Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/254

 246 DRAMA Aristarchus, Ion, Crates, Achseus, Melanippi- des, Pherecrates, Phrynichus the comic poet, Lysippus, Eupolis, Aristophanes (427), Aga- thon, Xenocles, Amipsias, Sannyrion, Asty- damas, Antiphanes, Theopompus, Eubulus, Alexis, Herat-lidos, and Menander (first ex- hibits in 321), after whom the Greek drama died obscurely. The Romans derived their drama from the Greeks. Terence, Plautus, and Seneca are the only Latin dramatists worthy of mention, and these are but trans- lators and imitators of the Greek. The only element introduced by the Romans into the drama was farce, an invention of the Tuscans ; buffoonery became more popular than wit. In truth the Roman people took little pleasure in pure intellectual amusement; they preferred to watch the agonies of the body suffered in the circus, rather than sympathize with the woes of the soul simulated in the theatre. Thus ended the first or classic age of the drama. The second, or romantic age, gave its first indication of existence in the 12th cen- tury, when dramatic performances called en- tremets were introduced, as the word im- plies, between the services at royal banquets and carousals. These entremets soon became pageants, masks, and mummeries, and lasted as distinct dramatic entertainments up to the period of Shakespeare. Simultaneously a dra- matic composition called a mystery, usually founded on passages of Scripture, was intro- duced and became a popular exhibition on saints' days. Subjects from the Bible, rudely treated in the form of a dialogue between the holy, personages, were represented on a stage erected in the church or church yard, the priests and acolytes being the actors. These performances were carried to an abuse, and became so blasphemous that they were sup- pressed. The next form of drama was the morality, bearing a relation to the mystery similar to that between the new and old comedy of the Greeks. The morality was aimed at abstract vice, its action was a fable, its characters were typical. In the 15th and 16th centuries histories began to be written long, rambling pieces of action without form or object, but introducing rudely the design of that romantic drama destined to so wondrous a perfection under the hands of Shakespeare and his colleagues. As the classic drama was de- rived from the dithyramb, a pure poetic germ, subsequently developed into action, the roman- tic drama was derived from the pageant, mask, or mummery, a pantomimic germ, subsequent- ly developed into poetry. In the first the ac- tion is subservient to the passion ; in the second the passion is subservient to the action. In the Elizabethan age the romantic drama sprang at once into existence ; and as in the single life of ^Eschylns the classical or Greek drama passed from infancy to maturity, so Shake- speare and his colleagues raised the romantic or Gothic drama from rudeness to the highest perfection it has ever achieved. In the roman- tic drama the unities of time, place, and actiofi are not observed. The poet is allowed un- bridled license; prose and poetry may be mingled without rule or reason, beyond the ap- titude of each to the moment and the charac- ter. The English dramatists of this age gave originality at least to the form of the romantic drama, and, whatever its faults, it was new. The French and Italian poets clung to the Greek models ; Corneille and Racine were imitators of Sophocles and Euripides ; Alfieri affected the same ancient simplicity. As students of the Greek, their individual merit is great ; but hav- ing had no share in the progress of the drama, they have no prominent place in its history. The Italians and Spaniards at this period contrived a species of performance, part pantomime, part farce, part comedy of intrigue. It was derived from those Italian narrators of whom Bocca- cio is the best type, and represented dramati- cally short and pithy tales. Lope de Vega was the first to inaugurate this comedy of in- trigue, and Calderon surpassed him in it; it was quickly imitated and greatly improved by the French, who by admitting more Italian elements gave it variety and scope. Hardy, Rotrou, and Corneille, Scarron and Quinault, prepared the public taste for Moliere, who truly founded and made the second or middle age of comedy, as Shakespeare and his col- leagues made the first or old. Comedy at this time mainly occupied the stage. In England the four great masters, Wycherly, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar, brought forth the prose drama. In the beginning of the 18th century the sentimental drama, a mixture of comedy and tragedy, was introduced, but can- not be considered a forward movement in the art. In Germany it obtained great popularity under Kotzebue, and at the same time a wild and ideal, often mythic and philosophical form of dramatic poetry was created by Schiller and Goethe. These poets rather embellished dra- matic literature than added to the development or progress of the drama as an art. Leasing, their predecessor, may be said to have founded the German drama, but he attempted no re- form. The next and last great step which the drama has made, and one that has become prominent in the present age, is the invention of opera, or a drama in which music takes the place of poetry, and the dramatic action is sub- servient to a new musical development. It is a mistake to presume that an opera is a musi- cal drama. The musical form of an opera and its dramatic treatment are essentially different from the form and treatment of a drama based on the same fable. There is also in the form of the music, apart from the libretto, a plan and proportion to which the drama must be subservient. Among the various minor forms of the modern drama are melodrama, farce, vaudeville, and pantomime. Melodrama owes its invention to the laws which restricted the performance of tragedies and comedies to cer- tain privileged theatres. Booths were erect'