Statement Analysis:
“Shakespeare was the Homer, or father of our dramatic poets; Johnson was the Vergil, the pattern of elaborate writing.”
This comparison uses classical analogies — likening Shakespeare to Homer (epic, foundational, natural genius) and Ben Jonson to Vergil (more refined, scholarly, and crafted).
📚 Source Context:
This quote (or paraphrase of Dryden’s idea) appears in his "Essay of Dramatic Poesy" (1668). In this seminal critical work, Dryden sets up a dialogue between fictionalized speakers (based on real people, including himself), where they debate the merits of various dramatists.
Dryden writes:
“To begin, then, with Shakespeare. He was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul... Nature herself was proud of his designs... As for Jonson, he was the most learned and judicious writer which any theater ever had...”
He then likens:
Shakespeare to Homer: vast imagination and natural genius.
Jonson to Vergil: learned, methodical, polished.
This aligns with the Renaissance/Neoclassical habit of comparing modern writers to classical figures, and Dryden was steeped in this tradition.
❌ Why not the others?
Matthew Arnold – Victorian critic, but not known for classical dramatist comparisons like this.
Samuel Johnson – He did admire Shakespeare (famously), but did not frame him in classical terms with such poetic analogy.
Ben Jonson – He was praised in the quote, but didn't say this about himself.
✅ Conclusion:
John Dryden is the correct answer because he is the critic who made this classical analogy between Shakespeare–Homer and Jonson–Vergil, particularly in "Essay of Dramatic Poesy", thus making Option 2 correct.
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