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CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
BEN JONSON
By ASHLEY H. THORNDIKE, M.A., Ph.D. (Harvard), Professor of
English in Columbia University, New York
Ben Jonson's character and friendships. Early life. Production of
Every Man in His Humour. Maturity. Prosperity. Later years.
Eminence in letters. Epigrams. The Forest. Underwoods. The
Sad Shepherd. Early Plays. His Programme of Reform. Every
Man in His Humour. Every Man out of His Humour. His
Tragedies. Volpone. Epicoene. The Alchemist. Bartholomew
Fayre. His later Comedies. His place in Literature
PAGE
1.
CHAPTER II
CHAPMAN, MARSTON, DEKKER
By W. MACNEILE DIXON, M.A. (Dublin), Litt.D. (Glasgow), Professor
of English Language and Literature in the University of Glasgow
Chapman's life. Shakespeare and the 'Rival Poet.' Didactic nature
of Chapman's Poetry. His Comedies. His Historic Tragedies.
Bussy D'Ambois. The Revenge. Chapman's Homer. Marston's
life. His prominence in the War of the Theatres. Quarrel with
Jonson. Assaults and Counter-assaults. End of the quarrel.
Marston's Tragedies. Antonio and Mellida. The Malcontent.
Eastward Hoe. The Fawne. His other Plays. Withdrawal from
theatrical life. Dekker's early activities. Value of his work. His
Comedies. The Shomakers Holiday. Old Fortunatus. The
Honest Whore. His Collaborators. His place as a Dramatist.
Importance of his prose work
29
CHAPTER III
MIDDLETON AND ROWLEY
By ARTHUR SYMONS
His first Plays.
Blurt Master-
Biographical details. Middleton's non-dramatic work.
The Mayor of Quinborough. The Old Law.
Constable. His farcical Comedies: their character and material.
His realism. Fluency and naturalness of his work. His Collabora-
tors. Plays by Rowley alone; their sincerity and nobility of aim.
Rowley's influence on Middleton. A Faire Quarrell. The World
tost at Tennis. The Changeling. Later Plays by Middleton.
His dramatic genius
58
CHAPTER IV
THOMAS HEYWOOD
By A. W. WARD, Litt.D., F.B.A., Master of Peterhouse
Thomas Heywood as the servant of public taste. His special work in
Domestic Drama. His life: London and Court associations. His
point of view as a Playwright. His non-dramatic works. The
Apology for Actors. His Plays. A Woman Kilde with Kind-
nesse. Elizabethan Domestic Drama. Early attempts at realistic
treatment. The Murder Plays. Changes in the social system and
their effect on the Drama. Heywood's picture of English country
life. The Royall King, and The Loyall Subject. The Fair Maid
Of The West. Other Plays. His work in collaboration with others.
His qualities as a Dramatist
81
CHAPTER V
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER
By G. C. MACAULAY, M.A., late Fellow of Trinity College,
University Lecturer in English
New influences on the Drama. Abandonment of Tragedy for Tragi-
comedy. Lowering of moral standards. Contemporary apprecia-
tion of Beaumont and Fletcher's work. Biographies and early
intimacy of the two Dramatists. Individual characteristics. Evi-
dence as to authorship. Fletcher's Metrical Style: comparison
with that of Shakespeare. Features assignable to Beaumont.
Massinger's collaboration with Fletcher. Excellence of Fletcher's
stage effects. His weakness in characterisation. Sources of his
plays. Rapidity of production. Classification of the Plays.
Tragedies. Romantic Dramas. Comedies. Qualities of language
and style in Beaumont and Fletcher's plays
Appendix. List of Beaumont and Fletcher's Plays, with indications
of probable authorship and chief sources
107
137
Contents
vii
CHAPTER VI
PHILIP MASSINGER
By EMIL KOEPPEL, Professor of English Philology in the
University of Strassburg
Massinger's life. Biographical value of his Dedications. His relations
with the Herberts. Literary friends. Joint workmanship with
Fletcher and others. His independent Dramas. Some Political
Dramas of the time. Massinger's political opinions. His religious
sympathies. His literary models: Shakespeare, Fletcher, Jonson.
