 
 
 46 Reflections upon an Essay on Criticism, p. 17. Dennis's strong insist- 
 ence upon regarding sublimity as Milton's great distinguishing quality is 
 well illustrated by his censures of Roscommon's and more especially of 
 Addison's criticisms of Paradise Lost: 
 
 " I. They have not allow'd that Milton in the Sublimity of his 
 Thoughts surpass'd both Ancients and Moderns. 
 
 " II. In their Observations which they have made on Paradise Lost, 
 they have insisted too much upon things in which Milton has equals, 
 instead of dwelling entirely on that Sublimity which is his distinguishing 
 and characteristic Quality, and which sets him above Mankind. 
 
 " III. In citing Passages from him which are truly sublime, they have 
 often fail'd of setting his Sublimity in a true Light, and of shewing 
 it to all its Advantage. 
 
 " IV. In those Passages whose Sublimity they have set in a true Light, 
 they have not observ'd to the honour of Milton, and our Country, that 
 the Thoughts and Images are Original, and the genuine Offspring of Mil- 
 ton's transcendent Genius. 
 
 " V. They have not shewn how Milton's Sublimity is distinguish'd from 
 the other Poets in this Respect, that where he has excelled all other Poets 
 14 
 
194 
 
 Milton had transgressed the laws of Aristotle, not through any 
 disrespect for them, but because he recognized that if he 
 should follow these precepts which were based on the practice 
 of Homer, he must share the fate of the many copyists who 
 had fallen short of the greatness of the Greek poet. Hence he 
 had represented not the conflict of man and man, as had 
 Homer, but of the Devil and man ; and this new and strange 
 subject had thrown him upon strange thoughts and new 
 expressions that could not be judged by the precepts of Aris- 
 totle. In these thoughts and images, and consequently in his 
 spirit, Milton had the advantage of both Homer and Vergil. 
 But after thus praising Milton's excellencies, the critic promised 
 to note his defects, and to do it all the more carefully, " be- 
 cause some of them ought to be avoided with the utmost Cau- 
 tion as being so great that they would be Insupportable in any 
 one who had not his Extraordinary Distinguishing Qualities." 
 With the words just quoted, however, Dennis closed the speci- 
 men of his proposed discussion of Milton, so we must look 
 elsewhere for his statements regarding his favorite's limita- 
 tions. One such limitation to Milton's greatness the critic 
 found in his failure to attain in practice to the art of Vergil 
 and Homer, with which he was so well acquainted in theory, 
 and which would have brought to perfection the great epic 
 inspired by his genius. " Near a sixth part of the poem," 
 Dennis maintained in his Remarks upon the Dunclad, " is set 
 down for want of Art. For this Poem is so ordered that the 
 Subject of the eleventh and twelfth Books could by no means 
 supply him with the great ideas, and consequently with the 
 great Spirit, which the first, second, and sixth books had done 
 before." This same willingness to admit what he considered 
 the limitations of his favorite poet appeared 47 also in his reply 
 to Addison's discussion of Milton's great epic. Dennis main- 
 tained that the " Spectator " had " published a certain Criticism 
 upon Milton, in which the reverse of almost every thing he 
 
 in what he has expresst, he has left ten times more to be understood than 
 what he has suggested, which is the surest and noblest mark, and the most 
 transporting Effect of Sublimity." Proposals for printing . . . Miscellaneous 
 Tracts, 1721, p. 3. 
 
 47 Introduction to the Remarks upon Cato. 
 
195 
 
 affirmed is true; That he had the assurance to say in it, That 
 the Paradise Lost of Milton has an Unity of Action, whereas 
 in that Poem, there are more apparently two Actions, the War 
 of the Angels being an Action in itself, and having a just be- 
 ginning, middle, and end." Our author failed to realize how he 
 had really broken with the rules in his appreciation of Paradise 
 Lost, and how Addison, who preached against the "regular 
 critics," was bound by their precepts ; but if Dennis were en- 
 titled for no other reason to a permanent place in the history of 
 literary criticism, he should be remembered as perhaps the first 
 ardent and persistent champion of Milton, and he should be 
 recognized for having repeatedly praised and emphasized that 
 poet's " Sublimity and matchless Harmony," qualities which 
 have stood the test of more than two centuries. 
 
 Though Dennis never placed Dryden on the same footing 
 with Milton, he entertained, as might be expected, a very high 
 opinion of his writings, 48 and he ranked them above those of 
 Boileau and Racine. Of Dry den's plays, considered in- 
 dividually, Dennis said but little, beyond condemning 49 the 
 State of Innocence as a sorry imitation of Milton and All for 
 Love as morally bad. The use of the blank verse in the 
 Spanish Friar, however, seemed to him especially good. In- 
 deed he affirmed 50 that for purity the English language had 
 nothing better to show than Dryden's blank verse, which com- 
 bined " the easiness of Prose with the Dignity and strength of 
 Poetry." This perfection, Dennis continued, was equalled 
 only by that of Dryden's heroic couplets, in which "he will 
 never be excelled by any man, unless Time make some strange 
 alterations in the Tongue." But most interesting of all was 
 Dennis's deliberate judgment of his master which we have 
 already noted, but which deserves repetition as, possibly, the t- 
 soundest and most acute summary of Dryden's excellences left 
 us by any of his critics. In a letter to Jacob Tonson, the book- 
 seller, concerning the alleged conspiracy in 1715 against the 
 reputation of Dryden, Dennis wrote thus : 51 
 
 48 Letters upon Several Occasions, p. 49. 
 
 49 Original Letters, p. 75. 
 
 60 Impartial Critick, in Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, III, 153. 
 
 61 Original Letters, p. 290. 
 
196 
 
 " I hope you will excuse my Affection for the Memory, and my Zeal for 
 the Reputation of my departed Friend, whom I infinitely esteem'd when 
 living for the Solidity of his Thought, for the Spring, the Warmth, and 
 the beautiful Turn of it; for the Power, and Variety, and Fullness of his 
 Harmony; for the Purity, the Perspecuity, the Energy of his Expression; 
 and (whenever the following great Qualities were requir'd) for the Pomp 
 and Solemnity, and Majesty of his Style." 
 
 Of a long list of other English writers Dennis at some time 
 expressed his admiration Butler, Roscommon, Denham, Wal- 
 ler, Wycherley, Otway, Etheredge, Shadwell, Crowne, Congreve, 
 Ambrose Philips. 52 It may be sufficient to note that he was 
 generous in his praise of all of these writers, particularly of 
 Wycherley, whose Plain Dealer he ranked as one of the world's 
 greatest comedies, 53 and of Congreve whom he considered sec- 
 ond only to Wycherley as a playwright. 54 Of course Dennis's 
 judgments of many of these writers were the ordinarily ac- 
 cepted ones of his day; and possibly some of them, as with 
 most critics, were influenced by his prejudices. But compar- 
 ing his judgments of these authors with the opinions of other 
 critics of his time, and with those confirmed by the passing of 
 two centuries, we must agree, it seems, that Dennis's estimates 
 of specific writers, expressed before his senescence, are entitled 
 to a much more careful consideration than they have generally 
 received. 
 
 X 
 
 His POSITION IN CRITICISM AND HIS INFLUENCE 
 
 It is noticeable that the list of writers whom Dennis praised, 
 quoted in the preceding section, contains but few authors 
 whose important works fell in his later years; and it is 
 also significant that nearly every member of the younger 
 generation, about 1710, whose writings were popular, came 
 under his condemnation. Against the charge that his criti- 
 cisms were ill natured, however, he was continually at warfare. 
 Even as early as 1697! he felt it necessary to defend his 
 
 02 Preface to the Remarks on the Conscious Lovers. 
 
 53 Possibly Dennis's high regard for this play came from Dryden. See 
 Ker, I, 182. 
 
 54 Letters upon Several Occasions, p. 79. 
 
 1 Preface to the Remarks on Prince Arthur, where he argues ardently 
 and at length in defense of critics and criticism. 
 
197 
 
 practice against this charge ; and for one who fought so stoutly 
 and so unsparingly, he was extremely sensitive to the accusa- 
 tion. 2 Dennis's nature contained something of the born dis- 
 senter, and he was fearless in expressing his opinions. Doubt- 
 less, too, he was somewhat soured by his failure to obtain 
 recognition from the public and from the government. But it 
 may be questioned whether these conditions ever consciously 
 influenced him in his assaults upon more successful writers. 
 For, as he repeatedly affirmed, he attacked them not because 
 they had succeeded, but because he believed they had done so 
 undeservedly and for the most part through the efforts of 
 cabals. Against such combinations Dennis continually in- 
 veighed, declaring that any poet of genius would scorn these 
 devices as destructive of the national muse. As late as 1717 
 he asserted that he was so far from bearing malice toward 
 those whom he criticized [i. e., Pope] that he was willing " to 
 own their good qualities, and to do them any manner of Service 
 that lay in [his] little Power." But in his very latest criti- 
 cisms Dennis frankly took the position that he had suffered 
 injuries which admitted of no legal redress, and that he there- 
 fore entered the lists not only for furthering the public good 
 but also for avenging private wrongs. 3 Dennis's earlier 
 criticisms, however, impress the reader with his attempts 
 to be impartial and judicial. Repeatedly he declared that 
 he had consulted his friends about the matter in hand, 
 and he evidently tried in his better work to state fairly 
 and honestly the other side of the question. 4 Even in his 
 
 2 Original Letters, p. 202 ; Preface to the Reflections upon an Essay on 
 Criticism; Preface to the Monument. Possibly the first accusation of ill 
 nature brought in print against Dennis is that by the author of a Com- 
 parison between the Two Stages, 1702, p. 181, who in commenting on the 
 critic's failures as a dramatist, remarks : " These repeated Disappoint- 
 ments, I hope, have cured him of the Itch of Play Making; let him stick 
 to his Criticisms and find fault with others, because he does ill himself." 
 
 3 " I entered these disputes partly to advance the Public Good, by ad- 
 vancing a noble Art, and partly to retort private Injuries; . . . either 
 cause is in itself good and just, and both together are strong and powerful, 
 and I ... shall have both together to apologise for my present undertak- 
 ing." Remarks upon Cato, p. 7. 
 
 4 Original Letters, p. 403. 
 
198 
 
 Remarks upon Pope's Translation of Homer he affirmed that 
 he had attempted to write with fairness and to give no faults 
 that he did not find in the translation. 5 Furthermore, in these 
 same Remarks he acknowledged an earlier blunder of his own. 6 
 
 So far as in him lay, Dennis strove in his best work not only 
 to be logical but also to put his argument into such form as 
 would appeal most easily and most convincingly to his readers. 
 Some of his writings, it is true, such as the Reflections upon an 
 Essay on Criticism, evince little attempt at any regular method 
 of discussion ; but most of the important critiques, including the 
 Remarks on Prince Arthur, the Large Account of the Taste 
 in Poetry, the Remarks upon Cato, and most notably the Ad- 
 vancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, show careful 
 planning by the writer. In his more pretentious work Dennis 
 took pains to define the terms he employed 7 and frequently 
 cast his arguments into syllogistic form. 8 The use of the 
 dilemma, too, became characteristic of his style of argu- 
 ment. Restatements, summaries, and recapitulations are also 
 frequent in Dennis's writings, especially in the Advancement 
 and Reformation, where he sometimes carries them to the 
 point of weariness in his desire that the reader may not miss 
 the thread of the argument. Possibly at times this argument 
 becomes, as Mr. Saintsbury describes 9 it, "a clatter of asser- 
 tion ; " but Dennis was at least intellectually honest and tried 
 to convey as clearly as he could what he conceived to be the 
 truth. 
 
