Page:Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett - Comparative Literature (1886).djvu/331

 that "the connection of poetry and social good is more observable in the drama than in any other form; and it is indisputable that the highest perfection of human society has ever corresponded with the highest dramatic excellence, and that the corruption or extinction of the drama in a nation where it has once flourished marks a corruption of manners and an extinction of the energies which sustain the soul of social life; for the end of social corruption is to destroy all sensibility to pleasure." How far these observations are true, and what is the kind of social life which produces the best drama, we need not here inquire. We shall at least admit with Shelley the peculiarly close relations of the drama with social life, and agree with Professor H. H. Wilson when he says, in his admirable Theatre of the Hindus, that "there is no species of composition which embraces so many purposes as the dramatic. The dialogue varies from simple to elaborate, from the conversation of ordinary life to the highest refinements of poetical taste. The illustrations are drawn from every known product of art as well as every observable phenomenon of Nature. The manners and feelings of the people are delineated, living and breathing before us, and history and religion furnish most important and interesting topics to the poet."

But we must be prepared at the outset to allow for certain peculiarities of the Indian drama which, although by no means rendering the Hindu theatre a monopoly of the sacred caste, prevent it from being a perfect mirror of Indian life. In one respect the Indian theatre differs from that of any other people. Every play is for the greater part written in Sanskrit, although that language, probably never the vernacular of the whole country, ceased to be spoken at an early date; and so, since none of the dramatic compositions at present known can claim