Thomas Rymer | Reflections on Aristotle’s Treatise on Poesie and Other Important Works

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Thomas Rymer was an English poet, critic, and Historian of the Restoration age. He was a new-classicist, that is, he was a strong critic of contemporary and current dramas and poetry while he supported and worked for the revival of the many styles and spirit of classic antiquity inspired directly by the classical period. Thomas Rymer was strongly criticized by Thomas Babington Macauley in the 19^th century. Macauley ridiculed Rymer and termed him the ‘worst critic that ever lived.’ However, Rymer had his influence during the 18^th century, the age of Enlightenment.

Thomas Rymer began as a translator and the first major work that he translated was Rene Rapin’s Aristotle’s Treatise on Poesie. This translation was first printed in 1674. Rene Rapin was a French writer who also promoted neo-classicism. He wrote an essay on Aristotle’s Poesie and while writing the essay, Rapin added his own ideas too while supporting Aristotle. Rymer, being a neo-classicist himself, found Rene Rapin’s essay worthy and inspiring and translated it. Rymer too, not only translated Rapin’s original essay, he added a few ideas of his own. Rymer added a preface in defence of the classic rules for unity in drama. Aristotle never used that term, nor did Rene Rapin or other scholars who studied and analyzed Aristotle’s original work. Thomas Rymer coined the term Poetic Justice and used it in his translation. Thomas Rymer not only translated Rymer’s essay on Aristotle’s Poesie, but he also imbibed it and tried to emulate it in his own dramas and criticism of other dramatists.

In his translation, Rymer says that according to Aristotle, characters should behave “either as idolized types or as an average representation of their class.” What it means is that if a dramatist is presenting a villainous character in a play, or novel, then the character must represent and exhibit the characteristics of an idolized villain. If the character is that of a hero, then the character must have all the traits of an idolized hero. Or, the character should represent the average character of his class. That is, if the dramatist or writer is presenting a middle-class man, then the representation should be as close to reality as it can be, that is, the character should have all the major traits of a middle-class man. Such characterization avoids confusion, juxtaposition, and contradictions in the minds of the audience or readers.

In 1678, Rymer again expressed his ideas on drama in the form of a printed letter he wrote to Fleetwood Shepheard which was titled The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider'd. Fleetwood Shepheard was a close friend of Mathew Prior. One of the most talked about contributions of Rymer to the theory and ideas of Aristotle’s Poesie is the term, Poetic Justice. The idea of poetical justice is that in a drama, novel, poem, or story, ultimately virtue is rewarded and misdeeds or vices are punished. In his letter, The Tragedies of the Last Age Consider’d Rymer coined the term poetical justice while talking about the drama Rollo Duke of Normandy by John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Ben Jonson, and George Chapman. In this letter, he heavily criticized the plays by Jacobean playwrights Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. Rymer’s complaint against Fletcher and Beaumont was that they didn’t adhere to the principles of classical tragedy. He mentions how these playwrights reduced the importance of poetic justice in their dramas.

In 1680, Ovid’s Epistles was translated by various artists. The preface of this translation was written by John Dryden and Thomas Rymer contributed Penelope to Ulysses. In 1692, Rymer translated the sixth elegy of the third book of Ovid's Tristia for Dryden's Poetical Miscellanies.

In 1693, Thomas Rymer again published his views on dramas in his letter titled A Short View of Tragedy. In this letter, Rymer scathingly criticized William Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson, the two of the most celebrated dramatists of the Jacobean age. In this letter, Rymer suggests that all modern dramas (Restoration period) should be rejected and we should return to the Greek tragedy of Aeschylus. In this work, he strongly criticized Shakespeare’s famous tragedy titled Othello. Rymer said that it is “a bloody farce without salt or saviour.” According to him, Shakespeare hugely deviated from the Greek principles of tragedy in Othello.

In the same year, another renowned critic of the Restoration period John Dennis wrote an epigram on Thomas Rymer strongly rebutting his criticism of dramas of the Restoration period including those of Ben Jonson and Shakespeare. The title of this epigram was The Impartial Critik.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.