11 



DRAMA; I>RAMATIC LITERATfUK. 



DRAMA ; DRAMATIC LITERATURE. 



simplicity, are in nirit and design a copy of UM antique. Gabriel 

 Iffionft ' Daatb of Abel ' (Mart d'Abd) wa. ha*rdous but successful 

 rttimpt to make an antediluvian subject icceptoblc on modern stage, 

 to which be had been eaooonfcd by tbe pop.d*rity which Oesane, 

 and hi. poetry then eniowd. Tbe same auUmr rentured to < 

 not uoMDMrtullT. ia ' Kpicbaru . >y* of Nero, 



tbe opening of who** e*r**r is abown in one of tbe masterpiece* of 

 Racine. U* TeupUen' of M. Raynouard. founded on the dertruo- 

 lion of tbe order of Knight* Templan in tbe reign of rhilippr le Bel, 

 u much move remarkaUe for art and correctness of structure and 

 execution tban for poetic vitality ; but tbeee merits, added to tbe 

 powerful intnt of its national subject, made it highly lUOoeaafuL 



Some of tbe oomedie* of Bounault, a youngt-r contemporary of 

 Hotter*, bare kept pos*e**ia of the stage: they are all 

 neondary description which tbe French call ;'?* d limr, of which 

 e binwelf. in UU ' Facheux, 1 gare the Bnt example. This kind, 

 in UM accidental nature of tbe acenea, which are strung together on 

 one common occasion, bear a resemblance to the mimi of the ancient* : 

 tbey are particularly favourable for the display of the mimetic art in 

 UM more limited ramification f the term, as it is one and tbe same 

 player that re-appears throughout in a lic.-h diameter and a different 

 dfeguise, Tbe wont of dramatic movement however in such pro- 

 duction* require* tbey should be short, whereas Bounault'.s 

 tbougfa otherwise poanasing considerable merit, are drawn out to tlio 

 wearisome length of five act*. 



After Moliere's death, a considerable time elapsed before the appear- 

 ance of Regnard, to whom the second place among the French comic 

 writers has usually been assigned. [ KH.NABI), in Bioo. Div.j 



The 18tb century produced a number of comic writers in France of 

 the second and third rank, but no genius capable of advancing that 

 department of the dramatic art a step farther, and thus the belief in 

 tbe unapproachable excellence of Moliere, became yet more firmly fixed. 



In the overthrow of the nnr/rn rtijimt in politics fell the main sup- 

 port of the old dramatic code ; yet it U remarkable, though perhaps 

 not wonderful, that many of the warmest and firmest opponents of 

 tbe former rule, U>th then and since, have clung to the Hamiml 

 literary canons; so strong and so binding is the force of habit, 

 especially of literary habit, so long as the analytic powers have not 

 been brought to bear directly and expressly OpCB the subject in 

 question. The revolution in French art and literature consequently 

 followed but tardily the political revolution ; and its first promoters 

 had to contend against the most formidable obstacles. However, they 

 presented themselves early in the field. The stormy days of the Con- 

 vention, and the satiimolian period of the Directory which followed, 

 did indeed afford little leisure or encouragement for the cultivation of 

 the liberal arts; but no sooner were the danger and the fear of 

 anarchy removed by the firm and vigorous administration of the 

 Consulate, than the new literary and dramatic ideas began to develop 

 themselves, and, in consequence, a .violent war to be waged 1 

 tbe dcuririiiti of the old school and the romanticala of the new. 



Among the earliest, ablest, and steadiest cultivators of the French 

 romantic drama, the first place seems duo to JI. Nepomucine Le- 

 mercier. His tragedy of ' Agamemnon ' combines felicity of plot, 

 purity of style, and discrimination in depicting characters and manners. 



The revolution of 1880 was a victory won for liberty in art 

 as in politics. Since then, the higher departments of the ! 

 drama, both as to writing and acting, have been in full activity. 

