The history of the drama may be divided into two classes, the
Christian, which began with the Mystery and Morality plays; and the
Greek, which was eminently classic. These two types were the foundation
of all that came after them.
The first dawn of the drama was in Greece; for although the Hindus also
had dramatic poetry, it did not arise until there had been a lengthened
intercourse between Greece and India, so that the latter undoubtedly
borrowed from the former. The learned writers of ancient times agree
that both tragedy and comedy were originally choral song. It has been
said that poetry and song are divided into three periods of a nation's
history, that the Epic has to do with the first awakening of a people,
telling of their legends, or of some great deeds in remote antiquity.
This is followed by the second stage, which embraces elegiac and lyric
poetry and arose in stirring and martial times, during the development
of new forms of government, when each individual wanted to express his
own thoughts and wishes; and the third is the drama, which can only be
born in a period of civilization, and which, it has been said, implies
a nation.
Hence Greek drama arose at the height of Grecian civilization and
splendor. It originated in the natural love of imitation, of dancing
and singing, especially at the Bacchic feasts. The custom at these
feasts of taking the guise of nymphs and satyrs, and of wearing masks
while they danced and sang in chorus, seems to have been the beginnings
of the Greek drama.
Ancient tragedy was ideal, and had nothing to do with ordinary life; it
arose from the winter feasts of Bacchus, while comedy was the outcome
of the harvest feasts, and the accompanying Bacchanalian processions,
which were more in the nature of a frolic than of real acting. The
influence of the Middle and New Greek comedy, especially, that of
Menander, on the Roman comedy of Terence is well defined. Under Ennius
and Plautus the Roman comedy was fairly original; but Terence wrote for
the fashionable set, like Caecilius and Scipio Africanus, and
consequently imitated Greek models very carefully. The drama in Rome
never attained any noteworthy height although the French tragic poets
took Seneca for their model.
In the time of Lorenzo the Magnificent there was a great revival in
Italy of the ancient classic drama, of which Poliziano was the most
successful exponent. Both he and the later writers, however, made no
attempt to found any National Italian drama--their works are entirely
an imitation of the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides, and the
comedies of Plautus and Terence.
The Melodrama, which arose in the seventeenth century, is distinctly
Italian and national, and has been extensively produced all over the
civilized world. Alfieri, in the eighteenth century, is the greatest
and most patriotic of the Italian tragedians, and he did as much to
revive the national character in modern times as Dante did in the
fourteenth century.
In France we have the dramatic representation of the Mysteries in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, introduced by the pilgrims who had
returned from the Crusades. At first these performances were given in
the street, but later a company was formed, called the "Confraternity
of the Passion," the suffering of Christ being its chief
representation. This Mystery is the most ancient dramatic work of
modern Europe, and gives the whole Gospel narrative from the birth of
our Saviour until His death. Being too long for a play of one act, it
was continued from day to day. What would seem irreverent on a modern
stage was regarded as perfectly simple and natural in the Middle Ages,
and it was a potent factor in teaching the masses the truths of their
faith.
Following these Mysteries of the Passion came a host of other plays
taken from the Old Testament, or from the lives of the Saints. The
earliest "Miracle" on record is the Play of St. Catherine, which was
represented at Dunstable about 1119, written in French; it was in all
probability a rude picture of the miracles and martyrdom of the saint.
The stage was divided into three different floors, with Heaven on top,
hell on the ground floor, and the earth between. Frequently the play
would proceed in all three divisions at once, with angels and devils
ascending and descending by means of ladders, as their help was needed
in the different worlds.
The Devil generally played the part of clown or jester. The modern
puppet play of Punch is a tradition handed down from these ancient
miracles, in which the Evil One was alternately the conqueror or victim
of the human Buffoon; who was also called by the names of Jester or
Vice.
These early miracle plays were generally written in mixed prose and
verse.
The oldest manuscript of a miracle play in English is The Harrowing of
Hell, believed to have been written in 1350.