 With his attempts at clearness he strove to couple a variety 
 and elevation of style. For example, he even went so far 
 in his desire to diversify his Remarks on Prince Arthur as to 
 introduce a fragment from one of his own unfinished dramas ; 
 while to relieve the reader after a long stretch of reasoning in 
 the Grounds of Criticism in Poetry, he cited several illustrative 
 passages from the poets. In his criticisms he aimed at force 
 
 6 Remarks upon Pope's Homer, p. 97. 
 
 6 Ibid., p. 83. 
 
 7 Possibly this attitude was a result of his respect for Hobbes. See 
 Hobbes's Works, London, 1740, III, 23. 
 
 8 E. g., Chap. IV of the Usefulness of the Stage. 
 9 History of Criticism, II, 433. 
 
199 
 
 and grace and attained them oftener than in either his poems or 
 his plays. Pope seems to have recognized Dennis's attempts 
 at elevation and to have hit at him when, in the Essay an Criti- 
 cism, he praised Longinus for judging with fire. At any rate 
 Dennis took the thrust to himself and retorted 10 thus : 
 
 [Pope] " condemns his Contemporaries for no other Reason but that they 
 are his Contemporaries. For why should not a modern critic imitate the 
 qualities of Longinus ; and when he treats of a subject that is sublime, 
 treat of it with Sublimity? But pray, who are the Moderns that judge 
 with Fury but write with Flegm? Who are they who have writ both 
 Criticism and Poetry, who have not in their Poetry shewn a thousand 
 times more than this Essayer's Fire?" 
 
 And there is no mistaking the nature of Dennis's answer to his 
 own question. Sometimes one is tempted to believe that he 
 occasionally relied upon the enthusiasm of the moment to make 
 amends for the absence of hard, consistent labor ; for while, as 
 has been stated, his more pretentious work was carefully 
 planned and executed, time after time he declared in his shorter 
 tracts that he had written hurriedly, and that he was thor- 
 oughly tired of his task. 11 
 
 But on the whole Dennis's style in his criticisms was a very 
 good one at times one might call it admirable, and that too 
 after making allowance for the superabundance of strong ex- 
 pletives and a burly humor, which is free from slime, though 
 not from mud. Indeed one sometimes wonders at the difference 
 between the dull and heavy style of his dramas and the firm 
 and often elevated style of his criticisms. But this contradic- 
 tion in his style was but one of the many in the man himself. 
 
 The contradiction noticed in the preceding paragraph, indeed,' 
 is evident "noT only in Dennis's style but in his whole critical 
 position, which we may now summarize. At bottom Dennis 
 was a rationalist, or better a dogmatist who supported his 
 positions by asserting that they were based upon reason. The 
 age was in part responsible for his attitude, especially in his 
 
 10 Reflections upon an Essay on Criticism, p. 18. Cf. Disraeli's Calamities 
 of Authors, London, 1867, p. 57. * 
 
 11 Prefaces to the Court of Death, to Blenheim, the Impartial Critick, the 
 Usefulness of the Stage, Remarks upon Mr. Pope's Translation of Homer, 
 and elsewhere. 
 
200 
 
 earlier years when he was very susceptible to the ideas of 
 others. But a certain positiveness and assertiveness of nature 
 would have made him a dogmatist in any age. His educa- 
 tion was such as to inspire him with a love for the classics and 
 a respect for their authority, but that respect never became . 
 a servile regard bu-t rather the admiration of one who felt that 
 the classics were great and good only as they conformed to 
 the eternal dictates of reason. In the majority of his beliefs 
 he agreed with the prevailing ideas, especially in his regard for 
 the different classes of literature and their commonly accepted 
 characteristics. He further agreed with current custom in that 
 as a critic he confined himself largely to a discussion of the 
 epic and the drama, and that as a playwright he chose nearly 
 all his themes from the life of the court and the city and 
 treated them with " regularity." 
 
 But there was in him another and, for the history of criti- 
 cism, a more important side. For Dennis went beyond his age 
 in appreciating that "a clear head and an accurate under- 
 standing alone are not sufficient to make a poet," and in re- 
 asserting time after time that emotioji is the real basis of 
 poetry. To his age he stood as the champion of " the furious 
 joy and pride of souV which he called the distinguishing mark 
 of literary genius. In his attempt to emphasize emotion as the 
 basis of poetry he proposed as the source of material for poetic 
 inspiration not the Greek and Roman masterpieces venerated 
 by the neo-classicists but the holy scrigtures. a suggestion which 
 was simply revolutionary. In his early recognition of Milton 
 as the poet of sublime emotions, Dennis was so far in ad- 
 vance of his age that it is scarcely an exaggeration to main- 
 tain that his criticisms contain the first appreciation of Paradise 
 Lost which may be considered as at all adequate. Dennis was 
 also a pioneer of his times in emphasizing the relation of emo- 
 tion and versification, in discussing the difference between ordi- 
 nary emotion and emotion recollected in tranquility (to use 
 Wordsworth's phrasing), as the basis of poetry, and in 
 championing the cause of unrhymed verse when the heroic 
 couplet was dominant. Moreover, his appreciation of Shaks- 
 gere was decidedly in advance of his time. To him is also to 
 
201 
 
 be credited one of the earliest, if not the first, 'bookj-eview in 
 a modern sense. Then too, in his better critical days he viewed 
 literature dynamically rather than statically, recognized a 
 standard of taste beyond judgment, and analyzed the conditions 
 making for the taste of his age. Furthermore, though he wrote 
 of and for the city, he manifested a keen delight in nature 11 * 
 and seems to have gone beyond any other writer of his age in 
 his appreciation of her sublime aspects. 12 In a word, Dennis 
 was possessed of a large, if not always well regulated, emo- 
 tional nature and of considerable critical acumen, which fre- 
 quently clashed with his respect for the rules and pointed the 
 way to a better conception of literature. 
 
 In hisiaier years, as has been indicated, he became more and 
 more the champion of the rules. Such conservatism, which 
 might well be explained by his increasing years, was fostered 
 by the conflicts in which he engaged. The old critic who en- 
 tered the lists as the champion of liberty and religion came to 
 speak, as someone has said, with the authority of an infallible 
 church. After he was sixty, Dennis insisted, with the assur- 
 ance of one who knows himself in the right, upon the ob- 
 servance of the various types and even refused the name of 
 poetry to such writings as did not conform to these standards. 
 Against the recognition of any new class of writings he grew 
 bitterly opposed. For example, he himself, who as a young 
 writer had employed and defended burlesque, in his old age 
 could .scarcely find condemnation sufficiently severe for its suc- 
 cessor, the mock epic. These later years also reveal in Dennis's 
 work an increased attention to matters of verbal criticism, 
 sometimes just, but more often the cavils of one looking for 
 faults. But even in these evil days he maintained his admira- 
 
 ua " As when a thoughtful man forsakes the Town, 
 And to some Country Solitude goes down, 
 With more than common pleasure he beholds 
 The Woods, the Lawns, the Valleys, and the Folds. 
 Nature's bright Beauties everywhere he meets, 
 His Soul, which long had been confin'd in Streets, 
 With Rapture now her kindred Objects greets." 
 
 "Prologue Written by Mr. Dennis" for Oldmixon's Amintas, 1698. 
 13 Miscellanies in Verse and Prose, p. 137; Original Letters, pp. 3off. 
 
202 
 
 tion for Milton and his insistence upon emotion as the basis of 
 poetry, and for these we may forgive many things. 
 
 Just what was the influence Dennis's views exerted upon 
 
 . . . J mi" i " li TT . . .***?"^ 
 
 his contemporaries, it is hard to say. His reputation in the 
 first part of the eighteenth century was well established in 
 England and may have extended to the continent. 13 Indeed 
 through the first quarter of the eighteenth century Dennis was 
 commonly regarded as England's greatest critic, and it is not 
 surprising that he felt his importance and spoke with an 
 authority which evoked from his enemies and the wits of the 
 town in general a certain mock respect. Gay, for example, in 
 the preface to the Mohocks, declared "We look upon you to 
 have a monopoly of English criticism in your head ; " and he 
 later joined with Pope and Arbuthnot 14 in burlesquing Dennis 
 as the nation's foremost critic. But the general opinion was 
 better voiced by Gildon, who in I7I7 15 praised Dennis as "the 
 most consummate critic of the age." In reply to the possible 
 objection that Gildon's opinion was as much biased by 
 prejudices as was Gay's, may be cited the testimony of the 
 thoroughly impartial Giles Jacob 16 " If I did not allow this 
 Gentleman to be ... the greatest Critic of this Age, I should 
 be wanting in justice to his Character;" and this estimate was 
 repeated near the middle of the century by Ayre in his biog- 
 raphy of Pope. 17 We may also note that in 1723 Blackmore 
 praised Dennis as a greater critic than Boileau. 18 
 
 13 "A certain Gentleman just arriv'd from Spain, and other Parts, by 
 chance meeting Mr. Dennis, among other Compliments told him, he ob- 
 serv'd his Character and Writings were very much taken notice of in 
 Foreign Parts, to which Mr. Dennis reply'd ' Yes, Sir, I know they do me 
 Honour, but as for my own Country, the English, God's Death, they dont 
 know there's such a Man amongst them.' " Victor's Epistle to Sir Richard 
 Steels on his Play called the Conscious Lovers, 1722. 
 
 14 In Three Hours after Marriage. 
 - Complete Art of Poetry, I, 185. 
 
 16 Poetical Register, 1719, I, 258. 
 
 17 1, 47 ff. 
 
 18 Preface to Alfred, iii : " There are other Gentlemen, who . . . believe no 
 Man should attempt such a Work [. e., an epic] on the Plan of Revealed 
 Religion . . . And in this Class are Mr. Boileau and Sir William Temple; 
 and Mr. Dennis, who has better deserved of the Christian Religion than the 
 last, as he is superior in critical Abilities to the first, seemed once to have 
 
203 
 
 The last years of Dennis's life brought the quarrels with 
 Addison, Pope, and Steele, which we have discussed at length, 
 ana the satires of Gay, Theobald, and Parnell. In this flood 
 of adverse criticism and scoffing Dennis was nearly over- 
 whelmed. All sorts of charges were brought against him, 
 from that of ill nature to that of debasing his criticism for 
 gaining the means of subsistence. Every critic and criticaster 
 of the day had his fling at the old censor of letters. It is easy 
 to see, therefore, why in his later years Dennis exerted but 
 little influence; for any critic of the day who might have 
 given a thoughtful consideration to his doctrines, might well 
 have hesitated to acknowledge any indebtedness. 
 
 His position regarding the emotions excited considerable 
 comment during the earlier years of the eighteenth century. 
 The more friendly attitude toward his views is that exemplified 
 in the verses ascribed to Dr. King; 19 while the hostile attitude 
 found expression in the laughs and gibes at " Sir Longinus " 
 both on and off the stage. 20 Pope's fling may be cited as char- 
 acteristic, for while he could descant upon rapture warming the 
 
 the same Judgment. In this same year appeared another reference to 
 Dennis's rank as a critic. Benjamin Victor, who took sides with Steele 
 in the quarrel over the Conscious Lovers, declared in the preface to his 
 Vindication of that play that he proposed to show " that the Great Critic 
 of the Age (in his own Opinion) is no Critic at all." 
 19 " While Dennis aids the Muse to sing, 
 
 Or gives her plumes, or clips her wing, 
 
 Directs her cautious how to fly, 
 
 Unbeaten paths along the sky ; 
 
 With safety we sublimely stray, 
 
 And soaring gain the realms of day, 
 
 Till trembling from the heights above, 
 
 And dazzling orbs o'er which we move ; 
 
 We gently sink in humbler strains, 
 
 To vales beneath and rural plains." 
 
 In J. Nichols's Short Collection of Poems with Notes Biographical and 
 Historical, London, 1780, III, 55. From Bibliotheca; a Poem occasioned 
 by the Sight of a Modern Library. " This is ascribed to Dr. King upon 
 conjecture only. It was published in 1712, the winter before his death 
 by his publisher, and is very much in his manner." Nichols's Note. 
 
 20 " Never was there in our Nation a time when Folly and Extravagance 
 of every kind were more sharply inspected, or wittily ridiculed." Shafts- 
 bury's Letter Concerning Enthusiasm, 1708. 
 
204 
 
 mind, 21 he ridiculed 22 "the poetic rage and enthusiasm of 
 which Mr. Dennis hath been so highly possessed; . . . those 
 extraordinary motions whereof he so feelingly treats." It is 
 difficult, however, to indicate any direct influence 23 of Dennis's 
 insistence upon the emotional element in poetry. As the tenet 
 of one of the foremost critics of the time, it probably met with 
 a certain recognition which never found any very tangible 
 expression. To the literary student of today it is interesting as 
 at least a forecast of the practice of the romanticists. 
 
