Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/436

416 416 D II A M A LlTALIAN. Such, in barest outline, was the progress of dramatic entertainments in the principal countries of Europe, before the revival of classical studies brought about a return to the examples of the classical drama, or before this return had gotten that from an early period in England as elsewhere had flourished a species of entertainments, not properly speaking dramatic, but largely contributing to form and foster a taste for dramatic spectacles. The pageants as they were called in England were the successors of those ridings from which, when they gladdened &quot; Chepe,&quot; Chaucer s idle apprentice would not keep away ; but they had advanced in splendour and ingenuity of device under the influence of Flemish and other foreign examples. Cos tumed figures represented before gaping citizens the heroes of mythology and history, and the abstractions of moral, patriotic, or municipal allegory ; and the city of London clung with special fervour to these exhibitions, which the Elizabethan drama was neither able nor as repre sented by most of its poets who composed devices and short texts for these and similar shows willing to oust from popular favour. Some of the greatest and some of the least of our dramatists were the ministers of pageantry ; and perhaps it would have been an advantage for the the future of the theatre, if the legitimate drama and the Triumphs of Old Drapery had been more jealously kept apart. i Re- The literary influence which finally transformed the s * nce growths noticed above into the national dramas of the onal several countries of Europe, was in a word the influence of na. the Renaissance. Among the remains of classical antiquity , which were studied, translated, and imitated, those of the drama necessarily held a prominent place. Never altogether lost sight of, they now became subjects of devoted research and models for careful copies, first in one of their own, then in modern, tongues ; and these essen tially literary endeavours came into more or less direct contact with, and acquired more or less control over, the already existing entertainments of the stage. Thus the stream of the modern drama, whose source and con- tributories have been described, was brought back into the ancient bed, from which its flow diverged into a number of national courses, unequal in impetus and strength, and varying in accordance with the manitold conditions of their progress. Of these it remains to pursue the most produc tive or important. The priority in this as in most of the other aspects of Jem ^g Renaissance belongs to ITALY. In ultimate achieve ment, the Italian drama fell short of the fulness of the results obtained elsewhere a surprising fact when it is considered, not only that the Italian language had the vantage-ground of closest relationship to the Latin, but tnat the genius of the Italian people has at all times inspired it with a predilection for the drama. The cause is doubtless to be sought in the absence from Italian national life during a long period, and more especially during that Contemporary with the rise and earlier promise of Italian dramatic literature, of those loftiest and most potent impulses of popular feeling to which a national drama owes so much of its strength. This absence was due partly to the peculiarities of the Italian character, partly to the political and ecclesiastical experiences Italy was fated to undergo. The Italians were strangers to the enthusiasm of patriotism, which was as the breath in the nostrils of our Elizabethan age, as well as to the single- minded religiosity which identified Spain with the spirit of the Catholic Revival The clear-sightedness of the Italians had something to dc with this for they were too intelligent to believe in their tyrants, and too free from Latin P la &amp;gt; s of t Ie, , r 11. illusions to deliver up their minds to their priests. The chilling and enervating effects of a pressure of foreign domination, such as no Western people with a history and a civilization like those of Italy has ever experienced, did the rest, and for many generations rendered impotent the higher efforts of the dramatic art. No basis was per manently found for a really national tragedy ; while literary comedy, after turning from the direct imitation of Latin models to a more popular form, lost itself in an abandoned immorality of tone and in reckless insolence of invective against particular classes of society. Though its productivity long continued, the poetic drama more and more concentrated its efforts upon subordinate or subsidiary species, artificial in origin and decorative in purpose, and surrendered its substance to the overpowering aids of music, dancing, and spectacle. Only a single form of the Italian drama, the improvised comedy, remained truly national ; and this was of its nature dissociated from higher literary effort. The revival of Italian tragedy iu later times is due partly to the imitation of French models, partly to the endeavour of a brilliant genius to infuse into his art the historical and political spirit. Comedy likewise attained to new growths of considerable significance, when it was sought to accommodate its popular forms to the representation of real life in a wider range, and again to render it more poetical in accordance with the tendencies of modern romanticism. The regular Italian dr.ama, in both its tragic and its comic branches, began with a reproduction, in the Latin language, of classical models ; but tragedy in its beginnings showed a tendency which it was before long to treat themes of national historical interest. Two earliest tragedies of which we hear, written by the Paduan historian Mussato about 1300, were both copies of Seneca; but while the one (Ac/ulleis) treated a classical theme, the other dealt with the history of a famous tyrant of the author s native city ( Eceerinis). In the next century events of recent or contemporary history were similarly dealt with j 1 but the majority of its Latin dramas were doubtless written to suit the tastes of the friends and patrons of the Italian Renaissance, who, like Lorenzo the Magnificent, wished to domesticate the heathen gods and goddesses on a stage hitherto occupied by the sacred figures of Christian belief. Such were the Latin imitations and translations of Greek and Latin tragedies and comedies by Bishop Martirano, the friend of Lorenzo s son Pope Leo X., on the adventure of Danae 2 and other subjects ; the famous Pror/ne of G. Corraro (d. 1464), the nephew of an earlier Pope ; and the efforts of Pomponius Laetus, who, with the aid of Cardinal Riaro, sought to revive the ancient theatre, especially that of Plautus and Terence, at Rome. Many Latin comedies are mentioned from the 15th century, during which, as during its predecessor, Latin continued the dominant language of the stage in Italy. Nor was the representation even of Greek plays altogether unknown; it was by her performance of the Electro, of Sophocles that Alexandra Scala caused Politian to envy Orestes. Early in the 16th century, tragedy began to be written in the native tongue ; but it retained from the first, and never wholly lost, the impress of its origin. Whatever l^ 6 the source of its subjects which, though mostly of classical L0u tury. origin, were occasionally derived from native romance, or even due to invention they were all treated with a pre dilection for the horrible, inspired by the example of Seneca, though no doub t encouraged by a perennial national taste. The chorus, stationary on the stage as in old Roman 1 Landivio, De Captivitate Duds Jacobi (Jacopo Piccinino, d. 1464) Traycedia;Vera.rdo,Ferdinan&amp;lt;lus (of Aragon) Serratus; Ilistoria Entica. (expulsion of the Moors from Granada). 2 Imbcr Aureus. Italian tragedy
 * eants. distinctly asserted itself. It must not, however, be for