For further grants and
pensions
to Heywood, see, also, pp.
Cambridge History of English Literature - 1908 - v05
Social conditions of the Trading and Yeoman Classes.
Depression of the Labouring Class. Serving-men. Treatment of
the Poor, Vagabonds and Criminals. General unrest and high
spirit. The Women of the age
336
Bibliographies.
381
0
Table of Principal Dates
483
0
Index of Names
487
.
.
.
## p. xiv (#20) #############################################
-
>
展。
-
--
第
## p. xv (#21) ##############################################
THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
VOLUME V. THE DRAMA TO 1642
PART I
Second Impression, 1918, Corrections and Additions
The errata mentioned in volumes of the History published later than the first
edition of this volume have been corrected in the present impression. In addition,
some misprints noticed later have been corrected, and a few alterations made. A list
of the more important of these follows:
p. 158, 11. 1, 2 The pamphlet entitled The Poisoninge, etc. has been omitted.
p. 221 added at the end of the Hamlet paragraph
[But see Bullen, A. H. , in The Times, 3. xii. 1913. ]
p. 314 a footnote has been added
[See, however, bibliography, post, p. 474. ]
p. 366, 11. 18–23 for influx of population. . . quintupled read influx of inhabitants into
London and its suburbs was very notable. The overgrowth of the population beyond
the walls was, indeed, arrested by drastic provisions, dating from 1580; but the total
of the metropolitan population increased with extraordinary rapidity, and, in the
century after the accession of Elizabeth, probably, at least quintupled
p. 372, 11. 33-36 for revenges. . . work. read revenges on both sides; and, finally, the
Star chamber, which, in 1634, had ordered the burning of Prynne's Histrio-Mastix,
and inflicted what shame it could inflict upon the author of that work, was, seven
years later, swept away with the High Commission court, and several other tyrannical
tribunals.
pp. 381-4 added to the General Bibliography:
Boyer, C. V. The villain as hero in Elizabethan tragedy. 1914.
Mod. Lang. Rev. , General Index to volumes 1-x, Cambridge, 1915.
p. 386 added to the bibliography of chapter II:
Moorman, F. W. A Yorkshire Folk-Play. Essays and Studies. Oxford, 1911.
pp. 387-94 added to the bibliography of chapter III:
Greg, W. W. Bibliographical and Textual Problems of the English Miracle Cycles.
1914.
Dodds, M. H. The Problem of the Ludus Coventriae. Mod. Lang. Rev. vol. ix,
1914.
Smart, W. K. Some English and Latin Sources and Parallels for the Morality of
Wisdom. Wisconsin, 1912.
p. 393, 11, 1, 2 for Waley. . . fragment. read Waley, J. (c. 1557); by Copland, W.
(c. 1562); and earlier (see fragment in Lambeth Palace library).
## p. xvi (#22) #############################################
xvi
pp. 394-9 added to the bibliography of chapter IV:
Spearing, E. M. The Elizabethan Tenne Tragedies of Seneca. Mod. Lang. Rev.
vol. iv, 1908.
Cunliffe, J. W. (ed. ). Early English Classical Tragedies Gorboduc or Ferrex and
Porrex, Jocasta, Gismond of Salerne, The Misfortunes of Arthur. Oxford, 1912.
Manly, J. M. Essay on the Influence of the tragedies of Seneca upon Early English
Drama, prefixed to trans. of Seneca's Tragedies into English Verse by Miller, F. J.
Chicago, 1907.
pp. 401-14 added to the bibliography of chapter V:
Bond, R. W. Early Plays from the Italian. Supposes, The Buggbears, Misogonus.
Oxford, 1911.
Feuillerat, A. Documents relating to the Revels at Court in the time of King Edward VI
>
and Queen Mary. Bang's Materialien, XLIV, 1914.
Wallace, C. W. The Evolution of the English Drama up to Shakespeare. Berlin,
1912.
Reed, A. W. John Heywood and his Friends. The Library. 1917.
p. 411 W. H. Williams's edition of Jacke Jugeler was published in 1914 by the
Cambridge University Press.
p. 413 1. 44 the following has been added : Photographic facsimile and reprint, ed.
Tucker Brooke, C. F. Yale and Oxford, 1915.
pp. 414–21 added to the bibliography of chapter VI:
Arraignment of Paris, The. Edd. Child, H. H. and Greg, W. W. Malone Soc. 1910.
