rules for poetry; because
of the illustrious works from which Aristotle deduced his rules; because
of the quality of the poetry that they produce when followed; because,
since they are drawn from "the common Sentiment of Mankind," they must
be reasonable; because nothing can please that is not conformable to the
rules, "for good Sense and right Reason, is of all Countries and
places;" and finally "because they are the Laws of Nature who always
acts uniformly, reviews them incessantly, and gives them a perpetual
Existence." It is his simultaneous appeal to the authority of the
ancients, to the _consensus gentium_, to general nature, and to good
sense that makes Dacier seem to us to represent the final phase of
French neo-classical critical theory.

Samuel Holt Monk
University of Minnesota

Notes to the Introduction

[1] Willard H. Durham, ed., _Critical Essays of the Eighteenth Century_,
New Haven, 1915, pp. 62-72.

[2] _Tatler_ 165.

[3] _Spectator_ 592.

[4] For Dacier in England see A.F.B. Clark, _Boileau and the French
Classical Critics in England (1660-1830)_, Paris, 1925, pp. 286-288. As
late as 1895, S.H. Butcher, in _Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine
Art_, mentioned Dacier frequently, if only to disagree with him as often
as he mentioned him.

[5] Thomas Rymer, _Critical Works_ (ed. C.A. Zimansky), New Haven, 1956,
p. 83.

[6] This view, announced in the Preface, was elaborately argued by
Dacier in Remarque 27, Ch. XIX.

[7] Rymer, _op. cit._, p. 84. Zimansky, in his introduction and notes,
discusses the influence of Dacier on Rymer and other English critics.

[8] _Ibid._ p. 84 and pp. 80-93.

[9] John Dennis, _Critical Works_ (ed. Edward N. Hooker), Baltimore
(1939-43), I, 30-35. For a succinct account of the English controversy
about the chorus see _ibid._, I, 437-438. Though Dennis did not agree
with Dacier on this point, he admired him. As late as 1726, in the
preface to _The Stage Defended_, he quoted Dacier's preface and spoke of
him as "that most judicious Critick." _Ibid._, II, 309.

[10] John Dryden, _Letters_ (ed. C.E. Ward), Duke University Press,
1942, pp. 71-72. Hooker has noticed the similarity of two of Dennis's
opinions to views expressed by Dryden in his then unpublished "Heads of
an Answer" to Rymer's _Tragedies of the Last Age_, 1678.

[11] W.P. Ker, _Essays of John Dryden_, Oxford, 1926, II, 136.

[12] Ker, II, 144. Cf. Dennis's similar remark in _The Impartial