Shakspere's predecessors in the English drama 1924

Front matter

BY JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS.

RENAISSANCE IN ITALY. In 7 Vols.

Vol. I. THE AGE OF THE DESPOTS.

Preface

BETWEEN the years 1862 and 1865 I undertook a History of the Drama in England during the reigns of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I. With this object in view I composed a series of essays, embracing the chief points in that history, and discussing the leading playwrights from the period of the Miracles down to that of Shirley. Having so far advanced toward the completion of this plan, I laid my manuscripts aside, discouraged partly by ill-health, partly by a conviction that the subject was beyond the scope and judgment of a literary beginner.

These early studies I have now resumed. The present volume is the first instalment of a critical inquiry into the conditions of the English Drama, based upon work which I began some twenty years ago, but which has been entirely re-handled and revised.

In the space of those twenty years the origins and evolution of our Drama have been amply treated and diligently explored by more than one distinguished and by many competent writers. Professor A. W. Ward’s ‘History of English Dramatic Literature’ supplies

V1 PREFACE what was conspicuous by its absence from our libraries in 1862, namely, a comprehensive and excellently balanced survey of the works of the chief dramatists. The New Shakspere Society has instituted an original method of inquiry into questions of text, chronology, and authorship. Mr. Swinburne, Professor Dowden, and Mr. Gosse have published monographs of fine critical and esthetic quality. Mr. W. C. Hazlitt, Mr. Churton Collins, Mr. A. H. Bullen, and the late Richard Simpson—to mention only a few prominent names—have enriched our stores of accessible documents with plays reprinted from rare copies or published for the first time from MS. Professor Arber and Dr. Grosart have placed at the student’s disposition masses of useful materials, extracted from sources inaccessible to the general reader, and edited with unimpeachable accuracy. American scholarship, meanwhile, has not been altogether idle in this field; while German criticism has been yoluminously prolific:

T'o mention all the men of distinction whose varied labours have aided the student of Elizabethan Dramatic Literature during the last twenty years, would involve too long a catalogue of names and publications.

I may well feel diffidence in bringing forth my own studies to the light of day, after this computation of recent and still active workers on the subject. TElizabethan Dramatic Literature is a well-defined speciality, important enough to occupy a man’s life-labours. I cannot pretend to be a specialist in this department ;

PREFACE ix nor have I sought to write for specialists. It has been my intention to bring the history of the English Drama within the sphere of popular treatment; not shrinking from the discussion of topics which are only too familiar to special students; combining exposition with criticism ; and endeavouring to fix attention on the main points of literary evolution.

I have only to add in conclusion that the present volume has been produced under the disadvantageous conditions of continued residence in the High Alps, at a distance from all libraries except my own. But for the generous and disinterested assistance rendered me by Mr. A. H. BunuEn, I should almost dread to print a work of this nature, composed in such unfavourable circumstances. To this gentleman, so well known by his edition of Day’s works and by his series of Old Plays in course of publication, my warmest thanks are due for reading each sheet as it passed through the press, and for making most valuable suggestions and corrections, which give me confidence in the comparative accuracy of my statements.

Davos Puatz: Nov. 9, 1888,

Contents

OHAPTER I

INTRODUOTORY

PAGS

Chapter II The Nation And The Drama

I. The Function of a Great Drama—To be both National and Universal—How that of England fulfilled this—Hngland and the Renaissance—Fifty Years of Mental Activity.—II. Transitional Character of that Age in England.—III. Youthfuiness—Turbulence—Marked Personality.—_IV. The Italians of the Renaissance—Cellini—V. Distinguishing Characteristics of the English—Superior Moral Qualities—Travelling xii CONTENTS