The Morality plays were the outcome of the Mysteries; they were either
allegorical or else taken from the Parables, or from the historical
events in the Bible. The chief Moralities were Everyman, Lusty
Juventus, Good Counsel, and Repentance. The oldest English Morality
play now extant is The Castle of Perseverance, written about 1450. It
is a dramatic allegory of human life representing the many conflicting
influences that surround man on his way through the world. Lusty
Juventus depicts in a vivid and humorous way the extravagances and
follies of a young heir surrounded by the virtues and vices, and the
misery which follows a departure from the path of religion and virtue.
Gradually these Moralities were corrupted and became mixed with a
species of comedy called Interludes, a merry and farcical dialogue. The
Four P's, one of the best of these early Interludes, was written by
John Heywood, an entertainer at the Court of Henry VIII. It turns upon
a dispute between a Peddler, a Palmer, a Pardoner and a Poticary, in
which each tries to tell the greatest lie; plays of this kind are seen
in France at the present day. In the fifteenth century the drama in
France became more secularized and included political events and
satire, but the French were undoubtedly the fathers of drama in the
Middle Ages. Their plays were known a whole century before Spain or
Italy had any theater, while the romantic drama in other countries of
Europe was founded on the early French drama. Modern drama in France
during the time of Corneille, Racine and Voltaire was almost entirely
classic. The French regarded the Greek standard as the highest art; and
sought to imitate it faithfully, so much so that the French Academy,
criticizing a tragedy of Corneille, said "that the poet, from the fear
of sinning against the rules of art, had chosen rather to sin against
the rules of nature."
Comic drama in France from the end of the sixteenth to the middle of
the seventeenth century was borrowed from Spain, and had to do with a
multiplication of trap doors, dark lanterns, intrigues, and puzzling
disguises, until Moliere, in his "Precieuses Ridicules" successfully
attacked these follies of his age.
The Romantic drama, which arose in the second quarter of the nineteenth
century, holds at present the first place in France. Its chief
exponents have been Victor Hugo, the two Dumases, Sardou and Octave
Feuillet. Between them and the followers of the Classic School there
was for some time a lively war. The latter wanted to exclude the
Romanticists from the Theatre Francais, but without success. In spite
of the beauty of its French, and the polish of its style, this latest
form of the drama in France frequently offends strongly against
morality. In Spain the drama was at all times thoroughly national. Even
when they introduced mythological, Greek or Roman characters, it was
always in a Castilian dress. In this respect Spain stands alone among
the nations of Europe, as it borrowed nothing from France, Italy or
England. Its earliest plays were the Mysteries, which it is supposed to
have obtained from Constantinople, where the ancient theatre of Greece
and Rome was kept up, in a grosser form, far into the Middle Ages. In
later times this Eastern drama became so corrupt that the Christian
Church tried to offset it by introducing the Mysteries, and it became a
common custom every year at Christmas, for the Manger at Bethlehem, the
Worship of the Shepherds, and the Adoration of the Magi, to be
exhibited before the Altar, just as the Mysteries of the Passion were
introduced during Lent. The Passion Play at Oberammergau and the
Creche, representing the Manger at Bethlehem, as seen in Catholic
Churches at Christmas, are the sole survivals of these ancient
Mysteries.
The second dramatic period in Spain was pastoral and satirical. Nothing
worthy of note adorns this period in the fifteenth century. In the
sixteenth century de Rueda and Lope de Vega founded the true national
drama of Spain. It was unlike anything of an earlier period, and yet,
resting faithfully on tradition, it gave a vivid picture of the
National Spanish life in all classes of society. From the gallantries
of the "dramas of the Cloak and Sword," to the historical plays in
which Dings and Princes figure; down to the manners and incidents of
common life, all is essentially Spanish. A fourth class still
represented Scriptural and sacred scenes. Calderon wrote at the height
of the Spanish drama during the reign of Philip II; and after his time
the drama in Spain declined until, in the eighteen century, it was at
its lowest ebb. At this time plays were still held in open courtyards,
and in the daytime, as in the earlier ages. Efforts were made to
subject it to French and Italian rule, but this had only a limited
success; stiff, cold translation from the French could not please a
people who always found in the Spanish drama an essentially popular
entertainment.
