C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
John Dennis (1657–1734)
Dennis, John. An English dramatist and critic (1657–1734); born in London. Of his dramas none had much success or deserved it. He was a savage critic, but he had some just views of dramatic art and poetry, as is proved by his ‘Three Letters on the Genius and Writings of Shakespeare’ (1711). His fame is perpetuated not by his own writings, but by the satires and anecdotes of his enemies, Pope’s ‘Dunciad’ in particular. He invented a new species of stage thunder; and the phrase “stealing one’s thunder” is due to his angry outburst at some managers who used it in a successful play when one of his had been damned.