 Dennis's proposal to restore poetry by the infusion of re- 
 ligion, if not very potent directly, 24 at least represents a strong 
 
 21 Essay on Criticism, 1. 235. 
 
 22 Dunciad, Note to I, 106. In his Prologue to a Play for Mr. Dennis's 
 Benefit, 1733, Pope characterized our critic as 
 
 " A desp'rate bulwark, sturdy, firm, and fierce 
 Against the Gothic sons of frozen verse." Works, IV, 418. 
 
 23 The student of Dennis is frequently tantalized by suggestions of pos- 
 sible instances of the critic's influence, as, for example, in the writings 
 of Lady Winchilsea. She was a friend of Dennis's associate Rowe (the 
 Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea, by Myra Reynolds, Chicago, 1903, 
 p. liii) and published her first poems in the Miscellanies of the critic's 
 boon companion Gildon in 1701, just at the time that our author was 
 doing his most original critical thinking. Sixteen years later she was 
 satirized along with Dennis in the Three Hours After Marriage, where 
 she is represented as reading to him one of her plays. Furthermore, we 
 know that she was deeply interested in the critical thought of the times 
 (Op. cit., cxi) and that her nephew with whom she lived on very intimate 
 terms was one of the subscribers to Dennis's proposed magnum opus in 
 1704 and therefore possessed at least the Grounds of Criticism in Poetry, 
 which contained our critic's views on the possibilities of uniting religion 
 and poetry developed as far as he ever carried them. To this we may 
 add that Lady Winchilsea produced in the years immediately following 
 the promulgation of Dennis's theory a number of paraphrases of different 
 parts of the scripture. Possibly too, her interest in the fable may have 
 been stimulated by Dennis's efforts in that form of writing. At any rate 
 her fables are written in the La Fontaine-L'Estrange style which Dennis 
 had imitated a decade before. While all this evidence fails to prove any 
 influence of Dennis upon Lady Winchilsea, it suggests strongly the possi- 
 bility of such influence and exemplifies interestingly the many points of 
 possible contact between our critic and the other writers of his time. 
 
 24 Aaron Hill, who after 1730 took a kindly interest in Dennis, may 
 have been influenced by the critic in undertaking his numerous para- 
 phrases of the scriptures. It is at least noticeable that he versified nearly 
 
205 
 
 current in the literature of the age. The tragedies of his 
 friend Rowe exhibit these same moralistic tendencies, as do 
 also the comedies of his early friend and late enemy Steele, 
 which Hazlitt has characterized as "homilies in dialogue." 25 
 As examples of the workings of this force in other branches 
 of letters may be cited Shaftsbury's moralistic writings and, 
 even better, the Tatler and Spectator, whose professed purpose 
 was "to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with 
 morality." Addison was, of course, well acquainted with 
 Dennis's theory, which may have stimulated his interest in 
 writing hymns. As a more definite result of Dennis's doctrine 
 may be cited the publication of the Collection of Divine Hymns, 
 1709, which has been noticed in the biography. In his Com- 
 plete Art of Poetry Gildon frankly incorporated Dennis's views 
 on the relation of poetry and religion into his scheme for 
 systematizing poetic theory; and Blackmore both in his Crea- 
 tion and in the preface to his Redemption indicates that he 
 knew and favored Dennis's position. Possibly, too, the physi- 
 cian-poetaster may have been stimulated by Dennis's theory in 
 undertaking his New Version of the Psalms of David, fitted 
 for the Tunes used in Churches, 1721, which proved a very 
 popular hymnal. 25a Here, too, we may note that in the Plain 
 Dealer for January 18, 1725, appeared a letter vigorously cen- 
 suring the " Bible Versions of the Psalms and the Prophets " 
 in use in the churches, and praising Dennis's efforts to elevate 
 and restore sacred poetry. 
 
 Later in the century Goldsmith emphasized 26 the close rela- 
 
 all of Dennis's favorite passages from the Old Testament. It is, moreover, 
 interesting to note in connection with this possible influence by Dennis that 
 Hill also wrote a Poem in Praise of Blank Verse. Both he and his friend 
 the poet Thomson were at least fairly well acquainted with Dennis's critical 
 beliefs. 
 
 28 Comic Writers, Lecture VIII. 
 
 2811 There was, however, both in this and in the preceding age a great 
 deal of religious paraphrasing. Waller had done it years before, as had 
 Parnell and others contemporary with Dennis, so we must be careful in 
 assigning any special influence to our critic. 
 
 26 " Poetry in its infant state was the language of devotion and love. 
 It was the voice and expression of the heart of man when ravished with 
 the view of numberless blessings that perpetually flowed from God, the 
 
206 
 
 tion of religion and poetry in a manner that seems to indicate 
 he was acquainted with the works of Dennis. If he did not 
 borrow his ideas from the older critic, he at least expressed them 
 in language quite similar to that of the Grounds of Criticism in 
 Poetry. It is much more doubtful whether Wordsworth was 
 acquainted with Dennis's theories; but there is at least an 
 interesting parallel between Dennis's belief that ideas in medi- 
 tation furnish the best material for poetry and Wordsworth's 
 well known doctrine that the basis of poetry is "emotion 
 recollected in tranquility." Again, some of the ideas in the 
 Essay Supplementary to the Preface of the Lyrical Ballads, 
 emphasizing the " affinity between religion and poetry," are in 
 substantial agreement with those we have discussed. Indeed 
 as we read in Wordsworth's Preface to the edition of 1815 that 
 " The grand store houses of enthusiastic and meditative Imagi- 
 nation of poetical, as contradistinguished from human and 
 dramatic Imagination, are the prophetic and lyrical parts of 
 the Holy Scriptures and the works of Milton," we realize that 
 here are Dennis's doctrines reappearing after a hundred years. 
 The present writer has been unable, however, to show definitely 
 that Wordsworth was influenced by Dennis's writings. 
 
 In considering the question of the influence of Dennis's ad- 
 miration for Milton upon the other writers of the age, 27 we 
 may well notice the following passage from his Observations 
 
 fountain of goodness." Newbery's Art of Poetry, I, ii. " What we have 
 said of the origin of poetry will account for the necessity there is for that 
 enthusiasm, that fertility of invention, those sallies of imagination, lofty 
 ideals, noble sentiments, bold and figurative expression, harmony of num- 
 bers, and indeed the natural love of the grand, sublime, and marvellous, 
 which are the essential characteristics of the great poet." Ibid., iii. 
 Other critics of the eighteenth century who have discussed the relation 
 of religion and poetry, such as Bishop Kurd (Works, 1811, II, 168) appear 
 quite ignorant of Dennis's theorizing. 
 
 27 Possibly Thomson, who befriended Dennis's old age, may have had his 
 interest in Milton and in blank verse strengthened by the old critic. Cf. his 
 lines from Autumn in praise of Philips as Milton's successor: 
 " Philips, Pomona's bard, the second thou 
 Who nobly durst in rime-unfettered verse 
 With British freedom sing the British song." 
 
 Blackmore, too, may have been influenced by Dennis's doctrines. See the 
 preface to his Creation, xlvi. 
 
207 
 
 on Paradise Lost, included in the Proposal for printing the 
 Miscellaneous Tracts, 1721. This passage indicates clearly 
 his attitude toward the " Spectator's " criticisms of Milton's 
 poem: 
 
 " in most of the Treatises which I have publish'd! for Thirty Years, even 
 in those in which I have unhappily engag'd to detect and blame the Errors 
 of some of my Contemporaries, I have not been able to forbear pointing 
 at several of the matchless Beauties of Milton. In the Remarks on Prince 
 Arthur I cited at large the sublime Description of Satan in the first Book of 
 that Poem : and the speech of that fallen Arch-Angel in the fourth, which 
 begins with the noble Apostrophe to the Sun. 
 
 " In the Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry, which was pub- 
 lished in 1700, I shew'd the vast advantage which Milton had over Ovid, and 
 ev'n Virgil himself, in his Description of Chaos and the Creation. 
 
 " In the Grounds of Criticism in Poetry, which Book was published in 
 1704, you know very well, Sir, that I cited at large the Description of the 
 Descent of Raphael in the fifth Book, and the glorious Hymn to the Creator 
 in the same Book, and likewise the Divine colloquy between God and Adam 
 in the Eighth Book. 
 
 " Some Persons, who long since the Publication of the foremention'd 
 Treatises began to write Notes on the Paradise Lost, have made particular 
 mention of the same Beauties which I had mark'd out before, without making 
 any Mention of me. Tho' you know very well Sir, that I can bring unques- 
 tionable Proof that those Person's had read the foremention'd Treatises, 
 and read them with Applause ; but I should not be the least concern'd at the 
 treating me so unfairly, if they had done justice to Milton, thro' the course 
 of their Criticisms." 
 
 That Addison was consciously or unconsciously indebted to 
 Dennis seems quite probable. His scheme for discussing the 
 poem is, as has frequently been noted, that of Le Bossu, which 
 our critic had employed in judging Blackmore's Prince Arthur. 
 Furthermore, while it may be urged that it is possible that 
 Addison may have selected as " Beauties " those passages 
 formerly praised by the older writer, it seems probable that his 
 attention may have been called to some of them at least by 
 his friend's eulogies of them. Then too, Dennis had insisted 
 beyond any other writer of the times upon recognizing as the 
 preeminent quality of Milton's poem a sublimity surpassing that 
 of any other writer ancient or modern; and in beginning his 
 comments Addison had emphasized this quality very much in 
 
208 
 
 the manner of Dennis. 27a Again, we may note that Addison 
 repeated Dennis's statement that Milton's Hymn at the 
 Creation is based upon the I48th Psalm, and that the " Spec- 
 tator's" comments upon Milton's description of Chaos closely 
 resemble our critic's discussion of the same subject. That Ad- 
 dison should have made no mention in these papers of the 
 well-recognized champion of Milton is to be explained, per- 
 haps, by the strained relations between him and his fellow 
 critic at the time of the publication of these appreciations. At 
 any rate there can be but little doubt that Addison's interest in 
 Milton was stimulated by the repeated and enthusiastic praise 
 Dennis bestowed upon that poet. 
 
 On a single later critic was Dennis's influence pronouncedly 
 marked. Dr. Johnson read and considered his writings care- 
 fully, took as his own many of the opinions there stated, and 
 expressed the desire that Dennis's works might be collected. 28 
 It is, of course, too much to say that Johnson's advocacy of 
 the theory of poetic justice was due entirely to Dennis's teach- 
 ing, for the idea was common enough; but he unquestionably 
 weighed our critic's arguments and was, it seems probable, 
 influenced by them. 29 In his lives of Addison and of Pope 
 Johnson made frequent allusions to and quotations from 
 Dennis's criticisms of these authors. Some of the Doctor's 
 phrases concerning the old critic are fairly well known, such 
 as his statement that Dennis " found and shewed many faults 
 in Cato," that " he shewed them indeed in anger, but he shewed 
 them with acuteness, such as ought to rescue his work from 
 oblivion." Johnson then proceeded to incorporate in his Life 
 of Addison several pages of the Remarks upon Cato, possibly, 
 as was maliciously suggested by one contemporary, 30 to " swell 
 his pay." He accepted Dennis's criticisms of the play as quite 
 
 27(1 Defoe in the notes to Jure Divino, 1706, had declared that in his opinion 
 Milton was the greatest master of the sublime in any language. Perhaps 
 such talk was then common enough to make it possible that Addison did not 
 think especially of Dennis. 
 
 28 Hill's Johnsonian Miscellanies, III, 40. 
 
 29 Preface to his edition of Shakespere, xix. 
 
 30 Horace Walpole's Letters, Oxford, 1906, II, 376: "[Johnson] has re- 
 printed Dennis's criticism of Cato to save time and swell his pay." 
 
209 
 
 pertinent, though he ended by declaring that " as we love better, t 
 to be pleased than to be taught, Cato is read, and the critic 
 neglected." Johnson also quoted a part of Dennis's comment 
 on Addison's praise of Chevy Chase and endorsed the critic's 
 condemnation of the ballad. He further showed himself a 
 close student of Dennis in his criticisms of Pope, 31 many of 
 which are in large measure merely restatements of our author's 
 judgments. But on the whole, Johnson was less influenced 
 by Dennis's criticisms of Pope than by his judgments of 
 Addison. 
 