In Germany traces of the drama first appeared in the thirteenth
century, when rude attempts to imitate the Mystery plays were conducted
in churches by the priests. But when the populace tried to introduce
the Burlesque, the performances were banished to the open fields.
Students in the universities took part in them, and they continued
until after the Reformation. Brought into Europe from Constantinople by
the Crusaders and pilgrims, the Mystery plays became the chief
amusement of an illiterate age. Christianity was first thoroughly
impressed on the mind of Northern Europe by means of them; and the
first missionaries familiarized the rude Goths and Huns with Biblical
incidents at a time when reading was unknown outside of the Cloister.
No change in German drama occurred until the seventeenth century, when
operas after the Italian superseded the Mysteries and Moralities. The
production of this age, however, were characterized by bad taste and
pedantry; and it was not until Goethe brought his genius to bear on the
subject, that the Germans acquired any drama worthy of the name.
Whether in his national play Gotz von Berlichingen or in his classical
drama of Iphigenia, this great German master stands at the summit of
his art. Lessing attacked French drama as enacted in Germany prior to
Goethe, and brought forward the Shakespearian plays as a model.
Schiller's Wallenstein obtained a worldwide reputation, and among the
Romantic dramatists Werner's Attila and Grillparzer's Ancestress are
the best examples of the extravagant and fertile mind of the German
romanticist.
Modern German drama has found the highest art it has ever attained in
the compositions of Richard Wagner, whose operas are entirely German
and National, and mostly founded on the old German legends. Tannhauser
is taken from the epic poem of "Parzifal," written by Wolfram von
Eschenbach in the Middle Ages. Lohengrin, which is touched on in the
"Parzifal," Wagner also found in the poem of an obscure Bavarian poet;
and a more complete account of the celebrated "Swan Knight" appears in
a collection of stories edited by the brothers Grimm. Lohengrin is a
Knight of the Holy Grail, so part of the legend is borrowed from
ancient Britain.
All dramatic effort in England before the sixteenth century was so rude
as to be of little account. The Miracle and Mystery plays were
introduced into England in the reign of Henry VI, and many of them had
a personage called "Iniquity," a coarse buffoon, whose object was to
amuse the audience. After the Reformation the Protestant Bishop Bale
wrote plays on the same plan as the Mysteries, intended to instruct the
people in the supposed errors of Popery. These plays, which deal
largely in satire, became popular and after the era of Henry VIII were
known as Interludes. In the beginning of the sixteenth century real
comedy and tragedy began to exist in a rude form. The oldest known
English comedy, Ralph Royster Doyster, was written by Nicholas Udall,
and describes a character whose comic misadventures are somewhat akin
to Don Quixote.
The earliest tragedy, Gorboduc, known also Ferrex and Porrex, was
played in the Lower Temple. It is founded on the legends of fabulous
British history. The tragedies of Marlowe and the legendary plays of
Greene come next in order, followed by the golden age of English drama,
from the dawn of the Shakespeare plays in 1585 until the closing of the
theatre in 1645 on the breaking out of the Civil war in England. For a
period of sixty years the splendid genius of the world's greatest
dramatist gave to mankind a series of plays that have no equal in the
literature of any country or age.
Contemporaneous with Shakespeare, or coming after him, were Beaumont
and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Massinger, Ford, and Shirley; these
Elizabethan dramatists took their subjects from the stories and legends
of all countries and ages--or else they depicted the national life. For
this reason English drama has been called Irregular, in contrast to the
Greek, which is called the Regular, and that of modern France, founded
upon the Greek. The chief rule of the Regular is the Unity of Time,
Place and Action. In the Greek, the time of action was allowed to
extend to twenty-four hours, and the scene to change from place to
place in the same city; but Shakespeare and his contemporaries
acknowledged no fixed limit either of time, place or action. The
operation of their plays covered many different countries, and the time
extended over many years; but the rule that laid down in the Greek
drama the principle that there should be unity of action (everything
being subordinate to a series of events, which form the thread of the
plot), was adopted by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. It has been
called "unity of impression," as opposed to unity of time and place.