Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/469

 MISCELLANEOUS WRITERS 445 taste for a personal and lively dramatic story, its mingling of the comic and the serious—all these traits more or less indicated that the amorphous y@/r7 might have passed into an indigenous form of the regular drama. But as a matter of fact it never had done so in its whole course. Indeed in ancient Bengali literature, inspite of these and other advan- tages and of the presence of a pattern literature in Sans- crit, we have practically nothing by way of dramatic composition ; and the beginnings of the stage and the drama in the 19th century Bengal, on the other hand, had little connexion with the popular ya/rz. We shall trace this point in detail in its proper place; but we may note here that notwithstanding these opportunities, other eonitions were not favourable and. there were serious obstacles, both external and internal, which stood effectively in the way of such a development. Although dissimilar in many respects, the early yatra shows in character and substance some resemblance to the medieval mystery and miracle-play Contrast with the European medieval 20d both had their origin in the popu- ae and miracle- Jar representation of religious themes. But the conditions of growth and ex- pansion differed considerably in the two cases. The intellectual readjustment which followed upon the Renaissance in Europe, tended to the gradual secularisation of literature and the creation of a vigorous mundane vitality which could supply the basis of the new theatre. Free belief replaced imposed orthodoxy, moral fervour replaced determined religious practices, energetic action and emotion replaced external and mechanical Influence of the (iscipline. With the disappearance Renaissance in develop- ing Europeandrama; of the bondage of medievalism, which had forbidden a life of nature and worldly hopes, and with the appearance of the morally