A; DRAMATIC LITERATURE. 



I'KAMA: I'KAMATIC LITERATURE. 



Among the firat innovations of thu kind were the rrpn*nUre 

 -I Tnith. Jutice, Peace, and Merer, in the ' Parliament of Heaven,' 

 ulii.li ( im part of the eleventh play or pageant uf the ' l.udua 

 rite.' Death, in the same ttnr*. was a subnruuent addition : 

 and the Mother of Death, a atill later enrichment ; until at length such 

 character* at ' Renfin ' ami Lyon' were employed, having more of 

 individuality, but still perwnifyiiu; the |>anons mippoaed to hare ac- 

 tuated the Jem against Christ A such characters beoaiuo more 

 numerous, they interfered in a certain degree with the program . i the 

 action; in some piece* the wriptiiral characters fell quite into the 

 background ; and thus, in coune of time, what seems to have been at 

 ftnt designed a* a sort of poetical embellishment to mi historical 

 drama, became a new species uf drama, unconnected with history. 

 Thif wa* called a " moral " or " moral-play," the object being to enforce 

 and illuatrate some ethical precept; for it must be observed, tli.it Uie 

 term " morality," as applied to a dramatic production, is, like " mys- 

 tery," of comparatively recent iiiti-iluiti. .11 into our language. Some 

 maniucript productions of this class show that moral plays were in a 

 state of conriderable advancement early in the reign of Henry VI. 

 They seem to have reached their highest perfection under Henry VII., 

 although they afterwards exhibited a greater degree of ingenious com- 

 plication. In the reigns of Henry VII. and VIII., a company of actors 

 usually consisted i<f only four or five individuals; luit by doubling 

 ome of the ports, they were able to perform the greater number of 

 the dramatic entertainments then in fashion. 



Besides allegorical personages, there are two standing characters very 

 prominent in moral-plays, the Devil and the Vice. The Devil was no 

 doubt introduced into moral-plays from the old miracle-plays, where 

 he had figured so amusingly that his presence w.is indispensable in the 

 new species of drama. As for the Vice himself, his name appears to 

 have been derived from the predominant nature of his character, as 

 amidst all his varieties of form, he is constantly represented as most 

 wicked in design. 



The mechanical contrivances used for the representation of raoral- 

 plays differed in no material point from those employed in the religious 

 exhibitions, which they gradually superseded ; except that, in general, 

 there seems to have been only one scaffold or stage, which was erected 

 either in a street or on a green adjoining a town or village, sometimes 

 in the public hall of a city or borough, and sometimes in a great 

 private mansion. As an example of something between the old 

 moralities and the later interludes of manners may be cited the 

 " goodly interlude and merry " of John Skelton, whom Dyce regards 

 "as one of the fathers of the English drama." In this interlude, 

 which is entitled ' Magnificence,' and which is printed in Skelton's 

 works (Dyce's ed. i. 225, &c.), the characters are Felicity, Liberty, 

 Measure, Magnificence, Folly, Adversity, Despair, &c., eighteen in all, 

 and all allegorical. Skelton also wrote two other " moral interlude*." 

 ' Nigromansir ' and ' Virtue,' and what he himself in his ' Garland of 

 Laurel ' speaks of as " His comedy, Achademios called by name," but 

 neither of these is known to exist. 



The performance of moral-plays was not wholly discontinued until 

 the end of Kli/alietli's reign; and one of the lost dramatic n | 

 tations that she witnessed was a piece of this kind. ' The Contention 

 between l.il>erality and Prodigality,' played before her in the 43rd 

 year of her reign. Attempts had however been very early made to 

 Invest even symbolical representatives with metaphysical as well OH 

 physical ]>eculiarities, and attract for them a personal interest ; and 

 thus it was that even in the allegorical species, the nature of which 

 would seem to have least admitted of such modification, advances 

 more and more decided were successively mode towards individuality 

 of character, and consequently towards the representation of actual 

 life. Hence nearly all the later moral-plays exhibit a strange mixture 

 of individual characters with allegorical impersonations, which, how- 

 . ith all its violent incongruity, was a necessary step in the pro- 

 gresH towards the modern drama, the drama of human passions and 

 manners. 



The first English dramatic productions in which it was attempted to 

 exhibit sketches from actual life without any scriptural, saintly, or 

 allegorical intermixture, belong to that class to which the denomination 

 of iftfrr/Mcfn, though it has had a more general application, most 

 properly and distinctively belongs. These pieces being, as their name 

 import*, expresKly designed for performance during the intervals of 

 convivial entertainment, the first condition of their structure was, that 

 the limits should be brief and the characters few. John Heywood, a 

 musician of the households of Henry VIII. and Queen Mary, set the 

 first example of composing interludes quite independently of allegorical 

 materials. [HF.rwooD, Joan, in Bum. Div.] He was essentially tin- 

 dramatic, and his humour is coarse. 



The only extant English interlude from real life in which the tragic 

 element predominates, was designed, its title tells us, to show " as well 

 the beauty and good properties of women, as their vices and evil con- 

 lUions," contrasting the character of the heroine Melibea with that of 

 Olmtiiia, a sort of coni|xiiind of procuress and sorceress, who is hired 

 by Melibea's lover to corrupt her, in which, after using extreme art, 

 she succeeds ; and the piece ends with exhibiting the bitter grief and 

 repentance of the heroine. It in founded on the famous Spanish 

 -tina,' which we have already d>. --tilled .n a long dramatic dia- 

 logue rather than a drama ; but though the English piece has some 



vigour, it altogether wants those subtle graces which gave so \ . 

 popularity to iU foreign prototype. 



