ABSTRACT
Extract from ‘A Defence of an Essay of Dramatique Poesie’ prefixed to The Indian Emperour (1668): ‘I confess my chief endeavours are to delight the Age in which I live. If the humour of this, be for low Comedy, small Accidents, and Raillery, I will force my Genius to obey it, though with more reputation I could write in Verse. I know I am not so fitted by Nature to write Comedy: I want that gayety of humour which is required to it. My Conversation is slow and dull, my humour Saturnine and reserv’d: In short, I am none of those who endeavour to break Jests in Company, or make reparties. So that those who decry my Comedies do me no injury, except it be in point of profit: reputation in them is the last thing to which I shall pretend.’ (Dryden: Of Dramatick Poesie, An Essay (1964), ed. J. T. Boulton, p. 130.)
