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 imbriUjye <Hm't)cr0frp C.rtenj5fon 
 
 SYLLABUS 
 
 COURSE OF LECTURES 
 
 JZABETHAN LITERATURE 
 
 'THE DRAMA. 
 
 in lit DKUVKRKD 
 
 AT HALIFAX AND HUKV ST. KDML XDS ix THE MICHAELMAS 
 TERM, 1887, 
 
 I. GOLLANCZ, B.A., 
 
 alifornia 
 
 Jional 
 
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 Cambridge 3Hnfter0ftg extension Hectare^ 
 
 SYLLABUS 
 
 OF A 
 
 COURSE OF LECTURES 
 
 ON 
 
 ELIZABETHAN LITERATURE; 
 
 THE DRAMA. 
 
 TO BE DEI.IVERKD 
 
 AT HALIFAX AND BURY ST. EDMUND'S IN THE MICHAELMAS 
 TERM, 1887, 
 
 I. GOLLANCZ, B.A., 
 
 SCHOLAR OF CHRIST S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 LONDON : WERTHfelMER, LEA & CO., CIRCUS PLACE, LONDON WALL.
 
 TEXT BOOKS. The lecturer recommends as text-books, Morley's First Sketch of 
 English Literature (Cassell, 75. 6d.), to be used with Morley's Plays (Cassell, 
 7s. 6d.), (Library of English Literature', Dowden's Shakespeare Primer (Mac- 
 millan, is.) 
 
 Students who have access to libraries may consult throughout the course : 
 Ward's English Dramatic Literature, Collier's English Dramatic Poetry, 
 Symond's Shakespeare's Predecessors in the English Drama. 
 Reference to special books is made at the end of each lecture. 
 
 WEEKLY EXAMINATION QUESTFONS. In order to be admitted to the final 
 examination (on the result of which, combined with that of the class work, the 
 University certificates are awarded), students are required, not only to have attended 
 the lectures and classes, but also to have satisfied the lecturer in at least one half of 
 the weekly papers. 
 
 Answers to the weekly examination questions, endorsed with the writer's name or 
 now de plume and centre, should be posted to I. Gollancz, Esq., Christ's College, 
 Cambridge, so as to arrive as follows : 
 
 From the Halifax classes, Tuesday morning. 
 
 From the Bury St. Edmund's classes, Tuesday evening. 
 
 Papers from Bury St. Edmund's should also be endorsed with the words 
 " Afternoon Class," "Evening Class."
 
 LECTURE I. 
 THE DRAMA AND THE BIBLE-STORY. 
 
 A. INTRODUCTION. 
 
 1. During the first thirty years of Elizabeth's reign three classes of 
 
 playwrights co-existed : 
 
 (a) linked itself to the earlier English drama, 
 
 (6) followed classical models, 
 
 (c) tried to effect a compromise between (a) and (b). 
 
 2. This is the period of the formation of the drama, its maturity is 
 
 reached when the compromise sought after by (c) is effected ; this 
 takes place soon after 1588. 
 
 3. The type of the national drama once fixed is brought to perfection 
 
 by Shakespeare. 
 
 4. The earlier plays of the poet reveal the varied influences through 
 
 which he had to pass before finding the dramatic form best suited 
 to his genius. 
 
 To trace the growth of the drama through these different stages, 
 and to demonstrate Shakespeare's relation to the contemporary 
 dramatists is the object of this course of lectures. 
 
 B. -THE RELIGIOUS DRAMA. 
 
 1. Wherever a dramatic literature has sprung up, it is found in its 
 
 beginnings associated with religious worship. This is true of 
 the Indian, Egyptian, Chinese, Greek, and also of the modern 
 (i.e. Christian) drama. 
 
 2. The Modern Drama is to be traced back to 
 
 i. The liturgical mystery. 
 
 (a) The Office of the Mass contained elements essentially 
 
 dramatic. 
 
 () The Church very early illustrated the Gospel story by means 
 of tableaux, in order to appeal to the unlettered masses: 
 i. These tableaux were at first merely pantomimic, 
 ii. The figures then spoke the story they were to 
 illustrate. 
 
 2117855
 
 iii. Special texts were written by the clerics for the 
 performers (aoout nth century). These texts were 
 in Latin at first, but were soon in the vernacular 
 (French) in i2th century. 
 
 iv. Not only the Gospel story was thus illustrated, but 
 also the lives of the more popular saints (e.g. St. 
 Nicolas), 
 ii. The monastic literary drama, e.g. Hroswitha's Comedies 
 
 (loth cent.). 
 
 C. THE RELIGIOUS DRAMA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 1. The Religious Drama passed from the Church into the hands of 
 
 the Guilds, and was developed by them. 
 
 2. Religious plays in England were indiscriminately called " miracles ; " 
 
 on the Continent this term was applied only to such as dealt with 
 the legends of the saints, while those dealing with the Scripture- 
 story were called " mysteries." 
 
 3. It was the only form of dramatic composition cultivated from the 
 
 end of the nth to the middle of the i$th century. No form of 
 intentionally dramatic writing was known in England before the 
 Norman Conquest. 
 
 (a) Jzi addition to single plays, four great cycles belonging to 
 this period of collective " Miracle " plays are preserved, 
 i. The " Townley " (acted at Woodkirk, near Wake- 
 field). 
 
 ii. The " Chester." 
 iii. The " Coventry." 
 iv. The " York." 
 
 (ti) The matter of the " Miracle " plays was drawn from 
 Scripture narrative, modified by apocryphal literature and 
 Biblical legends. 
 (c) Dramatic elements of the plays. 
 
 i. The Melodramatic character of Herod, 
 ii. The Grotesquely-comical character of Lucifer, 
 iii. The Pathetic (e.g. Sacrifice of Isaac), 
 iv. Realistic Comedy, 
 v. The Pastoral (e.g. the Nativity). 
 
 4. Early in the sixteenth century the religious drama widened its 
 
 range of subjects so as to include secular stories, e.g. Robert 
 drill, acted at Chester in 1529. 
 
 5. During the reign of Elizabeth, Miracle plays continued to be acted,
 
 and during the first seventy years religious plays were written ; 
 the latter "served to mediate between the Catholic mysteries and 
 the Protestant polemical plays on the one hand, and the artistic 
 secular drama of the next generation on the other." (Herford.) 
 e.g. Enterlude of the story of King Darius (1565). 
 Enterlude of godly Queen Hester (1561). 
 Play of Susanna (1568), not extant. 
 Play on the subject of the Prodigal (1565-6), not extant. 
 6. Performance of a Miracle play. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 1. How far is a study of the Miracle plays a necessary introduction to 
 
 an understanding of the Elizabethan Drama? 
 
 2. Illustrate from English Literature the fact that epic and lyrical 
 
 poetry develop before dramatic. 
 
 3. Describe the performance of a Miracle play. 
 
 For the " Townley " Miracles see Surtees Society's Publications, 1836. 
 
 For the " Coventry " and "Chester," the Old Shakespeare Society's Publications, 
 1841 and 1843. 
 
 For the "York" see " The York Mystery Plays," edited by Miss Toulmin Smith, 
 1883. 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 THE DRAMA OF ALLEGORY. 
 
 MORALITY PLAYS. 
 
 1. "A moral, or moral-play is a drama, the characters of which are 
 
 allegorical, abstract or symbolical, and the story of which is 
 intended to convey a lesson for the better conduct of human life." 
 Collier. 
 
 2. This form of drama was not known in England before the middle 
 
 of the fifteenth century. It continued to flourish actively until the 
 beginning of Elizabeth's reign, and existed side by side with the 
 regular drama during the whole of the sixteenth century. 
 
 3. Before the fifteenth century allegorical poetry was represented in 
 
 England by 
 (a) Poems of native growth, e.g.. Piers the Plowman.
 
 (b) Poems based on foreign models, or due to foreign influence, 
 e.g. Chaucer and Gower's poetry. 
 
 The allegorical drama in its origin belonged to the same 
 influences as produced (b). 
 
 The allegorical characters found occasionally in the earlier 
 Miracle plays formed no essential part of the plays. 
 
 4. Gains to the drama from moralities : 
 
 (1) Ingenuity of plot necessitated by allegorical form. 
 
