Chapter I. |
INTRODUCTORY
The Origins of English Drama |
|
By A. W. WARD, Litt.D., F.B.A., Master of Peterhouse
- Earliest traces of English drama
- Estrifs
- The Normans and their Minstrels
- Faint influence of the Classical Drama
- The English Monastic Literary Drama
- Popular survivals
- Festival Plays
- Ridings and Mummings
- Liturgical Drama
- Opposition of the Clergy to secular entertainments
- Importance of the Corpus Christi Festival
- Cornish Miracle-plays
- Variety in dialect and metre in the English Mysteries and Miracle-plays
- Origin of the Moralities
- English love of Allegory
- Evolution of Tragedy and Comedy
BIBLIOGRAPHY |
|
II. |
Secular Influences on the Early English Drama
MINSTRELS. VILLAGE FESTIVALS. FOLK-PLAYS |
|
By HAROLD H. CHILD, sometime Scholar of Brasenose College, Oxford
- Strolling Performers: the Latin mimus and the Teutonic scop
- Influence of English Minstrels on Religious Plays
- Beginnings of the Interlude
- The Minstrels’ Guild
- Influence of Folk-lore
- Cantilenae
- Folk-dance and play
- The Hock-Tuesday Play
- Sword-dance
- Plough Monday performances
- Development of the Mummers’ Play
- Transformation of the May-game into the Robin Hood Plays
BIBLIOGRAPHY |
|
III. |
The Early Religious Drama
MIRACLE-PLAYS AND MORALITIES |
|
By W. CREIZENACH, Professor of German Language and Literature in the University of Cracow
- Concordia Regularis
- School Dramas of Hilarius
- Religious Plays in London
- The vernacular in Medieval Drama
- Jacob and Esau
- Miracles of Mary
- Evidence of the popularity of the Religious Drama
- The Harrowing of Hell
- Mysteries and their sources: traditional and original elements; mingling of comic with tragic incidents
- Costliness of production
- Corpus Christi Plays
- York Mysteries
- Towneley Mysteries
- Chester Plays
- Ludus Coventriae
- Saints’ Plays
- Object and value of the production of Mysteries
- Early Moralities
- The Castle of Perseverance
- Mankynd
- Mind, Will and Understanding
- Everyman
- Tendency towards the introduction of comic elements
- Progress in aim and treatment
- Distinctive character of the Moralities
- Effects of Humanism on Mysteries and Moralities
- Interlude of the Nature of the Four Elements
- Treatment of educational, political, and ecclesiastical questions in the Morality
- Vicissitudes in the reigns of the Tudor sovereigns
- The last of the Moralities
BIBLIOGRAPHY |
|
IV. |
Early English Tragedy |
|
By JOHN W. CUNLIFFE, D.Lit. (London), Professor of English in the University of Wisconsin, U. S. A.
- Study, imitation and reproduction of Senecan tragedy
- Classical influence in the Italian Drammi Mescidati
- Giraldi Cinthio’s Orbecche
- Early English Tragicomedies
- Historic importance of stage directions
- Horestes
- Kynge Johan
- Gorboduc and its political significance: its advance on Senecan Tragedy and early Tragicomedy
- Introduction of intermedii
- Jocasta
- Gismond of Salerne and its sources: motives of its authors
- Advance in the treatment of Romance
- The Gray’s inn Entertainment; The Misfortunes of Arthur: extent of its debt to Seneca
- Popular translation of the Ten Tragedies of Seneca
- Renewed interest in English history and the beginnings of English Historical Drama
- The Chronicle Histories: The Famous Victories of Henry the fifth
- The Troublesome Raigne of King John
- The True Chronicle History of King Leir
- The relations between Locrine and Selimus
- Diminishing attention paid to classical models and increasing appeal to popular sentiment and national tradition; the legacy of the Classics in Tragedy
BIBLIOGRAPHY |
|
V. |
Early English Comedy |
|
By F. S. BOAS, M.A., Balliol College, Oxford, LL.D. (St. Andrews), late Professor of English Literature in Queen’s College, Belfast, and late Clark Lecturer in Trinity College
- John Heywood
- His relationship to Sir Thomas More
- Period of his dramatic activity
- Probability of French influence
- His interludes: Witty and Witless; Love; Wether; The Foure P. P.
- His narrative power
- Doubtful plays: The Pardoner and the Frere and Johan Johan
- The collision of romantic and didactic tendencies in Tudor Drama
- Calisto and Melebea
- Lucrece
- Continental Humanist Drama
- Performances of Latin plays in the schools and at the Universities
- Nicholas Udall
- Ralph Roister Doister
- Jacke Jugeler
- English adaptations of Textor’s Neo-classic Plays
- Prodigal son plays
- Misogonus
- Jacob and Esau
- The Glasse of Governement
- Supposes
- The Bugbears
- Influence of the Southern Stage
- Strength of the native dramatic instinct
- Tom Tyler
- Damon and Pithias
- Promos and Cassandra
- Edwards’s and Whetstone’s theory of the function of Comedy
BIBLIOGRAPHY |
|
VI. |
The Plays of the University Wits |
|
By G. P. BAKER, Professor of English in Harvard University, U. S. A.
