The sun., 1908-03-22

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Prof. SchellnE finds the third main ele-
ment Of influence on the Ellsabethan drama
10 have been eRerted by Italy. There is
no doubt that 10 the subjects Of Henry
VIII. aid Elizabeth Italy was . lapd OF
culture and refinement, a realm Of mystery
and enchantment. Thence Wyatt and
Surrey had brought 70 England the song
and the sonnet; Sidney, the pastoral ro-
nance; spenser. the allegorical epioi
Painter, Petite. Lyly and Greene, q stream
OF popular fiction. Thence too had come
much in the drama Our author detects
the influence OF Italy In the choice OF theme,
In the mode Of treatment. and above all In
the romantic atmosphere which was cast
upon all Italian subjects. OF oourse the
Italy depicted In the EllEabethan drama
was not the contemporary Italy which We
now know 10 have existed. but what the
poet imagined Italy 10 be. Many homely
English story. viewed through a luminous
mist, became thing Of new and enchanting
beauty. In the spirit whose quest is beauty,
In strange and often unpromislng ma
terias, the spirit that casts precedent 10
the winds and seeks TO produce the effect
Of art by novel and untried courses, Prof,
Scheling finds the heart and soul OF the
Elizabethan drama. The spirit revealed
itself alike in the courtly allegorical plays
Of Lyly. in the later pastoral dramas OF
Daniel and others, in the masques and In
the dramatized heroic romanoes. The
main current, however, OF the romantic
influence derived from Italy IL that wherein
the greatest dramatic literature OF the age
is found. Here" says Prof. Sohelling,
is the early drama Of passion, strSining
the leading strings Of Seneca in the
powerful plays Of Thomas Kyd and launched
into the independence Of vigorous young
manhood by the strong hand OF Marlowe.
Here II is that Shakespeare sits enthroned,
the ruler Of this his capital, and Of all out
lying provinces The author goes on to
point out that however thoroughly English
may be Shakespeare's themes and his char
acters in their essentials, he too dwelt in the
transforming atmosphere OF the Italy OF
the poets and owes his supremacy TO the
fact that he Is at once the most realistic
Of dramatists and the most romantic and
ideal Of poets. ltis an interesting fact that
Shakespeare's example and his popularity
in his own age fixed the ascendency Of the
romantic influence on the English drama
for generations after his own.
Through Beaumont and Fletcher. Mas
singer and Shirley this influence continued
down TO the closing Of the theatres and
diated into heroic proportions by revival
in the improbable incidents and impossible
personages Of the later heroic romance, it
continued in the heroic plays Of Dryden TO
manifest vitality which not even the
trenohant satire Of The Rehearsal could
destroy.
Fourthly and lastly Prof Schellng con-
sders the important influence Of the classics
on the Elizabethan theatre. He recalls
that many Of the earlier dramatists were
scholarly men, who had come from the
universities, wherein scholarship then con-
sisted OF knowledge OF the classics alone,
The earliest eItant English comedy Ralph
Roister Doister,' was the composition Of
a schoolmaster who wanted his scholars 10
perform an English play on the model Of
Plautus instead Of the customary Latin
original Sackvlle wrote the earliest eT-
tant English tragedy, -Gorboduo.' on
models furnished by Seneca, although he
selected a subject from what was then
considered English history. The scholars,
who seemed never to have had more than
a qualified SUCCESS with the popllace, de-
veloped several varieties Of didactic school
drama out Of Latin originals, but it was
more customary 10 treat ancient times
romantically Thus Troilus wears Cres-
sda's glove in his helm; Theseus and his
Amazonian bride Hyppolyta are denizens
Of knightly medieval days. Touching
such facts our author observes that "the
happy EEzabethans were little troubled
by the eternal fitness Of things, and were
as innocent Of the existence Of that monster
anachronism as they we're unaware Of that
strict code Of twentieth century morals
whereunder man may not take his own
thoughts il he happen to find them in the
works Of one Of his predecessors