and Virginia" of an unknown author signing himself R. B., and some other pieces, contain, in like manner, a motley mixture of history and allegory. However, as it would seem, the Moral-plays did not adjust themselves to the reception of historical matter until after the Miracle-plays had already abandoned their epic colouring and purely religious tendency. What in the case of Radcliffe we can only conjecture, is positively established by a drama printed in 1568, but which in all probability had previously been acted before Mary (1556-7). It bears the title, (Collier, ii. 247; W. iv. 252,) "A new, merry, and witty Comedy or Interlude of Jacob and Esau," is divided into acts and scenes, and exhibits the history of the two brothers in a dramatic form, which, considering its date, is tolerably perfect.

The great difference between such religious dramas, and the old Mysteries, consisted in this, that in the former the sacred history was made to adjust itself to the laws and requirements of art, while in the latter, art was made subordinate to the religious matter. The piece was now no longer a merely dramatised narrative; the plot, although rude and heavy, unfolded itself more independently; the action had its motives, and the personages were characterised, though as yet only in rude and sketchy outline; in short, the lyrical element had now arrived, through many indirect transitions, at an union with the epical, which, however, was yet unshapely, and rather of a mechanical than of an organic kind. Still such was, in the proper and strict sense of the term, the Birth of the Drama. After the Moralities and Interludes had fallen gradually into disrepute, the taste of the educated classes, as well as the talents of authors, were directed for the most part to comedies and tragedies,* and to histories as distinguished

*The first to employ, or rather to misemploy, the names of Comedy and Tragedy for dramatic poetry, was John Bale (1530), who entitled his "God's Promises," a tragedy, and his "Christ's Temptation," a comedy. His pieces, however, are nothing better than Miracle-plays. Hitherto the term Tragedy had been employed to denote any serious piece composed in a lofty style; and that of Comedy designated a comical poem, or one written in a low style, and in the ordinary language of life: and even so late as the last days of Elizabeth, Churchyard gave the name of Tragedy to some elegies, and Markham to an heroic poem, in rhyming octaves. In a public document, however, of 1574, Tragedies, Comedies, and Interludes, (in which term the Moral plays were included), are already distinguished.

from both. Nevertheless, the pieces still continued for a considerable period to amuse the multitude ;* and even Elizabeth, remembering, perhaps, the gratification she had derived from them in her youth, commanded within the last ten years of the sixteenth century, the representation of a Morality, (the Contention of Liberality and Prodigality), whose first appearance dated so far back as the commencement of her father's reign. Nevertheless, that which was originally instituted for the promotion of morals would appear ultimately to have degenerated into coarseness and immorality; at least we find that in the proclamation of James I. (1618), ordering that all lawful sports and honest recreations should continue to be allowed on festivals and on Sundays after evening service, Interludes are joined with other offensive amusements, such as bull and bear-baiting, and bowling, which are prohibited. Probably, however, the Moral-plays, properly speaking, may not be here included under the title of "Interludes."

That to this improvement and modification of the Moral-plays, the study of ancient art and literature contributed in some degree, must unhesitatingly be admitted, since among the poets of the time we meet with scholars like Rightwise, Radcliffe, and others; and since the admiration of antiquity was now so rife even in England, that the princess Elizabeth was well educated in Latin and Greek, being able to read Sophocles in the original with the greatest facility. Thus, too, "Jac Juggler," a Morality by an unknown hand, which in all probability was written in the reign of Edward VI. or Mary, although it was not printed until long after, owed its origin, as the author himself confesses in the Prologue to Plautus' first comedy; and it is likewise probable that still earlier the Andria of Terence had been translated into English, and publicly represented. (Collier, ii. 363.) The effect, however, which the revived study of ancient learning had on the formation of the national drama was very subordinate; it was insufficient

* In 1561, the Scots, among other festivities intended to do honour to the arrival of Mary Stuart, exhibited, out of bitter hatred to the unreformed worship, some plays, in which were represented "God's bitter judgment on Idolatry," and the "Destruction of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, with their Companies." These pieces, which Randolph, the English ambassador, called in his despatch "Pageants," may have been a species of Interlude or dumb-show. Randolph, in "Von Raumer's Contribution to Modern History," i. 13.

