Romantic imitation of civic life. The Comedie of Old Fortunatus. Romance converted into a Morality. A Morality in the form of romance. Specimen of the style. Structural defects of Dekker's dramas: inconsistencies in the representation His realistic imitation of civic manners. Absence of moral feeling in his plays. Ingenuity of the plot: low moral tone. Inferiority of Middleton to Jonson and Dekker in conception of character. Materialism of Middleton's genius. Seneca the chief melodramatist among the ancients. Influence of Seneca on the English stage. Various types of English melodrama. Shakespeare its probable author. Defects of character and style. The Yorkshire Tragedy: A late Murder of the Son upon the Mother. Extravagance of the style: specimen of the diction. Specimen of lofty dramatic rhetoric from The Tragedy of Charles Duke of Byron. ROMANTIC MELODRAMA OF CRIME AND REVENGE JOHN MARSTON His affectation and attitudinising shown in his dedications. His contempt for his audience. Lamb's opinion of his merits: Mr. Swinburne's opinion. Specimens of his dramatic style from The Atheist's Tragedy and The Varied conception of character: pathos. Vittoria Corombona: The Duchess of Malfi. Power of moving pity and horror. Development of the spirit of the Morality. Imitation of humours in real life. Marston's dedication of The Malcontent to Jonson. Jonson's co-operation with Marston and Chapman. He announces his intention of abandoning Comedy for Tragedy. Ingenuity of the plot : introduction of humours in the underplots. Satire on a prevailing folly: Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman's Tale. Jonson ceases to write for the public stage: his Court entertainments. Made Poet Laureate visit to Drummond at Hawthornden. Returns to the stage in the first year of Charles I.'s reign. Completion of the cycle of "humours." Attacks on the play: Alexander Gill. The profanity of the actors: Jonson acquitted of blame. The Tale of a Tub. Farcical plot and rustic humours. Jonson's death and burial. Jonson inspired mainly by the Medieval principle, Shakespeare by the Causes of their want of success. Attempt to blend instruction with amusement. Comic forms derived from the Morality: allegorical names. Opposition to the forms of the Romantic Comedy as illustrated in Twelfth Medieval tradition of the Masque. Remains of chivalry at Court. Union in the Masque of Painting, Architecture, and Poetry. Jonson's account of The Masque of Queens. Compared with The Faithful Shepherdess and Comus. Jonson's learned style compared with Shakespeare's in A Midsummer- Influence on the drama of the opinion of the courtiers seated on the stage. Parallel between the movement of dramatic taste in the English and in the Admiration for Beaumont and Fletcher in their own age. They supersede Shakespeare in popularity. Beaumont and Fletcher the representatives of Court taste. His birth, education, and history. TREATMENT OF PLOT BY BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER Shakespeare's treatment of plot: sympathy between poet and audience. Introduction of the Spanish principle of play-writing into England. Early traces of Spanish romance in the English novel and drama: Diana Imitation of Ben Jonson's "humours": combination of plots. Test of a play to be applied in the reading as well as in the acting. Artificiality and improbability of Beaumont and Fletcher's situations. Fine isolated dramatic situations. Thierry and Theodoret: The Custom of the Country. TREATMENT OF CHARACTER IN BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER Abstract types rather than individuals. Tyrants-Valentinian, Frederic; Cowards-Bessus, Protaldy, Boroski; |