Drake University
a coeducational institution in Des Moines, Ia.; founded in 1891, under the auspices of the Christian Church; reported at the end of 1919: Professors and instructors, 60; students, 1,460; president, Arthur Holmes.
DRAMA (I act), a class of writings which almost entirely consist of dialogue, persons being represented as acting and speaking, and the pieces being usually intended to be acted on a stage by parties assuming the characters of the respective persons. Its two great branches are tragedy and comedy, the former, roughly speaking, melancholy in character, the latter cheerful. The origin of the drama must be sought for in the love of imitation, and dramatic performances of some kind are to be met with probably among all nations.
Dramatic compositions are found in the DRAMA Old Testament, for example, in Job and the Song of Solomon; and ancient India and China both developed a dramatic literature of their own. drama had its origin in Greece. Both The European forms, tragic and comic, took their rise in the celebration of the Greek festivals of Dionysus (Bacchus), at which hymns and chants were sung by choruses in honor of the god, and the chorus continued to be a prominent feature of the old Greek drama. Greek comedy began about 580-560 в. c. with Susarion, but it was long in attaining regular form.
Of the old Greek comedy the chief representatives sentatives were Cratinus, Eupolis, Pheand Aristophanes-the last the greatest.
The invention of tragedy is generally ascribed to Thespis about 530 B. C., who to Thespis about 530 в. c., who was followed by Phrynichus; but the of tragedy was Æschylus, in whose works and those of Sophocles Euripides it found its most perfect expression . Thespis had only one actor, who from time to time relieved the by declamation.
Æschylus changed this representation into real action by making use of two actors in addition to the chorus. Æschylus also introduced introduced masks; and by means of a the cothurnus, or buskin, the lofty stature of the heroes was imi- A third actor was first introduced by Sophocles. The regular drama among the Romans was borrowed from the Greeks. the Greeks. Plautus and Terence were of the Greek comedy, Livius Andronicus (240 B. C.) of the Greek tragedy.
Of the Roman tragedy, the dramas of Seneca are the only specimens extant.
In most modern European countries the regular drama took its rise in the mysteries , miracle-plays, and moralities of the Middle Ages.
In Italy, however, it began with a reproduction in Latin of of classical models. The earliest tra- Italian is Trissino's "Sofonisba" (1502).
Regular comedies in Italian were were written by Ariosto, Aretino, Maand others; and to the same period (15th and 16th centuries) belongs the Italian Pastoral drama, which sprang from the ancient idylls, and delineation of Arcadian dian and mythological scenes. Among the pastoral dramatists of this period are Poliziano, Tasso , and Guarini. The pastorals gave birth to the opera, early masters of w which, so far as it may be included in the poetic drama, are Zeno The Italian drama waned in the 17th century, but in the 18th genuine comedy and classic tragedy were restored, the former by Goldoni, the latter by Alfieri. Monti, Manzoni, DRAMA Niccolini, Giacometti and D'Annunzio are among the later writers of tragedy.
The other European nations cultithe Italians. The English and Spanvated the dramatic art much later than iards devoted their attention to it almost at the same time; the former reaching their acme in Shakespeare, the latter in and Calderon. The history of the English theater and the drama is naturally divided into two parts, the first of which begins with the reign of Elizabeth and ends with the reign of Charles I. The rapid development of the drama during the reign of Elizabeth was entirely unhampered by foreign foreign influence. Lyly, Peele, Greene, Beaumont, and Fletcher, Marlowe, Shakespeare , Ben Jonson, Webster, Middleton, Marston, Ford, and Massinger are among the chief names connected with the brilliant period of the English drama. During the Comthe Puritans prohibited all kinds of plays, and the theaters were shut up for 13 years. With Charles IL licentiousness hardly equaled by that of the drama reappeared, and exhibited a any other Christian nation. Among the chief names belonging to this period are Dryden, Dryden, Otway, Lee, Shadwell, Wycherly From the close of the 17th to that of the 18th century British comedy was cultivated with much suc- Sheridan, and others. During the 19th cess by Cibber, Farquhar, Congreve, Congreve , century many writers were conspicuous by their dramas. Among the chief of these may be noted Byron, Coleridge, Shelley, Maturin, Talfourd, Milman, Sir Henry Taylor, the first Lord Browning, Swinburne, and Tennyson.
Lytton, Lytton, Knowles, R. H. Horne, Arnold, , Arnold , Among other 19th century writers for the stage, who, however, may be called playwrights rather than dramatists, may be named Douglas Jerrold, Tom Tom Taylor, Charles Reade, Thomas W. G. Wills, Henry Byron, Robert Robert Buchanan, Dion Boucicault, W.
Gilbert, Stephen Phillips, Henry among Americans Bronson Howard, Au- Arthur Jones, Arthur W. Pinero; and ; and gustus Thomas, William Gillette, Clyde Fitch, Edward Knoblock, Avary Hopwood, etc. state before Corneille (1606-1684), who The French drama was in a miserable indeed is looked on as the founder of the drama in France. Racine, Molière, Voltaire, and in later times Hugo, are some of the other distinguished French draabout 1820 a new dramatic ic school was formed in France, which, from the ancient strictness of what is called the classic, approaches more and more to the German or British, DRAMA LEAGUE or what is called the romantic school, the leader in the movement being Victor Hugo. C. Delavigne marks the transition from the classical to the beginnings of the romantic school, and among the modern dramatists may be mentioned A. de Vigny, George Sand, Alfred de Musset, Mérimée, Ponsard, Augier, Scribe, Dumas the Younger, Sardou, François Coppée, Jean Richepin, Richepin, Edmond Edmo Rostand, Bernstein, Lernative, Mirbeau, and Becq.
The German drama is of later birth than any we have mentioned, and for a long time the Germans contented themselves with translations and adaptations from the French. Lessing was the first who, by word and deed, broke the French sway (1755), and he was succeeded by Schiller and Goethe, who rank as the greatest of the more modern dramatists. Prominent names in the German drama are Kotzebue, Körner, Schlegel, Tieck, Brentano, Grillparzer, Hebbel, Ludwig, Gutzkow, Freytag, Laube, Fulda, Hauptmann, Von Moser.
The Dutch drama begins wit with the classical tragedies of Koster in the beginning of the 17th century, and reached its highest in Vondel (1587-1659). Holberg, Heiberg, Oehlenschläger, Ibsen, and Björnson are the chief names connected with the Scandinavian drama.