abstract character or quality. Take the well-known Morality called Every Man. Every Man is one of the best of the Moral Plays. It is purely didactic, and shows, as the messenger or Prologue announces, "how transitory we be all daye. Her shall you se how Felaweship and Jolyté, Will fade from the as floure in maye; For ye shall here how our heven kynge Calleth every-man to a generall rekenynge." Then God appears, calls "Dethe," and bids him go summon Every-man to make his pilgrimage and bring with him his 'reckoning'-i.e., of good and evil deeds, etc. Every-man is fain to evade this command, but cannot. Fellowship, called to help, promises to do anything and go anywhere; but when he learns what the journey is, utterly refuses. Kindred, likewise, will not venture on such an expedition. "Goodes" is summoned; but he lies in chests and bags and cannot stir. Every-man is desperate, but bethinks himself of "Gooddedes." Good-deeds lies 'colde in the grounde' on account of Every-man's sins, and cannot move; but Good-deeds' sister, Knowledge, goes with Every-man to that holy man Confession, who dwells in the hous of salvacyon'; Every-man confesses his sins, does penance, and so releases Good-deeds, who can now 'walke and go.' Discretion, Beauty, Strength, are called together, and also Five-wits. But they all refuse to go with Everyman, although they give good advice enough; for Beauty and the others run as fast as they can when they see Every-man begin to fail in death. Good-deeds, however, remains; Knowledge tarries till the last mo ment. Every-man, after commending his soul to God, dies (on the stage); and there is an epilogue which further enforces the very palpable moral.1 Not so good is the Moral Play Lusty Juventus, which attacks the church. Among the characters are Abhominable Livyng, God's Mercyful Promises, and the like. It was written under Edward VI., for whom Good Councel makes a prayer at the end of the play. The Moralities are an advance on the Miracles; they humanize the characters to a considerable degree, and the nature of the play makes consistency of action. more imperative than in the loose progress of a Mystery, where a serious character may suddenly wax comic. The development of the drama was now rapid: action and character were to be woven together and made into a dramatic unity. A step in this direction is a sort of historical morality called King John. It has been attributed to Bishop Bale. King John is asked by the widow England to help her against her oppressors. Other characters are Sedition, Clergy, etc., but it is important to note that now and then a real name is used instead of an abstraction. Thus, Sedition becomes Stephen Langton. Compared with Shakspere's play of the same name, King John is crude to the last degree. But it is an advance from the older plays. There is still a yawning chasm between it and the Elizabethan drama; to bridge this chasm, materials were soon supplied. Chief of these are the foreign impulses and influences and the Interlude. 1 For the subject and sources of this play, see an interesting treatise Every-Man, Homulus und Hekastos, by Carl Goedeke, Hanover, 1865. §4. FOREIGN MODELS. The revival of learning found a hearty welcome in England. Greek and Latin were carefully studied; and under Henry VIII., men like Erasmus, Colet and Sir Thomas More made the "new learning" famous. The Latin plays of Plautus and Terence, comedies, — and the tragedies of Seneca, were studied, translated, and even acted in the original before the universities. The Italian imitations of these plays were likewise read with interest. The Mysteries and Moralities ceased to please. A better taste arose. General history was eagerly studied. People demanded that the drama. should treat of human life in a concrete way. But not only subject-matter, the form and style of the drama were greatly influenced by the study of foreign models. Here, then, was a public with its insipid miracle plays; a learned class with its foreign dramas. Neither was national. But working mightily in both classes was the strong intellectual life that rose with the English national spirit and reached its height under Elizabeth. The task was to find a common ground for the learned and the popular taste. This was found in the Interlude. § 5. THE INTERLUDE. John Heywood was the genius of the Interlude. It was a play performed, as its name implies, in the intervals of feasts or other entertainments. It was of a light character. Take, for example, Heywood's Four P's. A palmer, a pardoner, and a 'pothecary meet and, after some dialogue, contend who is the greatest liar of the three. The pedler is judge. Each tells his test-tale: the 'pothecary wins the prize, for he says he has seen hosts of women, but never one out of patience. Here at last are actual human characters, with a thoroughly human action. This is not very high comedy, it is true; but it is a great advance upon the fleshless abstractions of the moralities, from which the comedy is really descended. Further interludes of later origin are such as Shakspere introduces in The Tempest, Love's Labour's Lost and Midsummer Night's Dream. Some of these interludes. are called " Masques" or Masks. The Mask proper was an Italian importation, brought over early in Henry VIII.'s reign. Men and women, disguised as shepherds, shepherdesses, and the like, went through a certain amount of acting, mixed with a great deal of dancing. Often classic deities were represented. The Mask as developed by Ben Jonson became very elaborate. The greatest English Mask is, of course, Milton's Comus. These Interludes and Masks raised the popular taste. Now that the public demanded such work, the playwright could avail himself of classical models, and put into English settings the jewels of Seneca and Plautus. The dividing lines of tragedy and comedy were now sharply drawn. Tragedy appears in its first English guise in the play (about 1562) by Thomas Norton and Lord Buckhurst, called Gorboduc or Ferrex and Porrex. The characters are human, the interest human. The plot is from the (mythical) history of Britain. The play resembles the old miracles in its rough action, its love of violence and blood; it differs from them in its carefully drawn and consistent plot, its division into acts, its more elaborate form. As in Greek plays, the mur ders are here announced by a messenger. There is a dumb-show prefixed to each act, showing what is to follow; and at the end of each act is a chorus. (For the dumb-show, compare the play in Hamlet, where the poison is poured into the ear of the player-king.) — Gorboduc is an imitation of Seneca. Plautus's well-known comedy of "The Braggart Soldier" (Miles Gloriosus) is imitated in the First English Comedy, entitled Ralph Roister-Doister, written by Nicholas Udall, of Eton, about 1550. But the names, scenes, etc., are all English. There is an elaborate plot and spirited action. A pretty song is woven into the play, - forerunner of those exquisite lyrics that sparkle in the drama of Shakspere and Fletcher. We have thus come to the threshold of our national drama. The task before its early artists is plain enough. All the rude remnants of the old plays must be worked out; simplicity, vigorous action, whatever was best in the old must fit itself in the new to a finished art, a sympathetic study of human nature. Marlowe, Shakspere, Fletcher and Jonson tell how this was done.We can, therefore, now treat the finished drama, its forms and rules. §6. THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF DRAMA. First, however, a word about certain general rules for the drama. The drama is imitated human action. Now, human action is a complex affair; it is by no means the province of a dramatist to imitate any action or series of actions just as they occur in daily life. A confused mass of human action may be subordinately used--as |