begin to understand the Epick Poem
by means of _Bossu_; and Tragedy by Monsieur _Dacier_."[5] That Rymer
admired Dacier's strict formalism is plain, but he was especially moved
by the French critic's argument that the chorus is _the_ essential part
of true tragedy, since it is necessary both for _vraisemblance_ and for
moral instruction.[6] He therefore boldly proposed that English tragic
poets should henceforth use the chorus in the manner of the ancients,
since it is "the root and original, and ... certainly always the most
necessary part of Tragedy."[7] Moreover he praised (as had Dacier) the
example of Racine, who had introduced the chorus into the plays that he
had written for private performance, by the young ladies of St.
Cyr--_Esther_ (1689) and _Athalie_ (1691). As is well known, he even
went so far as to write the synopsis of what inevitably would have been
an absurd Aeschylean tragedy on the defeat of the Armada.[8]

Rymer's proposal provoked a public debate, which was begun by John
Dennis, at that time an almost unknown young critic. Though _The
Impartial Critick_ (1693) was directed against Rymer (who had given
grave offence to Dryden and others by his attack on Shakespeare in the
_Short View_), Dennis knew Dacier's ideas intimately, and his discussion
of the chorus in the first and the fourth dialogues, is more directly a
refutation of the French than of the English critic.[9] This lively
treatise established whatever intimacy existed between young Dennis and
the aging Dryden.[10]

Though Dryden avoided any extended public argument with Rymer, he
obviously knew both the _Short View_ and Dacier's Aristotle. In the
_Parallel of Poetry and Painting_ (1695), he followed Rymer's lead in
equating Dacier, the critic of tragedy ("in his late excellent
Translation of Aristotle and his notes upon him"[11]) with Le Bossu, the
framer of "exact rules for the Epic Poem...." But he disagreed with
Dacier's opinions on the chorus and explained away Racine's use of it on
the sensible grounds that _Esther_ had not been written for public, but
for private performances which gave occasion to the young ladies of St.
Cyr "of entertaining the king with vocal music, and of commending their
voices."[12] He also suggested the practical consideration that plays
with choruses would bankrupt any company of actors because it would be
necessary to provide a number of costumes for the additional players and
to enlarge the stage (and cons