 (2) The gradual evolution of real characters due to abstract per- 
 
 sonification. 
 
 (3) It becomes a mirror of history : 
 
 i. Old faith plays Castle of Perseverance (reign of Henry VI.). 
 
 Interlude of Youth (about 1555). 
 ii. Reformation Plays Lusty Juventus (about 1550). 
 
 New Custom (pr. 1573)- 
 iii. Conflict between i. and ii., seen in Conflict of Conscience 
 
 (pr. 1581). 
 iv. Plays of the New Science Nature of the Four Elements 
 
 (1517-19). 
 
 v. Plays of the New Learning The Trial of Treasure (pr. 
 1567). 
 
 5. Morality plays, like the Miracles, satisfied popular taste by means of 
 
 (1) Comic scenes, introduced merely to relieve monotony of action. 
 
 (2) Comic characters the Devil, 
 
 the Vice (a character peculiar to the 
 Moralities). 
 
 6. The introduction of real personages into the Moral plays gradually 
 
 led to the displacement of the allegorical characters. 
 The two elements co-exist in 
 
 i. Comedy f Tom Tiler and his wife (about 1569). 
 
 Morality ^ Jack Juggler (Edward VI.) 
 ii. Tragedy lApiusand Virginia (about 1563). 
 
 Morality \ King Cambises (1561 ?). 
 iii. History Bale's Kyngejohan (about 1548). 
 Morality. 
 
 7. John Heywood's Interludes, in which allegorical characters no 
 
 longer appear, hold a middle place between moralities and regular 
 drama : 
 
 i. The Mery Play between Johan Johan the Husband, Tyb 
 his Wife, and Sir Ihan the Priest, printed 1533.
 
 ii. 7 he Four P's (the Palmer, the Pardoner, the 'Poticary, and 
 
 the Pedlar), about 1 540. 
 iii. The Mery Play between the Pardoner and the Frere, 
 
 printed 1533, written before 1521. 
 
 8. The development of the " Interlude " into regular comedy is seen 
 
 in Gammer Gurton's Needle ; this play was long regarded as 
 our earliest English comedy (it was performed at Christ's College, 
 Cambridge, in 1 566). 
 
 9. While the farcical elements of the " Moralities " led to regular 
 
 comedy, the allegorical lived on in the Masque. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 1. How far is it just to regard the Morality as developed from the 
 
 Miracle Plays ? 
 
 2. Compare Skelton's Morality of Magnificence and Lyndsay's 
 
 Satire of Three Estates. 
 
 3. Trace the development of comedy and history from the Morality 
 plays. 
 
 The text of most of the plays mentioned are printed in Dodsley's Old English plays. 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 THE LATIN DRAMA IN ENGLAND. 
 
 A. CLASSICAL MODELS. 
 
 1 . The living interest in classical antiquity, characteristic of the Renais- 
 
 sance, was fully represented in Elizabethan literature. Its influence 
 on the English Drama may be broadly summed up under four 
 heads : 
 
 i. In the choice of classical models ; 
 
 ii. In the choice of subjects drawn from classical mythology ; 
 iii. In the use of classical allusions as part of dramatic diction ; 
 iv. In the introduction of classical machinery outside the main 
 action of the drama. 
 
 2. Of these influences i. was of most importance in its effects on dra- 
 
 matic art. 
 
 3. It must be borne in mind that it was the Latin Drama and not the 
 
 Greek which influenced the Renaissance drama:
 
 8 
 
 i. Seneca (ist cent. A.D.) was regarded as the model for tragedy; 
 ii. Plautus and Terence (2nd cent. B.C.) for comedy. 
 
 (Observe that between 1559 and 1581 "Seneca, his tenne 
 Tragedies " were translated into English.) 
 
 4. These writers became the model on which the first regular English 
 
 comedies and tragedies were based : 
 
 i. Ralph Roister Doister (1551 or earlier); 
 ii. Gnrboduc, (1592). 
 
 5. Both plays may be described as academic plays, i.e., intended for 
 
 select audiences. 
 
 6. The acting of plays as an academic exercise was a regular institu- 
 
 tion in England from the first quarter of the i6th century. These 
 were as a general rule in Latin. Occasionally, however, English 
 was allowed. To this concession we owe Ralph Roister Doister. 
 
 7. Aided by Italian example, the English playwrights of the classical 
 
 school were not slavish imitators of their masters. At the outset 
 they chose for their subjects episodes dealing with English life or 
 national legend. 
 
 (Towards the close of the century we find a few exotic 
 examples of real Senecan plays, such are : Kyd's 
 Cornelia, 1594, translated from the French, Daniel's 
 Cleopatra, and Philotus, 1594.) 
 
 B. RALPH ROISTER DOISTER : 
 
 i. Its author Nicholas Udall, Master at Eton and West- 
 
 minster; 
 
 ii. Its occasion Probably written for the Christmas perfor- 
 mance held annually at Eton ; 
 
 iii. Source Miles Gloriosus of Plautus ; 
 
 iv. The extant text The unique copy of this play, discovered 
 in 1818, has no title-page, but it was cer- 
 tainly printed in Elizabeth's reign ; the 
 prayer at the end can be for no other 
 than Elizabeth ; 
 v. Classical influence In construction of the plot and in the 
 
 arrangement of the play into five acts, 
 vi. Native elements : 
 
 (a) In the choice of story dealing with English life ; 
 (<) In dramatis personce. 
 
 These are real English characters, both in name and
 
 action. The " vice " of the morality and the parasite of 
 classical comedy are blended in Matthew Merry- 
 greek. Note the alliterated names : Ralph Roister 
 Doister, Christian Cunstance, Madge Mumblecheek, 
 Tibet Talkapace, Dobinet Doughty, etc. 
 (c) In its diction. 
 C GORBODUC : 
 
 i. Its authors Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, scholar and 
 
 statesman, with Thomas Norton ; 
 ii. Its occasion Acted before Elizabeth by the gentlemen of the 
 
 Inner Temple ; 
 iii. It follows Senecan tragedy in 
 
 (a) Making the action take place behind the scenes ; 
 
 () Ending each act with a chorus ; 
 
 (f) Substituting declamation for action and dialogue. 
 
 " It is full of stately speeches and well-sounding phrases, clym- 
 ing to the height of Seneca his stile, and as full of notable 
 moralities which it doth most delightfully teach." 
 (Sidney's Apologie for Poetrie.) 
 iv. It deserts classical example : 
 
 (a) In neglecting the unities of time and place. 
 
 " It is faulty both in time and place, the two necessary com- 
 panions of all corporall actions." (Sidney.) 
 (ff) In its choice of subject ; 
 (c) In its use of dumb-show. 
 v. It is the first play in which blank verse is used. (For the use of this 
 
 verse on the ordinary stage, see Lecture VI.) 
 As similar in construction to Gorboduc are to be noted : 
 
 (1) The Misfortunes of Arthur, acted before the Queen at Green- 
 wich, in 1587, in which, with others, Lord Bacon (born 1561) had a 
 hand. It is superior to Gorboduc in characterisation, dicfion and 
 versification. 
 
 (2) Tancred and Gismunda (first acted 1568), the oldest English 
 play extant, founded on an Italian novel. Originally written in 
 rhyme by gentlemen of the Inner Temple, where it was acted 
 before the Queen. Republished in 1 592 (see Lecture VI.), " polished 
 according to the decorum of these days," i.e., put into blank verse. 
 In the last act the romantic character of the subject triumphs over 
 the writer's classicism, and, contrary to classical example, Gismunda 
 and her father die on the stage.
 
 10 
 
 . GASCOIGNE'S "GLASSE OF GOVERNMENT" (about 1575). 
 
 (1) This comedy stands alone among English Elizabethan plays in 
 its attempt " to connect Terentian situations with a Christian 
 moral in a picture of school life." 
 
 (2) It is due to the German Latin " school-dramas " of the early 
 part of the sixteenth century in which the parable of the 
 Prodigal Son was " classicised.'' 
 