PAGS —Rudeness of Society—-The Medley of the Age.—VI. How the Drama represented Society—Determination of the Romantic Species—Its Specific Quality—Materials of Plays—_ Heywood’s. Boast.—VII. Imperfections of the Romantic Style-—VIII. Treatment of Character—Violent Changes— Types of Evil—Fantastic Horrors.—IX. Insanity.—X. Meditations upon Death.—XI. Sombre Philosophy of Life— Melancholy—Religious Feeling.—XII. Blending of Gay with Grave—Types of Female Character—Boy-Actors.—XIII. Comedy of Life and of Imagination—Shaksperian Comedy— Fletcher’s Romantic Comedy and Comedy of Intrigue— Hybrids between Pastoral and Allegory—Farce—Comedy of Manners—Jonson.—XIY. Questions for Criticism.—XYV. Three Main Points relating to English Drama.—X VI. National Public—England compared with Italy, France, Spain.—X VII. English Poetry—Mr. M. Arnold on Literatures of Genius and Intelligence—The Inheritors of Elizabethan Poetry.—X VIII. Unimpeded Freedom of Development—Absence of Academies —No Interference from Government—The Dramatic Art considered as a Trade and a Tradition.—XIX. Dramatic Clairvoyance—Insight into Human Nature—Insight into Dramatic Method.—XX. The Morality of the Elizabethan Drama.—XXI. Its Importance in Educating the People—In Stimulating Patriotism—Contrast with the Drama of the Restoration.— XXII. Improvement of the Language—Variety of Styles—Creation of Blank Verse.—XXIII. History of Opinion on the Drama—De Quincey’s Panegyric . ° - 18

CHAPTER II

MIRACLE PLAYS

I. Emergence of the Drama from the Mystery—LHcclesiastical Condemnation of Theatres and Players—Obscure Survival of Mimes from Pagan Times—Their Place in Medieval Society. —II. Hroswitha—Liturgical Drama.—III. Transition to the Mystery or Miracle Play—Ludi—Italian Sacre Rappresentaziont—Spanish Awto—French Mystére—English Miracle.— IV. Passage of the Miracle from the Clergy to the People— From Latin to the Vulgar Tongue—Gradual Emergence of Secular Drama.—V. Three English Cycles—Origin of the Chester Plays—Of the Coventry Plays—Differences between the Three Sets—Other Places famous for Sacred Plays.—VI. Methods of Representation—Pageant—Procession—Ltalian, French, and Spanish Peculiarities—The Guilds—Cost of the Show—Concourse of People—Stage Effects and Properties.— VII. Relation of the Miracle to Medieval Art—Materialistie Realism—Place in the Cathedral—Effect upon the Audience.

CONTENTS xl

PAGE

—VIII. Dramatic. Elements in the Miracles—Tragedy— Pathos—Melodrama—Herod and the Devil.—IX. Realistic Comedy—Joseph—Noah’s Wife—The Nativity—Pastoral Interludes.—X. Transcripts from Common Life—Satire— The Woman Taken in Adultery—Mixture of the Sacred and the Grotesque.—XI. The Art of the Miracles and the Art of Italian Sacri Monti. . : . : ° cei 279

Chapter IV Moral Plays

I. Development of Minor Religious Plays from the Cyclical Miracle—Intermediate Forms between Miracle and Drama— Allegory and Personification.—II. Allegories in the Miracle —Detached from the Miracle—Medieval Contrasts, Dialogi, and Disputationes—Emergence of the Morality—Its essentially Transitional Character.—III. Stock Personages in Moral Plays—Devil and Vice—The Vice and the Clown.—IV. Stock Argument—Protestant and Catholic— Mundus et Infans.’—V. The ‘ Castle of Perseverance’—‘ Lusty Juventus’ —‘ Youth.’—VI. ‘ Hick Scorner ’—A real Person introduced — New Custom ’—‘Trial of Treasure’-—‘Like will to Like.’— VIL. ‘ Everyman ’—The Allegorical Importance of this Piece.—VIII. Moral Plays with an Attempt at Plot— * Marriage of Wit and Wisdom ’— Marriage of Wit and Science ’— The Four Elements ’— Microcosmus.’—IX. Advance in Dramatic Quality— The Nice Wanton ’—‘ The Disobedient Child.—X. How Moral Plays were Acted— Passage from the old Play of ‘ Sir Thomas More.’—XI. Hybrids between Moral Plays and Drama—‘ King Johan ’>— Mixture of History and Allegory—The Vice in‘ Appius and Virginia *—In : Cambyses : ° ° . ° * ° 8 115

Chapter V The Rise Of Comedy

I. Specific Nature of the Interlude—John Heywood—The Farce

of ‘ Johan the Husband ’— The Pardoner and the Friar.’—

II. Heywood’s Life and Character.—III. Analysis of ‘ The Four P’s ’—Chaucerian Qualities of Heywood’s Talent.—IV. Nicholas Udall and ‘ Ralph Roister Doister ’—Its Debt to Latin Comedy.—V. John Still—Was He the Author of *Gammer Gurton’s Needle’ ?—Farcical Character of this Piece—Diccon the Bedlam.—VI. Reasons for the Early Pevelopment of Comedy \.) 2. ee. 148 xlV CONTENTS :

Chapter VI ‘the Rise Of Tragedy Page

I. Classical Influence in England—The Revival of Learn-

ing—English Humanism — Ascham’s ‘ Schoolmaster? —

Italian Examples.—II. The Italian Drama—Paramount

Authority of Seneca—Character of Seneca’s Plays.—III.

