1)tt.xxl.v. In Engla nd. as tl-e.,114.-re, the early draumatic exhibition- were el unet tt d with the Church. Ecclesiastics were at first not only the authors but the actor- of the miratle plays and mysteries by which religious instruc tion was combined with a geed deal of grotesque amusement. The intiralities, in which ahstract qualities were personified. marked etn imagina tive advance. and it has been questioned whether the regular comedy was not to some extent an evolution from them, through the gradual sub stitution of real and strongly char:let er ized per for mere abstraction-. It wa- about the middle of the sixteenth century. howevcr. \viten the influence of the Rena 112141 ik•en fat, that the drama extricated itself from these an cient The earliest known English com edy (before 1551) is Ralph lloistt r Doi.ster, writ ten liv Nicholas a learned master cf Eton. .\ few appeared the first trage dy. called (t'orboilitc. or Fero and a dull and declamatory productit n in blank verse by Saekville and Norton. From time dramatic production was rapid, though at first without great improvement. To pass by the name- cf Bishop Still and cif I:yd, Lodge, Lyly, Ifreen. and Nash, mention is due to Christ, pher as the greatest of prude Ile is the author who first introduced upon the public stage blank verse, the vthiele of English d•aina. and there are itassages in his tragedies if l'fr ust us and Eilit-ard //. which are aecounted not unworthy of Shakespeare int sel f.
But all these earlier playwrights are e bseurcd Icy their nearness to the great luminary f the English drama. Shake-pear( is almost univer sally acknowledged to have been the gnatest dra matic genius that has appeared in the world. Dis regarding or ignorant of the 'unities.' and writing for a stage as yet unaided by any hut the slight est scenic he brought the ni mantic drama to its highest perfection. ID- 'writings present the finest eNample of the depth, sill lim it•. refinement, ;Ind variety of which the drama is capable: and they tire abundantly marked by those peculiar whiell -prang front the union in their million of such Nvenderful of conception IN ith such familiar i Np•ri• elice of theatrical management. t For a nit re detailed n of his plays, see the special article /1E.) Of the other actors of time we know less: but Burbage nil Alkyl] are among those whose have come (It to . 111011g dramatists. t he bp-t of contemporaries were 134.11 ,Itutstii. Beaumont. and Elf teli• r. Like shake are. Jen-tat m rote both and I nig, but he showed in, re i f the influence of the elassie 1,1, streaks of '.Icnson's learned sock.' and thus in a phrase hits off the main feature of his character as a dramatist. Yet he was fa mous in the composition of such light and grace ful pieces as the nnkques in which the Court found entertainment. (See Beau mont and Fletcher, who were joint. workers, have the honor of standing next to Shakespeare in the roniantie drama of England; Inn, like Lope de Vega, they wrote too much for the success of the moment to be ranked in the foremost tile of England's dramatic writers. With Dekker. Alas singer, Ford. Webster, Chapman. and Shirley,
the older English drama is closed, sharply ter minated by the Puritan Revolution.
With Restoration came a drama represent ing much more the social life of the Court. and in its form largely reflecting French influence. Under the direction of such managers as Dave pant and Killigrew, plays were much more elab orately staged than before, and the drama was very much better patronized. On the stage were Betterton and Mrs. Barry. The chief literary figure of the time was Dryden, who wrote suc cessfully both tragedy and comedy. The trage dies of Lee and the unfortunate Otway. with such comedies as those of Shadwell and Wycherley, bring down the drama to Vanbrugh. Congreve. and Farquhar. writers whose brilliant depiction of the externals of society is clouded by an im morality and an indecency even more marked than that of some of Shakespeare's imme diate successors. Gay and Mrs. Centlivre, and the actor-playwright Colley Cibber, di-played in their comedies considerable dramatic spirit and invention. Of quite another sort was Addkon's tragedy of Cato, famous in the annals of litera ture and successful on the stage for the old fashioned political virtues which it solemnly set forth. Lillo, 'Moore. Garrick the actor. Gold smith. the Columns, and Cumberland nearly all took to prose instead of verse. They produced agreeable comedies; but, except Goldsmith's ,`zhe ,Tools to Conquer and one or two other pieces. nothing very important appears in the history of the drama till the time of Sheridan. who gave an impulse to 'genteel' comedy such as has placed him ever since at the head of the writer- of that species of composition. Famous among the favorites of the stage meanwhile had been 'Peg' Woflington and Katharine Clive.
immediate successors, Holeroft, 'Monk' Lewis, Maturin, Mrs. Inchhald, and others, hate left little that is remendiered: but such interpreters of the drama as John Kenilile, Siddons, and later Edmund Kean, save the period from unimportance in dramatic history. Joanna BaiThe, the poets Byron and Coleridge, and Henry Tayler wrote fine meditative dramas. little suited, however, for actual presentation upon the stage; and the same may lie said of much of the more recent dramatic poetry of Tennyson, Browning, and Swinburne. The list of writers for the English theatre in the nine teenth century is long. Among the earlier ones. Sheridan Knowles and Bulwer-Lytton wrote plays which are still known on the boards. Later 1111110 TaHolm]. Jerrold, Shirley Brooks, Min Taylor—who wrote over a hundred pieces, many of them very popular—Marston. Wills. Charles Peade—who, with Boneicault or alone, drama tized several of his own works—T, W. Robert son, 11. .1. Byron, Sydney Grundy, W. S. Gil bert—who is best known. however, for the comic operas in which he collaborated with Arthur sullivan—II. A. Jones, A. W. Pinero, Haddon Chambers. J. M. II. V. Esmond, and Stephen Phillips. Not to he neglected also in our is the important influence of such actor managers as Macieady. Buckst.ne, the Banerofts, Sir Henry living I to whose company belongs Ellen Terry). and sir Charles Wyndham, in giv ing direction to dramatic. production.