Tina Skouen:
Passion and Persuasion: John Dryden’s The Hind and the Panther
Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2009
vi + 266 pages (bibliography)
ISBN: 978-3-639-12490-3
Price: €79; £72; $104

The English poet-critic John Dryden (1631-1700) has traditionally been seen as a primary advocate of the Age of Reason.  Challenging the accepted view, this book argues that Dryden primarily responded not to the rhetorical ideals of the new science, but to the ideals deriving from the classical orator Quintilian.  Just like the Renaissance poet-rhetoricians, Dryden considered it his duty to teach, move and delight his audience.  A fervent supporter of the Stuart monarchy, Dryden was deeply involved in political and religious controversies. Through careful analysis of his longest and most controversial poem, The Hind
and the Panther (1687), the study brings to light how Dryden was using wordplay and sound effects for the sake of satirizing his opponents.  Offering fresh perspectives on Dryden's role as a public speaker, the author emphasizes his various attempts to move and persuade the reader.  While this book gives the first comprehensive overview of Dryden's theorizing on how to move the passions, it also shows how "the father of English criticism" put these theories into practice.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Note on texts and citations

Introduction

PART ONE
Passion and persuasion
1. A writer of ‘the age of reason’?
2. The art of poetry
3. “To write pathetically”: Dryden’s discourse on the passions

PART TWO
Captatio benevolentiae: Appeals to the audience
4. “Such wou’d I chuse for my judges”: The question of whom to address
5. “What I desire the reader should know concerning me’: The preface to The Hind and the Panther
6. “This mysterious writ”: The writer’s defence of his beast fable

PART THREE
Invention: The temperance topic
7. Monstrous passions
8. The Mind and the Panther
9. What ails the Panther? The pathology of passion
10. How to dress a spiritual wound
11. Appeals to the emotions: The forensic structure of Dryden’s fable

PART FOUR
Elocution: The body poetic
12. A real presence? The problem of poetic voice
13. A lively performance
14. “This is my body”: The Hind and the Panther interpret the Word
15. In search of sounding words: Dryden’s aural poetics
16. Snarling satire
17. Reading as re-articulation

Conclusion

Notes
Abbreviations
Bibliography