(1) Cassius Longinus
Cassius Longinus was a rhetorician and
philosophical critic. He was perhaps a native of Emesa in Syria. Longinus did not embrace the Neo-Platonism then being developed by Plotinus, but continued as
a Platonist of the old type and
his reputation as a literary critic was immense. During a visit to the east, he
became a teacher.
Notable works
(1)Homeric Questions,
(2)Homeric Problems and
Solutions,
(3)Whether Homer is a
Philosopher.
(4) On the sublime
On the Sublime is a Roman-era
Greek work of literary criticism dated to the 1st century- C.E... Its author is
unknown, but is conventionally referred to as Longinus or Pseudo-Longinus.
It is regarded as a classic work on aesthetics and the effects of good writing. The treatise
highlights examples of good and bad writing from the previous millennium,
focusing particularly on what may lead to the sublime.
Longinus in his study of philosophy made
himself thoroughly familiar with Plato's works; and that he himself was a
genuine Platonist. At
Athens, Longinus seems to have lectured on philosophy and criticism, as well as
on rhetoric and grammar, and the extent of his knowledge was so great,
that Eunapius calls him "a living library" and "a walking
museum;"
Longinus composed a great number of works,
all of which have perished. It was once thought that the extant rhetorical
treatise On the Sublime was written by him.
(2) John Dryden
John Dryden was an English poet, literary
critic, translator, and playwright who were
appointed England's first Poet Laureate in
1668. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration
England to such a point that the period came
to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. Romanticist writer Sir Walter Scott called him "Glorious John".
Notable
works
(1) An Essay on dramatic poesie
(2) The Indian Emporer
(3) The wild gallant – A comedy
(4) All for love – A tragedy
Dryden was the dominant literary figure and influence of his age. He
established the heroic couplet as a standard form of English poetry by writing
successful satires, religious pieces, fables, epigrams, compliments, prologues,
and plays with it; he also introduced the alexandrine and triplet into the form. In his poems,
translations, and criticism.
He introduced Heroic Tragedy as a new form of literature. Besides being
one of the greatest English poets he wrote 30 tragedies, comedies and dramatic
plays during his life time. For his contributions on criticizing poetry and
drama, D.R Samuel Johnson as ``The Father of English Critics``.
(3) Ben Johnson
Benjamin Johnson was an English playwright and
poet. His artistic approach had major influence on English poetry and stage
comedy. Johnson popularized comedy of humors, best for his satirical plays and
lyrical poetry. "He is generally regarded as the second most important
English dramatist, after William Shakespeare, during the reign of James I.
Notable works
(1) Every man in his humor
(2) The tale of a tub
(3) Every man out of his
humor
(4) Volpone, or the fox
Jonson was a classically educated, well-read
and cultured man of the English Renaissance with
an appetite for controversy (personal and political, artistic and intellectual)
whose cultural influence was of unparalleled breadth upon the playwrights and
the poets of the Jacobean era (1603–1625)
and of the Caroline era (1625–1642).
After William Shakespeare he is regarded the
most important English dramatist. Johnson was well read classically educated
and cultured man of English renaissance. Ben Johnson influenced some playwright
of the Jacobean era.
(4) Alexander pope
Alexander Pope was an English poet, translator, and satirist
of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English
poets of the early 18th century. An exponent
of Augustan literature,
Notable works
(1) The Rape of the lock
(2) An Essay on Criticism
(3)The Dunciad and Moral Essays
(4)Essay on man
Translations
(1) Iliad
(2)The Odyssey
(3) Translation of Homer
Pope is best known for his satirical and
discursive poetry including The Rape of the Lock, The
Dunciad, and An Essay on Criticism, and for his
translation of Homer. After Shakespeare, Pope is the second-most quoted author in The
Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, some of his verses having entered
common parlance.
(5) D.R Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson, often called Dr Johnson, was an
English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist,
moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. He was a devout Anglican, and a committed Tory. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography calls
him "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson was selected
by Walter Jackson Bate as
"the most famous single work of biographical art in the whole of
literature".