 Johnson's respect for Dennis, however, was in marked con- 
 trast with the general opinions of his age, for the view most 
 commonly accepted was that expressed in Gibber's Lives of 
 the Poets where the critic is represented as a disappointed 
 as^rant for the crown of wit. 32 Frequently, too, in such skits 
 as Thos. Cooke's Battle of the Poets, the first edition of which 
 had appeared in 1725 during Dennis's life, the old critic was as- 
 signed a part in keeping with his reputation for asperity; 33 
 while by still other writers, less friendly, he was often 
 
 31 Lives of the Poets, London, 1825, IV, 172, 173, 178, 179, 185, 253. 
 
 32 " His perpetual misfortune was that he aimed at the empire of wit, for 
 which nature had not sufficiently endowed him ; and as his ambition prompted 
 him to obtain the crown by a furious opposition to all competitors, so, like 
 Caesar of old, his ambition overwhelmed him." IV, 238. 
 
 33 In the second canto of the Battle of the Poets (Mr. Cooke's Original 
 Poems, etc., London, ed. of 1742, p. 31), Dennis is thus described: 
 
 " Dennis, whose veins with youthful Vigour flow, 
 Firm as an Oak beneath the Weight of Snow, 
 True Foe to Vice, to Modern Bards the Dread, 
 Who spurious wit hath oft in Triumph led, 
 Rears, as Apollo and the nine inspire, 
 With hands tremendous the vindictive Fire. 
 Dauntless he rages o'er the hostile Ground ; 
 And of the slumb'ring Chiefs, the Labours round 
 He views and seizes in th' unguarded Hour 
 From each an Off'ring to the offended Power. 
 From Pope he bears no slender Sacrifice ; 
 In flaming Rolls Volumes on Volumes rise : 
 With the marr'd Grecian stories fed the Flame, 
 Thy Praise, Cecilia, and the Temple Fame." 
 15 
 
210 
 
 ridiculed as selling his judgment for a dinner. 34 Voltaire, who 
 gained most of his information about Dennis from Pope and 
 his friends frequently sneered at the old gallophobe and com- 
 pared 35 him with a pigs'-tongue tester. Later, Dibdin found 36 
 Dennis's vanity his chief characteristic; and some of the 
 biographers of Addison, Steele, and Pope discovered 37 in him 
 a " literary hangman," without the smallest particle of literary 
 acumen. But something of a reaction is noticeable a half cen- 
 tury after Dennis's death. Bowles, in his edition of Pope, 38 
 defended some of Dennis's criticisms and pleaded for a more 
 lenient judgment of the man on the score of his bitter dis- 
 appointments in life ; and Cowper found 39 in him " a very sen- 
 sible fellow," who had "passed some censures on both" Ad- 
 
 34 E. g., the Reverend James Miller in his Harlequin Horace, 1731, p. 56, 
 says: 
 
 " And next old Dennis with a Supper treat, 
 He'll like your Poem as he likes your Meat ; 
 For give that growling Cerberus but a Sop, 
 He'll close his Jaws, and sleep like any Top." 
 
 ^Oeuvres, Paris, 1829, XXXVIII, 254. 
 
 38 History of the English Stage, London, 1800, IV, 356. 
 
 87 E. g., Montgomery, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Sir Richard 
 Steele, Edinburg, 1865, II, 47. Montgomery here speaks thus of Dennis: 
 " Indeed he was worse than a hangman, who merely executes a painful 
 but necessary duty. Dennis, on the contrary, indulged in wanton cruelty ; 
 and if he had been the functionary referred to, he would have treated 
 his victim to a preliminary rehearsal of his office before executing it." 
 
 38 " I cannot help feeling that poor Dennis was hardly used. He was a 
 scholar, had a liberal education, and had been, in his early youth, a com- 
 panion to those who were distinguished for rank and literature. Being at 
 first countenanced, and having a considerable share of learning and in- 
 genuity, he was no doubt mortified and galled, to find the stream of popular 
 applause turned almost exclusively to one Poet. [On this account, his 
 strictures, though often just, are marked with asperity and coarseness.] 
 . . . Let us remember what is due to disappointment. Dennis came into 
 the world with ardent hopes as a man of literature, and with respectable 
 connections. He found all of his expectations crossed, though he was 
 conscious of his acquirements ; and after long and ineffectual struggles 
 towardr attaining what he considered his deserved rank of literary emi- 
 nence, he sank at last, poor and unfriended, into old age." Bowles, Works 
 of Alexander Pope in Verse and Prose, London, 1806, IV, 28. 
 
 89 Letter to the Reverend Walter Bagot, July 4, 1786. 
 
211 
 
 dison and Pope "that had they been less just, would have 
 hurt less." 
 
 The first half of the nineteenth century saw little attention 
 paid to Dennis beyond Disraeli's characterizing him as the 
 true ^mechanical critic 40 and holding him up as a horrible 
 example, and Talf curd's really judicious consideration of his 
 writings. 41 This latter article was the first, and still remains 
 almost the single, serious discussion of the critic and his work; 
 and though somewhat rhetorical, it is on the whole a just and 
 impartial criticism. About the same time came Landor's 
 extravagant praise 42 of our critic in ranking Dryden "knee 
 deep below John Dennis." The middle of the century brought 
 Thackeray's phrase " the Timon of Grub Street ; " and then 
 Lowell in the essays on Dryden and on Pope found many 
 oases in Dennis's pedantry and declared that he had " some 
 sound notions as a critic." Swinburne has been, perhaps, the 
 most enthusiastic of all the later admirers of our author, 
 declaring 43 that through the Large Account of the Taste in 
 Poetry " John Dennis has proved himself as superior a critic to 
 Addison as Coleridge or Lamb is superior to Dennis, and has 
 also proved himself a master of English far more vigorous and 
 spontaneous, while no less classical and lucid, than Addison and 
 Steele." More satisfactory is the position assigned to Dennis 
 by Mr. William Roberts, 44 who has pointed out modestly yet 
 convincingly how the critic has as yet not received his just due. 
 Mr. Edmund Gosse, too, has indicated in his various writings 
 on this period some of the features for which Dennis's work 
 deserves to be remembered. Last of all we may note that in 
 his History of Criticism Mr. Saintsbury gives 45 a rather per- 
 functory account of Dennis, comparing him with Rymer, and 
 finding in him the worst of a breed of critics of which Johnson 
 was the best. 
 
 * Calamities of Authors, London, 1867, pp. 52 ff. 
 
 "Critical and Miscellaneous Writings of Thomas Noon Talfourd, Phila- 
 delphia, 1842. 
 
 42 Imaginary Conversations, Crump ed., IV, 275. 
 ^St. James's Gazette, November 8, 1895. 
 Vol. 
 
 46 II, 43*. 
 
212 
 
 But, after all, Dennis's importance for us lies not so much in 
 the specific doctrines he maintained, as in the fact that he was 
 one of the earliest of his nation to devote the best of a life to 
 criticism. Through his long and toilsome career he battled 
 loyally for what he considered right standards of judgment, 
 encouraged the appreciation of the greater poetry, and held 
 contemporary literature to answer for its faults. Despite his 
 dogmatism, despite the bitter conflicts and ridicule of his later 
 life, Dennis gained a certain recognition for the significance 
 of the critic's work, and he helped force a consideration of the 
 " still-vexed " question of the value and utility of criticism. 
 
LIST OF DENNIS'S WRITINGS 
 
 1682. Upon the Fleet then fitting out. Written in 1682. In- 
 cluded in the Works in 1718/19. It is not known 
 whether this poem was ever published separately. 
 
 1692. The tenth Ode of the Second Book of Horace imitated. 
 In the Gentleman's Journal: or the Monthly Miscel- 
 lany for May. 
 
 1692. Upon our Victory at Sea, Ibid, for June. 
 
 1692. Part of Juvenal's eighth Satyr, English' d, Ibid, for 
 October. 
 
 1692. Verses to a Painter, drawing the Picture of a beautiful 
 Lady, Ibid, for November. 
 
 1692. Poems In Burlesque; With a Dedication in Burlesque, 
 to Fleetwood Shepherd, Esquire. 
 
 1692. The Passion of Byblis, made English by Mr. Dennis. 
 1692/3. To Sylvia, an Excuse for having lov'd another m her 
 
 Absence, Gentleman's Journal; or the Monthly Mis- 
 cellany for January. 
 
 1693. The Impartial Critick, or, Some Observations upon a 
 
 late book entitul'd A Short view of tragedy, written 
 by Mr. Rymer. 
 1693. Miscellanies in Verse and Prose. 
 
 1695. The Court of Death; a Pindarique Poem, dedicated to 
 
 the Memory of her most Sacred Majesty, Queen 
 Mary. 
 
 1696. Remarks on a Book, entitul'd Prince Arthur, an Heroic 
 
 Poem } with some General Critical Observations, and 
 Several New Remarks upon Virgil. 
 
 1696. Letters on Milton and Congreve. This book has ap- 
 parently been lost. 
 
 1696. Letters upon Several Occasions: Written by and be- 
 tween Mr. Dryden, Mr. Wycherley, Mr. , 
 
 Mr. Congreve, and Mr. Dennis. Published by Mr. 
 Dennis. With a New Translation of Select Letters 
 of Monsieur Voiture. 
 
 213 
 
214 
 
 1 697. The Nuptuals of Britain's Genius and Fame: a Pin- 
 
 darick Poem on the Peace. 
 1697. A Plot and No Plot; a Comedy, as it is Acted at the 
 
 Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane. 
 
 1697. Miscellany Poems, By Mr. Dennis. With Select Trans- 
 
 lations of Horace, Juvenal, Mons. Boileau's Epistles, 
 Satyrs, and Aesop's Fables in Burlesque Verse. To 
 which is added, The Passion of Byblis, with some 
 Critical Reflections on Mr. Oldham and his Writings, 
 With Letters and Poems. The Second Edition with 
 large Additions. 
 
 1698. The Usefulness of the Stage to the Happiness of Man- 
 
 kind, to Government and to Religion. Occasion'dby a 
 Late Book Written by Jeremy Collier, M. A. 
 1698. Prologue for Oldmixon's Amintas a Pastoral. 
 
 1698. Rinaldo and Armida, a Tragedy, as it is Acted at the 
 
 Theatre in Little-Line oln's-Inn-Fields. 
 
 1699. Iphigenia, a Tragedy, acted at the Theatre in Little 
 
 Line oln's-Inn-Fields. 
 
 1701. The Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry. 
 
 A Critical Discourse in Two Parts. The First, Shew- 
 ing that the Principal Reason why the Ancients excel'd 
 the Moderns in the Greater Poetry, was because they 
 mix'd Religion with Poetry. The Second, Proving 
 that by joining Poetry with the Religion reveal 'd to 
 us in Sacred Writ, the Modern Poets might come to 
 equal the Ancients. 
 
 1701 (?). The Seamen's Case. Nothing is known of this 
 pamphlet beyond the name and the fact that the Essay 
 on the Navy, 1702, on its title page bears the state- 
 ment " By the Author of the Seamen's Case." 
 
 1702. The Comical Gallant; or the Amours of Sir John Fal- 
 
 staffe. A Comedy as it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal 
 in Drury Lane by His Majesty's Servants By Mr. 
 Dennis To Which is Added a Large Account of the 
 Taste in Poetry and the Causes of the Degeneracy 
 of it. 
 1702. The Danger of Priestcraft to Religion and Govern- 
 
215 
 
 ment Occasioned by a Discourse of Mr. Sachever ell's 
 intitul'd: The Political Union. 
 
 1702. The Monument: A Poem Sacred to the Immortal 
 Memory of the Best & Greatest of Kings, William 
 the Third King of Great Britain &c. 
 
 1702. An Essay on the Navy, or England's Advantage and 
 
 Safety, prov'd Dependant on a Formidable and well- 
 Disciplin'd Navy: and the Encrease and Encourage- 
 ment of the Seamen. 
 
 1703. A Proposal for Putting a Speedy End to the War, by 
 
 Ruining the Commerce of the French and the 
 Spaniards and securing our own, without any addi- 
 tional Expense to the Nation. 
 
 1704. The Person of Quality's Answer to Mr. Collier's Letter, 
 
 being a Dissuasive from the Play-house. 
 