- The University standard of judgment
- John Lyly
- His position in the group of University Wits
- His material, method and style
- His models
- Authorship of the songs in Lyly’s plays
- Introduction to the English stage of High Comedy: its essential features
- Lyly’s refining and intellectual influence on English Literature and Drama
- George Peele
- Variety in theme and treatment
- Beginnings of dramatic criticism
- Peele’s poetry
- Robert Greene
- His literary career; his Novels and Pamphlets
- His Repentance
- Early dramatic work
- Plays attributed to Greene
- His sources and handling of plot
- Development of the Love story
- Thomas Lodge: sequence of his work
- His ill-success and retirement from Drama
- Thomas Nashe: popular form of his work
- Characteristics of the group of University Wits
BIBLIOGRAPHY |
|
VII. |
Marlowe and Kyd
CHRONICLE HISTORIES |
|
By G. GREGORY SMITH, M.A., Balliol College, Oxford, Professor of English Literature in the University of Belfast
- The forerunners of Shakespeare
- Marlowe’s life and early literary work
- Tamburlaine the Great
- Dr. Faustus
- The Jew of Malta
- Edward II, the Massacre at Paris and Dido Queene of Carthage
- Marlowe’s share in other Plays
- Association with Shakespeare
- Marlowe’s non-dramatic writings
- Poetic quality of his work
- Characteristics of his style
- His treatment of the Chronicle Play
- His forerunners
- Edward II
- Creation of Blank Verse as a dramatic instrument
- Thomas Kyd’s early work
- The Spanish Tragedie
- Kyd and the early Hamlet
- Doubtful authorship of The First Part of Jeronimo and of Solimon and Perseda
- Criticism of Kyd’s work and comparison with Marlowe; Kyd’s place in English Drama
BIBLIOGRAPHY |
|
VIII. |
Shakespeare: Life and Plays |
|
By GEORGE SAINTSBURY, M.A., Merton College, Oxford, LL.D., Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in the University of Edinburgh
- Character of our knowledge about Shakespeare
- His Family and Education
- His Marriage and relations with his Wife
- His Company
- Biographical aspects of the Sonnets
- Evidence as to Order of Plays
- Value of the Meres list
- Earliest group: The Comedy of Errors, Love’s Labour’s Lost and Titus Andronicus
- Second group: The Two Gentlemen of Verona, All’s Well that Ends Well and The Taming of the Shrew
- Remaining Meres Plays: Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merchant of Venice
- Early Chronicle Plays: Richard II, King John, Richard III
- Shakespeare’s share in Henry VI, Henry IV
- Plays not mentioned by Meres: Pericles, The Merry Wives, Measure for Measure, Much Ado about Nothing, As You Like It and Twelfth Night
- Remaining Historical Plays: Henry V and Henry VIII
- Classical Plays: Troilus and Cressida, Timon of Athens, Julius Caesar, Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra
- Tragicomedies: Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear
- Last group: Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest
- Shakespeare’s Censors
- His special gifts: poetic phrasing, dramatic construction and character-drawing
- His justice and tolerance
- Universality of his style
- His progress in versification
- Shakespearean Blank Verse: management of metre, pause, trisyllabic substitution and the redundant syllable
BIBLIOGRAPHY |
|
IX. |
Shakespeare: Poems |
|
By GEORGE SAINTSBURY, M.A., LL.D.