 To the influence of Germany, too, is due a series of sacred pre- 
 Elizabethan Latin dramas. These stand for the most part outside 
 the history of the popular drama. It has, however, lately been shown 
 that to one of the most important of these (Pammachius), Bale's 
 Kynge Johan> owes much, and that it was this imitation which 
 " finally emancipated Bale from his clumsy efforts to build a Protestant 
 drama on the ruins of the Catholic mystery" (see Herford's "The 
 Literary Relation of England and Germany in the Sixteenth Century "). 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 1. Write a short Essay on the Renaissance in its relation to the 
 
 beginnings of the English drama. 
 
 2. What is understood by the " Unities " ? 
 
 Give the substance of and criticise Sidney's opinion on Gorboduc 
 and its defects. 
 
 3. Ralph Roister Doister and Gammer Gurtoris Needle hold different 
 
 places in the history of the drama. Explain this. 
 
 Ralph Roister Doister is printed among Arber's Reprints (price 6d.) On Latin 
 plays see C. H. Herford's Studies on "the Literary Relations of England and 
 Germany in the Sixteenth Century," chap. iii. 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 THE TWILIGHT OF THE ELIZABETHAN DRAMA. 
 
 A. ITALIAN INFLUENCE ON THE ELIZABETHAN DRAMA. 
 
 i. It has already been mentioned that the influence of the classical 
 drama was due to the example of Italy. But a more direct influence
 
 11 
 
 of Italy is observed in that species of the drama which combined 
 the characteristics of the classical school on the one hand, and of 
 the popular drama on the other. This, the " romantic " drama, 
 is entirely due to Italian influence. Probably two-thirds of the 
 Elizabethan dramas may be traced to Italian sources. This is not 
 remarkable when the influences of Italian on English literature in 
 the sixteenth century are passed in review. 
 
 2. General influences of Italian on English literature in the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 i. " In the latter end of the same King's reigne (Henry VIII.) 
 sprog vp a new companie of courtly makers, of whom 
 Sir Thomas Wyat the elder, and Henry, Earle of Surrey, 
 were the two chieftains, who having trauelled to Italie, and 
 there tasted the sweete and stately measures and stile of the 
 Italian Poesie, as novices newly crept out of the schooles of 
 Dante, Ariosto, and Petrarch, they greatly pollished our 
 rude and homely maner of vulgar poesie from that it had 
 bene before, and for that cause may iustly be sayd the first 
 reformers of our English meetre and stile." Puttenham, 
 " Art of English Poesie." 1 589. 
 Their services were : 
 
 (a) Introduction of the Sonnet. 
 () Introduction of blank verse. 
 (c) Refinement of English Diction. 
 
 (See Tottle's Miscellany.) 
 ii. Novel literature : 
 
 1562. Rhymed English version of some of Boccaccio's 
 
 tales. 
 
 1562. Brooke's verse paraphrases of Bandello's story 
 of Romeus and Julietta. 
 
 1565. Translation of Ariosto's Ariodanto and Ginevra. 
 
 1566. Sixty novels from Boccaccio : Painter's Palace 
 of Pleasure. 
 
 1567. Thirty-four novels from Bandello and Cinthio, 
 &c., &c. 
 
 1583. Belleforest's Repository. 
 Ascham, in The Schoolmaster (1570), protests against the 
 
 evils caused by these owing to their indecency, 
 iii. On the language. 
 
 Italian terms quite common, many of them naturalized, e.g., 
 sonnet, madrigal, umbrella, motto, &c.
 
 12 
 
 iv. On epic poetry. This influence is strong towards the end of 
 the century : " Spenser," to quote Gabriel Harvey, " over- 
 goes the Orlando Furioso, in his Elfish Queen." 
 
 1591. Harrington's translations of Orlando Furioso. 
 1501. Care w translates five cantos of Jerusalem Delivered. 
 1600. Fairfax translates the whole poem. 
 3. General survey of Italian influence on the drama before 1580 : 
 
 i. The direct influence mentioned above. Notice Gascoigne's 
 
 Supposes and Jocasta, both from Italian plays, 
 ii. In providing the material for the drama (the novel literature). 
 1568. Earliest known play derived from an Italian novel 
 Tancred and Gismunda, though Brook (1562) says 
 he had seen the argument of Romeus and Julietta 
 set forth. 
 
 iii. In 1578 a company of Italian players came to England to 
 perform before the Queen. Their " extemporal " playing is 
 alluded to by contemporary dramatists. 
 B. THE ANNALS OF THE STAGE : 
 
 1. Of the plays produced between 1558 and 1586, comparatively few were 
 
 printed. It is questionable whether any of the plays written solely 
 for the masses are extant. From contemporary criticism it is clear 
 that these plays linked themselves, in form, to the earlier drama, 
 in subject, to the romantic novels. " I may boldly say it, because 
 I have seen it, that The Palace of Pleasure, The Golden Ass, 
 The dLthiopean History ', Amadis of France, and The Round 
 Table, comedies in Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish have been 
 thoroughly raked to furnish the playhouses in London." (Gosson, 
 School of Abuse, 1579.) 
 
 2. Of a list of fifty-two plays acted at Court between 1568 and 1580, 
 
 eighteen bear antique titles, twenty-one seem founded upon modern 
 history, romances, and stories of a more general kind, seven are 
 comedies, and six morals. None of these plays survive. The 
 plays of this period sent to press were the work rather of amateurs 
 in dramatic art than of professional play-wrights. The plays of 
 the latter were guarded as theatrical property. 
 C. BEGINNINGS OF THE "ROMANTIC" DRAMA (1560-1580). 
 
 1. During this period the school of playwrights flourished which created 
 
 the " romantic " drama. 
 
 2. Its purpose was to bridge the gap which divided the artless playhouse 
 
 drama and the artificial classical drama of the Gorboduc type :
 
 13 
 
 i. From the former they borrowed : 
 
 (a) The blending of comedy and tragedy, 
 
 (b) Realism, 
 
 (V) Rhyming verse. 
 
 ii. They were under the influence of the former in : 
 (a) Diction, 
 () Dramatic construction, 
 
 (c) Method of arrangement of plot. 
 
 iii. The best examples of early " Romantic " drama are : 
 Edward's Damon and Pythias (printed 1571). 
 Whetstone's Promus and Cassandra (printed 1 5?8). 
 
 D. THE STATE OF THE DRAMA DURING THE PERIOD MAY BE GATHERED 
 FROM : 
 
 1. The external history of the theatre. 
 
 1 574. First royal licence to play given to the Earl of Leicester 
 and opposed by the City of London. 
 
 1576. First regular theatres established, " The Theatre," "The 
 Curtain," and " Blackfriars." 
 
 2. Contemporary criticism : 
 
 Whetstone's Dedication to Promus and Cassandra. 
 Gosson's School of Abuse, and connected literature. 
 Sidney's Apologie for Poetrie. 
 Stubb's Anatomy of Abuses. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 1. What is understood by the " Romantic " drama ? Contrast it with 
 
 the Classical. 
 
 2. The extant plays belonging to the period from 1560-1580 are the 
 
 compositions of "gentlemen-scholars" rather than professional 
 playwrights. Verify this fact and comment on it. 
 
 3. Give an account of Gosson's School of Abuse, and discuss its place 
 
 in Elizabethan literary history. 
 See Arber's Reprints for : 
 
 Sidney's Apologie for Poetrie, and 
 Gosson's School of Abuse.
 
 14 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 THE COURTLY DRAMA OF EUPHUISM. 
 
 A. EUPHUES, THE ANATOMY OF WIT, 1578. EUPHUES AND HIS 
 ENGLAND, 1580. 
 
 1. The Romances of mediaeval Europe had lost their charm by the 
 
 Sixteenth Century. Lyly wrote his Euphues to supply the want of 
 a new form of story-book. Hence its success. It was intended as 
 a book for ladies : " Euphues had rather lie shut in a Ladyes 
 casket, then open in a Schollers studie." 
 
 2. Lyly was not the inventor of Euphuism. Two years before the 
 
 publication of Euphues, appeared A Petite Palace of Pettie his 
 Pleasure, by George Pettie. 
 
 " Euphuism is only one of the many exaggerations and eccen- 
 tricities produced by the revival of classical literature. The term 
 is often and was often used to express all the affectations in 
 speech, style, and diction of the Elizabethan age in general.'' 
 (Landmann.) 
 
