ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Introduction. Doctor Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) compares Shakespeare’s tragedies and comedies in his literary criticism ” Preface to Shakespeare” (1765). Here, he has preferred Shakespeare’s comedies to tragedies.

Detailed explanation-2: -Johnson says that in mixing tragedy and comedy, Shakespeare has been true to nature, because even in real life there is a mingling of good and evil, joy and sorrow, tears and smiles etc. this may be against the classical rules, but there is always an appeal open from criticism to nature.

Detailed explanation-3: -Dr. Johnson wrote no critical treatise but he influenced his age no more than any other English critics of the past. His critical work consists of a dozen papers in “The Rambler”, the remarks on poetry in “Rasselas”, “The Preface to the Plays of Shakespeare” and “The Lives of the Poets”.

Detailed explanation-4: -Johnson is one of the greatest critics. As a literary critic he was an exponent of classicism. He condemned everything that did not conform to classical doctrines. He is almost always penetrating and stimulating.