CHAPTER XXIII.

HISTORY OF DRAMATIC LITERATURE FROM 1600 TO 1650.

Decline of the Italian Theatre 591

Filli de Sciro 592

Translations of Spanish Dramas 592

Extemporaneous Comedy 593

Spanish Stage 593

Calderon--Number of his Pieces 593

His Comedies 593

La Vida es Sueno 594

A Secreto agravio secreta vengança 595

Style of Calderon 595

His Merits sometimes over-rated 596

Plays of Hardy 596

The Cid 597

Style of Corneille 598

Les Horaces 598

Cimia 598

Polyeucte 599

Rodogune 599

Pompey 599

Heraclius 599

Nicomède 600

Faults and Beauties of Corneille 600

Le Menteur 600

Other French Tragedies 600

Wenceslas of Rotron 600

Popularity of the Stage under Elizabeth 601

Number of Theatres 601

Encouraged by James 601

General Taste for the Stage 601

Theatres closed by the Parliament 602

Shakspeare’s Twelfth Night 602

Merry Wives of Windsor 603

Measure for Measure 604

Lear 604

Timon of Athens 604

Pericles 605

His Roman Tragedies--Julius Cæsar 606

Antony and Cleopatra 606

Coriolanus 606

His Retirement and Death 607

Greatness of his Genius 607

His Judgment 607

His Obscurity 608

His Popularity 608

Critics on Shakspeare 609

Ben Jonson 609

The Alchemist 609

Volpone, or The Fox 610

The Silent Woman 610

Sad Shepherd 611

Beaumont and Fletcher 611

Corrupt State of their Text 611

The Maid’s Tragedy 611

Philaster 612

King and no King 613

The Elder Brother 613

The Spanish Curate 613

The Custom of the Country 613

The Loyal Subject 613

Beggar’s Bush 613

The Scornful Lady 614

Valentinian 614

The Two Noble Kinsmen 615

The Faithful Shepherdess 615

Rule a Wife, and have a Wife 616

Some other Plays 616

Origin of Fletcher’s Plays 616

Defects of their plots 616

Their Sentiments and Style Dramatic 617

Their Characters 617

Their Tragedies 617

Inferior to their Comedies 618

Their Female Characters 618

Massinger--Nature of his Dramas 619

His Delineations of Character 619

His Subjects 619

Beauty of His Style 620

Inferiority of his Comic Powers 620

Some of his Tragedies particularized 620

And of his other Plays 620

Ford 621

Shirley 621

Heywood 622

Webster 622

His Duchess of Malfy 622

Vittoria Corombona 622

Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries, Vol. 2 · 第 23 / 52 章