Study
of Classical Criticism gives insight to a researcher into the critical way of
thinking. By studying Classical Criticism one could get sense and understanding
about how the literary theories increase their capacities to think critically
without the bias or prejudice or preconceived notions. The researcher also has
a chance to study different points of view in the context of different genres
of literature. Furthermore, they can develop critical sight and insight not
only to judge the literature but also to evaluate any good piece of literature
of the present time.
The Greek and Roman critics belong to the classical school
of criticism which is still relevant today. The basic concepts they have given
us to study literature with are still important and supply us with the basic
ideas whereby to examine the literary text. When we study Plato’s theory of Mimesis we come to know that
literature is an imitation of nature. Further in Aristotle when we study his definition of tragedy, we come to
appraise that this imitation is nothing but the imitation of an action.
Since Aristotle believes that tragedy has never been a drama of despair, causeless death or chance disaster. The drama that only paints horrors and leaves souls shattered and mind un-reconciled with the world may be described as a gruesome, ghastly play, but not a healthy tragedy, for tragedy is a play in which disaster or downfall has causes which could carefully be avoided and sorrow in it does not upset the balance in favour of pessimism. That is why, in spite of seriousness, even heart-rending scenes of sorrow, tragedy embodies the vision of beauty. It stirs noble thoughts and serves tragic delight but does not condemn us to despair. If the healthy notion of tragedy has been maintained throughout the literary history of Europe, the ultimate credit, perhaps, goes back to Aristotle who had propounded it in his theory of Catharsis.
Catharsis established tragedy as a drama of balance. Sorrow alone would be ugly and repulsive. Beauty, pure would be imaginative and mystical. These together constitute what may be called tragic beauty. Pity alone would be sentimentality. Fear alone would make us cowards. But pity and fear, sympathy and terror together constitute the tragic feeling which is most delightful though, it is tearfully delightful. Such tragic beauty and tragic feeling which it evokes, constitutes the aesthetics of balance as propounded for the first time by Aristotle in his theory of Catharsis. Therefore, we feel, the reverence which Aristotle has enjoyed through ages, has not gone to him undeserved. His insight has rightly earned it.
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John Dryden
(1631–1700), the great dramatic and satirical
poet of the later seventeenth century, whose translation of Virgil’s “Æneid”
appears in another volume of the Harvard Classics, deserves hardly less
distinction as a prose writer than as a poet. The present essay, prefixed to a
volume of narrative poems, is largely concerned with Chaucer; and in its genial
and penetrating criticism, expressed with characteristic clearness and vigor,
can be seen the ground for naming. Dryden the first of English literary
critics, and the founder of modern prose style.
Fables, Ancient and Modern is a collection of translations
of classical and medieval poetry by John Dryden interspersed with some of his
own works. Published in March 1700, it was his last and one of his greatest
works. Dryden died two months later.
