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DENNIS, JOHN (1657—1734)

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 45 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DENNIS, See also:JOHN (1657—1734) , See also:English critic and dramatist, the son of a saddler, was See also:born in See also:London in 1657. He was educated at See also:Harrow School and See also:Caius See also:College, See also:Cambridge, where he took his B.A. degree in 1679. In the next See also:year he was fined and dismissed from his college for having wounded a See also:fellow-student with a See also:sword. He was, however, received at Trinity See also:Hall, where he took his M.A. degree in 1683. After travelling in See also:France and See also:Italy, he settled in London, where he became acquainted with See also:Dryden, See also:Wycherley and others; and being made temporarily See also:independent by inheriting a small See also:fortune, he devoted himself to literature. The See also:duke of See also:Marlborough procured him a See also:place as one of the See also:queen's waiters in the customs with a See also:salary of 120 a year. This he afterwards disposed of for a small sum, retaining, at the See also:suggestion of See also:Lord See also:Halifax, a yearly See also:charge upon it for a See also:long See also:term of years. Neither the poems nor the plays of Dennis are of any See also:account, although one of his tragedies, a violent attack on the See also:French in See also:harmony with popular See also:prejudice, entitled See also:Liberty Asserted, was produced with See also:great success at See also:Lincoln's See also:Inn See also:Fields in 1704. His sense of his own importance approached See also:mania, and he is said to have desired the duke of Marlborough to have a See also:special clause inserted in the treaty of See also:Utrecht to secure him from French vengeance. Marlborough pointed out that although he had been a still greater enemy of the French nation, he had no fear for his own See also:security. This See also:tale and others of a similar nature may well be exaggerations prompted by his enemies, but the infirmities of See also:character and See also:temper indicated in them were real. Dennis is best remembered as a critic, and See also:Isaac D'See also:Israeli, who took a by no means favourable view of Dennis, said that some of his criticisms attain classical See also:rank.

The earlier ones, which have nothing of the rancour that afterwards gained him the See also:

nickname of " Furius," are the best. They are Remarks . . . (1696), on See also:Blackmore's epic of See also:Prince See also:Arthur; Letters upon Several Occasions written by and between Mr Dryden, Mr Wycherley, Mr Moyle, Mr See also:Congreve and Mr Dennis, published by Mr Dennis (1696); two See also:pamphlets in reply to See also:Jeremy See also:Collier's See also:Short View; The See also:Advancement and See also:Reformation of See also:Modern See also:Poetry (1701), perhaps his most important See also:work ; The Grounds of See also:Criticism in Poetry (1704), in which he argued that the ancients owed their superiority over the moderns in poetry to their religious attitude; an See also:Essay upon Publick Spirit . . . (r711), in which he inveighs against luxury, and servile See also:imitation of See also:foreign fashions and customs; and Essay on the See also:Genius and Writings of See also:Shakespeare in three Letters (1712). Dennis had been offended by a humorous See also:quotation made from his See also:works by See also:Addison, and published in 1713 Remarks upon See also:Cato. Much of this criticism was acute and sensible, and it is quoted at considerable length by See also:Johnson in his See also:Life of Addison, but there is no doubt that Dennis was actuated by See also:personal See also:jealousy of Addison's success. See also:Pope replied in The Narrative of Dr See also:Robert See also:Norris, concerning the See also:strange and deplorable frenzy of John Dennis ... (1713). This pamphlet was full of personal abuse, exposing Dennis's foibles, but offering no See also:defence of Cato. Addison repudiated any connivance in this attack, and in-directly notified Dennis that when he did See also:answer his objections, it would be without personalities.

Pope had already assailed Dennis in 1711 in the Essay on Criticism, as Appius. Dennis retorted by Reflections, See also:

Critical and Satirical ... , a scurrilous See also:production in which he taunted Pope with his deformity, saying among other things that he was " as stupid and as venomous as a hunch-backed See also:toad." He also wrote in 171! Remarks upon Mr Pope's See also:Translation of See also:Homer ... and A True Character of Mr Pope. He accordingly figures in the Dunciad, and in a scathing See also:note in the edition of 1729 (bk. i. 1. 1o6) Pope quotes his more outrageous attacks, and adds an insulting See also:epigram attributed to See also:Richard See also:Savage, but now generally ascribed to Pope. More pamphlets followed, but Dennis's See also:day was over. He outlived his See also:annuity from the customs, and his last years were spent in great poverty. See also:Bishop See also:Atterbury sent him See also:money, and he received a small sum annually from See also:Sir Robert. See also:Walpole. A benefit performance was organized at the Haymarket (See also:December 18, 1733) on his behalf.

Pope wrote for the occasion an See also:

ill-natured See also:prologue which See also:Cibber recited. Dennis died within three See also:weeks of this performance, on the 6th of See also:January 1734. His other works include several plays, for one of which, Appius and See also:Virginia (1709), he invented a new See also:kind of See also:thunder. He wrote a curious Essay on the Operas after the See also:Italian Manner (1706), maintaining that See also:opera was the outgrowth of effeminate See also:manners, and should, as such, be suppressed. His Works were published in 1702, Select Works . . (2 vols.) in 1718, and See also:Miscellaneous Tracts, the first See also:volume only of which appeared, in 1727. For accounts of Dennis see Cibber's Lives of the Poets, vol. iv.; Isaac D'Israeli's essays on Pope and Addison in the Quarrels of Authors, and " On the See also:Influence of a See also:Bad Temper in Criticism " in Calamities of Authors; and numerous references in Pope's Works.

End of Article: DENNIS, JOHN (1657—1734)

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