724 



DRAMA. 



tomerfy of the Greeks belongs Mennnder, about 300 

 B. C., who, by the keenness of his wit, and the regu- 

 larity of his pieces, began a new period of the Greek 

 comedy. Of him and I'hilenion fragments only have 

 come down to us. For a particular account of the 

 character of the Greek comedy, as distinguished 

 from the tragedy, w- refer the reader to the excellent 

 Lectures on Dramatic Literature, by A.W. Schlegel. 



Tragedy consisted, originally, of lyric and epic 

 songs, sung in honour of Bacchus, at the festival of 

 the vintage. The traces of its origin are lost. (See 

 Greek Literature.) The invention of tragedy is 

 generally ascribed to Thespis, who was followed by 

 Phrynichus. The true creator of the tragedy was 

 .l-'.srliy Ins ; Thespis had only one actor, who from 

 time to time relieved the chorus by declamation. 

 .V.scliv his changed this representation into real ac- 

 tion, by making use of two, sometimes three or four 

 actors, and inventing the dialogue. Being assisted 

 by the liberality of the government, he increased 

 the number of his actors, who now became the prin- 

 cipal object of interest with the spectators : the cho- 

 rus, on the other hand, became less prominent ; 

 its songs were shortened, though they still remained 

 very long, and were always written in a tone of 

 the highest lyrical elevation, which sometimes ap- 

 pears even in the dialogue. ^Eschylus aimed more 

 at sublimity than beauty. There are many traces of 

 rudeness in his plays, yet they are wonderfully grand. 

 The action is simple in the extreme. The chorus 

 no longer chants songs which have no connexion 

 with the play, but it forms a part of one whole, 

 is the adviser of kings, the confidant of the per- 

 sons of the action, the comforter of the unhappy, 

 the terror of tyrants. Instead of wine lees, with 

 which the actors of Thespis had besmeared their 

 faces, /Eschylus introduced masks ; and, by means 

 of a long gown and the cothurnus, the lofty stature 

 of the heroes was imitated. The accommodations 

 for the spectators were improved, and machinery and 

 scenery were introduced. ./Eschylus generally in- 

 structed his actors himself, in the declamation of his 

 pieces. Sophocles followed him, and showed himself 

 a master of the tragic art : he knew better than his 

 predecessor how to excite compassion and to move the 

 human heart. Euripides (q. v.) was superior to both 

 in this respect, but he is not happy in the plan and ex- 

 ecution of his plays. These three great poets carried 

 the Greek tragedy to its perfection. Many poets fol- 

 lowed them, but only the three just named have left 

 works which have come down to us. (See Bockh Ueber 

 die griechischen Tragifcer, On the Greek Tragedians.) 



The Romans, a practical nation, and not possess- 

 ing that keen sense of beauty which we find in an- 

 cient Greece, never accomplished much in this 

 branch. The earliest specimens of the drama in Italy 

 were the Fabulee Atellante, so called from Atella, a 

 city of the Oscians, whence the performers in these 

 entertainments came to Rome. Plautus and Terence 

 were imitators of the new Greek comedy. Of the 

 Roman tragedy, the dramas which go under the 

 name of Seneca are the only specimens extant. (See 

 Seneca, and Ennius.) When the enormous accumula- 

 tion of wealth in Rome, and the total depravity of 

 morals, had corrupted almost everything which an- 

 cient Rome and Greece had produced, the theatre 

 became little better than a show-place, where spec- 

 tacles were exhibited, rather than plays performed. 



In the beginning of the middle ages, when every- 

 thing noble was buried under the deluge of barbar- 

 ism, the dramatic art was lost, or existed only among 

 the lowest classes of the people, in plays improvis- 

 ated at certain festivals, for instance, the carnival. 

 These were attacked as heathenish, immoral, and 

 indecent exhibitions ; but the favour which they en- 



joyed among the people, and the spirit of the times, 

 induced the clergy to encourage theatrical exhibi- 

 tions of subjects from sacred history. These were 

 called mysteries (q. v.), and. in all the southern coun- 

 tries of Europe, as well as in Germany and England, 

 preceded the rise of the national drama. (See An- 

 cient Mysteries, especially the English Miracle Plays, 

 by William Elone, London, 1823.) Of this kind were 

 the ridiculous Fcsta Asinaria, in which mass was read 

 by persons dressed like asses, and every means taken 

 to divert the people in churches, on the occurrence of 

 the festival of Easter. So popular were these extra- 

 vagances, tliat even the decrees of popes against 

 them were for a long time of little avail. 



With Albertino Mussati (born 1260) a better kind 

 of drama arose. He wrote some tragedies, and the 

 drama, in Italy, was divided into the erudita and the 

 commedia deWarte, \v\\\c\\ last is supposed to be derived 

 from the ancient FabulcK Atellanct and the mimi. 

 Cardinal Bibbiena wrote the first genuine Italian 

 comedy the Calandria an account of which would 

 startle the reader, who should be told that it was 

 performed for the amusement of the holy fathers of 

 the church, and the principal clergy, in the presence 

 of the ladies of the court. Ariosto and Machiavelli 

 wrote dramas ; and of the Mandragola of the latter, 

 Voltaire says, that it is worth all the comedies of 

 Aristophanes ; which shows, at least, that it is a 

 valuable performance. The comedy was cultivated 

 by many Italians, including numerous ecclesiastics. 

 Leo X. was a great patron of the theatre. Alfieri 

 is the most important of the dramatic writers of Italy ; 

 yet his comedies are to be considered rather as bitter 

 satires. His comedies are more tragic than his tra- 

 gedies. See Alfieri and Goldoni. 



The other European nations cultivated the drama- 

 tic art much later than the Italians. The English 

 and Spaniards devoted their attention to it almost at 

 the same time ; the former reaching their acme in 

 Shakspeare, the latter in Lope de Vega. The his- 

 tory of the English theatre and the drama is naturally 

 divided into two parts, the first of which begins with 

 Elizabeth, and ends with the reign of Charles I. The 

 Puritans then prohibited all kinds of plays, and the 

 theatres were shut up for thirteen years. With 

 Charles II. the drama re-appeared, and exhibited a 

 licentiousness hardly equalled by that of any other 

 Christian nation. No species of literature was more 

 admired and more debased than this. From the close 

 of the seventeenth to that of the eighteenth century, 

 British comedy was cultivated with much success 

 by Cibber, Farquhar, Congreve, Sheridan, and 

 others. In tragedy, during- the same period, we have 

 little to boast of, and at present the theatre of Britain 

 is at a very low ebb. 



The French drama was in a miserable state before 

 Corneille. " It was," says Schlegel, " in its child- 

 hood, and that not a healthy and promising child- 

 hood, but a crippled one." Corneille, Racine, Yol- 

 taire, Moliere, Scan-on, Boursault, &c., are some of 

 the most distinguished dramatists. The theory of 

 the unities, to which the French have so tenaciously 

 adhered, is so opposed to what the British and Ger- 

 mans call true, elevated poetry, that the latter have 

 been little satisfied with the French tragic muse, 

 whom they consider cold, stiff, and unpoetical ; but 

 French comedy is universally admired. 



So much has been said about the difference be- 

 tween tragedy and comedy a difference greater 

 than exists between any other species of poetry that 

 fall under the same general class and the explana- 

 tions of what constitutes this difference are often so 

 unsatisfactory, that we may be excused for introducii.g 

 the remarks of Schlegel on this subject, in his wor* 

 above mentioned : 



