nounced clearly the character of that play, but hinted at the programme which he proposed to carry out in the future: "From jigging veins of rhyming mother wits And scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword.” The "jigging veins of rhyming mother wits," is a sneer at the use of rhyme and awkward tumbling lines of fourteen syllables, which was customary with the popular playwrights of the time. For this "jigging vein" he proposes to substitute blank verse, which, though it had been employed previously by Sackville and Norton, in Gorboduc, had not established itself. It is a sign of Marlowe's artistic insight that he should have recognized at once the value of blank verse for dramatic poetry; and we can see, beneath the surface of his words, a proud consciousness of his own power over this almost untried form of verse. Out of it he built that "mighty line," which astounded and fascinated his contemporaries; and his success with it fixed it firmly henceforth as the vehicle of serious drama. By his sneer at the "conceits" that "clownage keeps in pay," Marlowe showed his determination not to pander to the pit by means of vulgar comedy and horse-play, but to treat an elevated theme with seriousness. By the "stately tents of war," to which he promises to lead his hearer, he typified the dignity and largeness of scope which he proposed to give to all his work. By the last three lines of the prologue, he foreshadowed his plan of giving unity to his dramas, by making them revolve around some single great personality, engaged in some titanic struggle for power; and likewise of treating this struggle with the rhetorical splendor, the "high astounding terms," without which Elizabethan tragedy is now inconceivable. This programme he carried out in the main with consistency. Marlowe's Plays: "Tamburlaine."-Tamburlaine is a pure "hero-play." The hero is a Scythian shepherd, who conquers, one after another, the kingdoms of the East, forcing kings to harness themselves to his chariot, and carrying with him a great cage in which a captive emperor is kept like a wild beast. The huge barbaric figure of Tamburlaine is always before our eyes, and the action of the play is only a series of his triumphs. His character, half-bestial, half-godlike, dominates the imagination like an elemental force of nature, and lends itself admirably to those "high astounding terms," which fill whole pages of the play with thunderous monologue. "Doctor Faustus."-Doctor Faustus, Marlowe's second work, is also a hero-play, and is cast on even larger lines. It is a dramatized story of the life and death of a mediæval scholar, who sells his soul to the devil, in return for a life of unlimited power and pleasure. For a space of years, he has at his command all the resources of infernal magic. He can transport himself in a twinkling from one region of the earth to another; himself unseen, he can play pranks in the palaces of popes and emperors; he can summon up the ancient dead to minister to his delight. But at last the fearful price is demanded, and he must render up his soul to everlasting torment. The play, as it has come down to us, is disfigured by comic passages of a coarse and tasteless sort, those very 'conceits of clownage" which Marlowe had formerly declared war against. But even where the workmanship is poor there is always something imposing in the design; and certain passages have hardly been surpassed for power and beauty. When Mephistopheles raises from the dead the spirit of Helen of Troy, Faustus utters one rapturous exclamation, "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships And on his death-bed he starts up with the cry, "Lo, where Christ's blood streams in the firmament!" -three lines which would alone serve to stamp Marlowe as of the company of imperial poets. "The Jew of Malta" and "Edward II."-Marlowe's third play, "The Jew of Malta," is again a study of the lust of power-this time the power bestowed by great riches. Barabbas, the old Jewish merchant of Malta, is the first vigorous sketch of which Shakespeare was to make in Shylock a finished masterpiece. The first two acts are conceived on a large scale, and carefully worked out; but after these Marlowe seems again to have fallen from his own ideal, and the play degenerates into melodrama of the goriest kind. Nevertheless it shows a remarkable advance over Tamburlaine and Doctor Faustus, in the knitting together of cause and effect. Marlowe's growth in dramatic skill is even more apparent in his last play, Edward II. This is his masterpiece, so far as play-making goes, though for the very reason that it discards rhetorical monologue for rapid dramatic dialogue, it contains fewer passages of pure poetry than any of the others. Marlowe a Type of the English Renaissance.