 Among the advocates and emulators of the Shaksperian dramn, Victor 

 Hugo ha* hitherto shown himself the foremost, the boldest, and the 

 ablest. In tragedy in the more limited sense, though still of the 

 romantic school, Alexandra Dumas and Alfred de Vigny are the most 

 distinguished. It id the higher comedy tliat seems at present to lie 

 the least flourishing. Meanwhile, the classic reputation of Molicn- 

 preserves his comedies on the stage, although in tone and manners 

 they are altogether obsolete. But we do not intend to enter up..n 

 disquisitions of the merits of contemporaneous writers ; we may, how- 

 ever, state that they have been very successful in the minor depart- 

 mentaof tbe dramatic art; and that numerous farces ami interlude* 

 have a high degree of wit, satire, and ornamental characterisation. 



Tli.- serious or ideal French opera dates from the time of Louis XIV. 

 Cardinal Mazarin, himself an Italian, had introdun-d into Knm.-c the 

 taste for tbe Italian opera. Louis too was desirous of rivalling or 

 surpassing foreign nations in the external magnificence of the drama 

 in decoration, machinery, music, and dancing; these were to be used 

 on festival .occasions at court, and accordingly Moliere wa* em 

 to write gay operas, and Quinault grave ones, for the music of Lulli. 

 As Quinault is the only great poetical name in tin- l.i-t, . v of tin- higher 

 French opera, we refer to the notice of him [QrjnUDLT, in Bio 

 for further remarks on that particular specie*. Tl: 

 opera, has lioen much more successfully cultivate! l,y modem French 

 writers, owing, in a great degree, to the substitution, in thin kind, of 



ry dialogue in lien of recitative, so unfavourable t...i 

 animation.' The rntulrriUt, in which the lighter dramatic wi 

 France have of late been so wonderfully prolific, and which so pecu- 

 liarly harmonises with the tone of good-natured gaiety in the more 

 (-pillar classes of that country, is but a variety of the comic opera ; its 

 essential distinction being, that it dispense* with musical composition, 

 a* tbe songs are set to well-known popular airs. 



It U a fact worthy of attention, that tbe histrionic art, especially in 

 tragedy and the higher comedy, has long been carried in Franc* to 

 very high perfection. Schlegel himself admit*, that in external dignity, 

 +, correotn*** of memory, and in a wonderful degree of pro- 

 priety and elegance in tbe delivery of Terse, tbe best French actors can 

 hardly be surpassed. 



Qtrma* Orama. Tbe earliest mention of tbe performanoa of 

 Mysteries in Germany appears in th.- Kulen-spiegel,' which |irofe*ses 

 to be the history of a celebrated buffoon of that name, who is stated to 

 have lived about the mi. 111. ,,i the 14th century, although the book 

 itself is not older than the Iwginning of the 15th. We there find, 

 amongst other elegant matters, " How Kulen-spiegel made a pl.iy in 

 Easter fair, wherein the priest and his maid-servant fought with the 

 boor*." The oldest extant German drama wa* written about tbe 

 mi.l.Ue of the ISth century, by one Han* Ro*enpluet, a native of 



rg. He was succeeded by two fertile writers born in the same 

 iini" ii;il city, Hans Sachs and Ayrer. Among the works of Hans 

 Sachs we find a great number of tragedies, comedies, and spiritual and 

 Mnp'.ral histories, where the prologue and epilogue are always spoken 



herald, beside* merry carnival plays : but Tieck observe* that 

 they can scarcely be reckoned as dramatic works ; they are either 

 religious or secular tales or novels, related in dialogue. All these 

 pieces, it appear*, were acted, not by players, but by respectable 

 citizen*, as an allowable relaxation, without any theatrical apparatus. 

 The carnival plays are rather coarse, but often extremely .in .11. running 

 indeed into the wildest farce, and overleaping all the bounds of reality. 

