Against the Brydale daye, which is not long : IX. Yet therein now doth lodge a noble Peer, Great Englands glory, and the Worlds wide wonder, Whose dreadfull name late through all Spaine did thunder, And Hercules two pillors standing neere Did make to quake and feare. Faire branch of Honour, flower of Chevalrie! That fillest England with thy triumphes fame, And endlesse happinesse of thine owne name That through thy prowesse, and victorious armes, To ages following, Upon the Brydale day, which is not long Sweete Themmes! runne softly, till I end my song. X. From those high Towers this noble Lord issuing, Like radiant Hesper, when his golden hayre In th' Ocean billowes he hath bathed fayre, Above the rest were goodly to bee seene Two gentle Knights of lovely face and feature, Fit for so goodly stature, That like the Twins of Jove they seemed in sight, Which decke the Bauldricke of the Heavens bright: They two, forth pacing to the Rivers side, Receiv'd those two faire Brides, their Loves delight; Each one did make his Bryde Against their Brydale day, which is not long: Sweete Themmes ! runne softly, till I end my song. THE ENGLISH DRAMA BEFORE SHAKESPEARE. The Eliza Shakespeare is so much a part of our English civilization, we accept his gift to us so easily, and are so familiar with his greatness, that it is well to remind ourselves of his place as the King of all bethan Drama. literature. Thomas Carlyle wrote of him: "I think the best judgment, not of this country only, but of Europe at large, is pointing to the conclusion that Shakespeare is the chief of all poets hitherto; the greatest intellect who, in our recorded world, has left a record of himself in the way of literature; "* and Emerson says, speaking for our own branch of the English people: "Of all books dependent upon their intrinsic excellence, Shakespeare is the one book of the world. . . Out of the circle of religious books, I set Shakespeare as the one unparalleled mind."+ Criticism cannot explain how, or why, the country-bred son of a Warwickshire wool-dealer should have possessed this supreme gift; it is the miracle of genius; but we can partly understand how surrounding conditions favored the expression of Shakespeare's genius through a dramatic form. It is beyond our philosophy to analyze the nature of the mysterious force shut within a seed, although we may appreciate the conditions which help. its development. Let us look at Shakespeare in the light of some of those surroundings in which his genius worked. Shakespeare did not create that dramatic era of which he was the greatest outcome; he availed himself of it. He lived in the midst of one of the world's few great dramatic periods-a period equaled only, if equaled at all, by the greatest epoch in the drama of Greece. The Elizabethan drama was more than a national amuse * "Heroes and Hero Worship; The Hero as a Poet." Shakespeare Part of a Dramatic Period. ment. More fully than any other form of literary or artistic expression, it interpreted and satisfied the craving of the time for vigorous life and action. The theatre was then, as in classic Greece, a national force, and a means of national education. An immense popular impulse was back of the Elizabethan dramatist. The wooden play-houses were daily filled with turbulent crowds, and scores of playwrights were busy supplying the insatiable public with countless dramas. Shakespeare was sustained by a hearty, if not always discriminating, appreciation; he was stimulated by the fellowship, or rivalry, of a host of competitors. At first sight, this dramatic activity may seem to have sprung suddenly into being in answer to a new popular demand. The first regular tragedy was tion for the Eliz- about the time of Shakespeare's birth, and he was twelve years old before the first regularly licensed theatre was erected in England (1576). The Prepara abethan Drama. But the passion for life and action did not create the Elizabethan drama out of nothing; it rather transformed and adapted to its use a drama which had been estab lished for centuries. This drama, brought into England sometime after the Norman Conquest, had grown out of the need which the Church felt for some means of popular religious instruction. Short scenes, or plays, illustrating some legend of the saints, or Bible story, were acted first by the clergy, and later by the professional players, or by the Guilds. These Miracle plays, as they were called, because they dealt with wonderful, or supernatural, subjects, were popular in England during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and continued to be acted in Shakespeare's time. There were other kinds of plays, of which we need not speak particularly-the Moral play, an allegorical performance, intended to teach some moral lesson, and the Interlude, a short scene, or dialogue, often played between (interludo) the courses at feasts. The earliest Moral play extant dates from the time of Henry VI., but mention is made of some still earlier. Interludes were composed by John Heywood, in Henry VIII.'s reign, and produced at court. The introduction of historical characters among the allegorical personages of the morality play-Riches, Death, Folly, and the likewas an important step towards the regular historical drama.* These early plays, although full of interest for the student, have, as a rule, but little poetic merit. To our modern eyes, they often seem irreverent, and lacking in dignity, but they pleased and instructed a simpleminded and illiterate audience; they cultivated and kept alive a taste for acting, and so prepared the way for a dramatic development under the re-creating touch of the New Learning. In taking the further step from the Interlude to the more regular dramatic forms, England was helped by the Revival of classical Learning and by the example of Italy. Her first regular comedy, the Ralph Roister The Beginning Doister of Nicholas Udall, 1551, was writ of Regular Draten in imitation of the Latin comic drama ma. tist, Plautus; her first tragedy, the Gorboduc, or Ferrex and Porrex, of Sackville and Norton, while it dealt with. a subject in the legendary history of England, followed the style of the Latin tragic poet Seneca. The numerous translations from the latter writer † are a proof of his influence and popularity. But the forces creating a Bale's “King Johan " is one of the earliest examples of this, but it was probably not printed until 1538, and had little influence. Another early play is the "Conflict of Conscience." Between 1559 and 1566, five English authors applied themselves to the task of translating Seneca. Ten of his plays collected and printed together in 1581 remain a monument of the English poets' zeal in studying the Roman pedagogue. drama in England were too strong and original to make it a mere classic imitation; it might borrow from Rome or Italy, but it had vitality and character of its own. Influence of Drama. Among the native forces thus shaping a new drama out of mediaval Miracle plays or classic adaptations, was the intense patriotic pride which, in the days of the Armada, stirred England to more widePatriotism on spread interest in her history, and to a warmer pleasure in the image of her triumphs. The Chronicle Histories of England were ransacked for subjects, and her past reviewed in dramas which were the forerunners of Shakespeare's great series of English historical plays. Among the early works of this class are, The Famous Victories of Henry V., acted before 1588, Sir Thomas More, about 1590, The Troublesome Raign of King John, printed in 1591, and The New Chronicle History of King Leir and his three daughters, Gonerill, Ragan, and Cordella, acted two years later (1593). The English historical drama was thus a native growth, brought into being by a genuine national impulse. It helps us to estimate the motive power of this impulse if we turn a moment from the drama to other forms of literature. Patriotism while thus molding the drama was giving new life to history and verse. Learned men like Stowe, Harrison, and Hollingshead, were embodying in prose painstaking researches into English history and antiquities. Hollingshead and Harrison's Description and History of England, Scotland and Ireland (first edition, 1577), a good example of works of this class, supplied material to Shakespeare for his historical plays. In the same way an enormous quantity of verse draws its inspiration from England and her history. William Warner set forth the history of England from the Deluge to the time of Elizabeth in a much-read poem of ten thousand |