His constructive art. Typical situations. His women. His lovers.
His villains. His comical figures. His style: preponderance of
the rhetorical element. His repetitions. Contemporary and post-
humous reputation. Massinger in Germany
141
CHAPTER VII
TOURNEUR AND WEBSTER
By C. E. VAUGHAN, M.A., Balliol College, Oxford, Professor of
English Literature in the University of Leeds
Meagreness of biographical details. Tourneur's two Tragedies. John
Webster: periods of his literary activity. Collaboration with
Dekker and Marston. West-Ward Hoe and North-Ward Hoe.
Webster's original work. The White Divel: question of its
sources: possibility of originality in the plot. Advance on his
earlier work. The theme of Revenge as handled by Elizabethan
Dramatists. The Dutchesse Of Malfy; its source and date; ad-
vance in representation and motif. The last period. Appius
and Virginia. The Devils Law-case: influence of Fletcher.
Secret of Webster's genius: his profound knowledge of human
character and sense of tragic issues. His imagination and poetic
power.
.
166
CHAPTER VIII
FORD AND SHIRLEY
By W. A. NEILSON, M.A. (Edinburgh), Ph.D. (Harvard),
Professor of English in Harvard University
Commencement of the literary period of English Drama. Ford's life
and early work. Romantic character of his non-dramatic work.
His collaboration with Dekker. His independent Dramas. His
lost Plays. Ford as typical of the period of decadence. His merits.
Shirley's life and career. His Poems. His Tragedies. His Comedies
of Manners and Romantic Comedies. His Entertainments. Origi-
nality of his plots. Conventionality of his style. Comparison of
Shirley with Ford.
188
CHAPTER IX
LESSER JACOBEAN AND CAROLINE DRAMATISTS
By the Rev. RONALD BAYNE, M.A., University College, Oxford
General characteristics of the Jacobean and Caroline Drama; the
central position of Jonson. Belated Elizabethans: John Day's
later comedies; The Ile of Guls; evolution of The Parliament
of Bees; its merits and characteristics. Armin's Two Maids of
More-clacke. Sharpham's two Plays. The single Plays of Barry,
Cooke and Tailor. The Pupils of Jonson: Nathaniel Field: his
life and training. A Woman is a Weather-cocke. Field's debt to
Jonson; his romantic tendency and collaboration with Massinger.
Richard Brome's life and training: his fifteen extant Plays. The
Northern Lasse. Brome's debt to Dekker. The Sparagus Garden.
The City Witt; its briskness and humour. A Joviall Crew,
Brome's best Play. His romantic experiments; partial success of
The Queen and Concubine. Thomas Randolph's University train-
ing. His Aristippus and The Conceited Pedler. Aristotle's
Ethics dramatised in The Muses Looking-Glasse. Originality
of Randolph. May's Comedies. The anonymous Nero. Daven-
port's Revisions of older Plays. Thomas Nabbes's virtuous heroines.
Comedies of Cartwright and Mayne. Sir John Suckling's Plays:
Aglaura, The Goblins, Brennoralt. Marmion's The Antiquary.
Tragicomedy as exemplified in the Plays of Lodowick Carlell,
Henry Glapthorne and Sir William D'Avenant
210
CHAPTER X
THE ELIZABETHAN THEATRE
By HAROLD CHILD, sometime Scholar of Brasenose College,
Oxford
Early Companies of Players. Triumph of the Professional Actor and
Patronised Company over the Stroller. Grounds of objection to the
Drama. Royal patronage and its effect. Increasing control of
the production of Plays by the Master of the Revels. The
Chamberlain's Company. The Queen's and Admiral's Companies.
Places of performance. Site and architectural features of the
Theater. The Curtain. The Newington Butts Playhouse. The
Rose. The Globe. The Blackfriars. The Swan. Other Play-
houses. Differences between the Elizabethan and the Modern
Stage. Value of John de Witt's drawing of the Swan. The
Alternation Theory. Differences in Construction. Stage Ap-
pliances and Properties. Performances at private Playhouses
and at Court. Costumes. The Audience. The Author and his
Company. Financial arrangements. Social position of the Actor. 241