English Translations of Seneca—English Translations of

Italian .Plays. — IV. English Adaptations of the Latin

Tragedy—Lord Brooke—Samuel Daniel—Translations from

the French—Latin Tragedies—False Dramatic Theory.—V.

* Gorboduc ’"—Sir Philip Sidney’s Eulogy of it—Lives of

Sackville and Norton—General Character of this Trazedy—

Its Argument—Distribution of Material—Chorus—Dumb

Show—The Actors—Use of Blank Verse.—VI. ‘ The Mis-

fortunes of Arthur ’—Thomas Hughes and Francis Bacon—

The Plot—Its Adaptation to the Greco-Roman Style of

Tragedy—Part of Guenevora—The Ghost—Advance on

*‘ Gorboduc” in Dramatic Force and Versification.—VII.

Failure of this Pseudo-Classical Attempt—What it effected

for English Tragedy . : : : . . : « 170

Chapter VII Triumph Of The Romantio Drama

I. Fifty-two Plays at Court—Analysis of their Subjects—The Court follows the Taste of the People—The ‘ Damon and Pithias ’ of Edwards— Romeo and Juliet ’"—! Tancred ’ and * Gismunda ’— Promos and Cassandra.’—II. Contemporary Criticisms of the Romantic Style—Gosson—Whetstone— Sidney.—III. Description of the English Popular Play—

The Florentine Farsa—Destinies of this Formin England . 197

Chapter VIII Theatres, Playwrights, Actors, And Playgoers

I. Servants of the Nobility become Players—Statutes of Edward VI. and Mary—Statutes of Elizabeth—Licences.—II. Elizabeth’s and Leicester’s Patronage of the Stage—Royal Patent of 1574—Master of the Revels—Contest between the Corporation of London and the Privy Council.—III. The Prosecution of this Contest—Plays Forbidden within the City— Establishment of Theatres in the Suburbs—Hostility of the Clergy.—IV. Acting becomes a Profession—Theatres are Multiplied—Building of the Globe and Fortune—Internal

CONTENTS xV

PAGH Arrangements of Playhouses—Intefest of the Court in Encouragement of Acting Companies.—V. Public and Private Theatres—Entrance Prices—Habits of the Audience.—VI. Absence of Scenery—Simplicity of Stage—Wardrobe—Library of Theatres——VII. Prices given for Plays—Henslowe— Benefit Nights—Collaboration and Manufagture of Plays.— VIII. Boy-Actors—Northbrooke on Plays at School—The Choristers of Chapel Royal, Windsor, Paul’s—Popularity of the Boys at Blackfriars—Female Parts—The Education of Actors.—IX. Payment to various Classes of Actors—Sharers —Apprentices—Receipts from Court Performances—Service of Nobility—Strolling Companies—Comparative Dishonour of the Profession.—X. Taverns—Bad Company at Theatres —Gosson and Stubbes upon the Manners of Playgoers— Women of the Town—Cranley’s ‘ Amanda.’ XI. ‘ The Young Gallant’s Whirligig’—Jonson’s Fitzdottrel at the Play.— XII. Comparison of the London and the Attic Theatres 212

Chapter IX Masques At Court

I. Definition of the Masque—its Courtly Character—Its Partial Influence over the Regular Drama.—TII. Its Italian Origin.— III. Masques at Rome in 1474—At Ferrara in 1502—Morris Dances—At Urbino in 1513—Triumphal Cars.—IV. Florentine Trionfi— Machinery and Engines—The Marriage Festivals of Florence in 1565—Play and Masques of Cupid and Psyche—The Masque of Dreams—Marriage Festival of Bianca Capello in 1579.—V. Reception of Henri III. at Venice in 1574—His Passage from Murano to San Niccold on Lido.—VI. The Masque transported to England— At the Court of Henry VIII. and HElizabeth—Development in the Reign of James I.—Specific Character of the English Masque—The Share of Poetry in its Success.— VII. Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones—lItalian and English Artists—The Cost of Masques—VIII. Prose Descriptions of Masques—Jonson’s Libretti—His Quarrels with Jones— Architect versus Poet.—IX. Royal Performers—Professionals in the Anti-Masque.—X. Variety of Jonson’s Masques— Their Names—Their Subjects—Their Lyric Poetry.—XI. Feeling for Pastoral Beauty—Pan’s Anniversary.—XII. The Masque of Beauty—Prince Henry’s Barriers—Masque of. Oberon.— XIII. Royal and Noble Actors—Lady Arabella Stuart — Prince Henry— Duke Charles—The Eari and Countess of Essex—Tragic Irony and Pathos of the Masques at Court.—XIV. Effect of Masques upon the Drama—Use of them by Shakspere and Fletcher—By Marston and Tourneur—Their great Popularity—Milton’s Partiality for Masques—The ‘Arcades’ and‘Qomus’ . . . . 258 xvi CONTENTS

