Drama

a story designed to be told by actors. The very word drama means action. The characters of the story are supposed to be represented by real persons who imitate them in voice, gesture, dress, manners, and actions. Any number of actors may be introduced. In a dialogue the two participants remain in the same frame of mind throughout; but in the drama the actors change their minds as events develop, as is the case in actual life.

Man is naturally imitative. He naturally gives expression by voice and gesture to his emotions and conceptions. The assumption of character by dress and decoration seems also a natural desire. A child likes to "dress up" and play he is some one else. Nations in their childhood did the same. This is a preliminary step toward the drama, which imitates action as well as appearance and manner. Dramatic performances of some kind have been known doubtless among all nations, although comparatively few possess anything that may be called dramatic literature.

The earliest forms of drama have been connected in some way with religious rites. In the early drama poetry was invariably the vehicle of expression. In modern times prose is permissible. The history of literature shows that dramatic poetry forms one of the three great classes of poetry, the others being epic and lyric. In their development epic verse and lyric verse precede dramatic, as song, gesture, and speech precede the imitation of action.

The drama is commonly divided into two great classes, tragedy and comedy. The former presents the serious problems of life,--such characters, deeds, and circumstances as lead to a fatal issue. Comedy presents the humorous and happy side of life. If misfortune and trouble are introduced, they are only temporary. It may be noted that, in form, tragedy is the more largely concerned with action; comedy depending more upon sprightly conversation for its effects. From combinations of tragedy and comedy result the minor forms of drama, tragi-comedy, melodrama, farce, grand opera, opera bouffe and burletta. Closet drama is a term used to designate a literary production dramatic in form, but not suited for presentation on the stage. Tennyson's Queen Mary and Longfellow's The Spanish Student are examples of the closet drama.

The most interesting ancient dramatic literature, and the most important on account of its influence, is that of Greece. Both forms of Grecian drama, tragedy and comedy, had their origin in the religious festivals held in honor of Bacchus. The earliest examples are no longer extant; but the credit for the first drama, a tragedy, is given to Thespis, who lived in the sixth century before Christ. It must not be understood that Thespis wrote anything like a complete drama. He simply introduced a monologue, or possibly a dialogue, into the choruses sung at the Bacchanalian festivals. This was, however, the beginning, and Thespis is called the founder of the drama. Dramatic art is known also as the Thespian art.

Among Greek writers of the drama, three names stand out prominently,--those of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides,--all writers of tragedy. Of these, Aeschylus is the earliest and the greatest. Three laws, the "unities," were obeyed rigidly in the composition and presentation of these dramas. They were the unity of place, which meant that the entire action must take place in the same locality; the unity of time, meaning that the action must be confined to one day; the unity of plot or action, meaning that no minor plot shall be admitted, but every incident and speech must be subordinate to the main argument.

Besides the "unities," other limitations restricted the Greek dramatist. His work must be in poetry, and poetry of an intricate and difficult meter. His subjects were limited to mythology and tradition, with occasionally some slight addition of contemporary events. In spite of these strict laws, the tragedies of Aeschylus are of a high order, both in respect to poetic quality and dramatic power. In conformity to the "unity of place," it will be seen that the Greek play must be presented in one act. Another drama might be presented immediately following the first. Sometimes three were written to be given consecutively. The series was then called a trilogy. In Grecian comedy, Aristophanes and Menander are the most noted names.

The Romans added little of importance to dramatic literature. Terence and Plautus produced comedies after Greek models. The only Roman tragedies extant are those ascribed to Seneca, which seem to be more properly closet drama than the work of a playwright. The Roman theater, however, was the first to divide the drama into acts. Horace states that the number of acts required in a work of art is five.

In the early centuries of the Christian era the drama made no advancement. The only dramatic literature produced was that of Roswitha, a German nun, who is credited with a number of comedies in the style of Terence. When the drama again comes into prominence, it is in connection with religious rites. The presentations were called Mysteries or Miracle Plays, and the subjects were taken from the Bible, or the legends of saints. The home of this form of drama was France, although it extended to other countries. As early as the thirteenth century a French author, named Halle, had produced something very closely akin to modern comedy; and by the fourteenth century France had introduced both the "profane mystery," a play dealing with current events, and the "morality play," an allegorical play.