 3. The history of Euphuism. 
 
 i. It was invented by a Spanish writer, Don Antonio de Guevara, 
 born at the beginning of the sixteenth century. His books 
 were translated into all the chief European languages. 
 1529. His Marco Aurelio appeared. 
 1532. Translated into English by Bourchier, Lord 
 Berners ; passed through twelve editions ; and also 
 by Sir Thomas North. 
 
 1557. North translates into English The Dial of the 
 Princes, and soon after his other works were trans- 
 lated. 
 
 The popularity of Guevara in England may be inferred from the 
 fact that six different translators rendered his works into English 
 during forty years. All the important characteristics of Euphuism 
 are found in Guevara's style, except alliteration. This is explained 
 by the fact that in the " romance " languages it does not exist as in 
 the Teutonic, where it stood in early poetry for rhyme. 
 
 4. The subject of Euphues, its characteristics and style. 
 
 i. The name "Euphues" is borrowed from Ascham. " It is the 
 first of the ' seven plain notes ' whereby Ascham, following 
 Plato, would choose a good wit in a child for learning.
 
 15 
 
 ' Euphues ' is he that is apt by goodness of wit, and appli- 
 able by readiness of will, to learning, having all other 
 qualities of the mind and parts of the body, that must 
 another day serve learning." 
 
 ii. The two parts of Euphues may be described as a didactic 
 story threading a series of essays on true love and educa- 
 tion. 
 
 iii. The characteristics of Lyly's style must be, and can be, 
 easily distinguished : 
 
 (a) His metaphors are in most instances not exag- 
 gerated or affected. His words are genuine English. 
 His ideas sound and reasonable. 
 
 (b) The artificiality of his style is in the grammatical 
 
 structure and syntax. 
 
 " We have here the most elaborate antithesis, not 
 only of well-balanced sentences, but also of words, 
 often even of syllables." (Landmann.) 
 
 (c) Twin phrases in juxtaposition or antithesis. 
 
 (d) Principal and subordinate phrases opposing one 
 another. 
 
 (V) Alliteration, consonants, rhyme, playing on words. 
 (f) Similes drawn 
 
 (i.) from classical mythology : 
 (ii.) from Pliny's fabulous natural history Lyly's 
 
 " Unnatural Natural Philosophy." 
 
 5. Euphuism reflected in Lyly's plays revealed the brilliancy of which 
 prose dialogue was capable. 
 
 B. LYLY'S PLAYS. 
 
 i. They were written for a performance at Court. Like his prose 
 romance, they were a new species of composition. " The lyre he 
 played on had no borrowed strings." (Blount, in the edition of 
 his six Court Comedies, 1632) : 
 
 The Woman in the Moon, before 1584; a simple pastoral 
 
 comedy. The defects of Lyly's typical style did not appear 
 
 in this play ; unlike the rest of his comedies, it is written in 
 
 blank verse. 
 
 Mother fiombie, printed 1 594 ; a love comedy of " Errors." 
 
 (Performed about 1584-89.) 
 Campaspe, printed 1 584 ; 
 Sappho and Phao, printed 1584 ;
 
 16 
 
 Endymion, printed 1591. (Performed between 1584-89.) 
 
 The most important of Lyly's plays, " deriving life, or the 
 semblance of life from the reference it unmistakably betrays 
 to real events and personages." ( Ward). 
 Galetea, printed 1592 ; contains an underplot turning on the 
 
 disguise of two girls as boys. (Performed about 1589.) 
 Midas, printed ] 592 ; a political allegory. (Performed between 
 
 1584-1589.) 
 2. General characteristics of Lyly's plays : 
 
 i. They may be described as comedies founded on classical fable 
 
 idyllically represented with an allegorical purpose, 
 ii. They betray an absence of local colour ; the charm of the 
 pastoral form adopted consists in the lyrics interspersed, 
 though these have for the most part nothing to do with the 
 action of the play. 
 
 C. THE NEW ELEMENTS INTRODUCED INTO THE DRAMA BY LYLY : 
 i. Prose dialogue ; (attempted by Gascoigne 1556.) 
 ii. Dream dramas ; 
 iii. Disguise of sex ; 
 iv. The blending of masque and drama. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 1. Write a short essay on Euphuism. Illustrate the influence of the 
 
 Euphuistic style on the drama. 
 
 2. Give a sketch of Lyly's Endymion; its form and purpose. 
 
 3. Discuss Lyly's place in the history of the drama. 
 
 Lyly's Dramatic Works in the Library of Old Authors. 2 vols. (Reeves & 
 Turner, 6s. 6d.) 
 
 Euphues has been reprinted by Arber. 
 
 The best study of Euphuism is to be found in Landmann's Euphues, the- 
 Anatomy of Wit (Heilbronn) ; though published in Germany, the Intro- 
 duction and Notes are in English. (Price as.)
 
 17 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE. 
 
 Tamberlaine (Parts i and 2), written 1585-87, published 1590. 
 Faustus, written 1587-88 (probably revised later), published 1640. 
 Jew of Malta.) written after 1588, published 1633. 
 Massacre of Paris (existing only in corrupt condition), 1 589, published 
 
 1596? (undated). 
 
 Edward //., not earlier than 1590, published 1598. 
 Dido (partly Marlowe's), 1 592 ? published 1 594. 
 Hero and Leander (Sestiads i and 2), 1592? published 1598. 
 
 A. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MARLOWE'S PLAYS. 
 
 1. Tamberlaine, Marlowe's first play, marked an epoch in the history 
 
 of English Drama. Its definite purpose of improving the drama 
 was clearly set forth in its prologue : 
 
 " From jigging veins of rhyming mother wits 
 And such conceits as clownage keeps in pay 
 We'll lead you to the stately tent of war ; 
 Where you shall hear the Scythian Tamburlaine 
 Threatening the world with high astounding terms, 
 And scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword." 
 
 2. It affected the compromise between the scholarly classical drama 
 
 and the popular romantic drama by joining 
 (i.) The versification of the former to 
 (ii.) The dramatic form of the latter. 
 
 3. To it is due the introduction of blank verse on the popular stage. 
 
 Before Marlowe's play its use was restricted to plays intended 
 for select audiences. But one feels throughout these plays that in 
 its first stages blank verse was simply unrhymed couplets. The 
 effort of the writers to avoid rhyme is palpable. Marlowe for the 
 first time used blank verse with ease and gave it the freedom of 
 which we know it is capable, 
 (i.) Blank verse before Tamberlaine used in : 
 
 (a) Gorboduc, 1561. 
 () Jocasta, 1566. 
 
 (c) Misfortunes of Arthur, 1587. 
 
 (d) Woman in the Moon, before 1584.
 
 18 
 
 (ii.) Marlowe's blank verse. 
 
 An analytical study of this subject shows clearly that Marlowe 
 had learnt to vary his versification by means of four grea 
 characteristics : 
 (#) The use of a trochee for an iambic after a pause in the 
 
 first, third, and fourth foot. 
 () The use of a certain number of syllables and words 
 
 which may be long or short, at will. 
 (<:) Extra syllables before a pause. 
 (d) The introduction of a number of short verses, 
 (iii.) Evidence of the effect of Tamberlaine on versification : 
 
 (a) Plays before 1587 written in rhyme, were, after that date, 
 
 re-cast in blank verse, e.g. Tancred and Gismunda, 
 
 The Three Ladies of London, Selimus. 
 (K) Contemporary allusions; see the Epistle prefixed to 
 
 Green's Perimedes, 1588 ; Nash's Epistle prefixed to 
 
 Green's Menaphon, 1589. 
 
 4. Marlowe's type of tragedy. 
 
 (i.) The basis of his drama may be described as the idealisation 
 of gigantic passion on a gigantic scale. 
 (a) Tamberlaine = lust for dominion. 
 (&} Barabas = lust for wealth. 
 (c) Faustus = lust for knowledge. 
 
 (ii.) He had neither the wish nor the power to form a drama of 
 intrigue or character. Love not used as a motive in any of 
 his plays. If introduced at all, only as a mere incident 
 
 5. The diction of Marlowe's plays. 
 
 To elevate the dignity of tragedy his terms are all "high astound- 
 ing." There is an absence of '' native mother words." His incon- 
 gruous use of classical names and allusions was but one of the 
 elements of his grandiloquence. Even more striking is the manner 
 in which his characters speak of themselves in the third person, 
 as though regarding their gigantic personalities from an external 
 standpoint. This objective treatment of character has an 
 heightening effect on his style. 
 
