B7965 COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY Biplo 10-22-46 56763 PREFACE This book makes no special effort to be either original or profound. It aims simply to set forth in brief compass the main facts that one might wish to have at hand in his first course in the English Drama. The great revival of interest in this subject within recent years has produced many noteworthy studies, especially in the literature of the age of Elizabeth; but, singularly enough, most of the books that have been written have been for those who already knew most about the subject. The present work presupposes only that the student has had an elementary college course in the history of English Literature, and with just so much as a basis it endeavors to assist him as he passes on to the study of the greatest of the forms that this literature has so far assumed. The book holds itself strictly to the history of the drama. There is accordingly no introductory discussion of technique. Such information may be given at the pleasure of the instructor, or it may be found in convenient form in Dr. Elizabeth Woodbridge's The Drama, its Law and Technique or in Professor Baker's comprehensive Dramatic Technique. The bibliography is necessarily selective. While emphasizing the books that one might need in an introductory course, it also contains some suggestions for more advanced study. In presenting the subject of the English Drama in this form I have naturally had to be indebted to many students of special men or periods. Quotations are frequent, especially where statements are so final in their precision as |