 1704. Liberty Asserted. A Tragedy as it is Acted at the 
 New Theatre in Little Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. 
 
 1704. The Grounds of Criticism in Poetry, contain' d in some < 
 New Discoveries never made before, requisite for the 
 Writing and Judging of Poems surely. Being a Pre- 
 liminary to a larger Work design' d to be publish'd in 
 Folio, and Entitul'd, A Criticism upon our Most 
 Celebrated English Poets Deceas'd. 
 
 1704. Britannia Triumphans: or the Empire Sav'd, and 
 
 Europe Delivered, by the Success of her Majesty's 
 Forces under the Wise and Heroick Conduct of his 
 Grace the Duke of Marlborough. A Poem. 
 
 1705. Gibraltar: or the Spanish Adventure. A Comedy as it 
 
 was Acted at the Theatre in Drury Lane. 
 
 1706. An Essay on the Operas after the Italian Manner, 
 
 which are about to be establish'd on the English 
 Stage: With some Reflections on the Damage which 
 they may bring to the Publick. 
 
 1706. The Battle of Ramillia: or, the Power of Union. A 
 
 Poem. In Five Books. 
 
 1707. Prologue to the Subscribers for Julius Caesar, Spoken 
 
 by Mr. Betterton, Written by Mr. Dennis. In the 
 Muses Mercury for January. 
 
216 
 
 1707. The Masque of Orpheus and Eurydice, Ibid, for 
 February. 
 
 1707. Song, and Epitaph Writ by Boileau for his Mother's 
 
 Tombstone, Ibid, for April. 
 
 1708. The Character of a True Friend, in the Oxford and 
 
 Cambridge Miscellanies. 
 
 1709. Appius and Virginia. A Tragedy as it is Acted at the 
 
 Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, by Her Majesty's 
 Sworn Servants. 
 
 1709. A Collection of Divine Hymns and Poems on Several 
 Occasions: By the E. of Roscommon, Mr. Dryden, 
 Mr. Dennis, Mr. Norris, Mrs. Kath. Phillips, Philo- 
 mela, and others. Most of them never before Printed. 
 
 1711. Reflections upon a late Rhapsody called An Essay upon 
 Criticism. 
 
 1711. An Essay upon Public k Spirit: being a Satyr in Prose 
 
 upon the Manners and Luxury of the Times, the Chief 
 Source of our present Parties and Diversions. 
 
 1712. An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Shakespear: 
 
 with Some Letters of Criticism to the Spectator. 
 
 1713. Remarks upon Cato, A Tragedy. 
 
 1714. A Poem upon the Death of Her Late Sacred Majesty 
 
 Queen Anne, and the Most Happy and Most Au- 
 spicious Accession of his Sacred Majesty King 
 George, To the Imperial Crowns of Great Britain, 
 France and Ireland. With an Exhortation to all True 
 Britons to Unity. 
 
 1715. Priestcraft Distinguish' d from Christianity. 
 
 1716. A True Character of Mr. Pope, &c To Mr. . 
 
 Probably by Dennis. 
 
 1717. Remarks upon Mr. Pope's Translation of Homer; with 
 
 Two Letters concerning Windsor Forest, and the 
 Temple of Fame. 
 
 1717. Proposals for Printing by Subscription the Select 
 Works of Mr. John Dennis, In Two Volumes Octavo. 
 
 1718/19. Select Works. 
 
 1720. The Invader of His Country: or The Fatal Resent- 
 ment. A Tragedy, As it is Acted at the Theatre- 
 Royal in Drury-Lane, By His Majesty's Servants. 
 
217 
 
 1720. The Character and Conduct of Sir John Edgar, Call'd 
 by Himself Sole Monarch of the Stage in Drury- 
 Lane; and his Three Deputy Governors. In two 
 Letters to Sir John Edgar. 
 
 1720. The Character and Conduct of Sir John Edgar, and his 
 
 Three Deputy Governors, During the Administration 
 of the late separate Ministry. In a Third and Fourth 
 Letter to the Knight. With a Picture of Sir John, 
 Drawn by a Pen, exactly after the Life. 
 
 1721. Proposals for printing by Subscription in two Volumes 
 
 in Octavo the following Miscellaneous Tracts, written 
 by J. D. i. The Advancement and Reformation of 
 Modern Poetry, n. Rinaldo and Armida, a tragedy, 
 etc. 
 
 1721. Original Letters, Familiar, Moral and Critical. In Two 
 
 Volumes. 
 
 1722. Julius Caesar acquitted, and his Murderers condemn' d, 
 
 in a Letter to a Friend: shewing that it was not 
 Caesar who destroyed the Roman Liberties, but the 
 Corruption of the Romans themselves. Occasioned 
 by two Letters in the London Journal on the 2d and 
 pth of Dec. 
 
 1722. A Defence of Sir Fopling Flutter, A Comedy. Written 
 by Sir George Etheridge. In which Defense is 
 shewn, That Sir Fopling, that Merry Knight, zvas 
 rightly composed by the Knight his Father to answer 
 the Ends of Comedy; and that he has been barbar- 
 ously and scurrilously attack' d by the Knight his 
 Brother, in the 6$th Spectator. By which it appears 
 that the Latter Knight knows nothing of the Nature 
 of Comedy. 
 
 1722. A Short Essay toward an English Prosody, in the 
 
 second edition of James Greenwood's An Essay 
 towards a Practical English Grammar. 
 
 1723. Remarks on a Play, call'd The Conscious Lovers, a 
 
 Comedy. 
 
 1724. Vice and Luxury Public Mischiefs: or Remarks on a 
 
 Book Intitul'd The Fable of the Bees; or Private 
 Vices Public Benefits. 
 
218 
 
 1726. The Stage Defended from Scripture, Reason and the 
 
 Common Sense of Mankind for Two Thousand 
 Years. Occasioned by Mr. Law's late Pamphlet 
 against Stage Entertainments. In a Letter to . 
 
 1727. Miscellaneous Tracts written by Mr. John Dennis in 
 
 Two Volumes. Vol. I Containing I The Advance- 
 ment and Reformation of Modern Poetry. II 
 Rinaldo and Armida, A Tragedy. Ill An Answer to 
 Mr. Collier's Short View of the Stage. Only one 
 volume was ever published. 
 
 1728. Letter against Mr. Pope at Large, Daily Journal, May 
 
 ii. 
 
 1728 ( ?). The Faith and Duties of Christians. A Treatise in 
 Eight Chapters Written originally in Latin by the 
 late Rev. Dr. Thomas Burnet, Master of the Charter- 
 House. Translated into English by Mr. Dennis. 
 
 1728. Remarks on Mr. Pope's Rape of the Lock. In Several 
 
 Letters to a Friend. With a Preface, Occasioned by 
 the late Treatise on the Profound and the Dunciad. 
 
 1729. Remarks upon Several Passages in the Preliminaries to 
 
 the Dunciad, both in the Quarto and in the duodecimo 
 edition, and upon several Passages in Pope's Preface 
 to his Translation of Homer's Iliad } In both of which 
 is shewn the Author's want of Judgment. With 
 Original Letters from Sir Richard Steele, from the 
 late Mr. Gildon, from Mr. Jacob, and from Mr. Pope 
 himself, which shew the Falsehood of the latter, his 
 Envy, and his Malice. 
 
 1733. A Treatise concerning the State of Departed Souls 
 Before, and At, and After the Resurrection. Writ- 
 ten originally in Latin by the late Rev. Dr. Thomas 
 Burnet, Master of the Charter-House, Author of the 
 Theory of the Earth. Translated into English by Mr. 
 Dennis. 
 
 1817. A letter To the Rev. Dr. xxx and part of an essay 
 The Causes of the Decay and Defects of Dramatick 
 Poetry; and of the Degeneracy of the Publick Taste, 
 in the Monthly Magazine, June i. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Accession of King George: see 
 
 Poem upon the death of . . . 
 
 Queen Anne. 
 Account of the greatest English 
 
 Poets, An: igi. 
 Addison, Joseph: 4, gn., 13, i6n., 
 
 22., son., 33, 36, 52, 54, 65-72, 97, 
 
 112, I22n., I24n., 131, 155, 165, 
 
 1 66, 168, 173, 178, 188, 191, 
 19311., 194, 195, 203, 207, 208, 
 
 210, 211. 
 
 Advancement and Reformation, the : 
 4n., 16, 29, 38, 49-50, 102, in, 
 n6n., 136, 140, 141, 198, 214. 
 
 Advancement of Learning: 128. 
 
 Aeneid, the: 131, 163. 
 
 Aesop : 2in., 161. 
 
 Alchemist, the : 189. 
 
 Alfred: 20211. 
 
 All for Love: 72, 12311., 15211., 195. 
 
 Amintas : 37, 20111. 
 
 Anacreon : 21. 
 
 Ancients and Moderns: 140, 151. 
 
 Andria: 83. 
 
 Anecdotes, Spence's : 88n. 
 
 Answer to a Whimsical Pamphlet, 
 An: 74, 79. 
 
 Apollonius Rhodius : non. 
 
 Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley 
 Cibber, An : 4on. 
 
 Apology for Poetry, Harrington's : 
 
 159. 
 
 Appius and Virginia: 44-45, ioin., 
 216. 
 
 Arbuthnot, Dr. John: 89, 91, 94, 
 io6n., 202. 
 
 Aristotle: 6sn., 112, 116, 117, 120, 
 i25n., 126, 130, 141, 146, 147, 
 148, 149, 154, 158, 160, 161, 162, 
 163, 165, 167, 168, 174, 175, 194. 
 
 Arnold, Matthew: 92. 
 
 Ars Poetica: 130. 
 Art of Poetry, Newbery's : 2o6n. 
 Art Poetique, Vauquelin's : 138. 
 Athenian Mercury: i82n. 
 Atterbury, Francis, Bishop of 
 
 Rochester: 6n., 104, 191. 
 Aureng-Zebe : 134. 
 Autumn: 2o6n. 
 Ayre, Wm. : 37n., 192, 202. 
 
 Bacon, Francis: 121, 128, 142, 162, 
 163. 
 
 Ballad, the: 177-178. 
 
 Barry, Mrs. Elizabeth: 41. 
 
 Bartas, Du: 138. 
 
 Bathurst, Allen, Earl of: i8n., 27n. 
 
 Battle of Aghrin : ioin. 
 
 Battle of Ramillies : see Poem on 
 the Battle, etc. 
 
 Battle of the Poets: 209. 
 
 Beauties and faults: 124-125, 157. 
 
 Beckingham, Chas. : 75. 
 
 Bedford, Arthur: 52n. 
 
 Bentley, Richard: 53. 
 
 Betterton, Thos. : 3gn., 41, 45. 
 
 Bibliographers' Manual: ioin., io7n. 
 
 Bibliotheca: 203n. 
 
 Blackmore, Sir Richard: 9, 29, 30, 
 Sin., 72, 73, gon., 98, 109, in, 
 n6n., i22n., i32n., i4on., i47n., 
 I 53, !56, 160, i63n., 166, 176, 202, 
 205, 2o6n., 207. 
 
 Bladen, Martin: 44n., 57. 
 
 Blount, Martha: ign. 
 
 Boileau: 13, 21, 30, 65, gon., 109, 
 112, 115, 119, 129, 134, 137, 138, 
 152, 157, 158, 159, 175, 177, 178, 
 
 195, 202. 
 
 Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, Vis- 
 count : 56. 
 Bookworm, the: 45n., gon., 10511. 
 
 219 
 
220 
 
 Booth, Barton: 41, 44, 75, 10311. 
 
 Bossuet: 15511. 
 
 Bouhours : 121, 124, 156. 
 
 Bowles, W. L. : 210. 
 
 Boyer, Abel : 26-27. 
 
 Bracegirdle, Mrs. Anne: 41. 
 
 Brady, Dr. Robert: 2. 
 
 Britannia Triumphans, or the Battle 
 
 of Blenheim: 36, 42, ioin., 139, 
 
 16911., 192, 215. 
 
 Brown, Tom: 18, 2in., 29, sin. 
 Buckinghamshire, Duke of : see 
 
 Mulgrave. 
 Bullock, Wm. : 40. 
 Burnet, Thos. : 57, 103, 104. 
 Burnet, Sir Thos. : 96. 
 Butler, Samuel: 15, 20, 83n., gon., 
 
 177, 196. 
 