 6. The machinery of Marlowe's plays. 
 
 He departed from the popular drama in his sparing use of prologue, 
 epilogue and chorus, and in his avoidance of dumb-show and 
 allegorical figures.
 
 19 
 
 In Tamberlaine, for the first time a story was set forth on the stage 
 without the aid of epic chorus of some form or other, or of dumb 
 show. 
 
 B.- EDWARD II. 
 
 Typical Marlowesque tragedies are : 
 
 Tamberlatne. ~j These may be said to constitute Marlowe's first 
 
 Faustus. . , 
 
 I period. 
 
 Jew of Malta. ) 
 
 Edward II. must be regarded as the first and only play of what would 
 have been Marlowe's second period. It is distinguished from the 
 first group : 
 
 (i.) In being pitched in a lower key. 
 
 (ii.) In power of dramatic characterisation. 
 
 C. MARLOWE'S DEFECTS AS A DRAMATIST. 
 
 1. Want of humour. 
 
 2. Caring only for heroic types of character. 
 
 3. Inability to subordinate his poetic powers to the requirements of 
 
 dramatic art. 
 
 Marlowe, in spite of his services to English drama, must be regarded 
 greater as poet than dramatist. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 1. Compare the character of Marlowe's work with his life. 
 
 2. Give a history of blank verse before Marlowe ; how far may 
 
 Marlowe be said to have created this form of verse as an instru- 
 ment of the drama ? 
 
 3. Marlowe " first inspired with true poetic passion, the form of litera- 
 
 ture to which his chief efforts were consecrated." Show the truth 
 of this statement. 
 
 The best edition of Marlowe's works is that edited by Bullen (A. H.), 3 vols. 
 A cheap edition has recently been published in the Mermaid Series (price 2s. 6d.).
 
 20 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 MARLOWE AND HIS CIRCLE. 
 
 Greene, Peele, Lodge, and Nash, like Marlowe, were University play- 
 wrights in sympathy with, and writing for, the popular stage. The appear- 
 ance of Tamberlaine marked a crisis in the literary life of each. Of the 
 group, whom contemporary writers linked together, Greene is most impor- 
 tant as holding the same relation to Romantic Comedy as Marlow.e does to 
 Tragedy and History . 
 
 A. NASH AND LODGE 
 
 Hold a minor place among the Pre- Shakespearian playwrights, 
 though both were eminent men of letters in their day Nash 
 as a satirist, Lodge as a writer of novels (notably " Rosalynde,' 
 the source of " As You Like It "). 
 
 i. NASH. 
 
 (a) His sole remaining play is Will Summer's Testament, a Court 
 comedy, or " show " of the seasons. This dramatist had a 
 hand in Marlowe's Dido'. A lost play, the Isle of Dogs, is 
 referred to by contemporary writers as having got the author 
 into trouble, probably being a political libel. 
 
 (b~) Especially important from a historical point of view is his 
 address " To the Gentlemen Students of both Universities," 
 prefixed to Greene's Menaphon (1589) : 
 
 e.g. " It is a common practise now a daies amongst a sort 
 of shifting companions, that runne through euery arte 
 and thrive by none, to leave the trade of Nouerint 
 whereto they were borne, and busie themselves with 
 the indeuors of Art, that could scarcelie latinize their 
 necke-verse if they should have neede ; yet English 
 Seneca read by candle light yeeldes manie good sen- 
 tences, Bloud is a Begger, and so forth ; and if you 
 intreate him faire in a frosty morning, he will afford 
 you whole Hamlets, I should say handfulls of tragical 
 speeches," etc.
 
 21 
 
 ii. LODGE 
 
 (a) Fought the cause of the drama against Gosson's School of 
 Abuse, in "A Defence of Poetry, Music, and Stageplays." Of 
 this, in his "Alarum against Usurers," he wrote, " By reason 
 of the slenderness of the subject (because it was in defence of 
 plaies and playmakers), the godly and reverent, that had 
 to deal in the cause, misliking it, forbad the publishing." 
 Gosson framed his reply " Plays confuted in Five Actions," on 
 a "private imperfect coppye." 
 
 (b) As a playwright he helped Greene in The Looking Glasse for 
 
 London, and wrote The Woiinds of Civil War lively set forth 
 in the true Tragedies of Marius and Sulla. The latter for the 
 most part follows Tamberlaine, but is marred by 
 
 i. Too many "jigging veins of rhyming mother wit." 
 ii. Too much clownage. 
 iii. An allegorical figure " Genius." 
 
 iv. Echo verses : a euphuistic conceit altogether non-Mar- 
 lowesque. 
 
 B. PEELE. 
 
 (a) Though regarded rightly by his contemporaries as a greater poet 
 than Greene, Peele holds no such important place as the latter in . 
 the history of the drama. He was no innovator, and thus forms no 
 link in the development of the Elizabethan drama. 
 I. His plays may be thus arranged : 
 i. Pre-Tamberlaine plays : 
 
 The Arraignment of Paris (1584): A court allegori- 
 cal, classical " show," rather than a " play " ; 
 written in rhyme (with one long blank verse 
 passage). 
 
 Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes (1584) : In long rhym- 
 ing couplets; the transition from the "vice" of 
 the Moralities to the Shakespearian fool well 
 illustrated by the comic character of " Subtle 
 Shift." 
 ii. Marlowesque plays : 
 
 The Battle of Alcazar (acted in 1591), modelled on 
 
 Tamberlaine. 
 
 Edward I. (1593) due to the influence of Edward II. 
 (but perhaps it preceded Marlowe's play).
 
 2'2 
 
 Note in The Battle of Alcazar, the Presenter, 
 
 who speaks Prologue before each act, the 
 
 use of dumb shows, the introduction, as 
 
 "dramatis personas," of Jonas and Hercules. 
 
 iii. Plays suggestive of revived early English drama: 
 
 (a) Interlude play : Old Wives' Tale (before 1595). 
 
 (b) Miracle play : David and Bathsheba (before 1598). 
 2. Peele's chief characteristics: 
 
 1. The sweetness of his verse and diction. 
 
 2. His want of humour. 
 
 3. His dramas may best be described as "languid" they 
 
 lack energy and vigour. 
 
 C. GREENE. 
 
 1. Specially noteworthy is the autobiographical character of some of 
 
 his prose pieces, e.g., Never too Late, Groatsworth of Wit, 
 Repentance. From these may be inferred : 
 
 (a) His dramatic writings before 1586 (the date of the appear- 
 ance of Tamberlaine) were not as successful as his novels. 
 (b} His attitude towards Marlowe's innovations, especially his 
 popularising of blank verse, was at first hostile : Greene's 
 early attempts at blank verse met only with ridicule from 
 his contemporaries. 
 (c) His forced acceptance of Marlowe as his model. 
 
 2. Greene's plays may be divided into two periods : 
 
 (a) First period : Mailowesque plays : 
 
 i. In rivalry with Tamberlaine: Alphonsus (but note 
 
 the Choruses, Venus, and the Muses) ; Orlando. 
 ii. In rivalry with Faustus : Friar Bacon and Friar 
 Bungay. 
 
 (b) Second period : his later plays are marked by greater 
 
 purity of diction, freedom from classicism, the use of 
 blank verse, rhyme, and prose : 
 
 i. James IV. : only historical in dramatis personae, 
 remarkable as having acted prologue, fairy 
 machinery, and interplay. 
 
 ii. George-a-Green : a play of English country life, in 
 which kings and rustics are commingled. 
 
 (The Looking Glass for England, written in conjunction with Lodge, 
 may be described as a "miracle '' with "interludes.'')
 
 D. GREENE'S "FRIAR BACON" AND MARLOWE'S " FAUSTUS.'' 
 
 The difference in the geniuses of the two dramatists and the essential 
 
 characteristics of Greene's style may best be seen by a comparison of these 
 
 two plays. 
 
 Note : (a) The tragic ending of Marlowe's plays as contrasted with 
 the happy ending of Greene's (ail his plays are "comical''). 
 
 (b) The " heroic" element in the Marlovvan ; the romantic in 
 the Greenish drama. 
 
