- How artificial (=contorted?) the syntax of plays should be
- Whether multiple plots are okay and if so what they're supposed to accomplish
- Whether blank verse is better than rhyme, or whether rhyme is better than blank verse
- Whether one character telling another to shut the door is properly part of the dramatic action or not and so whether it should or shouldn't be in verse
I'd forgotten that the Essay isn't just Dryden saying what he thinks plays should do—because he has four different characters debating with each other, they're able to offer different opinions and interpretations of similar themes (number of plots, number of humors in the various characters, degree of artificiality in language) without having to come up with any single opinion. So that's nice, although I think a lot of critics who cite Dryden quickly (particularly Jonson critics, who like to dwell on how Neander thinks Jonson's not quite in Shakespeare's league) forget that it isn't just Dryden talking: that he's representing a less individuated and more social picture of what 1660's London dramatists were doing. So basically, I guess, my reading of the Essay is just a reminder to myself not to over-simplify when treating criticism that everyone refers to but doesn't read fully. (Sadly, there's almost no other reason to read the Essay. It's dreadfully boring. But those who cite it without reading it through—see me, spring of 2008—get a distorted sense of the opinions and attitudes it offers about the state of the play.)