 Caecilius : 134. 
 
 Caesar : 36, 62. 
 
 Cambridge Gesta Book: 2. 
 
 Caryll, John : 7on. 
 
 Catiline: 28. 
 
 Cato : 67, 68-69, 131. 
 
 Censor, the: 6sn., 91, 93. 
 
 Censor Censured, the : 84. 
 
 Chapelain : 115. 
 
 Character and Conduct of Sir John 
 
 Edgar, the: 77n., 78, 79n., 217. 
 Characteristics : i 7. 
 Character of a Low Churchman: 
 
 47- 
 
 Character of a True Friend: 38. 
 Chaucer, Geoffrey: gon., 127, 184, 
 
 185. 
 
 Cheek, Thos.: i8n. 
 Chevy Chase: 178, 209. 
 Chorus, attempts to restore the : 154- 
 
 155, 174-175. 
 Christian religion and poetry: 137- 
 
 142, 204-206. 
 Gibber, Colley : 24n., 37n., 39n., 40, 
 
 44, 58n., 71-72, 75, 76-77, 78, 91, 
 
 106, i7in., 209. 
 Gibber. Theophilus : 106. 
 
 Cicero: 129, 179. 
 
 Cinna: 147. 
 
 Cleland, Will : 96. 
 
 Codrington, Christopher : 26. 
 
 Coleridge, S. T. : 211. 
 
 Collection of Divine Hymns, A : 38, 
 
 205, 216. 
 Collection of Pieces . . . published 
 
 on Occasion of the Dunciad, A: 
 
 98. 
 Collier, Jeremy: 2, 9, 24, 30-31, 51, 
 
 64, 65, 102, no, 112, 117, 121, 
 
 i47n., i8in. 
 Comedy: 170-172. 
 
 Comical Gallant, the: 38-41, 214. 
 Comparison between the Two 
 
 Stages, A: 5n., 13, 23n., 25n., 
 
 26n., 91, i97n. 
 Compleat Collection, etc., A: 96n., 
 
 98. 
 Complete Art of Poetry: son., 112, 
 
 n6n., 205. 
 Congreve, William: 10-11, i6n., 18, 
 
 19, 23, 24, 28, 30, 33, 7on., 71, 
 
 82n., 93, ioin., 102, io3n., 104, 
 
 i35n., 142, i47n., i7in., 176, 196. 
 Conscious Lovers, the : 80, 81-84. 
 Cook, Thos.: 104, 105, 209. 
 Cooper's Hill: 92. 
 Coriolanus: 63, 75, 166, 187, 188. 
 Corneille, Pierre: sn., 109, 115, 116, 
 
 138, 147, 162, i7on., 172. 
 Corneille, Thos. : sn. 
 
 Court of Death . . . to the Memory 
 of . . . Queen Mary: isn., 22, 
 23, ioin., i35n., 175, i76n., 213. 
 
 Cowley, Abraham: 8n., 121, 138, 
 
 139, 176, 190. 
 Cowper, Wm. : 210. 
 Creation, the : 30, 205. 
 
 Critical Essays of the Seventeenth 
 Century: 107, i23n., i24n., i62n. 
 
 Critical Specimen, the: in., 3 in., 
 42n., S5n., 56n., 66, i8in. 
 
 Critic no Wit, A : 76, 78n. 
 
221 
 
 Critique de I'Ecole des Femmes: 
 
 11911. 
 Cromwell, Henry : 67, 80, 86, 94, 
 
 178. 
 
 Crowue, John: 8sn., 196. 
 Curll, Edward: ign., 98, io6n. 
 
 Dacier: 6sn., 112, 116, i25n., 129, 
 
 142, 147, issn., 167, 168, 174, 176. 
 Daily Journal: 96. 
 Danger of Priestcraft, etc.: 47-48, 
 
 join., 214. 
 Darby, John: 101. 
 Davenant, Sir Wm. : 121, 138. 
 Davideis: 138. 
 Day's Ramble in Co-vent Garden, A : 
 
 20. 
 Death of Queen Anne: see Poem 
 
 upon the death of . . . Queen 
 
 Anne, 
 Defense of Sir Fopling Flutter, A: 
 
 8in., 217. 
 
 Defense of the Epilogue: 186. 
 Defense of . . . the Plain Dealer: 
 
 1 02. 
 Defense of the Short View, etc., A : 
 
 De Fide et Officiis Christianorum : 
 103. 
 
 Defoe, Daniel: 14, 3in., 47, 48, 60, 
 155, 2o8n. 
 
 Denham, Sir John : 83n., gon., 92, 
 181, 196. 
 
 Dennis, John : education, 1-4 ; 
 travels on the continent, 4-6 ; 
 relations with Dryden, Congreve, 
 and Wycherley, 6-19 ; his patrons, 
 I4-I7, 33-34, 56-57; his poems, 
 19-23, 35-38 ; plays, 23-27, 38-45 ; 
 critical writings, 27-31, 49-53, 
 63-65 ; political pamphlets, 46-49, 
 61-63 ; waitership, 33, 58-60 ; 
 financial troubles, 57-60; relations 
 with Addison, 65-72 ; with Steele, 
 72-84 ; with Swift, 84-85 ; with 
 Pope, 86-99 J collections and re- 
 publications, 99-103 ; translations, 
 
 103-104: his last years, 104-100; 
 posthumous publications and re- 
 publications, 107; outline of his 
 critical career, 108-114; his judg- 
 ments of English writers, 185- 
 196; his style, 198-199; his con- 
 tributions to criticism, 199-202 ; 
 his influence, 202210 ; posthumous 
 reputation, 209-211. 
 
 Design of . . . Ecclesiastes : i82n. 
 
 Desmaretes de Saint-Sorlin : 121, 
 138. 
 
 De Statu Mortuorum: io3n., 104. 
 
 Devonshire, William Cavendish, 
 Duke of: 33, sin. 
 
 Dibdin, Chas. : 210. 
 
 Dictionary of National Biography: 
 43- 
 
 Dilke, Chas. Wentworth : 6gn. 
 
 Dionysius of Halicarnassus : 112. 
 
 Discourse concerning . . . Satire: 
 15, H5n. 
 
 Discourse on Comedy: 143. 
 
 Disraeli, Isaac: 211. 
 
 Dissuasive from the Play House, A : 
 3i, Si- 
 
 Doddington, George: i67n. 
 
 Dorset, Chas. Sackville, Earl of : 
 7, 15, 33, 39"., 190. 
 
 Double Dealer, the: u, 142. 
 
 Dryden, John: 6-10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 
 i7n., i8n., 19, 20, 27n., 29, 31, 
 38n., 49, 54, 66, 74, 83n., 89, 9on., 
 94n., ioin., 109, no, in, 112, 
 115, u6n., 118, 121, 123, 124, 
 126-128, 131, 132, 134, 135, 137, 
 138, 145, 147, 148, 150, 151, i52n., 
 154, 157, J 59, i6m., 163, 167, i7on., 
 i7in., 172, 173, i74n., 176, 177. 
 182, 184, 185, 186, 188, 190, 191, 
 195-196, 211. 
 
 Du Bellay: 115. 
 
 Duckett, George: 57, 96. 
 
 Dunciad, the: 13, 94, 95, 97. 
 
 Eccles, John : 25. 
 Edgar: 174, i83n. 
 
222 
 
 Eighteenth Century Essays on 
 
 Shakespeare: 107. 
 Emotion as basis of poetry: 135, 
 
 140-141, 156, 203-204. 
 Enthusiasm: 136, 150. 
 Epic, the: ispff. 
 Epigrams, T. Brown's : 29. 
 Epistle to Sir Richard Steele, An: 
 
 82, 202n. 
 
 Epitaph Writ by Boileau: 216. 
 Essay concerning the Human Under- 
 standing, An: 136. 
 Essay of Dramatic Poesy, An: 15, 
 
 115, i74n. 
 
 Essay on Criticism, An: 45, 199. 
 Essay on the Genius and Writings 
 
 of Shakespear, An : 63, 64, 67, 68, 
 
 73n. 
 Essay on the Italian Operas, An: 
 
 51, 52, iom., 215. 
 Essay on the Navy, An : 46, 48, 215. 
 Essay Supplementary to the Preface 
 
 to the Lyrical Ballads: 206. 
 Essay upon Publick Spirit, An : 62, 
 
 iom., 216. 
 Essays of John Dry den: i39n., 
 
 1 6 in., i86n. 
 Etheredge, Sir George: 80, 81, Szn., 
 
 196. 
 
 Euripides: 25, 29, no, 186, 187. 
 Eusden, Lawrence : 98. 
 Evils and Dangers of Stage Plays, 
 
 the : S2n. 
 
 Examiner, the: 85. 
 Exton, Sir Thos. : 3. 
 
 Fable of the Bees, the: 62. 
 
 Fables, La Fontaine's : 22n. 
 
 Fables, L'Estrange's, 21. 
 
 Faerie Queen, the: 186. 
 
 Faith and Duties of Christians, the : 
 
 103, 218. 
 
 Farmer, Dr. Richard: 2, sn., 187. 
 Farquhar, George : 143. 
 Fiddes, Richard : 62n. 
 Fielding, Henry: 82n., 113. 
 
 Filmer, Edward: ii7n. 
 Fool of Fashion, the: 80. 
 French critics: 116, 147, 160. 
 Full Consideration of Sir John 
 Edgar, A : jgn. 
 
 Garth, Dr. Samuel: 2, 33, 50. 
 Gay, John: 59, 88-89, Qi, 93, 158, 
 
 202, 203. 
 
 Geneste, John: 106. 
 Gentleman's Journal, the: 19. 
 Gentleman's Magazine, the: s8n., 
 
 iosn., 106. 
 
 Gibraltar: 42-43, 215. 
 Gildon, Chas. : in., 13, 35, 39, 90, 
 
 94, 97, i03n., 112, n6n., i66n., 
 
 167, 169, 174, 188, 191, 202, 204n., 
 
 205. 
 
 Glenham, Chas. : 2n. 
 Godolphin, Sidney, Earl of : 33, 37n., 
 
 42, 49, 64. 
 
 Goldsmith, Oliver : 205-206. 
 Gondibert: 138. 
 Goodall, Chas.: i82n., 189. 
 Gosse, Edmund: 29, 211. 
 Graphic Illustrations of Hogarth: 
 
 59n. 
 
 Great Favourite, the: 124. 
 Grounds of Criticism, the : 38, 50- 
 
 51, iom., in, i2on., 136-137, 
 
 140, 141, 145, 146, 193, i94n., 
 
 198, 206, 215. 
 Grub Street Journal, the : 98. 
 
 Haines, Joe: 24. 
 
 Halifax, Chas. Montague, Earl of': 
 
 12, 15-16, 37, 39n., 52, 56n., 58, 
 
 64, 65, 104. 
 Hamelius, Professor Paul : 73n., 
 
 121, i26n. 
 Hare, Francis: 85. 
 Hare, Henry: 190. 
 Harlequin Horace, the: i93n.. 2 ion. 
 Harrington, Sir John: 159. 
 Havens, R. D. : i82n., 189. 
 Hazlitt, Wm. : 205. 
 
223 
 
 Henley, Anthony: 33, 34, 41, sin. 
 Henry IV of France: 75. 
 Hermogenes : 141. 
 Heroic Daughter, the: 71, 78n. 
 Hill, Aaron: 99, iO3n., 106, i8in., 
 
 History of Criticism, A: 211. 
 Hobbes, Thos. : 118, 119, 125, 131- 
 
 !3 2 > !33> JSo, ig8n. 
 Homer: non., 116, 142, 144, 149, 
 
 161, i8sn., 190, 193, 194. 
 Homer's Battle of the Frogs and 
 
 Mice: 93, 94. 
 Horace: 13, 19, 21, non., 112, 116, 
 
 117, iign., 120, i25n., 129, 130, 
 
 134, 146, i47n., 154, 157, 162, 177, 
 
 178. 
 
 Horn, Dr. William: i. 
 Howard, Sir Robert: 124, 125. 
 Ho well, James: 18. 
 Hudibras: 21, gon., 177. 
 Hudson, Benj. : 58. 
 Hurd, Richard, Bishop of Roches- 
 
 ter : 2o6n. 
 
