The study class : a guide for the student of English literature . earliest actor ofShakespeares leading roles. References: Halliwell-Phillips: Outlines of the Life of Shake-speare. William Black: Judith : Preface to Harvard : Introduction to Merchant of Venice. VII. INTRODUCTORY TO THE STUDY OFTHE ENGLISH DRAMA. HE student of Shakespeare cannotlong be content without seeking toknow something of other writers inShakespeares chosen field of com-position. Looking backward over the history ofdramatic literature in England, he discovers astrange anomaly. Formerly the
The study class : a guide for the student of English literature . earliest actor ofShakespeares leading roles. References: Halliwell-Phillips: Outlines of the Life of Shake-speare. William Black: Judith : Preface to Harvard : Introduction to Merchant of Venice. VII. INTRODUCTORY TO THE STUDY OFTHE ENGLISH DRAMA. HE student of Shakespeare cannotlong be content without seeking toknow something of other writers inShakespeares chosen field of com-position. Looking backward over the history ofdramatic literature in England, he discovers astrange anomaly. Formerly the drama washeld in high esteem and the stage in anequal contempt. For two hundred years, with-out fear of contradiction, we pointed to Shake-speare, writer of plays, as the greatest of allwriters; on our literature of the stage we basedour claim to ownership of the worlds greatestliterature, while, at the same time, the stageitself was shunned by pious folk, repeatedly con-demned by church and council, and the poorplayers placed under social ostracism, sometimes. INTRODUCTORY TO ENGLISH DRAMA. 93 even denied sacraments, funeral rites, and mar-riage by the clergy. Within the last decade avery marked change appears. Stage and actorare now honored, but the drama, as a form ofliterary expression, is out of repute. The mosteminent of living English actors, Mr. Irving, isinvited to lecture at the high seats of learningboth in England and America, and chooses forhis theme the praise of his art; an Englishclergyman not long ago dedicated a memorialwindow to Shakespeare in a London church,and still more recently an American ministerdelivered the address at the opening of a newtheatre ; play-houses multiply rapidly; the week-day audience at a first-class theatre is as intelli-gent, as well-mannered and probably as virtuousas the Sunday audience at the church; — butno writer of genius enriches contemporaneousdramatic literature. Now, if the final cause of the existence of thedrama be ple
Size: 1590px × 1572px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectenglishliterature
