The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-01-22

tinctly English branch of dramatic lit
erature. AS Coleridge mas said, it Oc-
eupies an intermediate place between
the epic and the drama proper. For it
was by no means a dramatization of
some episode of the nations history.
but rather an attempt to present upon
the stage within the brief compass OF
an acting play the whole story of some
mOnarch's reign. This is shown in The
very titles of such plays as the Trou-
biesome Reign of King John" or the
Life and Death of Richard the Sec
ond" And for the most part the early
histories adhered with a slayish fidel-
ity 70 he Chron eles on which they were
founded. They were more careful to
tell a. true story than to secure dra-
matte effect or to evolve DRAMATIC
character. That such chronicle plays
were popular among the Elizabethans
we have abundant proof Beginning
with Bales fiery pOlemic against papal
usurpaticn, the pre-EliZabethan play
of "Kinge JOhan, a long line OF ms
tories by Greene, Peele, Marlowe,
Shakespeare, Haywood, Kebster, Ford.
Decker, Row1ey and a host of unknown
authors covers with hardly a break
period of English history from the ae-
cession of John in 1893 to the defeat of
the Armada in 1888. OF varying interest
and far apart in the scale of dramatic
are, two characteristics are common TO
all these plays-an exultant pride in the
glorious history of England and sin
cere desire to instruct an English au-i
dfence in the annals of the past. Even
such a reign of shame as Johns is up
lifted and glorified by the figure Of the
Bastard Faulconbridge, the true son of
Occur de Lion. whose lofty boast
This England never did and never shall
Lie at the proud feet of a conqueror
But when it first did help to wound it
self -
found a ready echo in the hearts Of a
generation that had seen united
England shock into irremedible ruin
the worldwide monarchy of Spain
The Authorship OF This Play.
There are nearly. as many theories as
to the authorship of this play in both
its forms as there are critics who have
investigated the problem. So much,
however, is practically established by
the. concurrence Of later critics that the
Third Part of King Henry W. is the
Joint work of Marlowe and Shakes
peare And whether the two great
poets wrote in collaboration or sepa-
rately, Shakespeare. as the younger
and less experienced playwright,
worked here in the spirit and under the
influence of Marlowe. What that in
fuence was can be told in 3, few words.
Marlowe was the father, almost the
creator. of English romantic tragedy.
He adopted the drumming decasylla-
bon" of the would-be classical school
of dramatists, and, by changing it FROM
a cumulative TO an accentual meter
sy.T4 Z
the wonder of his contemporaries,
drove the jigging rhymed fourteeners
forever from the stage, and. in the
hands Of Shakespeare and Milton, be-
came the organ voice of England. At
the same time. since he wrote for the
public OF the plaYhOuseS and not for
the learned society Of the court or uni
versity he took up the popular drama.
of action rather than reflection, cleared
it of ciownish conceits and substituted
living. breathing men for the automatic
puppets that had clattered about the
stage It is in MaTlowe's plays that
we find, for the first time in modern
tragedy. character and character de-
velopment In short. be breathed into
the crude and foTmless drama of his
day his own fiery self, rare compound
of poetry and passion. At the feet of
such q master even the young Shakes
peare. with all his consciousness of
coming glories. might be well content
10 sit.
That Shakespeare, almost at the be-
ginning Of his career, came under the
/ influence of Marlowe is undeniable. His
own natural bent was toward rhyme.
and the linked sweetness of Venus
and AdOnisH shows US how perfectly
the young poet had caught the secret
of rhyIsing measures. Rhyme occurs
at frequent intervals in most Of Shakes
qeare' early plays, and It WAS only a
long apprenticeship IN Marl0we's school
that led him TO exchange il for blank
verse. This apprenticeship extends
over a considerable portion of Shakes
peare's early work. Titus AndrOnicus"
was perhaps written by Marlowe him
self, it is certainly a play of his school;
and his drama was retOuched by
/ Shakespeare prentice hand II is by
no means unlikely that Marlowe was
one Of the colIaborators in II King
Henry VI" to which Shakespeare af-
terward added the scenes Of the quar-
rel in the Temple gardens and of Tai
bots death. the last and Hottest fare
wei note OF Thyming tragedy Mar