Drama

and its two great branches are Tragedy and Comedy. Both forms were perfected in Greece in the 5th and 6th centuries B.C., Aeschylus being the creator of Tragedy, and Euripi des being the humanizer of it. In most countries the modem drama took its rise in miracle-plays and moralities, which were really tableaux vivants of Bible history and Christian doctrine. The * Golden Age ’ of English D. was in the reign of Elizabeth, when the wonders of war, learning, and exploration stirred the impulse in men of genius like Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson, and stirred the sympathies of a nation victorious over a foreign Papist host. The ' Licentious Age ’ of English D. was in the reign of the witty sot, Charles II., the age of Dryden, Otway, Wycherley. The French D. was practically founded by Corneille (1606-84), and developed by Racine, Moli , and Voltaire. The German D. was founded by Le ing, and developed by Schiller and Goethe, the greatest of all modem dramatists. The modem Scand in avian D. is connected with the names of Ibsen, Bjomson, etc.