PERSIAN AND OTHER ASIATIC DRAMA Such dramatic examples of the drama as may be discoverable in Siam will probably have to be regarded as belonging to a branch of the Indian drama The drama of the Malay popula tions of Java and the neighbouring island of Sumatra also re sembles the Indian, to which it may have owed its development. The Javanese distinguish among the lyrics sung on occasions of popular significance the pantun, a short simile or fable, and the tcharita, a more advanced species, taking the form of dialogue sung or recited by actors proper. From the tcharita the Javanese drama, which in its higher forms treats the stories of gods and kings, appears to have been derived.
The originally Aryan Persians exhibit no trace of the drama in their ample earlier literature, but later two species, widely different from one another, of the religious drama or mystery and of the popular comedy or farce, made their appearance.
Of the Persian teazies (lamentations or complaints) the sub jects are invariably derived from religious history, and more or less directly connected with the "martyrdoms" of the house of Ali. The plays are frequently provided by the court or by other wealthy persons, by way of pleasing the people or securing divine favour, and are performed, usually by natives of Isfahan, in courtyards of mosques, palaces and inns.
It would seem that, no farther back than the beginning of the i9th century, the teazies were still only songs or elegies in honour of the martyrs, occasionally chanted by persons actually repre senting them. The Miracle Play of Hasan and Hosain, as we may call it, has now come to be a continuous succession of dramatic scenes. The performance is usually opened by a prologue de livered by the rouzekhan, a personage of semi-priestly character claiming descent from the Prophet, who edifies and excites the audience by a pathetic recitation of legends and vehement ad monitions in prose or verse concerning the subject of the action. It is thus a kind of Oberammergau play and complaint of the Nibelungs in one.
The modern Persian drama seems to have admitted Western influences, as in such comedies as The Pleaders of the Court.
Dramatic elements are apparent in two of the books of the Hebrew scripture--the Book of Ruth and the Book of Job, of which latter the author of Everyman, and Goethe in his Faust, made so impressive a use.