Chapter X English History

1. The Chronicle Play is a peculiarly English Form—lIts Difference from other Historical Dramas—Supplies the Place of the Epic—Treatment of National Annals by the Playwrights.— II. Shakspere’s Chronicles—Four Groups of non-Shaksperian Plays on English History.—III. Legendary Subjects —‘ Locrine ’—‘ The History of King Leir.’—IV. Shakspere’s Doubtful Plays—Principles of Criticism—‘The Birth of Merlin.’—V. Chronicle-Plays Proper—‘ Troublesome Reign of King John ’—-‘ True Tragedy of Richard II.’—‘ Famous Victories of Henry V.’—‘ Contention of the Two Famous Houses.’—VI. ‘ Edward III.’—The Problem of its Authorship—Based on a Novella and on History—The Superior Development of Situations—VII. Marlowe’s ‘ Edward Il.’— Peele’s ‘Edward I.’—Heywood’s ‘Edward IV°—Rowley’s Play on Henry VIII.—VIII. The Ground covered by the Chronicle Plays—Their Utility—Heywood’s ‘Apology’ quoted.—IX. Biographies of Political Persons and Popular Heroes—‘ Sir Thomas More ’—‘ Lord Cromwell ’—‘ Sir John Oldcastle’—Schlegel’s Opinion criticised—‘ Sir Thomas Wyatt’—Ford’s ‘Perkin Warbeck’—Last Plays of this Species.—X. English Adventurers—‘Fair Maid of the West ’—‘ The Shirley Brothers ’—‘ Sir Thomas Stukeley ’— His Life—Dramatised in‘ The Famous History ’ &c.—‘ Battle of Alcazar.’—XI. Apocryphal Heroes—‘ Fair Em’—‘ Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green’—Two Plays on the Robin Hood Legend—English Partiality for Outlaws—Life in Sherwood —‘ George a Greene ’—Jonson’s ‘ Sad Shepherd ’—Popularity in England of Princes who have shared the People’s Sports and Pastimes : ¥ : ; : ° ‘ : *

Chapter XI Domestic Tragedy

I. Induction to ‘A Warning for Fair Women ’—Peculiar Qualities of the Domestic Tragedy—Its Realism—Its Harly Popularity —List of Plays of this Description—Their Sources.—II. Five Plays selected for Hxamination—Questions of disputed Authorship—Shakspere’s suggested part in Three of these— The different Aspects of Realism in them.—III. ‘A Warning for Fair Women ’—The Story—Use of Dumb Show—Bye- Scenes—Handling of the Prose-Taie—Critique of the Style and Character-Drawing of this Play—Its deliberate Moral Intention—IV. ‘A Yorkshire Tragedy’—The Crime of Walter Calverley—His Character in the Drama—Demoniacal

PAGE

CONTENTS Xvii

PAGE Possession.—V. ‘Arden of Feversham ’—Difficulty of dealing with it—Its Unmitigated Horror—Fidelity to Holinshed’s Chronicle—Intense Nature of its Imaginative Realism— Character of Arden—Charaecter of Mosbie—A Gallery of Scoundrels—Two Types of Murderers—Michael’s Terror— Alice Arden—Her Relation to some Women of Shakspere— Development of her Murderous Intention—Quarrel_with Mosbie—The Crescendo of her Passion—Redeeming Points in her Character—Incidents and Episodes.—VI. ‘A Woman Killed with Kindness ’—The Gentleness of this Tragedy— The Plot—Italian Underplot adapted to English Life—Character of Mr. Frankford—The Scene in the Bedchamber-~- Character of Mrs. Frankford—Wendoll—Question regarding the Moral Tone of the Last Act—Religious Sentiment—VII. ‘Witch of Edmonton ’—Its Joint-Authorship—The Story— Female Parts—Two Plays patched together—Mother Sawyer —The Realistic Picture of an English Witch—Humane Treatment of Witchcraft in this Play . ‘ 327

CHAPTER XilI

TRAGEDY OF BLOOD

I. The Tough Fibres of a London Audience—Craving for Strong Sensation—Specific Note of English Melodrama—Its Lyrical , and Pathetic Relief—II. Thomas Kyd—‘Hieronymo’ and © ‘The Spanish Tragedy’—Analysis of the Story—Stock Ingredients of a Tragedy of Blood—The Ghost—The Villain —The Romantic Lovers—Suicide, Murder, Insanity.—III.