- Dates of Composition and First Editions
- Dedication of the Sonnets
- Venus and Adonis
- Lucrece
- The Sonnets: the problem of their interpretation
- Futility of attempts to find biographical details in them
- Dramatic elements
- Peculiarities of versification
- Lesser Poems: A Lover’s Complaint, The Passionate Pilgrim, The Phoenix and the Turtle
- Shakespeare’s metrical mastery in the Lyric
BIBLIOGRAPHY |
|
X. |
Plays of Uncertain Authorship Attributed to Shakespeare |
|
By F. W. MOORMAN, B.A. (London), Ph.D. (Strassburg), Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature in the University of Leeds
- Classification of extant Plays
- Locrine: points of resemblance to The Spanish Tragedie
- Arden of Feversham: deliberate bluntness of the story and unattractiveness of the hero
- A Yorkshire Tragedy
- Edward III
- Cromwell
- Sir Thomas More: its scholarly character and political tone
- The Birth of Merlin: its probable authors
- Faire Em
- The Merry Devill of Edmonton
- Mucedorus
- The London Prodigall
- The Puritane
- The Two Noble Kinsmen: wealth of its sources and qualities
BIBLIOGRAPHY |
|
XI. |
The Text of Shakespeare |
|
By the Rev. ERNEST WALDER, M.A., Gonville and Caius College, Headmaster of Ockbrook School, Derby
- Reasons for reluctance of authors and companies to publish
- Origin of the Quartos
- Duplicate, Variant and Doublet Quartos
- Discrepancies in Texts: curtailment or omission for stage purposes or for want of actors; political expediency
- Carelessness of Players and Printers
- Lack of evidence making Shakespeare responsible for Corrections or Additions
- Value of the first Folio
- The later Folios
- Subsequent history of the Text of Shakespeare
- Rowe’s edition
- Conjectures and restorations of Pope
- His controversy with Theobald, and its effects on Theobald’s edition
- Hanmer’s edition
- Warburton’s ignorance of the old Text and of Shakespeare’s language
- Johnson’s edition
- Scientific criticism of Capell
- Johnson and Steevens’s Text
- Malone’s edition
- Nineteenth century Editors: Singer; Hudson; Collier; Halliwell-Phillipps; Delius; Staunton; Grant White; Dyce
- The Cambridge Shakespeare
BIBLIOGRAPHY |
|
XII. |
Shakespeare on the Continent
1660–1700 |
|
By J. G. ROBERTSON, M.A., B.Sc. (Glasgow), Ph.D. (Leipzig), Professor of German Language and Literature in the University of London
- Channels by which Shakespeare reached the Continent
- His influence on German and Dutch Seventeenth Century Drama
- Awakening of interest in the man
- Literary importance of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes
- Voltaire’s attitude towards Shakespeare
- His adaptations from Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth
- Abbé Prévost and contemporary French admirers of Shakespeare
- Influence of Voltaire’s opinions in Italy
- Early Seventeenth Century indications of appreciation of Shakespeare in Germany
- Strength of Classicism
- The Translations of La Place, and their effect on Voltaire and French Criticism
- Sébastien Mercier
- Le Tourneur
- Voltaire’s last Attacks
- Popularity of the Adaptations of Ducis
- German interest in Shakespeare aroused by Lessing
- Wieland’s Prose Translation
- The new attitude of the Sturm und Drang; Gerstenberg’s and Herder’s Criticism
- Shakespeare included in the répertoire of the German stage; Schröder
- The Romantic School: A. W. Schlegel and his Fellow Workers
- Shakespeare’s influence on German Eighteenth Century Literature: on the French Romantic School
- German Shakespearean Scholarship in the Nineteenth Century
- Influence of Hegelianism
- Shakespeare and the Modern German Theatre
- The Meiningen Reforms
- Introduction of Shakespeare into other lands, chiefly through French or German Translations
- Value of recent American Criticism
BIBLIOGRAPHY |
|
XIII. |
Lesser Elizabethan Dramatists |
|
By the Rev. RONALD BAYNE, M.A., University College, Oxford
- General characteristics of Lesser Elizabethan Dramatists
- Their names according to Henslowe’s Diary and Meres’s list
- Antony Munday’s career (1553–1633) and industry as a writer
- Translations of Fedele and Fortunio: The Weakest goeth to the Wall
- His extant Plays founded on Ballads and Folk-lore
- Henry Chettle’s early life: his Tragedies: The Tragedy of Hoffman
- Haughton’s Comedies: Girm the Collier of Croyden and English-Men For my Money
- Porter’s Two angry women of Abington
- Hathwaye; Robert Wilson; Wentworth Smith
- Michael Drayton’s dramatic work
- John Day’s early work
- Samuel Rowley’s When you see me, You know me
- English imitation of French Senecan Drama
- Fulke Greville’s Mustapha and Alaham
BIBLIOGRAPHY |
|
XIV. |
Some Political and Social Aspects of the Later Elizabethan and Earlier Stewart Period |
|
By A. W. WARD, Litt.D., F.B.A.
- Main features of the English Renascence at its height
- Contrast between the beginning and the end of the age
- Literary significance of the later years of Elizabeth’s reign
- Strength of the Tudor Monarchy and Popular Sentiment
- Dramatists and the Divine Right of Kings
- Question of the Queen’s Marriage
- Her attitude towards the Religious Problem
- Struggle for the English Throne
- Elizabeth’s Ministers before and after the crisis
- Vigour and activity of the New Generation
- Elizabeth’s Court
- Education of the Courtier
- Contrast between Court and Country
- Gradual change in social conditions; amalgamation of New and Old Nobility
- Rise of Prices and advance of Trade and Industry
- Increased luxury in Diet and Dress
- Horticulture
- Drinking
- Tobacco
- The Army and Navy in Elizabeth’s time
- Position of the Clergy and causes of their disrepute
- Changes in the Universities, jobbery in Schools and Universities and in the Church
- Puritanism and the Dramatists
- Growth of London and its causes
- Increase of Litigation and its effects on the Legal Profession
- The Medical Profession
- Authors and their troubles
- Attention paid to the Fine Arts
- Social conditions of the Trading and Yeoman Classes
- Depression of the Labouring Class
- Servingmen
- Treatment of the Poor, Vagabonds and Criminals
- General unrest and high spirit
- The Women of the age
BIBLIOGRAPHY |