Notable works
(1) Dictionary of English language
(2) Journey to the west
(3)The Idler
Born in Litchfield, Staffordshire, he attended Pembroke
College, Oxford until lack of funds forced him
to leave. After working as a teacher, he moved to London and began writing
for The Gentleman's Magazine. Early works include Life of Mr.
Richard Savage, the poems London and The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the play Irene. After nine years' effort,
Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language appeared in
1755 with far-reaching effects on Modern English, acclaimed as "one of the greatest single
achievements of scholarship"
A Dictionary of the English Language Johnson's dictionary was not the first, nor was it unique. It
was, however, the most commonly used and imitated for the 150 years between its
first publication and the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary in
1928. Other dictionaries, such as Nathan Bailey's Dictionaries Britannica, included more
words, and in the 150 years preceding Johnson's dictionary about twenty other
general-purpose monolingual "English" dictionaries had been produced.
(6)
I.A Richards
Ivor Armstrong Richards
(26 February 1893 – 7 September 1979), known as I. A. Richards,
was an English educator, literary critic,
poet, and rhetorician. His work
contributed to the foundations of the New Criticism, a formalist movement
in literary theory which
emphasized the close reading of a
literary text, especially poetry, in an
effort to discover how a work of literature functions as a self-contained and
self-referential esthetic object.
Notable works
(1)The Foundations of Aesthetic
(2)The Principles of Literary
Criticism
(3)Practical Criticism
(4)The Philosophy of Rhetoric
Richards' intellectual contributions
to the establishment of the literary methodology of the New Criticism are
presented in the books The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence
of Language upon Thought and of the Science of Symbolism (1923),
by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards, Principles of Literary
Criticism (1924), Practical Criticism (1929),
and The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1936).
He elaborated an approach to
literary criticism in The Principles of Literary Criticism (1924)
and Practical Criticism (1929) which embodied aspects of the
scientific approach from his study of psychology, particularly that
of Charles Scott Sherrington.
In The
Principles of Literary Criticism, Richards discusses the subjects
of form, value, rhythm, coenesthesia (an awareness of inhabiting
one's body, caused by stimuli from various organs), literary
infectiousness, allusiveness, divergent readings, and belief. He
starts from the premise that "A book is a machine to think with, but it
need not, therefore, usurp the functions either of the bellows or the
locomotive.
(7) Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (8 December 65– 27 November 8
BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace was the leading Roman lyric poet during
the time of Augustus (also
known as Octavian).
Notable works
(1) Odes
(2) The Art of poetry
(3) The Satires of Horace
The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his Odes as just about the only Latin lyrics worth
reading: "He can be lofty sometimes, yet he is also full of charm and
grace, versatile in his figures, and felicitously daring in his choice of words.
Horace
also crafted elegant hexameter verses (Satires and Epistles)
and caustic iambic poetry (Epodes). The hexameters are amusing
yet serious works, friendly in tone, leading the ancient satirist Persius to
comment: "as his friend laughs, Horace slyly puts his finger on his every
fault; once let in, he plays about the heartstrings".
His
career coincided with Rome's momentous change from a republic to an empire. An
officer in the republican army defeated at the Battle of Philippi in
42 BC, he was befriended by Octavian's right-hand man in civil affairs, Maecenas,
and became a spokesman for the new regime. For some commentators, his
association with the regime was a delicate balance in which he maintained a
strong measure of independence (he was "a master of the graceful
sidestep") but
for others he was, in John Dryden's phrase, "a well-mannered court
slave".
Horace
can be regarded as the world's first autobiographer. In his writings, he
tells us far more about himself, his character, his development, and his way of
life, than any other great poet of antiquity. Some of the biographical material
contained in his work can be supplemented from the short but valuable
"Life of Horace" by Suetonius (in his Lives of the
Poets).
