CHAPTER VIII. THE EARLIER DRAMATISTS.

The first plays--Resistance to classic influence--Advantages of this--And the limitations--The dramatic quality--Classic, Spanish, and French drama--Unity in the English Plays--_Ralph Roister Doister_--_Gammer Gurton’s Needle_--_Gorboduc_--Formation of the theatre--Lyly--Greene--Peele--Kyd--Marlowe--Character of these writers--Shakespeare--Guesses about his life--Order of his work--Estimates of Shakespeare--Divisions of his work--The Poems--The Dramas--The reality of Shakespeare’s characters 223