CHAPTER XXIII.

HISTORY OF DRAMATIC LITERATURE FROM 1600 TO 1650.

Decline of the Italian Theatre 591 Filli de Sciro 592 Translations of Spanish Dramas 592 Extemporaneous Comedy 593 Spanish Stage 593 Calderon--Number of his Pieces 593 His Comedies 593 La Vida es Sueno 594 A Secreto agravio secreta vengança 595 Style of Calderon 595 His Merits sometimes overrated 596 Plays of Hardy 596 The Cid 597 Style of Corneille 598 Les Horaces 598 Cimia 598 Polyeucte 599 Rodogune 599 Pompey 599 Heraclius 599 Nicomède 600 Faults and Beauties of Corneille 600 Le Menteur 600 Other French Tragedies 600 Wenceslas of Rotron 600 Popularity of the Stage under Elizabeth 601 Number of Theatres 601 Encouraged by James 601 General Taste for the Stage 601 Theatres closed by the Parliament 602 Shakspeare’s Twelfth Night 602 Merry Wives of Windsor 603 Measure for Measure 604 Lear 604 Timon of Athens 604 Pericles 605 His Roman Tragedies--Julius Cæsar 606 Antony and Cleopatra 606 Coriolanus 606 His Retirement and Death 607 Greatness of his Genius 607 His Judgment 607 His Obscurity 608 His Popularity 608 Critics on Shakspeare 609 Ben Jonson 609 The Alchemist 609 Volpone, or The Fox 610 The Silent Woman 610 Sad Shepherd 611 Beaumont and Fletcher 611 Corrupt State of their Text 611 The Maid’s Tragedy 611 Philaster 612 King and no King 613 The Elder Brother 613 The Spanish Curate 613 The Custom of the Country 613 The Loyal Subject 613 Beggar’s Bush 613 The Scornful Lady 614 Valentinian 614 The Two Noble Kinsmen 615 The Faithful Shepherdess 615 Rule a Wife, and have a Wife 616 Some other Plays 616 Origin of Fletcher’s Plays 616 Defects of their plots 616 Their Sentiments and Style Dramatic 617 Their Characters 617 Their Tragedies 617 Inferior to their Comedies 618 Their Female Characters 618 Massinger--Nature of his Dramas 619 His Delineations of Character 619 His Subjects 619 Beauty of His Style 620 Inferiority of his Comic Powers 620 Some of his Tragedies particularized 620 And of his other Plays 620 Ford 621 Shirley 621 Heywood 622 Webster 622 His Duchess of Malfy 622 Vittoria Corombona 622