Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 edition. Excerpt: ... RETROSPECTS AND PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH DRAMA* THE English drama has been dead for nearly two hundred years. Mr. Gosse says that in 1700 the English had the most vivacious school of comedy in Europe. And, if their serious drama was greatly inferior, still the best tragedies of Dryden and Otway --and perhaps of Lee, Southerne, and Rowe --made not only a sounding success on the boards, but a fair bid for literary honors. Ten years later the drama was moribund, and in 1747 its epitaph was spoken by Garrick in the sonorous prologue written by Dr. Johnson for the opening of Drury Lane: Then, crushed by rules and weakened as refined, For years the power of Tragedy declined: From bard to bard the frigid caution crept, *This article was printed in the North American Review in two instalments, in May, 1905, and July, 1907. The growth of the literary drama in the last fifteen years has been so marked, and plays of such high quality have been put upon the stage by new writers like Barrie, Synge, Masefield, Kennedy, Moody, Sheldon, and others, that these prophecies and reflections may seem out of date. The article is retained, notwithstanding, for whatever there may be in it that is true of drama in general. Till declamation roared whilst passion slept. Yet still did Virtue deign the stage to tread; Philosophy remained though nature fled. But, forced at length her ancient reign to quit, She saw great Faustus lay the ghost of wit: Exulting Folly hailed the joyful day, And pantomime and song confirmed her sway--- That is, as has been complained a hundred times before and since, the opera and the spectacular show drove the legitimate drama from the stage. The theatre, indeed, is not dead: it has continued to live and to flourish, and is furnishing...
