Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/464

444 which resemble those of the German the influence of the so-called chambers of the rederykers (rhetoricians), from the onwards, resembling that of the master-singers of contemporary Germany. The earliest of their efforts, which so effectively tempered the despotism of both church and state, seem to have been of a dramatic kind ; and a manifold variety of allegories, moralities, and comic entertainments (esbatementen or comedies, kluiten and faction or farces) enhanced the attractions of those popular pageants in which the Nether lands surpassed all other countries of the North. The art of acting flourished in the Low Countries even during the troubles of the great revolt ; but the birth of the regular drama was delayed till the advent of quieter times. Dutch dramatic literature begins, under the influence of the classical studies cherished in the seats of learning founded before and after the close of the war, with the classical tragedies of S. Roster (c. –c. ). The romantic dramas and farces of Gerbrand Bredero and the tragedies of Hooft belong to the same period ; but its foremost dramatic poet was J. van den Vondel (–), who from an imitation of classical models passed to more original forms of dramatic composition, including a patriotic play and a dramatic treatment of part of what was to form the theme of Paradise Lost. But Vondel had no successor of equal mark. The older form of Dutch tragedy in which the chorus still appeared was, especially under the influence of the critic A. Pels, exchanged for a close imitation of the French models, Corneille and Racine ; nor was the attempt to create a national comedy successful. Thus no national Dutch drama was permanently called into life. Still more decidedly the dramatic literature of the peoples springs from foreign growths ; but Denmark, where the beginnings of the drama in the plays of the schoolmaster Chr. Hansen recall the mixture of religious and farcical elements in contemporary German efforts, at a later date produced a comic dramatist- of thorough originality and of a wholly national cast. L. Holberg (–), one of the most noteworthy comic poets of modern literature, not only marks an epoch in the dramatic literature of his native land, but he contributed to overthrow the trivialities of the German stage in its worst period, which he satirized with merciless humour, and set an example, never surpassed, of a series of comedies deriving their types from popular life aud ridiculing with healthy directness those vices and follies which are the proper theme of the most widely effective species of the comic drama. Among his followers P. A. Heiberg (–) is specially noted. Under the influence of the Romantic school, whose influence has nowhere proved so long-lived as in the Scandinavian north, A. Oehlenschliiger (–) began a new era of Danish literature. His productivity, which belongs partly to his native and partly to German literary history, turned from foreign to native themes ; and other writers followed him in his endeavours to revive the figures of Northern heroic legend. The reaction recently observable in Danish literary criticism against the supremacy of the Romantic school may be expected to produce results in the drama, in the direction perhaps of those already attested by the success of two living Norwegian dramatists, H. Ibsen and Bjornsterne Bjornson.

Lastly, the history of the drama, which in its earliest or religious form is stated to have been introduced from Poland, is in its later forms an outgrowth of Western civilization. A species of popular puppet-show called vertep, which about began to treat secular and popular themes, had helped to foster the dramatic taste of the people ; but the Russian regular drama characteristically enough had its origin in the cadet corps at St Petersburg, a pupil of which, A. Sumarokoff (–), is regarded as the founder of the modern Russian theatre. As a tragic poet he seems to have imitated Racine and Voltaire, though treating themes from the national history, among others the famous dramatic subject of the False Demetrius. He also translated Hamlet. As a comic dramatist he is stated to have been less popular than as a tragedian ; yet it is in comedy that he would seem to have had the most noteworthy successors. Among these it is impossible to pass by the empress Catharine II. (–), whose comedies seem to have been satirical sketches of the follies and foibles of her subjects, and who in one comedy as well as in a tragedy had the courage to imitate Shakespeare. Comedy aiming at social satire has continued to flourish in Russia to the, and possesses (or recently possessed) a representative of mark in A. N. Ostrovsky of Moscow. The church is stringently protected against the satire of the stage in the dominions of the Czar, but in all other directions except one considerable licence appears to be allowed to the drama.  

 DRAMBURG, a town of Prussia, at the head of a circle in the government of Kb slin, aboxit fifty miles east of Stet tin. It occupies both banks of the River Drage, a sub- tributary of the Oder, is inclosed by walls and defended by a fort, contains a hospital and various administrative offices, and carries on cotton and woollen weaving, tanning, brewing, and distilling. Population in 1875, 5625.  DRAMMEN, a town in the amt of Buskerud, in Norway, is situated at the northern end of the Drammen fiord, a western arm of Christiania fiord, at the mouth of the Dramselv. It consists of the three places Bragerniis or Bragniis, Stromso, and the port Tangen, the first on the north, and the other two on the south side of the river. The greater part of the town has been rebuilt since the conflagrations of 1866 and 1870. The principal industrial establishments are oil, cotton, and tobacco factories, breweries, tanneries, sawmills, and iron foundries. An active trade in wood, pitch, and iron is carried on. The population at the end of December 1875 was 18,838.  DRAUGHTS, a game of unknown origin. Some con sider it to be a very old game, but Strutt (Sports and Pastimes) calls it a &quot;modern invention.&quot; It is not men tioned in the older editions of the Academic des Jevx, nor in the Compleat Gamester, so, if an old game, it was not formerly an important one. As early as 1668 M. Mallet published a treatise on draughts, at Paris, and the game was played in Europe at least a century earlier. The Romans played a similar game called latrunculi, the men moving diagonally, capturing by leaping over, and obtain ing superior power when they arrived at the furthest row of squares. The board, however, consisted of only sixteen squares. It is believed that Trecrcrot among the Greeks was a similar game with a central space &quot;called the sacred barrier ;&quot; and representations of a kind of draught game are frequently found on the monuments of the ancient Egyp tians (Wilkinson). Draughts is played by two persons. A board (see diagram) is required, and twenty-four men twelve white 