Oedipus (Dryden play) a Tragedy" was regarded as the climax of Dryden's dramatic work. Charles Gildon, however, who revised many of Gerard Langbaine's articles in the manual on English Drama "An Account of the English Dramatick Poets", harshly criticised "Oedipus, a Tragedy", saying: The most understanding Judges wish they [i.e. Dryden/Lee] had followed Sophocles yet closer, it had then been the best of our Modern Plays, as ‘tis of the Ancients: but as it is, they have destroyed the Character of Oedipus… It remains uncertain which parts of this play were written by Dryden and by Lee. According to "The London Stage", Dryden
Oedipus Rex childhood. … he can no longer ignore a feeling of uncertainty about his parentage. However, after consulting the Oracle this uncertainty disappears, strangely enough, and is replaced by a totally unjustified certainty that he is the son of Merope and Polybus. We have said that this irrational behaviour - his hamartia in Aristotle's sense - is due to the repression of a whole series of thoughts in his consciousness, in fact everything that referred to his earlier doubts about his parentage. The exploration of this theme in "Oedipus Rex" is paralleled by the examination of the conflict between the individual