 (c) Greene possesses the humour that Marlowe lacks. 
 
 (d) Love used as motive in Greene ; never in Marlowe. The 
 finest types of womanhood in the pre-Shakesperian drama 
 are to be found in Greene's plays. 
 
 (e) The freshness and buoyancy of English life give Greene's 
 
 plays a charm altogether non-existent in the contemporary 
 
 English drama. 
 (/) Marlowe, essentially a tragic poet, exhibits a psychological 
 
 analysis of character ; Greene, essentially a novelist, 
 
 draws his characters as he finds them in the popular 
 
 chap-books. 
 (g) Greene, as a novel-writer, is the first English dramatist 
 
 who at all succeeds in blending different stories into a 
 
 single play, though the blending is for the most part 
 
 unsatisfactory. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 Attempt only question 3 or questions i and 2. 
 
 1. Give a short account of the influence of Marlowe's Tamberlaine 
 
 on the contemporary dramatists. 
 
 2. Marlowe banished from the drama incongruous machinery standing 
 
 outside the main action of plays. His avowed imitators could not 
 succeed in this respect. Discuss the point. 
 
 3. Write an essay on Greene's Friar Bacon as compared with Mar- 
 
 lowe's Faustus. 
 
 Professor Ward has edited Greene's Friar Bacon and Marlowe's Faustus for the 
 Clarendon Press (price 6s.). 
 
 The best edition of the plays and poems of Greene and Peele is that edited by 
 Dyce (Routledge, price 7s. 6d.). 
 
 B 2
 
 24 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 SHAKESPEARE: FROM STRATFORD TO LONDON. 
 
 i. SHAKESPEARE AT STRATFORD, 1564 1587. 
 
 April 1564. Born at Stratford-on-Avon. It is to be noted that War- 
 wickshire, the county of the poet's birth, is situated in the centre of 
 England, where the Celtic and Teutonic elements of the nation 
 were most commingled. 
 
 1582. Shakespeare marries Anna Hathaway, who was eight years 
 older than her husband. 
 
 1587. He leaves for London, and becomes connected with the theatre. 
 
 2. EARLY YEARS IN LONDON. 
 
 1592. Robert Greene attacks Shakespeare in his Groatsivorth of Wit 
 bought with a Million of Repentance. After addressing Marlowe, 
 Peele, and Nash, against trusting players, he adds: "Yes, trust 
 them not ; for there is an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, 
 that with his tyger's heart wrapt in a player's hide, supposes he is 
 as well able to bumbast out a blank verse as the best of >ou ; and 
 being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his owne conceit the 
 onely Shake-scene in a country." 
 
 This proof of Shakespeare's pre-eminence as a player and 
 dramatist was followed a few months after by evidence of 
 his worth as a man. Chettle apologised in December, 
 1592, for Greene's attack published by him: " Myselfe 
 have scene his demeanour no lesse civill, than he 
 : exelent in the qualitie he professes; besides, divers of 
 worship have reported his uprightness of dealing, etc." 
 N.B. Shakespeare's dedication of Venus and Adonis 
 (1593) and Lucrece (1594) to the Earl of Southampton. 
 
 The literary history circling round Greene's Groatsworth of Wit, tells 
 the story of the contest between the player-poets versus scholar-poets. 
 With this should be compared 
 
 i. The closing lines of Marlowe's first sestiad of Hero and 
 Leander : " And but that Learning in despite of fate," etc. 
 (about 1591). 
 ii. Spenser's Tears of the Muses (1590).
 
 25 
 
 3- The chronology of these and of Shakespeare's plays generally, is deter- 
 mined more or less accurately by the following tests : 
 
 (a) EXTERNAL. 
 
 i. Mention of Shakespeare's plays in other works, 
 ii. Quotations from them in other works, 
 iii. Entries at Stationers' Hall, etc. 
 
 (b) INTERNAL. 
 
 i. Quasi-external. 
 
 e.g. i. Allusions to passing events. 
 
 2. Quotations from, or references to, other 
 
 works, 
 ii. Style. 
 
 1. Use of prose and verse. 
 
 2. Classical allusions. 
 
 3. Puns, conceits. 
 
 4. Thoughts " drawn " out and " packed." 
 iii. Versification. 
 
 1. Rhyme: rhymed heroics, doggerel, alternates, 
 
 sonnet, or modified sonnet ; use of couplets. 
 
 2. End pause. 
 
 3. Weak endings, light endings. 
 
 4. Feminine ending, 
 iv. Mental tests. 
 
 1. Development of plot. 
 
 2. Development of character. 
 
 3. Use of certain characters. 
 
 4. General considerations of the play as a whole. 
 
 4. The chief external evidence for Shakespeare's early plays is Meres' list 
 in his Palladis Tamza, or Wit's Treasury (1598). For the purposes of 
 this course it will be sufficient to determine the order of these plays. 
 
 5. i. Meres' list of Shakespeare's early plays is peculiarly important as a 
 landmark : the date of its publication, 1 598, was identical with the 
 close of Shakespeare's earlier work, and the beginning of his more 
 matured style. 
 
 ii. The following grouping of the plays is probably in the main correct : 
 1587-89. Titus Andronicus. 
 1589-90. Love's Labour's Lost. 
 
 Love's Labour's Wonne ( ? Taming of the Shrew, 
 or Alfs -well that Ends well).
 
 26 
 
 1589-90- Comedy of Errors. 
 
 Two Gentlemen of Verona. 
 1591-93. Midsummer Nighfs Dream ( ? ). 
 
 Romeo and Juliet (revised later). 
 1 593-94. Richard III. 
 Richard II. 
 John. 
 
 1 594-95. Midsummer Nighfs Dream ( ? ). 
 Romeo and Juliet (revised form). 
 1 596-97. MercJiant of Venice. 
 
 Henry IV. 
 
 iii. Without insisting too strongly on the years affixed, this grouping of 
 the plays is singularly suggestive. 
 
 Titus Andronicus must be regarded as anomalous and belong- 
 ing to Shakespeare's apprentice years, and as standing 
 outside the regular Shakespearian plays. 
 
 The three parts of Henry VI. (not mentioned by Meres) pre- 
 sent special difficulties; 2 Henry VI., and 3 Henry VI. 
 being evidently,revisions of earlier plays : The Contention 
 and The True Tragedy: in these revisions Shakespeare 
 was assisted possibly by Marlowe, whose hand is clearly 
 discernible in the old plays. 
 iv. Titus Andronicus : 
 
 This play, if studied at all, must be taken in connection with Kyd's 
 Spanish Tragedy; it is a mistake to describe it as Marlowan 
 in anything but diction and versification. Shakespeare' 
 contemporaries invariably classed it with Kyd's plays. It is 
 probably an old play revised by the poet. 
 
 (The old play of Hamlet, from which Shakespeare pro- 
 bably took the subject of his tragedy, was, without 
 much doubt, Kydian in subject and construction.) 
 cp. the machinery of the Spanish Tragedy and 
 Hamlet. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 1. Discuss Greene's attack on Shakespeare 
 
 2. Explain the tests applied in attempting to settle the chronology of 
 
 Shakespeare's plays.
 
 27 
 3. Contrast Shakespeare's personal life with that of his contemporaries. 
 
 On chronology of Shakespeare's plays, see Dowden's " Shakespeare Primer " 
 (is.). The most thorough investigation of the subject is by H. P. Stokes, "An 
 attempt to determine the chronological order of Shakespeare's plays" (Macmillan, 
 45. 6d.). 
 
 For all the known facts connected with Shakespeare's life, see Halliwell's "Out- 
 lines of the Life of Shakespeare." Edition after edition is published by the author 
 embodying the latest discoveries. The last edition published this year, (2 vols., 
 Longmans & Co., tos. 6d.). 
 
 Books on Shakespeare's dramatic art : 
 
 Gervinus : "Shakespeare Commentaries." 
 Dowden : "Shakespeare : his Mind and Art." 
 Moulton : " Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist." 
 
 (These books are only mentioned as books of reference ; Dowden's " Shakespeare 
 Primer" is sufficient guide. Students had best get on with the reading of the special 
 plays, and not trouble too much with books about Shakespeare. 
 Read carefully (i) Love's Labour's Lost ; 
 
 (2) Richard II. ; 
 
 (3) Romeo and Juliet.) 
 