 Ayrer, who lived at the hitter end of the 16th century, among his 

 numerous pieces, introduced many imitations or adaptations of the 

 English drama; and during his time companies of English actor* per- 

 formed in various parts of Germany, particularly at Dresden. 



In the first half of the 17th century, Opiz, regarded as the founder 

 of the modern forms of German poetry, translated several tragedies 

 from the ancients into verse, and composed operatic pastorals after 

 the Italian manner; but it is not known whether he wrote anything 

 expressly for the stage. Next came Andreas Gryphius, considered a* 

 the first dramatic writer of Germany. Among his imitations and 

 translations from various modem languages, are, a tragei 

 Flemish of Vondel, and a farce called ' Peter Squems' (Peter Quince), 

 which is an extension of the burlesque tragedy of Pymrmis and Thisbe 

 in Shakspere's ' Midsummer Night's Dream.' But the intimacy of 

 the Germane with the English drama seems to have suddenly ceased 

 about this time. Gottsched, who wrote a good deal for the stage, 

 introduced imitations and adaptations from the French on the classical 

 model, that is, adhering to the unities ; and though this was opposed 

 by Bodmer, and some other critics, it was for a time successful. Gott- 

 schcd and his players solemnly buried the German ' Hanswurst ' (the 

 clown), and Gellert and AVeis.se followed in his footsteps. Thus, bad 

 i.iiis of French plays, with pieces from Holberg, and afterwards 

 >ldoni, and with Home feeble German imitations devoid of any 

 peculiar spirit, may be said to have constituted the repertory 

 German stage, until Leasing appeared to commence the work of re- 

 deeming it from its long-continued mediocrity. 



The sceptical and analytic spirit of Leasing was, however, more 

 successful in reforming the theory than improving the practice of the 

 German drama. ; Him:. lnv.J The boldness and scute- 



ness with which, through this medium, he attacked the preval-nt 

 French taste in tragedy were so successful, that in a short time not 

 only the translations of French tragedies, but the German tragedies 

 modelled after them, disappeared from the stage. He was the first 

 in Germany who contended for the claims of Shaksperc to ! 

 sidered as a real and great artist, and by intelligent criticism 

 established the study of him in his fatherland. The reform introduced 

 by Leasing paved the way for GOTHK and SCHILLER [Bioo. Div.] : 

 their success produced swarms of imitators, Itlhn.l with his v.ipi.l 

 comedy, Kotzebue with his sentimentality (of whose plays some 

 have obtained a place on the English stage), and others. The great 

 support, however, of the drama of character is the marked ]>o| 

 of sh.-ikspere, assisted as it has been by the admirable translations of 

 Schlegel, Tieck, and others; while the French theatre sup]!!' 

 i , and tin- operetta*. 



The example, however, of Ciothe and Schiller, together with the 

 admiration of Sh.ikspere, has continually induced writers to try their 

 strength in this field. Tieck (' Dratnaturgische Blatter,' vol. i.) 



ut ing on the French mode of repudiating from tragedy nil 

 trivial circumstances, all reality, nil national subjects, as too unidenl ; 

 When Sh.-iksperc first became popular in Germany, many 

 struck out in an entirely opposite direction. They could never heap 

 up sufficient casual circr >iich. with oil the 



anecdote* and speeches that they could find, they packed in nil their 



H into their tragedies, and this proceeding they styled i 

 111 thin whoi.l the- best is G. A. von Kieist, who sinned ehielly in this 

 assembling of trh hil pieces, as ' Knth. i 



Heill.ronn/and the HermafflKchlacht,' in 



HIT. other names are Aniim, Milliner. Halm, Tbeodor K 



und (iiitzkow. Arnim belonged to the romantic -ehool, but wan more 

 successful in his novels than his dramas. Milliner won a classicist of the 

 French school, and a copious and fluent writer. He tmnnl.v 

 adapted considerably, from the authors of that country, and had 



