John Dennis
born , 1657, London, Eng.
died Jan. 6, 1734, London
English critic and dramatist whose insistence
upon the importance of passion in poetry led to
a long quarrel with Alexander Pope.
Educated at Harrow School and the University of
Cambridge, Dennis traveled in Europe before
settling in London, where he met leading
literary figures. At first he wrote odes and
plays, but, although a prolific dramatist, he
was never very successful.
The most important of Dennis’ critical works
are The Usefulness of the Stage (1698), The
Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry
(1701), The Grounds of Criticism in Poetry
(1704), and An Essay on the Genius and Writings
of Shakespear (1712). His basic contention was
that literature, and especially drama, is
comparable to religion in that its effect is to
move men’s minds by means of the emotions. What
Dennis looked for primarily in a work of art was
passion and elevation rather than decorum and
polish. His idol among English poets was John
Milton, and he had an enthusiasm for the
sublime, a concept that was newly fashionable in
England and France. This bias may explain
Dennis’ antipathy toward Pope and probably
accounts for the hostility between them. Pope,
who thought Dennis’ work bombastic, included an
adverse allusion to Dennis in his “Essay on
Criticism.” Dennis replied with Reflections
Critical and Satyrical (1711), which mixed
criticism of Pope’s poem with a vicious personal
attack upon Pope as “a hunch-back’d toad” whose
deformed body mirrored a deformed mind. Despite
a temporary reconciliation, the quarrel
continued sporadically until Dennis’ death.
Dennis figures a good deal in Pope’s mock epic
The Dunciad (1728), especially in its sarcastic
footnotes. Dennis also defended the drama
against the English bishop Jeremy Collier’s
condemnation of it in 1698. Dennis argued that
plays discouraged disaffection by spreading
pleasure and providing exercise for the
passions.