Jordan, J. C. Robert Greene. Columbia Univ. Press, 1915.
p. 419 The J. M. Brown entry has been altered as follows :
Brown, J. M. An Early Rival of Shakespere. The New Zealand Magazine, Auckland,
No. 6, April 1877, pp. 97-133.
p. 423 added to the bibliography of chapter VII:
Baker, G. P. Dramatic Technique in Marlowe. Essays and Studies. Vol. iv. Oxford,
1913.
pp. 456-72 bibliography of chapter XII:
p. 457 The C. A. Richter entry has been altered as follows:
Richter, C. A. Shakespeare in Deutschland in den Jahren 1739-1770. Oppeln, 1912.
p. 460 added under 12. III. i. b. :
Ballantyne, A. Voltaire's Visit to England 1726-29. 1893.
p. 467 added under 12. III. vi. :
See, also, Lirondelle, A. , Shakespeare en Russie 1748–1840, Paris, 1912.
Addenda to the present (2nd) impression.
p. 89, 11. 26–29 for At an early age. . . received read It has been believed hitherto that,
at an early age, Heywood entered the royal service, probably as a chorister, since, on
21 January 1514/15 'John Haywoode' is set down in the Book of Payments of
Henry VIII as receiving wages at 8d. per day. But the reference appears to be to a
yeoman usher of the same name. There is no doubt, however, that the dramatist
is the 'John Haywoode, synger' to whom a series of payments were made in 1519
and 1520. [footnote. See Reed, A. W. , “John Heywood and his friends,' The Library,
July 1917, pp. 250-6.
For further grants and pensions to Heywood, see, also, pp.
268-9. ] In 1525, he received
pp. 426-56 add to the bibliography of chapters VIII-XI:
8 1. Annotated catalogue of the Shakespeare Exhibition held at the Grafton Galleries,
London, 1916.
Bartlett, H. C. Catalogue of the exhibition of Shakespeareana held at the New
York Public Library, April 2 to July 15, 1916. New York, 1917.
## p. xvii (#23) ############################################
xvii
Bartlett, H. C. and Pollard, A. W. A census of Shakespeare's plays in quarto,
1594-1709. New Haven and London, 1916.
Catalogue of the Shakespeare exhibition held in the Bodleian Library to com-
memorate the death of Shakespeare. Oxford, 1916.
Jaggard, W. Shakespeare bibliography (pp. 729). Stratford-on-Avon, 1911.
Pollard, A. W. Shakespeare's fight with the pirates and the problems of the
transmission of the text. (Sandars Lectures 1915. ) 1917.
83. Morgann's Essay on Falstaff (see p. 433). Ed. by Gill, W. A. Oxford, 1912.
Also rptd in Smith, D. N. , Eighteenth century essays on Shakespeare,
1903.
The Tragedy of King Richard II. Printed 1598. Reproduced in facsimile. With
an introduction by Pollard, A. W. 1916.
$4, Sonnets. From the quarto of 1609, with variorum readings and commentary.
Ed. by Alden, R. M. 1916.
8. Ainger, A. Lectures and Essays. 1905.
Brooke, S. A. Ten more plays of Shakespeare. 1913.
Matthews, J. B. Shakespeare as a playwright. 1913.
Pater, W. Appreciations. 1889.
Robertson, J. M. Shakespeare and Chapman. 1917.
Saintsbury, G. Shakespeare and the grand style. (Essays and Studies. Vol. 1.
Oxford 1910. )
Shaksperian Studies, by members of. . . Columbia University. Ed. by Matthews, B.
and Thorndike, A. H. New York, 1916.
Stephen, Sir Leslie. Shakespeare as a man. (Studies of a Biographer. Ser. ii,
vol. iv.
1902. )
Stopes, C. C. Shakespeare's industry. 1916.
Suddard, S. J. M. Essais de littérature anglaise. Cambridge, 1912.
Keats, Shelley, and Shakespeare. Cambridge, 1912.
Swinburne, A. C. Shakespeare. (Introductory essay to the 3 volume edition of
Shakespeare's works. ) Oxford, 1909.
Symons, A. Studies in two literatures. 1897.
Geikie, Sir Archibald. The birds of Shakespeare. Glasgow, 1916.
Whall, W. B. Shakespeare's sea terms explained. 1910.
$ 9. Onions, O. T. A Shakespeare glossary. Oxford, 1911.
Simpson, P. Shakespearian punctuation. Oxford, 1911.
$10. A book of homage to Shakespeare. Ed. by Gollancz. Oxford, 1916.
Lee, Sir Sidney. A Life of William Shakespeare. Re-written and enlarged
version. Second edition. 1916.
Madden, D. H. Shakespeare and his fellows. 1916.
Masson, D. Shakespeare personally. Ed. by Masson, R. 1914.
Neilson, W. A. and Thorndike, A. H. Facts about Shakespeare. New York,
1913.
Shakespeare's England, an account of the life and manners of his age. 2 vols.
Oxford, 1916.
