Alexander Pope Critical Essay | Critical Essay by John Dennis

Critical Essay by John Dennis

SOURCE: "Reflections Critical and Satyrical, Upon a Late Rhapsody, Call'd, An Essay Upon Criticism," in The Critical Works of John Dennis: 1692-1711, Vol. 1, edited by Edward Niles Hooker, The John Hopkins Press, 1939, pp. 396-422.

Dennis was a minor eighteenth-century writer who is generally esteemed for his literary criticism. However, his several unusually abusive attacks on the character and writings of Pope have largely diminished his posthumous status in the field. In the following excerpt, taken from Dennis's first pamphlet attack on Pope, Reflections Critical and Satyrical, Upon a Late Rhapsody, Call'd, An Essay Upon Criticism (1711), he lambasts Pope for what he considers the immoral, imprecise, and insipid thought presented in An Essay on Criticism.

'Tis now almost seven Years, since I happen'd to say one Morning to a certain Person distinguish'd by Merit and Quality, that wherever the Italian Opera had come, it had driven out Poetry...
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