An Essay on Dramatic Poesy

An Essay on Dramatic Poesy – is a foundational text of English literary criticism. It is structured as a semi-dramatic dialogue between four friends—Crites, Eugenius, Lisideius, and Neander—on a barge on the River Thames during the 1665 naval battle between the English and the Dutch. Argues for the superiority of the Ancients (Greeks and Romans). He claims they were faithful imitators of nature and established the “three unities”—time, place, and action—which moderns should strictly follow.