Stopes, C. C. Shakespeare's environment. 1914.
Thompson, Sir E. M. Shakespeare's hand-writing: a study. Oxford, 1916.
$11. Lang, A. Shakespeare, Bacon, and the Great Unknown. 1912.
Greenwood, G. G. Is there a Shakespeare problem? 1916.
## p. xviii (#24) ###########################################
## p. 1 (#25) ###############################################
CHAPTER I
THE ORIGINS OF ENGLISH DRAMA
INTRODUCTORY
THE present volume and its successor will be devoted to the
discussion of English drama-a growth which, in the meridian
splendour of its maturity, is without an equal in the history of
literature. Attic drama, in literary art, at all events, the choicest
product of an age from which posterity has never ceased to
derive its serenest conceptions of human culture, was restricted
in its higher creativeness by the brief duration of that age itself.
.
Spanish drama, nearest to English in the exuberance of its
productivity, is, in its greatest period, associated with the decay
of the nation's vigour. French classical drama, in a much larger
measure than that in which the same assertion could be made of
English, was bound by its relations to a royal court, and de-
barred from an intimate union with the national life. English
drama, as, with marvellous rapidity, it rose to the full height of its
literary glories, reflected and partook of the imaginative strength
of an age in which England consciously, nor for a generation only,
assumed her place in the van of nations.
In view of the twofold fact, that English drama was destined
to rank not only among the most glorious but among the most
characteristic of national achievements, and that an English nation
and an English national literature were already in existence before
the Norman conquest, it may seem strange that, with the ex-
ception of certain suggestive features in the church liturgy to
which attention will be directed below, the beginnings of the
growth which we are considering cannot be safely traced beyond
that date. In other words, we are unable to assume the existence
in these islands, before the Norman conquest, of anything recog-
nisable by us as drama or dramatic literature. Our English
ancestors, with whose advent the Roman empire in Britain had
come to an abrupt end, can hardly, except in a few isolated
instances, have been brought into contact with the broken and
E. L. V.
1
CH. 1.
## p. 2 (#26) ###############################################
2 The Origins of English Drama
scattered remnants of the Roman theatre—the strolling mimes
who, after their fashion, may have preserved some ignoble remi-
niscences of the Roman acting drama in the days of its decadence.
And when Christianity—that is to say, Roman Christianity-came
to England, and gradually, more especially through the efforts
of king Alfred, fostered the growth of English literature, the
last literary form which it was likely to introduce or sanction
was that of the drama, the feeder of the theatre. The strange
and shifting relations between the Christian church and the stage
had begun, in the fourth century, with loud anathemas launched
by the one against the other; in the fifth, the whole craft of
actors and entertainers was denounced by an ecclesiastical council;
and, as the empire of the west broke up under the inroads of
the barbarians, histriones and nugatores went forth as homeless
outlaws under the ban of both church and state. If any of these
found their way to England and, as they passed along the high-
ways and byways, displayed their tricks for a crust of bread or a
cup of ale, they were, no doubt, despised and accounted infamous.
Far otherwise was it with the gleeman, who sat among the warriors,
telling in a solemn and religious strain of the great deeds of the
past, and the scop, whose songs had the king and his companions for
an audience, and who, on his travels, found himself everywhere an
honoured guest. Anything less dramatic could hardly be imagined
than the poems or recitations of the Old English singer, and even in
those dialogues which form an interesting part of English literature
before the Norman conquest a dramatic element is only occasion-
ally perceptible--for there could be no greater mistake than to
suppose that a dialogue, be its progress never so vivacious, is,
of necessity, a drama in embryo. A certain species of English
dialogues, however, to which reference is made in the next
chapter, and of which examples are to be found both before and
after the Norman conquest, the estrifs, one of the forms of the Old
French débats, must be allowed to contain dramatic elements,
or the possibilities of dramatic development; and one of these,
The Harrowing of Hell, dealt with a theme afterwards treated
in religious drama (both in an isolated piece and in two of the
collective mysteries). In The Pride of Life, which, in its turn, has
been described as the earliest written text of an English morality,
a contention of this sort, as we learn from the prologue to the frag-
mentary play, was introduced in the shape of a disputation between
body and soul, held at the request of the Blessed Virgin, after the
devils had laid hands on the King of Life's soul, in the struggle
## p. 3 (#27) ###############################################
The Normans and their Minstrels
3
of the King with Death? Other debates of the kind may, like-
wise, have incidentally influenced the early growth of English
drama; but no general connection between it and Old English
literature has been proved.