‘ Soliman and Perseda ’—The Inductior to this Play—‘ The Tragedy of Hoffmann.’—IV. Marlowe’s Use of this Form— ‘ The Jew of Malta’—‘ Titus Andronicus ’—~‘ Lust’s Dominion’ —Points of Resemblance between ‘Hamlet’ and ‘The Spanish Tragedy ’—Use made by Marston, Webster, and Tourneur of the Species—YV. The Additions to‘ The Spanish Tragedy ’—Did Jonson make them bait from the

Scene of Fperanym0 bh inthe Garden. ‘ . 887 . CHAPTER XIII JOHN LYLY

I. The Publication of ‘Euphues ’—Its Two Parts—Outline of the Story.—II. It forms a Series of Short Treatises—Love— Conduct-—-Education—A Book for Women.—III. Its Popularity—The Spread of Euphuism—What we Mean by that Word.—IV. Qualities of Medieval Taste — Allegory — xviii CONTENTS

PAGE Symbolism-—The Bestiaries—Qualities of Early Humanism “ Scholastic Subtleties—Petrarchistic Diction—Bad Taste in Italy—Influence of Italian Literature—The Affectation of the Sixteenth Century—Definition of Huphuism—lIllustrations.—V. Lyly becomes a Courtier—His Want of Success -—The Simplicity of his Dramatic Prose—The Beauty of the Lyrics—The Novelty of his Court-Comedies.—VI. Hight Pieces ascribed to Lyly—Six Played before Elizabeth—The Allegories of their Classic Fables—‘ Endimion ’—Its Critique. —YII. ‘ Midas ’—Political Allusions—‘Sapho and Phao’ —‘ Elizabeth and Leicester ’—Details of this Comedy.—VIII. ‘Alexander and Campaspe’—Touch upon Greek Story— Diogenes—A Dialogue on Love—The Lyrics.—IX. ‘Gallathea ’—Its Relation to ‘As you Like It’—‘Love’s Metamorphosis ’—Its Relation to Jonson—‘ Mother Bombie’—. ‘The Woman in the Moon.’—X. Lyly as a Master of his

Age—Influence on Shakspere—His Inventions . ° 2 3899

CHAPTER XIV

GREENE, PEELE, NASH, AND LODGE

I, Playwrights in Possession of the Stage before Shakspere— The Scholar-Poets—Jonson’s Comparison of Shakspere with his Peers—The Meaning of those Lines—Analysis of the Six Scholar-Poets.—II. Men of Fair Birth and Good Education —The Four Subjects of this Study.—III. The Romance of Robert Greene’s Life—His Autobiographical Novels—His Miserable Death—The Criticism of his Character—His Associates.—IV. Greene’s Quarrel with Shakspere and the Playing Companies—His Vicissitudes as a Playwright—His Jealousy.—Y. Greene’s transient Popularity—Huphuistic Novels—Specimens of his Lyrics—Facility of Lyric Verse in England.—VI. Greene’s Plays betray the Novelist— None survive from the Period before Marlowe—‘ James IV. of Scotland ’—Its Induction—The Character of Ida—‘ Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay’—Florid Pedantry a Mark of Greene’s Style——VII. Peele—Campbell’s Criticism—His Place among Contemporaries—‘Edward I.’—‘ Battle of Alcazar ’—‘ Old Wives’ Tale ’—Milton’s ‘Comus ’—‘ The Arraignment of Paris’ —‘David and Bethsabe ’— Non- Dramatic Pieces by Peele.—VIII. Thomas Nash—The Satirist—His Quarrel with Harvey—His Description of a Bohemian Poet’s Difficulties—The Isle of Dogs—His Part in ‘Dido, Queen of Carthage ’—‘ Will Summer’s Testament ’— Nash’s Songs.—IX. Thomas Lodge—His Life—His Miscellaneous Writings—‘ Wounds of Civil War’—X. The Relative Value of these Four Authors. . ; : = we 420