either to limit its free development, or to corrupt it by dragging it through the mire of mere slavish imitation. The true cause of the improvement of dramatic art which took place at this period was the rapidly advancing intellectual development of the nation itself. In the history of the world the Reformation now appeared as the proclamation, as it were, that the nations of Europe were of age. Whilst it rose up against the Papacy, against the stern objectivity, the dead formalism, and sensuous externalism of the Romish Church; and while, supported by the power of a living faith and a pure Gospel, it restored that mental freedom, that unchecked development of mind, which resting ultimately on faith is even required by the Gospel, it was itself little else than the first and greatest sign of the awakened consciousness of the Christian mind. The epical adherence to tradition, and whatever is handed down from the past-the lyrical dreams and hope of an ideal future for Church and State, such as had found utterance in the dreaming expectations of the Crusaders, and in the lyrical poetry which flourished contemporaneously with them-both these tendencies had long since run out, and the age had become essentially dramatic. For the drama is the poetry of the present, wherein past and future are organically combined; it is the reflex image of history, so far as this is the result both of the objectivity of the existentthe external power of right and morality—and of the free subjective self-determination of the agent; it is, therefore, the artistic expression of self-consciousness, the perception of the mind, which knows that its own development is the final aim of life, its history the history of the world, and that, consequently, it possesses the right and the power to break the fetters of despotism and a servile faith. (See below, § iii.) This the Reformation effected, and consequently the age of the Reformation was, whereever other circumstances did not interfere to prevent it, the birth of the Drama.

Nevertheless, it was well that the influence of ancient art and literature on the formation of the English drama did for a considerable period increase. In the schools and universities it was long the custom for the students to exercise themselves in free translations of the classic dramatists; and in time, original pieces, composed after ancient models, were acted, in addition to these

translations, in their schools and halls. These essays, in which the young scholars generally took delight, became gradually public, and from the schools they passed to the courts of justice, the inns of law, and town-halls, and were anxiously looked for on all occasions of public festivity.

In the years 1559-1566, Jasper Heywood translated into English ten of Seneca's tragedies, with additions and alterations, in the representation of which, each act, according to the old custom, was preceded by dumb-show; and, in 1566, the Phonissæ of Euripides, as recast by Gascoigne, G. Yelverton, and Kinwelmarsh, under the title of "Jocasta," was exhibited to the great gratification of a learned audience. The benefit which must hence have accrued to English art must be apparent to all. The want of regular dramatic form was the obvious defect of the tragedies which arose out of the Moralities, while finished perfection of form is the pre-eminent distinction of the ancient drama. In this respect modern art-not merely poetry, but also painting and sculpture --had much to learn of the ancients, and has in fact been every where taught by it. The secret of form, however, is the last and highest consummation of art. It is, therefore, we think, not without good reason, that we have noted the epoch at which the English drama began to attain to greater regularity under the influence of ancient art-(a development, moreover, which in its first germ coincided with the gradual transformation of the Moralities into tragedy and comedy)-as marking the commencement of a new æra in the history of the English stage. Still, of course, this beginning must not be taken for more than a beginning. "The Gorboduc; or, Ferrex and Porrex," written conjointly by Lord Buckhurst and Sir Thomas Norton, after ancient models, (in rhymeless decasyllabic Iambics, but with rhyming choruses,) and acted for the first time, 1561, in the Inner Temple-a piece which until the last twenty years has been regarded as the oldest extant instance of a regular English drama, and which, if we overlook the kind of religious pieces above mentioned, may be really regarded as such in the domain of tragedy-is, as A. W. Schlegel has already justly remarked, a stiff and lifeless composition, in which every incident of the plot is preceded by long and tedious deliberations, and fol

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lowed by lengthy narratives, and, being without anything like a proper action, or an advancing, self-developing movement, is consequently most imperfect in form. It is, however, remarkable as the earliest piece in which, instead of the rhyming verses of various measures then common, the so-called blank-verse,-i. e. the well-known rhymeless Iambics, in which most of Shakspeare's plays are written, was employed. However, the piece of Nicholas Udall, (a scholar and sometime Master of Westminster School, who in the prologue declares that he had laboured to imitate Plautus,) entitled "Ralph Royster Doyster," and called a Comedy or Interlude, which was printed in 1566, but mentioned as early as 1551, in "Wilson's Rule of Reason," is consequently the first regular English Drama. The only extant copy of this piece was first discovered in 1818. It is divided into acts and scenes, and has the large number of thirteen distinct characters. It is unquestionably superior to Gorboduc both in subject and language, and is not without merit, and possesses some life in the movement and action; but, as to progressive development of plot, the organic evolution of several elements out of the unity of a single leading idea-wherein consists the secret of dramatic form of this it exhibits little more than the very first germ. Such nearly is the case also with the "Misogonus," a comedy, which has only recently been recovered in an imperfect, MS., but must have been written about 1560, and was probably the work of one Thomas Rycharde, whose name is signed to the Prologue. The language and characters are far from bad; the invention gives proof of a lively fancy, while, on the other hand, the action proceeds irregularly and by starts, some of the characters having nothing to do with the plot, and many scenes being superfluous, and others tediously long: in short, it is apparent that the writer possessed at best a very obscure notion of dramatic composition. Still, these two plays are, in this respect, greatly superior to the youthful work of Bishop John Still, which previously to their discovery had been held to be the oldest regular comedy extant. This little drama, bearing the title of "Gammer Gurton's Needle," was probably first acted in 1566, and for the simple dry humour which prevails in it, as well as for the sustained tone and colouring, which are in perfect keeping with the