Q: Dryden said in one of his critical treatises: "Our numbers (Versification) were in their nonage till these two appeared." Whom does Dryden refer to?
a) Cavalier Poets/Caroline Poets
b) Waller and Denham
c) Antony and Cleopatra
d) Absolem and Achitophel
Correct answer: b) Waller and Denham
John Dryden Stated for Denham and Waller
In 1692, after the death of John Denham, John Dryden was loyal to the poet as he recalled a conversation he had "about Twenty Years ago" with Sir George Mackenzie. The largest tribute to the labelling of Denham and Waller as "Fathers of our English Poetry," is considering the discrepancy between Denham's slight reputation today and the fact that throughout the 1690s Dryden is concerned to the point of obsession with an English poetic tradition. Dryden's critical and political stances have their roots in Denham's poetry and critical proclamations. This intricate poetic relationship sheds light on Dryden's criticism and politics-not least a previously unnoted philosophical correlation between them. They generally look to Classical and French influences than to the "big three" English predecessors (Shakespeare, Johnson, and Fletcher) often assuming traditions rather than recognizing where Dryden was creating them. Denham's and Dryden's conceptions of problems facing seventeenth-century English literature throw into relief the extent to which Dryden's criticism builds upon English precepts that go beyond Shakespeare and Johnson.
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