A newe, mery, ana wtttie oomedie or enterlude, treating upon t h, 

 historic of Jacob and Esau ' (apparently written about 1557, but not 

 printed til) 1508), though iU nuhject i scriptural, makes nearer ad- 

 vances to the structure and general character of a modern play than 

 any piece that preceded it. In addition to the scriptural characters, it 

 has, of the author's invention, Ragau. servant to Esau ; Mido, a boy 

 who leads blind Isaac ; Hanoi, and Zethar, two of Isaac's neighbours ; 

 A bra. a girl who assists Rebecca ; and Debars, an old nurse. I IT, 

 indeed we have a five-act play, with a plot regularly , 

 characters discriminated and contrasted, and a versification, for tint. 

 period, vigorous and flowing, while the comic portions of the piece 

 have humour independent of coarseness. 



The general tenor of the lost-mentioned play is tragic, or at least 

 decidedly serious. In the earliest piece of equal dimension 

 larity of structure that can properly be termed a comedy, we have also 

 the first avowed dramatic imitation, in Knglish, of the ancients This 

 is 'Ralph li'>i-ter Doixtor,' which was certainly in being as early as 

 1551, and probably written as early as the reign of Henry VIII. The 

 former existence of such a piece had long been known, when in 1818 a 

 printed copy was discovered, of which a limited reprint has been made. 

 The author was Nicholas Udall. [UDALL, in Bioo. Div.] 



An .!h r comedy, of the like dimensions and general structme, i.* 

 entitled ' Misogonus ; ' and the author was apparently 

 Rychanlca. The scene is laid in Italy, and the ].' 

 founded on some Italian fade or play ; it represents, In wever, the man- 

 ners of England, and has many allusions to the circi.mstvices of thu 

 day : although the plot is simple, there is much variety of nit 

 and character ; and it is worthy of remark that, under tb.8 name of 

 CiK-uriftu, the qualities and functions of that important persons 

 domestic fool, are more distinctly s well as anuisinglv exhibited than 

 in almost any other of our old plays. This piece is ascertained to have 

 been composed about 1560. It is certain that the former of tin 

 comedies, and extremely probable that the latter, preceded the pro- 

 duction of ' Gammer Gurton's Needle,' which all our literary and 

 dramatic antiquaries before Mr. Collier have spoken of as the earliest 

 English comedy, though, when it was acted at Christ's College, 

 bridge, in 1566, its author. Still, afterwards bishop of Bath and 

 was only in his twenty-third year. This however appears to be the 

 first existing English play that was acted at either university; and it 

 is a singular coincidence that its author should have been tl. 

 person who, many years after, when become vice-chancellor of Cam- 

 bridge, was called upon to remonstrate with Queen Elizabeth's ministers 

 against the having an English play performed before her at that uni- 

 versity, as unbefitting its learning, dignity, and character. 



The earliest extant piece in English that can now with any )>i 

 be termed a tragedy, was written by Thomas Sackvillc (afterwardl 

 Lord Buckhurst and Earl of Dorset) and Thomas Norton, a li:ti 

 and was acted before the queen at Whitehall, on the 18th of .1 

 1561. In the first and third printed editions it is called ' The Tragedy 

 of Gorbodm,' from the name of a supposed ancient British king ; luft 

 in the second it is entitled, more correctly, ' The Tragedy of Ferrex 

 and Porrex,' from those of his two sons, who contend for sole possession 

 of his kingdom after he has divided it between them. This tragedy was 

 followed almost immediately by ' Julius Caesar,' the earliest instance on 

 record in which events from the Roman history were dramatised in 

 English, although the precise nature of this performance, of wli 

 have nothing but the mention in an old manuscript chronicle, cannot 

 be ascertained. It is doubtful, however, whether both these pieces 

 were not preceded by a tragedy founded on Luigi da Porto's famous 

 tale of ' Romeo and Juliet.' From about this date until shortly after 

 1570, the dramatic field seems to have been pretty equally divided 

 between the later moral-plays and the earlier attempts in tragedy, 

 comedy and history. In some pieces of this date and a little later, as 

 already shown, endeavours were made to reconcile or combine 1 1 1 

 kinds of composition ; but afterwards the morals generally gave way to 

 the more popular and intelligible species of performance. \Ve find 

 precedence given to the latter in the licence to James Burbage and 

 others hi 1574, in its mention of " comedies, tragedies, interludes, and 

 stage-plays;" and in the act of common council of the following year 

 against theatrical performances in the city they are designated aa 

 " interludes, tragedies, comedies, and shows." 



Still the terms tragedy and comedy, in general accrptaC- 

 far from the strictness of signification attached to them l.y t: 

 fessed mculcators, by example or precept, of the imitation of the 

 ancients. But comedy was from the beginning used in a more com- 

 prehensive sense than tragedy, being in fact very often employed as 

 .-\iiMiiymoun with the general designation of play. Hence it is, that 

 Shakspere makes Hamlet, after he has had the tragedy exhibited 

 before the king and queen, exclaim, 



" For if the king like not the comedy," c. 



The vast variety of matters embraced by the dramatists of that day, 

 and of sources from which they drew, is perfectly expressed in the 

 prologue to the ' Royal King and Loyal Subject,' one of the earlier pro- 

 duetj,.nM uf Til,, ma 1 1. >y .,,.,!. who became a writer for the stage some 

 years before the death of Elizabeth ; who produced, it is said, two 