CONTENTS | x1X

CHAPTER XV

MARLOWE : Z PAGER I. The Life of Marlowe—Catalogue of his Works.—II. TheFather of English Dramatic Poetry—He Fixes the Romantic Type— Adopts the Popular Dramatic Form, the Blank Verse Metre of the Scholars—He Transfigures both Form and Metre— His Consciousness of his Vocation.—III. The History of Blank Verse in FEngland—Italian Precedent—Marlowe’s Predecessors—Modern and Classical Metrical Systems— Quantity and Accent—The Licentiate Iambic—Gascoigne’s Critique—Marlowe’s Innovations in Blank Verse—Pause— Emphasis—Rhetoric a Key to good Blank Verse—Thao Variety of Marlowe’s Metre.—IV. His Transfiguration of Tragedy—The Immediate Effect of his Improvements—He marks an Epoch in the Drama.—V. Colossal Scale of Marlowe’s Works—Dramatisation of Ideals—Defect of Humour—No Female Characters.—VI. Marlowe’s Leading Motive—The Impossible Amour—The Love of the Impossible portrayed in the Guise—In Tamburlaine—In Faustus—In -Aortimer—Impossible Beauty—What would Marlowe have made of ‘Tannhiuser’?—Barabas—The Apotheosis of Avarice.—VII. The Poet and Dramatist inseparable in Marlowe—Character of Tamburlaine.—VIII, The German Faustiad—Its Northern Character—-Psychological Analysis in ‘Doctor Faustus’—The Teutonic Sceptic—Forbidden Knowledge and Power—Grim Justice—Faustus and Mephistophilis—Last Hour of Faustus—Autobiographical Elements in ‘ Doctor Faustus.’— 1X. ‘The Jew of Malta ’—Shylock— Spanish Source of the Story—An Episode of Spanish Humour —Acting Qualities of Marlowe’s Plays.—X. ‘ Edward II.’— Shakspere and Marlowe in the Chronicle-Play—Variety of Characters—Dialogue—The Opening of this Play—Gaveston —HEdward’s Last Hourgs.—XI. ‘The Massacre at Paris ’"—Its Unfinished or Mangled Text—Tragedy of ‘ Dido ’—Hyperbolical Ornament—Romantic and Classic Art.— XII. Marlowe greater as a Poet than a Dramatist—His Reputation with Contemporaries . ° . . : : ; ° - 465

Chapter I Introductory

Method of Inquiry—Chronological Limits—Unity of the Subject.— II. Three Stages in Evolution of the Drama—Stage of Preparation and Formation—Closed by Marlowe—Stage of perfectly developed Type—Character of Shakspere’s Art—Jonson and Fletcher—Stage of Gradual Decline.—III. The Law of Artistic Evolution—Tlustrations from Gothic Architecture, Greek Drama, Italian Painting.—_IV. The Problem for Criticism—In Biography—In History—Shakspere personifies English Genius in his Century—Criticism has to demonstrate this.—V. Chronology is scarcely helpful—Complexity of the Subject—Imperfection of our Drama as a Work of Art—Abundance of Materials for Studying all Three Stages—Unique Richness of our Dramatic Literature—VI. Shakspere’s Relation to his Age—To his Predecessors—To his Successors.—VII. Double Direction of English Literary Art—Jonson, Milton, Dryden, Pope—Spirit of the Elizabethan Epoch.—VIII. The Elizabethan Inspiration is exhausted in the Reign of Charles I.—Dramatists of the Restoration —Rise of the Novel—Place of Novelists in the Victorian Age.

I

In attempting a survey of one of the great periods of literary history, the critic is met with a problem, upon his conception and solution of which will depend both method and distribution of material. This initial difficulty may be stated in the form of questions. What central point of view can be adopted? How shall the order of inquiry be determined ? Do the phenomena to be considered suggest some natural classification ; or must the semblance of a system be introduced by means of artificial manipulation ?

This difficulty makes itself fully felt in dealing with what we call Elizabethan Drama. The subject is at once one of the largest and the narrowest, of the most simple and the most complex. It ranks among the largest, because it involves a wide and varied survey of human experience; among the narrowest, because it is confined to a brief space of time and to a single nation; among the most simple, because the nation which produced that Drama was insulated and independent of foreign interference; among the most complex, because the English people at that epoch exhibited the whole of its exuberant life together with an important stage of Kuropean culture in its theatre.

