Chinese Drama.—Before proceeding to the dramatic art of modern Europe, de rived as it is from that of Greece, two oriental nations may be noticed which possess a national drama of their own. In China, theatrical entertahnents form one of the most popular amusements, and theatrical writing has been cultivated from a very early period. The Chinese drama comprises pieces which we should term both tragical and historical plays, tragi-comedios, and comedies both of in trigue and of manners; together with abundance of low, pantomimic, and farci cal representations. in their regular drama, however, there appears to he less of what we should term connected than of successive action : many of thorn are, as it were, dramatized memoirs or biog raphies of individuals, real or fictitious; the representation of some is said to re quire ten days. It is remarkable that, of all national dramas, the Chinese ap pears to be the only one in which we can trace no original connection with re ligious observance.
Hindoo Drama.—The Ilindoo plays which now exist are written for the most part in Sanscrit, although not a living language at the period when they were composed; mixed, however, with other dialects, which, according to lIindoo crit ics, are respectively appropriate to dif ferent parts of a play. They seem to have been appropriate to the entertain ment of learned persons, and acted only on solemn occasions. They are few in number ; about sixty only are known; some containing long mythological nar ratives, others much complicated incident of a domestic character, in a strain of tragedy, alternating with comedy, like the romantic drama of modern Europe. The dramatic art appears to hare flour ished in India during a period of several ages, ending about the 14th or 15th cen turies of our era. Dramatic criticism was also much cultivated ; and the most minute and artificial rules are laid down by Hindu() commentators as to the con duct of a piece, the requisite ethics, the formal arrangement, and the character which must be introduced. The Minks° drama is so widely different from the Greek or Chinese, tnnt it must be re garded, like them, as a spontaneous off spring of national genius.
Modern. European Drama. — For many centuries after the downfall of the Roman empire, the dramatic art appears to have been entirely lost. Its first re vival in the mid He ages was owing to the solemnities of the church, into which dra matic interludes were introduced in vari ms countries of western Europe, repre senting at first events in biblical history or the lives of the saints, and afterwards intermingled with allegorical fantasies. The framers of these early pieces were monks, and the monks were the only pre servers of classical learning; but whe ther we can infer from these facts that the idea of these rude representations was suggested, or their details improved by classical associations, it is not easy to pronounce. At the period of the revival
of literature, however, the dramatic art was called nearly at once into life in the four principal countries of western Eu rope ; Italy, France, Spain, and Eng land. In the two first of these countries it arose simply classical, and unmixed with any original conceptions, or with the sentimentii and fashions of the mid dle ages; in the two last it partook large ly of both, and was also immediately de rived from the mysteries and moralities above mentioned: hence, in a historical view, arose the distinction, so elaborately explained by modern critics, between the elassical and romantic drama Italian Drama.—Originated in close imitation of elas4ical models. The So fonisba of Trissino (1515) is not abso lutely the oldest Italian play, but the first which served as a model for subse quent emnposers. Rucellai and many others followed in the same track; Bib Idena, Michiavel, Ariosto, as closely imi tated the model of the Terenlian comedy. The pastoral drama of the 16th century. of which 'l'asso and Guarini were the most celebrated writers, furnished the first novelty in this branch of literature ; but these are rather poetical than dra rnatical compositions. The true national theatre of Italy arose in the 17th century, in the musical drama (opera), to winch Me tastasio, early in the 18th, communicated all the charms of poetry; but since the period of that writer, the operatic part of the dramatic art has again been whol ly disconnected from the literary, and the words only serve as vehicles for the music. While the higher classes were devoted to the opera, the lower found their national amusement, in the cony medic dell' arte ; corned ice performed by masqued characters, which gradually be came fixed in the well-known persons of Pantaloon, Brighella, who improvised their parts : Goldoni, in the middle of the 1Sth century, succeeded in establishing a regular comic drama in possession of the stage; while his rival, Gasparo Gozzi, took up the commedie dell' arte as models, and founded upon them a series of amusing extravagances. But since the period of these two spirited writers comedy has fallen almost com pletely into disrepute. At the end of the 18th century Alfieri, a bold and severe genius, produced tragedies in which the ancient classical form (with the exception of the chorus) was again reverted to, in stead of the French imitations of it which had long been current in Italy as well as the rest of Europe; and several dramatic poets have since appeared, who adopted the same model.