Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/377

 ticised Blackmore's ‘Prince Arthur’ in 1696 with civility, and they exchanged compliments, Blackmore comparing Dennis to Boileau. The appearance of Rymer's ‘A Short View of Tragedy,’ 1693, induced Dennis to write and publish ‘The Impartial Critic,’ 1693. Dennis's ‘Letters upon several Occasions’ appeared in 1696. They were addressed to Dryden, Wycherley, and Congreve, and are chiefly critical. Collier's ‘Short View,’ 1698, was criticised by Dennis in ‘The Usefulness of the Stage to the Happiness of Mankind, to Government, and to Religion,’ 1698. When, in 1703, Collier published ‘A Dissuasive from the Play-house, by way of letter to a Person of Quality,’ Dennis replied with ‘The Person of Quality's Answer to Mr. Collier: containing a Defence of a regular Stage.’ Dennis's chief critical work appeared in 1701, as ‘The Advancement and Reformation of Modern Poetry. A Critical Discourse.’ ‘The Grounds of Criticism in Poetry,’ 1704, was a sort of sequel to the ‘Advancement,’ &c., and in both works Dennis insists upon the wide scope which religion affords for poetic excellence. In 1702 Dennis published ‘The Danger of Priestcraft to Religion and Government, with some politick Reasons for Toleration,’ and was answered by Charles Leslie (, Bibliography of Dr. Henry Sacheverell, pp. 11, 12; Notes and Queries, 7th ser. ii. 45). Soon after George I's accession Dennis wrote ‘Priestcraft distinguished from Christianity.’ His political essays include ‘An Essay on the Navy,’ 1702, and ‘Proposals for putting a speedy End to the War by ruining the Commerce of the French and Spaniards, and recovering our own without any additional Expense to the Nation,’ 1703. In his ‘Essay on the Operas after the Italian Manner,’ 1706, he attacked the effeminacy indicated by the popularity of the performances in question, and when Harley came into power Dennis pointed out by letter that the national prosperity could never be effected while the Italian opera corruption existed (, Calamities, art. ‘Influence of a Bad Temper in Criticism’). His ‘Essay upon Public Spirit’ appeared in 1711, for which, although among his best works, Lintot seems to have paid (25 April 1711) the sum of 2l. 12s. 6d. only (, Lit. Anecd. viii. 295). Mandeville's ‘Fable of the Bees’ called forth from Dennis, in 1724, ‘Vice and Luxury Public Mischiefs; or Remarks on the “Fable of the Bees.”’

Early in 1711 Dennis published ‘Three Letters on the Genius and Writings of Shakespeare,’ which include some of his best criticism. In 1711, also, commenced the ‘differences’ between Dennis and Addison. Dennis replied to the 39th and 40th numbers of the ‘Spectator,’ in which his pet theory of poetical justice is denounced. On 24 April 1711 Addison quoted a ‘couple of humorous lines’ from Dennis with a sarcastic intention, which Dennis perceived and resented in a furious ‘Letter to the Spectator.’ Had a compliment been intended, he said, a better passage might have been taken, which he kindly pointed out. Addison's papers on ‘Chevy Chase’ brought another attack from Dennis. In his ‘Remarks upon Cato,’ 1713, he took his revenge. Dennis charges Addison with publishing ‘a great deal of false and abominable criticism in order to poison his general reader and prepare the way for “Cato”’ (Introd. p. 6). Pope made a coarse and stupid retort in his ‘Narrative of Dr. Robert Norris, concerning the strange and deplorable Frenzy of John Dennis, an officer in the Custom House,’ which is dated 30 July 1713. Dr. Johnson has preserved the salient points of Dennis's criticism in his ‘Life of Addison.’ Addison disavowed any complicity in Pope's assault through Steele. Pope was for a short time reconciled to his old enemy, who, when publishing some of his ‘Letters’ a few years afterwards, struck out several severe reflections against Pope, one of his subscribers. For this Pope thanked him in a letter of 3 May 1721, and expressed himself heartily sorry for the ‘differences’ that had existed between them. In 1717 Curll published Dennis's ‘Remarks upon Mr. Pope's Translation of Homer, with two letters concerning “Windsor Forest” and the “Temple of Fame.”’ Sarah Popping, the bookseller, issued at 3d., in 1717, ‘A True Character of Mr. Pope,’ full of scurrilous abuse. Curll, in the first edition of the ‘Key to the Dunciad,’ declared Gildon to be the author of this discreditable production, but in subsequent editions this declaration is omitted; and the ‘Curliad’ states that Dennis was the writer. In the latter part of 1719 Dennis attacked Steele. Steele started the ‘Theatre,’ 2 Jan. 1719–20, under the pseudonym of ‘Sir John Edgar.’ ‘The Character and Conduct of Sir John Edgar, called by himself sole monarch of the stage in Drury Lane, and his Three Deputy Governors. In two letters to Sir John Edgar,’ is the title of Dennis's onslaught, to which Steele replied good-humouredly in No. 11 of the ‘Theatre.’ Steele's ‘Conscious Lovers’ was acted in November 1722, and in the following year Dennis's ‘Remarks’ upon that play appeared in print. In ‘The Stage Defended,’ 1726, Dennis replied to the ‘Serious Remonstrance’ of the admirable William Law, whose zeal against the stage was more conspicuous than his