 Hutchinson, Francis : 62n. 
 Hypollitus : 29. 
 
 Iliad, the : 91. 
 
 Imagination : 1 3 i-i 34. 
 
 Imitation : 1 29-1 3 1 . 
 
 Imitation of Horace, An : 89. 
 
 Impartial Critick, the : 9, 27-28, 63, 
 
 84, 107, 109, i27n., 154, 173, 213. 
 In Defense of Mr. Wycherley's 
 
 Characters in the Plain-dealer: 
 
 11-12. 
 Invader of his Country, the : 44, 45, 
 
 54n, 57, 75-77, 80, 216. 
 Iphigenia: 4n., 16, 25-27, 28, loin., 
 
 214. 
 
 Iphigenia in Taurus: 25. 
 Italian critics : i46n. 
 
 Jacob, Giles: 36, 43, 97, 99n., no, 
 
 192, 202. 
 Jerusalem Delivered: 25. 
 
 John Dennis, the Sheltering Poet's 
 
 Invitation: 60, 74, 8sn. 
 John Dennis to Mr. Thomson: iosn. 
 Johnson, Dr. Samuel : 29n., son., 92, 
 
 96, 98n., 107, 143, 166, 172, 173, 
 
 i84n., i88n., 208-209, 211. 
 Jonson, Ben: 83n., 115, 121, 129, 
 
 i32n., 142, 152, 162, 170, 172, 
 
 188-189. 
 
 Julius Caesar: 28, 187. 
 Julius Caesar Acquitted: 62, 217. 
 Jure Divino : 2o8n. 
 Justice of the Peace, the: 23. 
 Juvenal: 13, 19, 127, 176, 177. 
 
 King, Dr. William : 203. 
 King and No King: 130. 
 Kippis, Dr. Andrew : sn., 106. 
 Kritik in der Englischen Literatur, 
 Die : 73n., i26n. 
 
 La Bruyere: 112, 124, 125, 156. 
 
 La Fontaine: 21, 22n., 2O4n. 
 
 Lamb, Charles: i77n., 211. 
 
 Landor, W. S. : 211. 
 
 Langbaine, Gerard: in., 13. 
 
 Language, decorum in, 117, 119; 
 perfection in, 156; figures in 
 poetry, 181. 
 
 Lansdowne, George Granville, Lord: 
 16, 33, 39, 40, 51, 63, 99, 118. 
 
 Large Account of our Most Cele- 
 brated English Poets Deceas'd, 
 A: 2n., 50, 101, 157. 
 
 Large Account of the Taste in 
 Poetry, A: 8n., 40, in, 153, 155, 
 157, i64n., 169, I7in., 198, 211. 
 
 Law, Wm. : 31, 62n., 64, 144. 
 
 Legal Conviction of Mr. Alexander 
 Pope, the: 98. 
 
 Leslie, the Rev. Chas. : 48. 
 
 Letter, the: 178-179. 
 
 letter against Mr. Pope at Large: 
 96, 218. 
 
 Letter concerning Enthusiasm : 
 
224 
 
 Letter to the Rev. Dr. : 
 
 107, 2ig. 
 
 Letters and Essays on Several Sub- 
 jects: 13. 
 
 Letters from the Dead to the living: 
 1 8. 
 
 Letters on Milton and Congreve: 
 10, 28, 213. 
 
 Letters upon Several Occasions: 711., 
 8, ion., 17, i8n., ioin., 178, 213. 
 
 Liberty Asserted: 14, 34, 40-43, 49, 
 ioin., 215. 
 
 Life of Addison: 208. 
 
 Life of Mr. John Dennis, the: 1511., 
 4on., 1 06. 
 
 Lintot, Bernard: 42, 45n., 68-69, 
 9on., 92. 
 
 Literary Anecdotes of the Eigh- 
 teenth Century: 45n. 
 
 Lives of Edward and John Phillips: 
 28. 
 
 Lives of the Poets, Gibber's : 33n., 
 4<m., 58, 76, 77, 209. 
 
 Lives of the Poets, Johnson's : 2gn. 
 
 Livy : 44, 188. 
 
 Locke, John: i6n., 119, 136. 
 
 Longinus : 124, 134, 141, 147, 157, 
 179, 199. 
 
 Love in tragedies: 169-170. 
 
 Lowell, J. R. : 10, 92, 173, 211. 
 
 Lucretius: 30, non. 
 
 Luttrell, Narcissus: sn., 3 in. 
 
 Lycophron : non. 
 
 " Machines :" 139-140. 
 
 Mallet, David: 44n., I03n., 105, 
 
 i8in. 
 
 Mandeville, Bernard : 62, 63. 
 Manley, Mrs. Delariviere : 5 in. 
 Man of Mode, the: 80, 81. 
 Marlborough, John Churchill, Duke 
 
 of: 33, 35, 36, 37, 4in., 64, 85, 
 
 139- 
 
 Martyn, John: 105. 
 Marvell, Andrew: i8in. 
 Maynwaring, Arthur: 14, 44, 8sn. 
 
 Measure for Measure: 39. 
 
 Memoirs of the Life . . . of Sir 
 Richard Steele : 2 ion. 
 
 Memoirs of the Life . . . of William 
 Congreve: nn., 7on. 
 
 Merchant of Venice, the: 39. 
 
 Mere: 124. 
 
 Merry Wives of Windsor, the : 38, 
 39- 
 
 Miller, the Rev. Jas. : i93n., 2 ion. 
 
 Milton, John: 9, 10, 28, 37, 51, 72, 
 83n., 102, non., in, 121, 123, 
 127, 128, 135, 140, 141, 144, 145, 
 146, 149, 151, 158, 175, 180, 181- 
 182, 185, 189-195, 200, 202, 206- 
 208. 
 
 Mirror, or Letters Satyrical, the : 
 98n. 
 
 Miscellaneous Letters: 191. 
 
 Miscellaneous Tracts: n, 94, 102, 
 218. 
 
 Miscellanies, Tonson's : 9. 
 
 Miscellanies in Verse and Prose: 
 4n., 15, 21, 27, 134, 177, 182, 213. 
 
 Miscellany Poems: 2 in., 214. 
 
 Mohocks, the: 59, 88-89, 202. 
 
 Moliere: 109, ngn., 168, 170-171. 
 
 Montgomery, H. R. : 2 ion. 
 
 Monument; . . . to the Memory 
 of . . . William the Third, the: 
 33, 36, ioin., 215. 
 
 Monthly Magazine, the: 107. 
 
 Moralistic tendency: 120-122; Den- 
 nis's, 137-144. 
 
 Moyle, Walter: 14, i6n., ssn., 64, 
 ioin. 
 
 Mulgrave, John Sheffield, Earl of : 
 7, 1 6, 33, 39n., 51, 64, 68, 112, 
 n6n., 118, 147, 167, 175, 190. 
 
 Muses Mercury: 37-38, 44. 
 
 Muzio : 137. 
 
 Narrative of Dr. R. Norris, etc. : 
 
 43, 69, 87n., 89, 97- 
 Neoclassicism : 114-118, 120. 
 
225 
 
 New Association of Moderate 
 
 Churchmen, etc., the : 47, 48. 
 Newcastle, Thos. Pelham-Holles, 
 
 Duke of: 57, 78, 79-80. 
 New Project for the Regulation of 
 
 the Stage, A : 9511. 
 Newton, Sir Isaac: i6n. 
 New Version of the Psalms of 
 
 David, A : 205. 
 Nichols, John: nn. 
 Nonnus : non. 
 Normanby, John Sheffield, Marquis 
 
 of: 39n. 
 
 Norton, Richard: sin. 
 Nuptuals of Britain's Genius and 
 
 Fame, the : 22, 214. 
 
 Observations on Paradise Lost: 72, 
 
 102. 
 
 Ode, the : 175-177. 
 Oeuvres d' Horace: n6n. 
 Oeuvres Meslees, St. fivremond's : 
 
 Of Simplicity in Poetical Composi- 
 
 tion: 178. 
 
 Old Bachelor, the: 10, 104. 
 Oldfield, Mrs. Anne: 76. 
 Oldham, John: 20, 2in., 23n., 189. 
 Oldmixon, John: 37, 95, 2Oin. 
 On Paradise Lost: i8in. 
 On the Conspiracy against the Repu- 
 
 tation of Mr. Dry den: 127. 
 On the Moral . . . of an Epic Poem : 
 
 166. 
 
 On the Poet Laureate: 97-98. 
 On the Sublime: 124, 134. 
 Original Letters: 5n., 7n., 8n., I4n., 
 
 i7n., 3Sn., S5n., 60, 64, 81, 84n., 
 
 94, 102, i46n., i63n., 166, i7in., 
 
 i92n., 217. 
 Ormonde, James Butler, Duke of : 
 
 16. 
 
 Orpheus and Bury dice : 44, 216. 
 Othello: 28, 174. 
 Otway, Thos. : 196. 
 Ovid: 19, 20, no, 118, 207. 
 
 16 
 
 Oxford, Robert Harley, Earl of: 52, 
 
 96. 
 Oxford and Cambridge Miscellanies, 
 
 the: 38. 
 
 Pack, Richardson: u. 
 Paradise Lost: 29, 37, 72, 140, 149, 
 
 151, 190, 191, 192, 193, 195, 200. 
 Paradise Regained: 151. 
 Paraphrase upon the Canticles: 
 
 i82n. 
 
 Parnell, Thos.: 93, 161, 203. 
 Part of Juvenal's Eighth Satyr: 
 
 213. 
 
 Passion of Byblis, the: 19, 20. 
 Patriotic tendency, the: 122-123; 
 
 Dennis's, 144-146. 
 Pembroke, Thos. Herbert, Earl of: 
 
 16, 46, s6n., 104. 
 Peri Bathous, Martin Scriblerus: 
 
 8sn., 94. 
 Person of Quality's Answer, A: 31, 
 
 46, 64, 102, 215. 
 Perrault: 8, 53. 
 
 Philips, Ambrose: 83n., 178, 196. 
 Philips, John: 36n., 2o6n. 
 Philips, Mrs. Katherine : 38n. 
 Phillips, Edward: 135, 189. 
 Pindar: non., 135, 175, 181. 
 " Pindarick :" see the ode. 
 Pindarick Ode to the King: 14. 
 Plain Dealer, the: 9, 196. 
 Plato: 167. 
 Plautus: 187. 
 
 Pleiade : 122, 129, 134, 138, 158. 
 Pliny : 179. 
 Plot or fable: 117, 126, 142-144, 
 
 160-161. 
 Plot and No Plot, A: 15, 23, 24, 31, 
 
 zoin., 173, 214. 
 
 Poem on the Peace, A: i35n. 
 Poem on the Battle of Ramillia, A : 
 
 37, sgn., iom., 215. 
 Poem upon the Death of . . . Queen 
 
 Anne and the . . . Accession of 
 
 . . . King George: 15, 60, iom., 
 
 183, 216. 
 
226 
 
 Poems in Burlesque: 15, 19, 20, no, 
 129, 213. 
 
 Poetical Register, the: 43, i7in., 
 192. 
 
 Poetic justice: 162-167. 
 
 Poetics, Aristotle's: 162. 
 
 Political Union, the : 47. 
 
 Pope, Alexander: 10, 12, i6n., i8n., 
 ign., 28n., 35, 43, 45, 52, 55, 68- 
 70, 86-100, 10311., 105-106, 108, 
 i lo, 113, 114, 119, 127, 144, 14811., 
 184, 185, 197, 199, 202, 203, 20411., 
 
 209, 2IO, 211. 
 
 Pope Alexander's Supremacy: 96, 
 97. 
 
 Popiad, the: 98. 
 
 Popular Fallacies: 17711. 
 
 Porter, Mrs. Mary: 41, 42. 
 
 Powell, George: 41. 
 
 Priestcraft dangerous to Religion: 
 see Danger of Priestcraft, etc. 
 
 Priestcraft distinguish' d from Chris- 
 tianity : ioin., 216. 
 
 Prince Arthur: 9, 25, 109, 14711., 
 1 60, 207. 
 
 Prior, Matthew: 13, 15, i6n., 3611., 
 64. 
 
 Prologue to Amintas : 2oin., 214. 
 
 Prologue . . . for Julius Caesar: 37, 
 215. 
 