 LECTURE IX. 
 SHAKESPEARE'S EARLY COMEDIES. 
 
 A. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THESE PLAYS. 
 
 Shakespeare's first experiments in original dramatic composition, 
 consisted in a series of comedies, " love-plays," marked by a 
 strong family likeness and by distinct characteristics. The chief 
 of these are (see Dowden's " Shakespeare : his Mind and Art," 
 chap. 2) : 
 i. Versification (Pre-Marlowan) : 
 
 (a) Fondness for rhyme, whether 
 
 (aa) Rhymed couplets ; or 
 
 (bb) Rhymed quatrains ; or 
 
 (cc) Alternate rhymes ; or 
 
 (dd) Doggerel. 
 () Comparative absence of 
 
 (aa) Feminine endings. 
 
 (bb) Weak endings. 
 
 (cc) Unstopped lines.
 
 28 
 
 (c) Regular structure of blank verse (i.e. absence of extra syllables, 
 
 etc.). 
 ii. Diction : 
 
 (a) Many classical allusions occur. 
 
 (]}} Quibbles and conceits are frequent, 
 iii. Imagery: Too elaborate and wordy, 
 iv. Machinery: 
 
 (a) Clowns, standing comparatively outside the main action. 
 
 () Women of masculine nature : " termagant and shrewish." 
 v. Arrangement of characters almost geometrical. 
 vi. Want of ease in the evolution of plots : hence the explanatory tone 
 
 of some of the soliloquies. 
 
 B. GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EARLY COMEDIES, IN ALL OF WHICH 
 " LOVE" ADVENTURES FORM THE CENTRAL POINT. 
 
 Love's Labour's Lost, a topical Elizabethan drama of dialogue and 
 
 satire. 
 The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Dramatisation of a romantic love 
 
 story. 
 
 The Comedy of Errors. A farce modelled on Latin comedy ; a 
 comedy of incident. 
 
 The Taming of the Shrew. 
 
 A comedy of plot and character. It is probable that The 
 Taming of the Shrew belongs to this early period, and is 
 mentioned in Meres' list undei Love's Labour's Wonne. 
 The play bears a strong likeness to The Comedy of 
 Errors, especially in its long doggerel lines and language 
 of the pre-Shakespearean drama. Compare the induction 
 in this play with that of the old play of the Taming of a 
 Shrew to understand the difference between Shake- 
 speare's diction and the classical pedantry of the scholar 
 poets and their imitators. 
 
 C. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. 
 
 Its topical character : First ingeniously pointed out and elaborated by 
 Mr. Sidney L. Lee (see " Gentleman's Magazine," 1880). 
 
 (a) Main element of the play refers to English volunteers, 
 who, under Essex, had just joined Navarre, in France. 
 Note the name of the hero of the play : his associates 
 are named after Navarre's Generals. The mock earnest-
 
 29 
 
 ness with which the dramatist bids them repress their 
 gaieties, and examine life in its severe aspects, burlesques 
 " the frivolous sports and pastimes " with which it was 
 known these officers passed away the intervals of warfare. 
 (<$) References to Russian diplomacy with England. 
 
 (c) The question of academies. 
 
 (d) Contemporary affectations of speech and dress. 
 
 (e) " The ludicrous side of contemporary country life, with its 
 inefficient constable, its pompous schoolmaster, and its 
 ignorant curate." 
 
 D. IN THESE EARLY COMEDIES SHAKESPEARE SEEMS MORE ESPECIALLY 
 UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF GREENE, WHOM HE RESEMBLES IN 
 
 1. His women characters. 
 
 2. His clowns. 
 
 3. Versification and diction, and prose dialogue. 
 
 This is especially true of Midsummer Nighfs Dream, which 
 recalls Greene's James IV. The play probably owes its 
 " lyrical and almost operatic tone, and masque-like form," 
 to the fact of its having been written for some festivity or 
 marriage. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 1. Point out elements in the early plays which connect themselves with 
 
 the pre-Shakesperian drama. 
 
 2. Illustrate, from Love's Labour's Lost, the essential characteristics of 
 
 Shakespeare's early plays. 
 
 3. Dwell on the contemporary affectations of speech satirised in Love's 
 
 Labour's Lost, 
 
 LECTURE X. 
 SHAKESPEARE'S EARLY HISTORY PLAYS. 
 
 While Marlowe was alive Shakespeare wrote romantic comedies. He 
 seems to have avoided anything like rivalry with his great contemporary 
 until, after his death in 1 593, he attempts 
 
 (A.) A Marlowan play of the Tamberlaine type in Richard III. 
 
 (B.) A history play on the model of Edward II. in Richard //.
 
 30 
 
 A. RICHARD III. 
 
 1. In considering the influence of Marlowe on this play it must be 
 
 borne in mind that Shakespeare had probably been working with 
 Marlowe on 2 Henry VI. and 3 Henry VI. 
 
 2. The play naturally belongs to his group of history plays dealing 
 
 with the House of York. 
 
 3. Marlowesque characteristics 
 
 (a) Richard, like Tamberlaine, or Faustus or Barabas, mono- 
 polises the whole action of the drama. 
 
 (&) All the characters of this play of passion seem intended 
 merely to set off the hero's " ideal villany." 
 
 (c) The absence of evolution of character in the hero. 
 
 (d) The hero's consciousness and avowal of his villany. 
 
 (2) The tone of the play is often rather lyrical or epical than 
 dramatic ; e.g., the lamentations of the women (Act ii., 
 Sc. 2. ; Act iv., Sc. i). 
 
 (f) Blank verse almost throughout : absence of prose, and of 
 the general metrical forms found in the earlier plays. 
 
 4. In one respect at least, Shakespeare shows that he was no blind 
 
 imitator of Marlowe : unlike him, he weaves Nemesis into the 
 play and shows its consummation in Richard's fall. 
 
 5. The ghost machinery of the play, borrowed from the old play of the 
 
 True Tragedy of Richard III. 
 
 6. Early plays on the subject 
 
 (1) Richardus Tertius, acted at Cambridge in 1583. 
 
 (2) Churchyard's Challenge, including the Tragedie of Shore's 
 Wife, 1593. 
 
 (3) The True Tragedie of Richard III., 1 593. 
 
 7. The extraordinary difference between the quartos of this play (i597- 
 
 1598) and the text of the first folio can only be accounted for by 
 regarding the latter as due to a revision of the former. 
 
 B. RICHARD II. 
 
 1. Shakespeare having completed the York series of plays by 
 
 Richard III., probably then wrote Richard II. as an introduction 
 to the Lancastrian plays. 
 
 2. There can be no doubt that this play was suggested by Marlowe's 
 
 Edward II.: it holds the same relation to Richard HI. as Mar- 
 lowe's play does to his earlier typical tragedies : like it 
 
 (i.) It is pitched in a lower key than Richard III., and
 
 31 
 
 (2.) Shows greater power of characterisation ; Richard II. does 
 
 not stand alone in the play. 
 (3.) Special scenes in Edward //., especially the deposition 
 
 scene, served as models to Shakespeare in parallel scenes 
 
 in this play. 
 
 3. As regards versification, it is to be noted that Shakespeare broke 
 
 away from Marlowan models 
 
 (i.) One-fifth of the play is in rhyme. 
 
 (2.) Noteworthy is, however, the fact that these rhyming pas- 
 sages abound in the early parts of the play, and that the 
 most powerful speeches are entirely in blank verse. 
 
 (3.) The absence of prose in this play, as in Richard III ', is 
 due to Marlowe's example. 
 
 4. Several plays contemporary or anterior treated the same subject. 
 
 Daniel's poem Civil Wars (2nd edition, 1595) either suggested 
 points to Shakespeare or vice versd. 
 
 5. The deposition scene was not printed till 1608. It was probably 
 
 not acted, and suppressed in the edition of 1597, in consequence of 
 a papal bull issued against the Queen, in 1596, inciting her sub- 
 jects to rebellion. In 1599 Hayward was imprisoned for publishing 
 his History of the First Year of Henry IV., /.<?., the story of the 
 deposition of Richard II. 
 
 C KING JOHN. 
 
