tained, and passed from the domain of history into common everyday life. His pieces, which may in some sense be compared to the mimes of Sophron, were but a succession of scenes, for the most part comic, but destitute of every thing like complication of plot, yet boldly sketched, lively, and teeming with popular wit, directed to matters of public or domestic interest, or existing characters, manners, and opinions. An opening was hereby made for a proper national comedy, which naturally retained the satirical cast, as may be seen in the piece of David Lindsay, played before James V. of Scotland, entitled "A Satyre of the Three Estaites," and aimed against the unreformed clergy.

Although the pieces of John Heywood, to which, in the opinion of Collier, the title of Interlude most properly belongs, struck quite a new chord, by abandoning both the allegorical form and a directly religious or moral end; and although on this account the author may deserve to be regarded as the inventor of a peculiar, and, for the time, new species of the drama, still his pieces did not appear wholly without preparation, nor even do they stand absolutely alone in their kind. Not to mention others, there was published, as early as 1530, " a Commedye in manner of an Enterlude," from an unknown hand, entitled, "The Beauty and Good Propertie of Women, as well as their vices and evil condition;" worked out in the same manner, but exhibiting much more earnestness of style, and in so far performing the same service to tragedy as Heywood's pieces had done for comedy (see Collier, ii. 408.) Unfortunately, the comedies and tragedies which Ralph Radcliffe composed since 1538 for his pupils at Hitchin are lost. Among other subjects he treated the History of Job, Jonas, and Judith, the story of the Patient Griselda, the burning of John Huss, the history of Titus and Gesippus, (Warton, iii. 213). When we reflect that Radcliffe was a scholar, and his Patient Grisel, as it is expressly asserted by his biographer, was composed after Boccaccio, we can have no hesitation in concluding, what, indeed, the titles of his pieces generally warrant, that the historical element was predominant in them. Of Moral-plays still extant, "The Conflict of Conscience," by Nathaniel Woodes, is one of the oldest, in which an historical character, the Italian Jurist, Francisco Spiera, and the account of his fall from the church, is mixed up with allegorical personages. Preston's "Cambyses, King of Persia," and the "Appius

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 re-. marked, 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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