 Prologue to the Satires: 86. 
 
 Propitiatory Sacrifice, etc. : 18211. 
 
 Proposal for Putting a' Speedy End 
 to the War: 48-49, ioin., 215. 
 
 Proposal, prefatory to the Grounds 
 of Criticism: 12 on. 
 
 Proposals for printing . . . Miscel- 
 laneous Tracts: 12, 72, 19311., 207, 
 217. 
 
 Proposals for printing . . . the Select 
 Works of Mr. Dennis: 101, 102, 
 216. 
 
 Provoked Husband, the: 106. 
 
 Psalms, the: 180. 
 
 Purcell, Daniel : 44, 82n. 
 
 Purcell, Henry : 25. 
 
 Puttenham, George: 121. 
 
 Racine: 25, 26, 28, 109, 127, i55n., 
 
 173, 174, 175, i9S. 
 Ralph, James : i47n. 
 Rapin : 13, 109, 112, 115, 116, n7n., 
 
 121, 130, 134, 142, 147, i48n., 
 
 iSSn., 163, 167, 168, i72n., 175, 
 
 178, 180. 
 
 Rationalism: 118-120, 148-149. 
 Redemption, the : 205. 
 Reed, Isaac : ioin. 
 Reflections on Aristotle: nyn. 
 Reflections upon ... an Essay on 
 
 Criticism: 45, 58, 86, 87-89, 90, 
 
 97, non., 127, 159, i62n., i8in., 
 
 185, 198, 216. 
 Rehearsal, the: 119. 
 Remarks of a School boy : 78. 
 Remarks on Prince Arthur: 6n., 
 
 23n., 28-29, 109, i32n., 133, 139, 
 
 158, 160, 161, 169, i96n., 198, 213. 
 Remarks on . . . the Conscious 
 
 Lovers: 72, 83, non., 143, 159, 
 
 171, 217. 
 Remarks on . . . the Rape of the 
 
 Lock: 70, 95, 113, ii9n., 161, 177, 
 
 185, 218. 
 Remarks upon Cato: 67, 71, 113, 
 
 i5on., 173, i78n., i97n., 198, 208, 
 
 216. 
 Remarks upon Fresnoy's Art of 
 
 Painting: 130. 
 Remarks upon Mr. Pope's Homer: 
 
 3n., 70, 8sn., gon., 92-93, 94, 113. 
 Remarks upon the Dunciad: 86n., 
 
 9on., 92n., 95n., 97, 100, 113, 194, 
 
 218. 
 
 Rhetoric, Aristotle's: 130, i4in. 
 Rich, John : 104. 
 Richardson, Samuel: 107. 
 Rinaldo and Armida: 24-25, 102, 
 
 173, 214. 
 Roberts, Wm. : 43, gon., io5n., 106, 
 
 211. 
 
 Roper, Abel : 85n. 
 
227 
 
 Rosamond, 52. 
 
 Roscomraon, Wentworth Dillon, Earl 
 of: 23n., 33, 3811., 8311., 118, 12311., 
 147, 182, 19311., 196. 
 
 Rowe, Nicholas: s8n., 71, 122, 20511. 
 
 Rules, the: 114-118; Dennis's atti- 
 tude toward, 146-152. 
 
 Rymer, Thos. : 8, 9, 13, isn., 27, 53, 
 
 63, 109, in, 115, ii7n., 118, 119, 
 126, 127, 130, 141, 147, 151, 154, 
 i55n., 163, 168, 174, 178, i8in., 
 183, i86n., 188, 190, 211. 
 
 Sacheverell, Henry : 47. 
 
 St. fivremond: 109, H7n., iign., 
 
 124, 125, 129, 137, 138, 154, 155, 
 
 169, i7in., 189. 
 Saintsbury, Professor George : 9, 
 
 140, 142, 185, 198, 211. 
 Satire aginst Wit: 29, 72. 
 Satires, Pope's: 100. 
 Savage, Richard: in., 98, iO3n., 
 
 iosn. 
 
 Scaliger: i47n., 158. 
 Seamen's Case, the: 46, 214. 
 Scarborough, Richard Lumley, 
 
 second Earl of: 57. 
 Scarron : 20, no, 177. 
 Sedley, Sir Chas. : 39n. 
 Select Works: 8n., i2n., 38, 43, 44, 
 
 54, 75, 101, 102, i4in., 216. 
 Selvaggi : 190. 
 Seventeenth Century Notices of 
 
 Milton: i82n. 
 Settle, Elkanah: 3n. 
 Seymour, Lord Francis : 2, 4. 
 Shadwell, Thos. : 83n., gon., 196. 
 Shaftsbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 
 
 Earl of: 7, 109, 123, 125, 137, 158, 
 
 176, 203, 205. 
 Shakspere, Wm. : 37, 38-39, 43, 63, 
 
 64, 75, 83n., 102, 112, 127, 131, 
 145, 166, 174, i84n., 186-188,189, 
 I92n., 200. 
 
 Shepherd, Fleetwood: 6n., 15, 19, 
 56n. 
 
 Shortest Way with the Dissenters, 
 
 the: 48. 
 Short View of the Immorality . . . 
 
 of the English Stage, A : 9, 30. 
 Short View of Tragedy, A: 9, 27, 
 
 28, 151, issn., i67n., 174, i86n. 
 Sidney, Sir Philip: 115, 121, 128, 
 
 172. 
 
 Silent Woman, the: 189. 
 Sir Fopling Flutter: see the Man of 
 
 Mode. 
 Sir Richard Steele . . . vindicated: 
 
 83. 
 
 Slater, Samuel: 190. 
 Some Account of the English Stage : 
 
 37n. 
 
 Somers, Lord John: sin. 
 Song Till death I Sylvia shall 
 
 adore: 38, 216. 
 Sophocles: non., 186, 187. 
 Southerne, Thos.: 13-14, 41. 
 Southey, Robert: 107. 
 Spanish Friar, the: 163, 195. 
 Spectator, the : 3on., 52n., 65, 66, 67, 
 
 70, 71, 74, 81, 89, 122, 165, 166, 
 
 178, 205. 
 Spenser, Edmund: 123, 137, 185, 
 
 Spingarn, Professor J. E. : 107, 114, 
 115, n8n., I23n., 162, 190. 
 
 Sprat, Thos., Bishop of Rochester : 
 8n., 155- 
 
 Stage Defended, the: 64, n6n., 
 i67n., 218. 
 
 State of the Case, the: 7gn. 
 
 State of the Case . . . restated, the : 
 Son. 
 
 Statius : non. 
 
 Squire of Alsatia, the: gon. 
 
 Steele, Sir Richard: n, 33, 35, 43, 
 44, 52, 55, 57, 58, 59, 60, 66, 68, 
 69, 71-84, 97, 113, i2in., 122, 
 i28n., 144, 168, 170, i7in., 183, 
 203, 2osn., 210, 211. 
 
 Sternhold, Thomas: 180. 
 
228 
 
 Story of Orpheus Burlesqu'd, the : 
 
 20. 
 
 Strabo : 120. 
 Stratham, George : 42. 
 Sunderland, Robert Spenser, Earl 
 
 of: 15, 33- 
 Swift, Jonathan: 33n., 4in., 46, 52, 
 
 53, 60, 73, 84-85, 94. 
 Swinburne, A. C. : 46, in, 211. 
 
 Tale of a Tub, the: 53. 
 
 Talfourd, Sir T. N. : 211. 
 
 Tasso : 25, 51, 137, igon. 
 
 Taste, the school of: 123-126; Den- 
 nis and this school, 152-158. 
 
 Tate, Nahum : sgn. 
 
 Tatler, the: 52n., 71, 74, i2in., 
 i28n., 205. 
 
 Te Deum: 38. 
 
 Temple, Sir William: 123, 125, 132, 
 
 151, 155, 202n. 
 
 Temple of Fame, the : gon., 92. 
 Tenth Ode of the Second Book of 
 
 Horace, the : 213. 
 Terrence: 83, non., 156. 
 Thackeray, W. M. : 211. 
 Theatre, the : 78n., 79. 
 Theobald, Lewis: 57, 6sn., 91-92, 
 
 93, 97, 99, 203. 
 Thomson, James: io3n., 105, 169, 
 
 i8in., 205n., 2o6n. 
 Third Miscellany : g, 66. 
 Thoughts on Various Subjects: 85. 
 Three Hours after Marriage: 89, 91, 
 
 93, 204n. 
 
 Timber or Discoveries: i32n., 188. 
 To Mr. Dryden, etc. : 9. 
 To Mr. T. S. in Vindication of 
 
 . . . Paradise Lost: 191. 
 Tonson, Jacob: 94n., 127, 190, 195. 
 To Sylvia: 213. 
 Touchstone, the: i47n. 
 Tragedies of the Last Age: I54n., 
 
 i8m. 
 
 Tragedy: 167-170. 
 Tragedy of Tragedies: 82n., 118. 
 
 Traite du Poeme Epique: 159-160. 
 
 Treatise concerning the State of De- 
 parted Souls: 57, 104, 218. 
 
 Troilus and Cressida: 163. 
 
 True Character of Mr. Pope, the: 
 69, 89-91, 216. 
 
 Unities, dramatic: 172-175. 
 
 Upon our Victory at Sea: 15, 19, 
 
 xoin., 213. 
 Upon the first publishing the 
 
 Guardians: 74. 
 Upon the Fleet then fitting out: 3, 
 
 213. 
 
 Uranie : 138. 
 Usefulness of the Stage, the: 30, 
 
 103, 155, 214. 
 
 Vauquelin : 138. 
 
 Vergil: 29, gon., no, 116, 127, 131, 
 
 141, 149, 178, 190, 193, 194, 207. 
 Verses to a Painter: 213. 
 Verses written on the Death of Mr. 
 
 Dennis: 106. 
 Versification: 177; blank verse, 
 
 181-185. 
 
 Vice and Luxury: 62, 137, 218. 
 Victor Benj.: 82, 202n., 2O3n. 
 Vindication of Love in Tragedies, 
 
 A: 13, 169. 
 Voiture : ion., 18, 19, 107, 124, 156, 
 
 179. 
 
 Volpone: 162, 172, 189. 
 Voltaire: 4, 169, i8in., 210. 
 Vossius : 112, 129. 
 
 Waller, Edmund: 83n., 121, 181, 
 
 184, 196, 2osn. 
 
 Walpole, Horace, Baron : 56n., s8n. 
 Walpole, Horace, Earl of Oxford: 
 
 2o8n. 
 Walpole, Robert, Earl of Oxford: 
 
 i4n. 
 
 Walsh, William: sin. 
 Warburton, William : 7on. 
 Weaver, John : 44n. 
 
229 
 
 Weekly Packet, the: 5911. 
 What-d'-ye-C all-It: 89, 158. 
 Wilkinson, F. : 103. 
 William III : 14, 22, 33, 36. 
 Wilmington, Spencer Compton, Earl 
 
 of: 99. 
 
 Wilson, Chas. [Oldmixon?]: u. 
 Winchilsea, Anne Finch, Countess 
 
 of: 21, 22n., sin., 91, 204n. 
 Windsor Forest: gon., 92. 
 
 Winstanley, John : 190. 
 Wollaston, Wm. : i82n., 190. 
 Wordsworth, Wm. : 200, 206. 
 Works, Dennis's : see Select Works. 
 Works, Hobbes's: igSn. 
 Works of Alexander Pope : 2 ion. 
 Wycherley, Wm. : 10, 11-13, *S, I 7, 
 
 i8n., ign., 33, ssn., 64, 83n., ioin., 
 
 102, 170, i7in., 196. 
 
VITA 
 
 The author was born at New Orleans, October 24, 1874. 
 He was graduated from the University of Michigan in 1897 
 and for three years was principal of the Escanaba, Michigan, 
 High School. He then studied for five quarters at the Uni- 
 versity of Chicago, receiving the degree of A.M. in 1901. 
 From 1901 to 1904 he was an instructor in English at the 
 University of Illinois. During the school years 19041905 and 
 1907-1908 he studied at Columbia University, taking courses 
 with Professors Carpenter, Matthews, Trent, Baker, and 
 Thorndike. Since 1905 he has been Assistant Professor of 
 English Language and Literature at the University of Illinois. 
 
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