Confined within the strictest chronological limits (1580- 1680), the period embraced by such a study does not exceed fifty years. Very little therefore of assistance to the critical method can be expected from the mere observation of development in time. Yet the ruling instinct of the present century demands, and in my opinion demands rightly, some demonstration of a process in the facts collected and presented by a student to the public. It is both unphilosophical and uninteresting to bind up notices, reviews, and criticisms of a score or two of dramatists ; as though these writers had sprung, each unaided by the other, into the pale light of history; as though they did not acknowledge one law, controlling the noblest no less than the meanest; as though their work, surveyed in its entirety, were not obedient to some spirit, regulating and determining each portion of the whole.

We are bound to discover links of connection between man and man, ruling principles by which all were governed, common qualities of national character conspicuous throughout the series, before we have the right to style the result of our studies anything better than a bundle of literary essays. It is even incumbent upon us to do more than this. In spite of narrow chronological limitations, it is our duty to show that the subject we have undertaken has a beginning, a middle, and an ending in the category of time, and that the completion of the process was inherent in its earliest, embryonic stages. .

THREE STAGES IN EVOLUTION OF DRAMA &

II

In the history of the English Drama during the reigns of Elizabeth and James, the conditions which render a wellordered inquiry possible were sufficiently realised. ~Whatever method the critic may decide on, this at least he must both recognise and bear in view. He has to deal with a growth of poetry, shooting complete in stem and foliage and blossom, with extraordinary force and exuberant fertility, in a space of time almost unparalleled for brevity. The unity of his subject, the organic interdependence of its several parts, is what he has to keep before his mind.

Three stages may be marked in the short but vigorous evolution of our dramatic literature. The first and longest is the stage of preparation and of tentative endeavour. In the second maturity is reached; the type is fixed by one great master, perfected and presented to the world in unapproachable magnificence by one immeasurably greater. The third is a stage of decadence and dissipation; the type, brought previously to perfection, suffers from attempts to vary or refine upon it.

In the first stage we trace the efforts of our national genius to form for itself, instinctively, almost unconsciously, its own peculiar language of expression. Various influences are brought to bear upon the people at this epoch—through the religious conflicts of the Reformation, through the revival of classical learning, in the definition of English nationality against the powers of Spain and Rome, in the contact with lialian culture. England had not fashioned her own forms of art before the literatures of other and widely different races were held up for emulative admiration to our students. There was a danger lest invention should be crushed by imitation at the outset. Pedantic rules, borrowed from Aristotelian commentators and the apes of Seneca, were imposed by learned critics on the playwright. And no sooner had this peril been avoided, than another threatened. It

seemed for a moment as though our theatre might be prostituted to purposes of political satire, diverted from its proper function of artistic presentation, and finally suppressed as a seditious engine. Meanwhile, a powerful body in the State, headed by the Puritans, but recruited from all classes of order-loving citizens, regarded the theatre with suspicion and dislike.

The native genius of the English people, though menaced by these divers dangers, was so vigorous, the race itself was so isolated and so full of a robust tempestuous vitality, the | language was so copious and vivid in its spoken strength, the poetic impulse was so powerful, that all efforts to domesticate alien styles, all inducements to degrade or scurrilise the theatre, all factious opposition to the will and pleasure of the people, ended in the assimilation of congenial and the rejection of repugnant elements. The style of England, the expression of our race in a specific form of art, grew steadily, instinctively, spontaneously, by evolution from within.

From this first period, which embraces the Miracles, Moralities, and Interludes, the earliest comedies of common manners, the classical experiments of Sackville and Norton, Hughes, Gascoigne, Edwards, and their satellites, the euphuistic phantasies of Lyly, the melodramas of Kyd, Greene, and Peele, together with the first rude history-plays and realistic tragedies of daily life, emerges Marlowe. Marlowe is the dramatist under whose hand the type, as it is destined to endure and triumph, takes form, becomes a thing of power and beauty. Marlowe closes the first, inaugurates the second period.

