Morning journal and courier., 1886-02-27
THE DIR RAMA.

Professor LOunsbury Lectures at
 North Sheffield Hall to n Large
 Audience From tine Subjects The
 Elfzabethan Drama In Hts Rela-
 tions to Soe1ety.'
 Owing to the illness of Professor Eaton he was unable to lecture in the mechanics course at North Sheffield hall last evening, and in his stead Professor Lounsbury lectured on "The Elizabethan Drama in it's Relations to Society," before we'll filled hall He said: During the Elizabethan age the dramas were furnished at very rapid rate, and the writers who produced them thought no more of it than the modern editor does of his edi- torial, which, as soon as written and printed, is as quickly forgotten. and this is the reason so many of the early dramas were never pre- served. At this time Ben Johnson was the only man who seemed to have any conception of the importance of the preservation of these plays, and in 1616 he printed a number of them, which he called works, and divided into three parts, comedy, history and trage- dy. Johnson was ridiculed by many of his own profession for calling his plays works and preserving them, and so you see how little the writers of those times thought of their work. These plays, written as they were on the spur of the moment, however, were the work of inc most intelligent men of that age, and are by our people looked upon the best ever written. These plays were not only written and acted for the entertainment of that age, but also in such 8 manner that politics and literary interests of those days took prominent part, and thus furnished much comment and criticism. It was not, however, until the reign of Edward VI. that plays took the form of tragedies and wars were portrayed on the stage by different actors to keep the patriotism of the people in a flame and for political methods. After the reign of Eliza beth, however, other things came to take the place of the drama among political affairs and the intellect of the drama then began to decrease, and the dramatic writer of the pres ent age can no longer hope to move the peo- pie as the dramas of that age did.
 In speaking of the influence of the theater on morals and society, there is one difference between the drama of that age and this, and that is it's vulgarity. The theaters of the present day are those to which respectable people gc, and those to which they don't go, and where in a certain sense vulgarity exists. In the Elizabethan age, however, the price allowed all people to go, and they went. and while the drama catered to both the highest and the lowest it was no more immoral than the newspapers of the present day, which cater to all classes. The general statement just made, however, is subject to modification. The Elizabethan drama was very moral, and was free from all vice, and in the writings of the three great authors of that age there was nothing immoral. In the plays of Shakes peare there was not aR entirely clean one, with the exception of Julius Caesar. His dramas written between 1870 and 1890 were lnuchfreer from aillusions than from 1890 on, and, at the present time, the dramas are muchly made up of love affairs in which someone is married and base ly deceived, causing the sympathy of the audience and making them wait to see the end.
 At the finish of his lecture Professor Lounsbury was warmly applauded by his audience who had been interested listeners to his hours lecture.
 The next lecture will be on Tuesday even- ing next and will be delivered by Professor Brewer, his subject being ''The English Race Horse'
 Lyceum And Library.
 The following resolutions were adopted at a meeting of the Equal Rights Debating club last Sunday afternoon:
 Whereas. Social science, which regard matter of Supremest interest to the world in these times, receives nothing like its due share of atten ton from the public or in public schools;
 Whereas, There exists in the city of New Haven no public library for the use of the people;
 Resolved. That the Equal Rights Debating club. organized in the interest of public spirit and free