APPENDIX A

A SHORT HISTORY OF CRITICISM FROM THE
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE TO MIXT ESSAYS

WRITTEN ORIGINALLY IN FRENCH BY THE
SIEUR DE SAINT EVREMONT, 1685.

AFTER the Italians the French took fire, and began to sublime and purifie themselves upon the rising of that glorious Minister Cardinal Richlieu, who founded the Royal Academy, and having muster'd the best Wits together, employ'd them in reforming the Stage, the Language, and Manners of his Country. L'Abbé Hedelin undertook the Theater, of which he published the most perfect Treatise yet extant; and if the Cardinal had liv'd some years longer, he would have carried it much higher, and even contended with Athens, and Rome themselves. Malherbe, Corneille, Chapelain, Moliere, Boileau, Fontaine, and Rapin, have cultivated, and exalted the Subject. The Learned Chanoine of St. Geneviève R. P. le Bossu, hath given us the best Idea, and most exact Model of Epick Poem. The Dutch and Germans (as though frozen up) have produced little in this kind; yet we must confess that Grotius, Heinsius, Scaliger and Vossius were Learned Criticks. Some of the English have indeed rais'd their Pens, and soar'd as high as any of the Italians, or French; yet Criticism came but very lately in fashion amongst us; without doubt Ben Johnson had a large stock of Critical Learning; Spencer had studied Homer, and Virgil, and Tasso, yet he was misled, and debauched by Ariosto, as Mr. Rymer judiciously observes; Davenant gives some stroaks of great Learning and Judgment, yet he is for unbeaten Tracks, new Ways, and undiscover'd Seas; Cowley was a great Master of the Antients, and had the true Genius

and Character of a Poet; yet this nicety and boldness of Criticism was a stranger all this time to our Climate; Mr. Rymer and Mr. Dryden have begun to launch out into it, and indeed they have been very fortunate Adventurers. The Earls of R. and M. and Mr. W. have given some fine touches ; Mr. Drydens Criticks are generally quaint and solid, his Prefaces doth as often correct and improve my Judgment, as his Verses doth Charm my Fancy; he is every-where Sweet, Elegant, and Sublime; the Poet and Critick were seldom both so Conspicuous and Illustrious in one man as in him, except Rapin. Mr. Rymer in his incomparable Preface to Rapin, and in his Reflections upon some late Tragedies, hath given sufficient proofs that he hath studied and understands Aristotle and Horace, Homer, and Virgil, besides the Wits of all Countries and Ages; so that we may justly number him in the first rank of Criticks, as having a most accomplish'd Idea of Poetry and the Stage.

APPENDIX B

AUTHORITIES, CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL

BELJAME, Le Public et les Hommes de Lettres en Angleterre.

1883.

BLOUNT, De Re Poetica, 1694.

Bossu, Traité du Poëme épique. 1675.

BOUHOURS, Les Entretiens d'Ariste et d'Eugène. 1671. BREITINGER, Les Unités d'Aristote avant le Cid de Corneille.

1879.

BUTCHER, Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art. 1897. BUTLER, Samuel, The Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose.

1759.

CAMPBELL, Lewis, Greek Tragedy. 1891.

CHAPELAIN, Preface to L'Adone of Marino. 1622.

Preface to La Pucelle. 1656.

CHAPPUZEAU, Le Théâtre Français.

1674.

COLLINS, J. Churton, Essays and Studies. 1895.

CORNEILLE, Le Théâtre de P. Corneille, 3 volumes, 8o, 1660, containing the three Discourses and the Examens :-

[Vol. i. Discours de l'Utilité et des Parties du Poëme dramatique.

Vol. ii. Discours de la Tragedie et des moyens de la traiter selon le vraysemblable ou le necessaire.

Vol. iii. Discours des trois Unitez d'Action, de Jour et de Lieu.]

DACIER, Preface sur les Satires d'Horace. 1687. D'AUBIGNAC (HÉDELIN), La Pratique du Théâtre. 1657. DAVENANT, Preface to Gondibert. 1651.

DENNIS, Select Works. 1718.

ELTON, O., The Augustan Ages. 1899.

FOURNEL, Le Théâtre au xviie Siècle; La Comédie. 1892.

GARNETT, R., The Age of Dryden. 1895.

GOSSE, From Shakespeare to Pope. 1885.

HAMELIUS, Die Kritik in der Englischen Literatur des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts. 1897.

JOHNSON, Lives of the Poets. 1779-1781.

JUSSERAND, Shakespeare en France sous l'Ancien Régime. 1898.

LA MESNARDIÈRE, La Poétique. 1640.

LEMAITRE, Corneille et la Poétique d'Aristote. 1888.

MALONE, Critical and Miscellaneous Prose Works of John Dryden. 1800.

PERRAULT, Parallèle des Anciens et des Modernes. 1688–1696. Petit de JullEVILLE, Le Théâtre en France. 1889.

(edited by), Histoire de la Langue et de la Littérature française. 1896-1900.

RAPIN, Œuvres diverses du R. P. R. Rapin. Amsterdam. 1686.

RIGAL, Alexandre Hardy et le Théâtre français à la fin du xvie et au commencement du xviie Siècle. 1889.

RYMER, The Tragedies of the Last Age Considered and
Examined by the Practice of the Ancients. 1678.
A Short View of Tragedy. 1693.

SAINT-ÉVREMOND, Euvres, ed. Des Maizeaux. 1705.
SAINTSBURY, Dryden [' English Men of Letters ']. 1881.
SARASIN, Discours de la Tragédie. 1639.

SCALIGER, J. C., Poetices libri septem. 1561.

SCOTT, Life of Dryden, in his edition of Dryden's Works. 1808.

SCUDERY, Preface to Ibrahim ou l'illustre Bassa. 1641.

SETTLE, Notes and Observations on the Empress of Morocco revised. 1674.

VAUGHAN, C. E., English Literary Criticism. 1896.

WESELMANN, Dryden als Kritiker. 1893.

INDEX