 1. This play must be compared with the old play, the Troublesome 
 
 Raygne of King John, on which it is founded, to understand Shake- 
 speare's dramatic touch at this early period. 
 
 2. The old "two-sectioned 1 ' play may be described as the work of 
 
 an imitator of Marlowe clinging to pre-Marlowan versification and 
 diction and clownage. 
 
 3. Shakespeare, in his handling of the old play leaves the incidents 
 
 nearly the same (the most important omission being a comic 
 doggerel farce satirising monastic life), but touches the characters 
 with new life. 
 
 4. In King John, Shakespeare makes an advance on Richard //., and 
 
 all his previous plays in the large proportion of blank verse lines ; 
 like Richard II ', no place is given in it to prose. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 i. Give a short sketch of the pre- Shakespearian drama, dealing with
 
 32 
 
 national history. Distinguish carefully a " chronicle history " from 
 a " historical drama." 
 
 2. How far would it be right to argue from metrical tests the priority in 
 
 composition of Richard II. or Richard III. f 
 
 3. Write a short essay on Charles Lamb's criticism : " The reluctant 
 
 pangs of abdicating royalty in Edward II. furnished hints which 
 Shakespeare scarcely improved in his Richard //." 
 
 LECTURE XI. 
 ROMEO AND JULIET. 
 
 "In our opinion the same features as in Romeo and Juliet may he 
 recognised in the three most celebrated stories of all time : ' Hero and 
 Leander,' ' Pyramus and Thisbe,' among the ancients, and ' Tristan and 
 Isolde' among the moderns." (Simrock.) 
 
 1. Shakespeare's earliest tragedy is ranged on the same bases as his 
 
 early comedies, i.e., romantic love. The Marlowan tragedy 
 seems to have had no attractions for him ; the Kydian " tragedy of 
 the shambles," Titus Andronicus, is clearly outside Shakespeare's 
 early regular drama. Later on, when he left the tragedy of " love 
 passion," and wrote his tragedy of introspection, Hamlet, based 
 on the Kydian type of tragedy, he had already formed his mature 
 style. 
 
 2. The Story: 
 
 (1) The main elements of the story have been traced as far 
 back as to Greek medieval writers of the fifth century ; but 
 the story became localised in Italy, the Veronese fixing 
 the date of the tragedy in the year 1303. 
 
 (2) Dante, reproaching the Emperor Albert for neglect of 
 
 Italy, wrote : 
 
 Come, see the Capulets and Montagues, 
 
 The Filippeschi and Monaldi, man, 
 
 Who car'st for nought ! Those sunk in grief, and these 
 
 With dire suspicion rack'd. 
 
 (3) To this day the Veronese show the site and relics of the 
 lovers' grave.
 
 33 
 
 (4) Although several earlier stories exist recalling that of 
 
 Romeo and Juliet, these names of the lovers are not found 
 before 1535 in Italian literature, when the history of 
 Romeo and Juliet was told by Luigi da Porto (" La 
 Giuletta," 1535). 
 
 (5) After this several versions were made of the story. Most 
 
 important is that of Bandello (1554), and this, with that 
 writer's other novels, passed into French in 1559. 
 
 (6) English versions : 
 
 i. Arthur Brooke's : " The Tragicall Hy story e of 
 Romeo and Juliet, written first in Italian by 
 Bandell, and nowe in Englishe by Ar. Br." 
 
 ii. Paynter's novel : " The goodly history of the true 
 and constant love between Rhomeo and Julietta, 
 the one of "whom died of poyson, the other of 
 sorrow and hevinesse : wherein be comprised 
 many adventures of love, and other devises touch- 
 inge the same (1567, in the "Palace of Pleasure") ; 
 due to the French rendering of Bandello's novel 
 in Boisteau's " Histoires Tragiques." 
 
 (7) Shakespeare, though there is no doubt that he was 
 
 acquainted with both these versions, followed Brooke's 
 poem ; though it must be remembered that, according to 
 Brooke's statement, an old English play on the subject 
 also existed. 
 
 (8) Shakespeare closely follows the poem, and the play 
 
 betrays its influence on its diction. The poem abounds 
 in conceits and antitheses, which may be paralleled with 
 instances from the play. 
 
 (9) The " argument " of Brooke's poem will serve to show how 
 
 nearly the dramatist follows it as regards plot : 
 
 Love hath inflamed twayne by sodayn sight, 
 And both do graunt the thing that both desyre ; 
 . They wed in shrift by counsell of a frier ; 
 Yong Romeus clymes fayre Juliet's bower by night, 
 Three months he doth enioy his cheefe delight : 
 By Tybalt's rage, provoked unto yre, 
 He payeth death to Tybalt for his hyre. 
 A banisht man, he 'scapes by secret flight :
 
 34 
 
 New mariage is offred to his wife : 
 
 She drinkes a drinke that seemes to reve her breath : 
 
 They bury her, that sleping yet hath lyfe. 
 
 Her husband heares the tyclinges of her death; 
 
 He drinkes his bane; and she, with Romeus' knyfe, 
 
 When she awakes, her selfe alas she sleath. 
 
 (10) Shakespeare shows his dramatic skill in dealing with the 
 poem : 
 
 i. By compressing the action, which in the story 
 occupies four or five months, to within as many 
 days. 
 
 ii. He re-creates the character of Mercutio, in the 
 poem a mere "courtier,'' "bold among the bash- 
 ful maydes." 
 
 iii. In making Paris die at the grave of Juliet by 
 the hand of Romeo : in the poem nothing is 
 heard of the Count after his disappointment. 
 
 (11) But one is only able to say that in subject Shakespeare 
 followed Brooke, in its spirit the play transcends altogether 
 the poem. 
 
 " With Brooke, all is the play of fortune, chance, destiny ; 
 a touching story of two lovers subjected to an alternation of 
 prosperity and misfortune. But with Shakespeare the piece is 
 the necessary history of all strong love, which in itself deep, 
 true, and living, is not guided and effected by any external 
 influence, but which rises superior to every other passion and 
 emotion, beating proudly against the barriers of conventionality, 
 occupied to excess alone with itself and its satisfaction, deriding 
 the representations of cold discretion : aye, over bold, defying 
 fate itself, and neglecting its warnings to its own ruin." 
 (Gervinus.) 
 
 (12) Characteristics of Romeo and Juliet as an early work : 
 
 i. Frequency of rhymes, 
 ii. Sonnet form, 
 iii. Conceits, alliteration. 
 
 iv. Its lyrical character (partly due to nature of the 
 subject). 
 
 (13) In 1597 a quarto edition of the play first published ; this 
 was without much doubt a mutilated printed copy of the 
 play in its early form, an improved and revised version of 
 which was issued in 1599.
 
 35 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 I Brooke mentions an early play on Romeo and Juliet before 1562. 
 Attempt a rough description of this lost play in order to illustrate 
 the advance in dramatic art between its appearance and Shake- 
 speare's plays. 
 
 2. "Local colour" is almost unknown in the English drama before 
 
 Romeo and Juliet: discuss this. 
 
 3. Explain from Romeo and Juliet the state in which the earlier printed 
 
 plays of Shakespeare have come down to us. 
 
 LECTURE XII. 
 RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE. 
 
 1. RETROSPECTIVE SURVEY: 
 
 Shakespeare's relation to (a) the early English drama, 
 (&) his contemporaries. 
 
 The series of Shakespearian plays treated may be described 
 as the poet's experiments in search of the dramatic form best 
 suited to his genius. 
 
 Romeo and Juliet established the poet's reputation and called 
 forth from university men an avowal of the triumph of the 
 player poets over the scholar poets. (See " Pilgrimage to 
 Parnassus," 1598.) 
 
 Hamlet had not yet appeared when a university pen wrote : 
 " Few of the university pen plaies well, they smell too 
 much of that writer Ovid and that writer Metamorphosis, 
 and talke too much of Proserpina and Suppiter. Why, 
 here's our fellow Shakespeare puts them all downe? etc. 
 ("Return from Parnassus," 1601.) 
 
 2. PROSPECTIVE GLANCE FORWARD INTO THE HISTORY OF THE SHAKE- 
 
 SPEARIAN DRAMA AND THE ELIZABETHAN-JACOBITE DRAMA GENE- 
 RALLY.
 
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