Under the influence of the Renaissance, French drama, especially tragedy, seems to have undergone a complete revolution. The dramas of Seneca became, and remained for many years, the model. Corneille, regarded as the "liberator of French thought and literary expression," began his great work in 1635 with Le Cid. To Corneille, Racine, Moliere, and, in a lesser degree, to their followers, is due the fact that both "comedy and tragedy now assumed shapes which France long retained unaltered, and which for a time gave law and pattern to all Europe except England, and even to some extent there." About 1830 the French tragedy was again revolutionized by the "romantic movement," with Victor Hugo and the elder Dumas as its leaders. Comedy, too, underwent decided changes. Dumas the Younger, Sardou, and De Musset are other French dramatists of modern times.

Spain is said to be the "only country of modern Europe which shares with England the honor of having achieved, at a relatively early date, the creation of a genuinely national form of the regular drama." Lope de Rueda is regarded as the founder of Spanish drama. He gave it permanent form. The name of Calderon stands high as a poet, if below that of Vega as a dramatist. Many of the early Spanish dramas were of a religious character; many are classed as "romantic" dramas; while the most distinctively Spanish are those which satirize fashionable life and intrigue. Lowell says, "The national genius triumphed over traditional criterions of art and the Spanish theatre, asserting its own happier instincts, became and continued Spanish, with an unspeakable charm and flavor of its own."

Germany has contributed less to the European drama than any other great literary nation. Yet one of the greatest dramas, Faust, is the work of a German, Goethe. It has been said that Faust, Hamlet, and the Book of Job are the world's greatest three dramas. The Germans, moreover, have cultivated the art of acting, and have added much to dramatic criticism and development of the theory of the stage. Lessing, who is regarded as authority on dramatic theory, produced several dramas, Minna von Barnhelm and Nathan der Weise being two of the best known. Schiller's Wallenstein's Leben und Tod and Goethe's Egmont are other popular German dramas.

Among Scandinavian nations, the Norwegians, Bjornson and Ibsen, have written plays dealing with social problems.

In England, the drama was late in taking definite form. The miracle plays were popular here. Several collections of these, as those of Chester, Coventry, and Townley, have been preserved. From the beginning of the sixteenth century we find the drama making progress. There is more variety in the mystery plays. Morality plays, in which vice and virtues are personified, appear. Interludes, introducing and satirizing current events, also add to the variety. In the latter part of this century England's great and original school of dramatists, the Elizabethan, arose. As forerunners of this school we find the names of Udall, Still, and Sackville. Udall produced the first English comedy in 1540. Still wrote a comedy, and Sackville the first English tragedy. Then almost suddenly appear the University group, as they were called,--Marlowe, Green, Peele, and Lyly, following no foreign model, but making the beginnings of true English tragedy.

Shakespeare, the greatest dramatist of modern times, many would say the greatest the world has ever seen, produced his first play, Love's Labor Lost, about 1589. With Shakespeare, as belonging to the Elizabethan period, must be mentioned Ben Jonson, Chapman, Beaumont and Fletcher, Massinger and Ford, Webster, Middleton, Dekker, and Shirley. The work of this school closed with the death of Shirley, 1666.

After the Restoration we find great changes. Influenced by the French drama, as well as by Cromwell's love of music, a musical drama was introduced, followed by what are called "heroic" plays, the noticeable characteristic of which is that they employ the rhymed couplet. For twenty years these held the stage, Dryden's name being most prominent among authors of this class of drama. Dryden, however, finally returned to the blank verse of the earlier drama, and his examples of tragedy in that form are the last pure English tragedy.

Comedy, however, did not share the fate of tragedy. The influence of the French Moliere, of Jonson, and of Fletcher of the preceding century, shows itself here. Congreve, Wycherley, Vanburgh, and Farquhar produced many successful comedies. An attack on the indecency of the stage by Jeremy Collier about this time had effect. A little later, the names of Goldsmith and Sheridan appear as writers of comedy. Their plays are the only ones from this group of writers which still appear on the stage.

America has produced no dramatist worthy of the name. Brilliant translators and adapters have not been lacking, however. The adaptation of the historical novel, and the so-called rural plays are distinctively American. The United States may claim many notable players and theatrical proprietors who have done much to encourage the American playwright and the American play.

See Comedy; Tragedy; Act; Miracle Play; Stage; Actor

-Dr. Johnson.

The ages and circumstances in which drama has flourished must have been those in which it occupied for a time, and sometimes almost monopolized, the position of public instructor and informer on questions of thought and news, as well as that of public entertainer.--Will Clemens, in Americana.

Spain and England alone, among modern civilized nations, possess a theatrical literature independent in its origin, characteristic in its form, and reflecting faithfully the moral, social, and intellectual features of the people among whom it arose.--Shaw.

Dramatical is, as it were, a visible history: for it sets out the image of things as if they were present, and history as if they were past.--Lord Bacon.

A play ought to be a just image of human nature.--Dryden.