Over the second period Shakspere reigns paramount ; perhaps we ought to say, he reigns alone; although a Titan so robust as Jonson stands at his right hand, with claims to sovereignty, and large scope in the future for the proclamation of his title. We, however, who regard the evolution of the Drama from the vantage-ground of time, see that in Shakspere the art of sixteenth-century England was completed and accomplished. It had imbibed all elements it needed for its

. growth ; comic humour, lyrical loveliness, the tragic earnestness and intense reality of English imagination, classical story

CHARACTER OF SHAKSPERE’S ART 5 and Italian romance, the phantasmagoric brilliancy of shows at Court, the gust of fresh life breathed into the spirit of a haughty and heroic nation by the conflicts and the triumphs of a recent past. The point about Shakspere’s art is that it as Art, mature, self-conscious, working upon given methods to a single aim. Those methods, the external forms, of Shakspere’s drama had beendetermined for him by his predecessors. That aim, the one aim of true dramatic art, the aim which he alone triumphantly achieved, was the presentation of human character in action. ‘To this artistic end all elements, however various, however wonderfully blent, however used and scattered with the profuse prodigality of an unrivalled genius, are impartially subordinated. In order to illustrate the single-hearted sincerity of Shakspere as an artist, it is only needful to observe the exclusion of religious comment, of marked political intention, of deliberate moralising, from works so full of opportunities for their display, and in an age when the very foundations of opinion had been stirred, when Europe was convulsed with wars and schisms, when speculative philosophy was essaying fresh Icarian flights over the whole range of human experience. True to his voeation, Shakspere never permitted these ferments of the time to distract him from the poet’s task, although he found in them a source of intellectual stimulus and moral insight, an atmosphere of mental energy, which makes his plays the school of human nature for all time.

Shakspere realised the previous efforts of the English genius to form a Drama, and perfected the type in his imperishable masterpieces. With him, in the second period, but after a wide interval, we have to rank Ben Jonson, who adapted the classical bias of the earlier stage to Kngland’s now developed art, and Fletcher, through whom the romantic motives borrowed from Italian and Spanish sources found new and luminous expression. In the third period we meet a host of valiant playwrights, led by Webster, Ford, Massinger, Shirley: none of them mean men. Yet these are influenced and circumscribed by their commanding predecessors ; limited in their resources by the exhaustion of more salient subjects ;

incapable of reforming the type upon a different conception of dramatic art; forced to affect novelty and to stimulate the jaded sensibilities of a sated audience by means of ingenious extravagances, by the invention of strained incidents, by curious combinations, far-sought fables, monstrosities, and tangled plots. After them the type dies down into inanities and laboured incoherent imitations.

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This evolution of our Drama through three broadly marked stages follows the law of growth which may be traced in all continuous products of the human spirit. A close parallel is afforded by the familiar periods of medieval architecture ; which in all countries of Hurope emerged from Romanesque into Pointed Gothic, the latter style passing through stages of early purity, decorative richness, and efflorescent decadence. Greek dramatic art, obeying the same rule of triple progression, took its origin in religious mysteries and rites of Dionysus; assumed shapeatthe handsof Thespisand Susarion, Phrynichus and Cratinus; received accomplished form in the masterworks of Aischylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes; broke up into the tragedy of Agathon, Cheremon, Moschion, the middle Comedy of Plato and Antiphanes, the new Comedy of Menander and Philemon. In dealing with the later stages of the Attic Drama, it is, however, more proper to speak of divergences from the primitive stock than of absolute decadence. While we have good reason to believe that Tragedy declined after the age of Agathon, owing to the same cause which led to its decline in England—inability to alter or to vary an established type; the Comedy of Menander indicated no such exhaustion of the soil, no diminution of creative vigour. It was a new form, corresponding to altered conditions of Greek life; and in this respect it might be compared to our own Comedy of the Restoration.

To multiply instances would be superfluous. Yet I am loth to omit the illustration of this law of artistic development, which is furnished by Italian painting. Emerging

LAW OF ARTISTIC EVOLUTION 7 from Byzantine or Romanesque tradition, painting traverses the stage of Giotto and the Giottesque schools; produces almost simultaneously in several provinces of Italy the intermediate art of Ghirlandajo and Bellini, of Mantegna and Signorelli, of Lippi and Perugino; concentrates its force in Raphael, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Correggio, Titian; then, as though its inner source of life had been exhausted, breaks off into extravagance, debility, and facile formalism in the works of Giulio Romano, Perino del Vaga, Giorgio Vasari, Pietro da Cortona, the younger Caliari and Robusti, and countless hosts of academical revivalists and imitators. The slovenly and empty performance of those epigoni to the true heroes of Italian painting, in which, however, the tradition of a mighty style yet lingers, may not inaptly be paralleled by the loose and hasty plays of men like Davenant and Crowne, by their dislocated plots and conventional characters, by their blurred and sketchy treatment of old motives, and by the break-down of dramatic blank verse into a chaos of rhythmic incoherences.