-Marlowe is one of the most striking figures of the English Renaissance. He represents the Renaissance passion for life, grasping after the infinite in power, in knowledge, and in pleasure. There is something in the meteor-like suddenness of his appearance in the skies of poetry, and in the swift flaming of his genius through its course, which seems to make inevitable his violent end. When he died, at twenty-nine, he was probably only upon the threshold of his achievement; but he had already laid broad and deep the foundation of English drama, and Shakespeare was already at work rearing upon this foundation an incomparable edifice. REVIEW OUTLINE. The drama was the greatest and the most popular literary form of the Elizabethan age. But before it came to full flower in the work of Shakespeare and his fellow-dramatists it had to go through a long process of growth. In this chapter we go back to the earliest beginnings of the drama in England, and trace its origin from forms of entertainment and religious ceremonies only rudely dramatic in character. We then follow its development through the Miracle play, the Morality play, and the Interlude, to the time when the English drama put itself to school, during the middle of the sixteenth century, to Latin comedy and tragedy. By following classic models for a time, it became better organized, but it remained "romantic" in form and spirit, as it had been from the first. The preShakespearean drama culminates in Marlowe, who marks the close of the period of preparation, and the beginning of the great dramatic period, at the end of Elizabeth's reign. How did the ceremonial life of the Norman and Plantagenet kings contribute to the development of the early drama? Keep in mind the connection between these ceremonial shows and the spectacular and lyric form of drama known as the Masque, which we shall study in the next chapter in the work of Shakespeare's friend and rival, Ben Jonson. Trace the development of the Miracle play, from its earliest and simplest form as a part of the Catholic church service, to its culmination in the great Miracle-cycles. How did these plays come to be given in cycles? Summarize the chief facts concerning the manner in which the Miracle-cycles were presented, under a number of heads, such as Actors, Costumes, The Pageants, Stage Arrangements, The Audience, etc. Do you notice a humorous fitness in the assignment of the separate plays to particular guilds? The Miracle plays contained the germs of regular comedy and tragedy; note, however, that the comic element was introduced by the authors, to lighten the tone, but that the tragic element existed in the Bible stories themselves. Illustrate this from the instances given. How did the Morality plays supplement the Miracle plays? What stock-character of Shakespeare's plays is a survival from the Moralities? Why were the Interludes so called? What subjects did they treat? Describe the influence of the schools, and the enthusiasm for classic studies, upon the English drama during its formative period. Name the two earliest English comedies and the earliest tragedy written under the classical influence. What were the chief differences between the Latin and the native English form of tragedy? Most of these differences arose from one circumstance, that the classic dramatists were content to treat a single episode, whereas the English dramatists who were "romantic" in feeling were eager to present a whole story made up of many incidents. Would it have been possible for Shakespeare to present the history of Julius Cæsar or of King Lear in "classic" form? What did Shakespeare think of the inclusion of humorous and tragic matters in the same play? What beneficial influences came from the struggle to impose classic forms on English playwrights? Between what dates did the Elizabethan drama flourish? (The term "Elizabethan drama" is used somewhat loosely. It did not begin in earnest until Elizabeth, who was crowned in 1558, had been on the throne for almost a quarter of a century; and it continued under James and Charles for about thirty-five years after her death. The later drama is sometimes called Jacobean, from Jacobus, [James], but the term Elizabethan is generally used to cover the whole.) Review what is told in Chapter V concerning the political and social conditions of Elizabeth's reign, in order to understand the high excitement of the English nation at this time, and the brilliant life which found expression in the drama. Summarize the chief facts concerning the early theatres and theatrical companies; concerning the manner in which Elizabethan plays were presented. In what poet did the long process of dramatic development reach a point of comparative completion? Give a brief sketch of Marlowe's life. Note carefully the reforms which Marlowe proposed to carry out in play-writing-in verse-form, in rhetoric, in the kind of themes treated, and in the unifying of these themes by a single personality. Who had introduced "blank verse" into England? Where had it been already used in drama? What was the effect of Marlowe's example in the use of blank verse? Show how Marlowe's first three plays illustrate, each in its own way, the interest of the Renaissance in individual man and his thirst for conquest. READING GUIDE.-Little reading of texts can be expected of the student in the pre-Shakespearean drama. If time serve, Marlowe's "Edward II." or "The Jew of Malta" should be read. "The Jew of Malta," arranged for school use, is included in Maynard's English Classics. "Edward II." is edited by A. W. Verity (Dent). The interest of the class work, if students are sufficiently advanced, may be much heightened by volunteer reports upon such subjects as "The Mounting and Acting of Miracle Plays," "The Early Elizabethan Theatres." Materials for the first may be found in the introduction to A. W. Pollard's "English Miracle Plays," and in K. L. Bates's "English Religious Drama"; for the second, in "Shakespeare's Predecessors," by J. A. Symonds. The study of Marlowe may be supplemented by Lowell's essay upon him, in "The Old English Dramatists." |