Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/647

 ENGLAND (LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE) 635 trengtn and affluence which Dr. Johnson de- adequate to every purpose of use and legance, while a masculine vigor, sometimes irse, sometimes highly delicate, marked all diversities of character and culture. The lost extensive and important department of iterature during this epoch was the drama, rhich distinguishes that age from all preceding nd less decisively from all subsequent periods. ft had two distinct periods, that of the old English dramatists (in the narrowest use of the 3rm) prior to the civil war, and that of the comic dramatists after the restoration. In the former series the most eminent names are Marlowe, Shakespeare, Ben Jon son, Beaumont and Fletcher, Chapman, Decker, Webster, Marston, Massinger, Ford, Thomas Hey wood, and Shirley. Among the precursors of Shake- speare were also John Lilly, whose nine plays, and especially "Endimion," have always had admirers for their dainty and conceited style ; Thomas Kyd, whose "Spanish Tragedy," im- proved by Jonson, is said to have gone through more editions than any other play of the time ; Thomas Nash, a ribald satirist ; Eobert Greene, whose comedies are lively, fantastic, and florid, and whose "Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay" is one of the latest plays in which the devil appears in person ; George Peele, whose "David and Bethsabe" has been termed the earliest fountain of pathos and harmony in English dramatic poetry ; and Thomas Lodge, who was associated with Greene in writing " The Looking- Glass for London and England," a strange performance, in which the prophecy of Jonah against Nineveh is applied to the city of London. All of these abound in bombast and pedantic classical allusions. A more potent )irit was Oh ristopher Mario w e (1 5 64-' 9 3), who, irowing off the shackles of rhyme, gave to ik verse an easy modulation and rhythm, id amid much rant and buffoonery produced scenes and passages of wonderful beauty id grandeur. His most admired plays are " The Jew of Malta," " Edward II.," and " The Life and Death of Dr. Faustus," the last of which best illustrates the " fine madness " of lis character. An awful melancholy pervades le fiend Mephistopheles, more impressive than malignant mirth ascribed to him by Goethe, irlowe was the immediate precursor of Wil- Shakespeare (1564-1616), a comparison whose works with those of his contempo- ries proves his superiority as much in judg- ment and taste as in creative power, for a large proportion of his plays are more regular than any other prior to the close of the civil wars. The rules of the classical dramatic art were not then in vogue; the French neo-classical drama had not been originated; and though Shakespeare violated the ancient unities of time and place, he observed almost universally the unity of feeling and of interest. The soundest criticism has vindicated for him the character of a profound artist as well as a great and luxuriant genius, and his peculiar excellences appear in the marvellous variety and verisimilitude of his personages, in the skill with which opposite characters are grouped and the finest and most diversified threads woven into a harmonious web, and in the completeness with which the entire action as well as the several characters is worked out, minute features and particulars being poetically conceived with reference to the universal system of things. Shakespeare's plays are 34 in num- ber (the authorship of some of which, however, is disputed),, and are usually divided into trage- dies, comedies, and histories. Since the begin- ning of the present century their supremacy has attained unqualified and intelligent recog- nition. A friend of Shakespeare and his asso- ciate in the Mermaid, the oldest of clubs, was Ben Jonson (1574-1637), one of the most famil- iar names among the old dramatists. He had scholarly acquaintance with the classics, and la- bored to make the laws of the ancients authori- tative in English dramatic art. He is the author of two tragedies, " Catiline" and " Sejanus," and of numerous comedies and masques, the best of which are "The Alchemist," " Volpone, or the Fox," and "The Silent Woman." They are full of solid materials, in a stately, eloquent, but often pedantic style, and seem to have been produced slowly and upon deliberation, the wit, fancy, and satire being severely elabo- rated. His poetical character appears in its most pleasing aspect in the lyrical verses with which his masques are varied and enlivened, especially in the pastoral drama of " The Sad Shepherd," which display an admirable taste and feeling, and have all the charms of song. Jonson may have aimed at an audience of men of sense and knowledge, but Beaumont and Fletcher wrote for men of fashion and the world. Of the 52 plays published under their joint names, Beaumont may have had a part in only 17. They are keen, vivacious, and often elegant, but slight and superficial in com- parison with Shakespeare's and Jonson's ; the songs scattered through them are, however, among the most beautiful in the language. The dramas of George Chapman (1557-1634), the translator of Homer, contain " more think- ing " than those of most of his contemporaries; they have many passages of striking grandeur, are in a lofty and extravagant style, and their contemplations on the nature of man and the world leave impressions favorable to moral excellence. The " Fortunatus " and " Honest Whore " of Thomas Decker have graceful and genial passages; and the "Duchess of Malfy iv and " White Devil " of John Webster are full of horrors cleverly managed^ and have been esteemed among the most striking tragic pro- ductions of this period. The modern reputa- tion of Thomas Middleton rests chiefly on his " Witch," which may have suggested to Shake- speare the supernatural scenery in " Macbeth ;" and the coarse plays of John Marston abound in murders, ghosts, and scornful satire. The tragedies of Philip Massinger (1584-1640) have