The Norman conquest brought into England a foreign baron-
age; the high places in church and state were now filled by foreign
occupants; at the altars of many of the churches of the land knelt
foreign priests ; in the cloisters of most of its convents walked
foreign monks. But it also provided with an English 'establish-
ment' many a French or Flemish adventurer of lowly origin or
doubtful past. Moreover, these very Normans, who had been the
hero-adventurers of the western world, who were the combatant
sons of the church, and some of whose most signal successes were
even now only in process of achievement, had begun to enter into
a phase of chivalry in which doughty deeds are done, and difficult
enterprises are carried on, with one eye to a crown of glory and
the other to material profit. Thus, the influence of the Norman
conquest upon English life, where it was something more than
the pressure exercised by overbearing masters, was by no means
altogether ennobling or elevating. The diversions, too, of what
was now the ruling class in England were so mixed in character
that the very names of their purveyors cannot be kept asunder
with precision. The trouvères of Normandy and northern France,
'inventors' of romances about deeds of prowess which they
sang to their own accompaniment on harp or lute or viol, were
frequently called jongleurs (joculatores)—a term so compre-
hensive that it may appropriately be translated by entertainers. '
The third designation, ménestrels or minstrels, which became the
usual term in England, is, of course, only another form of the
Latin ministeriales, servants of the house, implying the attach-
ment of those who bore it to a particular household, whence,
however, they might set forth to exhibit their skill abroad.
Depression of the Labouring Class. Serving-men. Treatment of
the Poor, Vagabonds and Criminals. General unrest and high
spirit. The Women of the age
336
Bibliographies.
381
0
Table of Principal Dates
483
0
Index of Names
487
.
.
.
## p. xiv (#20) #############################################
-
>
展。
-
--
第
## p. xv (#21) ##############################################
THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
VOLUME V. THE DRAMA TO 1642
PART I
Second Impression, 1918, Corrections and Additions
The errata mentioned in volumes of the History published later than the first
edition of this volume have been corrected in the present impression. In addition,
some misprints noticed later have been corrected, and a few alterations made. A list
of the more important of these follows:
p. 158, 11. 1, 2 The pamphlet entitled The Poisoninge, etc. has been omitted.
p. 221 added at the end of the Hamlet paragraph
[But see Bullen, A. H. , in The Times, 3. xii. 1913. ]
p. 314 a footnote has been added
[See, however, bibliography, post, p. 474. ]
p. 366, 11. 18–23 for influx of population. . . quintupled read influx of inhabitants into
London and its suburbs was very notable. The overgrowth of the population beyond
the walls was, indeed, arrested by drastic provisions, dating from 1580; but the total
of the metropolitan population increased with extraordinary rapidity, and, in the
century after the accession of Elizabeth, probably, at least quintupled
p. 372, 11. 33-36 for revenges. . . work. read revenges on both sides; and, finally, the
Star chamber, which, in 1634, had ordered the burning of Prynne's Histrio-Mastix,
and inflicted what shame it could inflict upon the author of that work, was, seven
years later, swept away with the High Commission court, and several other tyrannical
tribunals.
pp. 381-4 added to the General Bibliography:
Boyer, C. V. The villain as hero in Elizabethan tragedy. 1914.
Mod. Lang. Rev. , General Index to volumes 1-x, Cambridge, 1915.
p. 386 added to the bibliography of chapter II:
Moorman, F. W. A Yorkshire Folk-Play. Essays and Studies. Oxford, 1911.
pp. 387-94 added to the bibliography of chapter III:
Greg, W. W. Bibliographical and Textual Problems of the English Miracle Cycles.
1914.
Dodds, M. H. The Problem of the Ludus Coventriae. Mod. Lang. Rev. vol. ix,
1914.
Smart, W. K. Some English and Latin Sources and Parallels for the Morality of
Wisdom. Wisconsin, 1912.
p. 393, 11, 1, 2 for Waley. . . fragment. read Waley, J. (c. 1557); by Copland, W.
(c. 1562); and earlier (see fragment in Lambeth Palace library).
## p. xvi (#22) #############################################
xvi
pp. 394-9 added to the bibliography of chapter IV:
Spearing, E. M. The Elizabethan Tenne Tragedies of Seneca. Mod. Lang. Rev.
vol. iv, 1908.
Cunliffe, J. W. (ed. ). Early English Classical Tragedies Gorboduc or Ferrex and
Porrex, Jocasta, Gismond of Salerne, The Misfortunes of Arthur. Oxford, 1912.
Manly, J. M. Essay on the Influence of the tragedies of Seneca upon Early English
Drama, prefixed to trans. of Seneca's Tragedies into English Verse by Miller, F. J.
Chicago, 1907.
pp. 401-14 added to the bibliography of chapter V:
Bond, R. W. Early Plays from the Italian. Supposes, The Buggbears, Misogonus.
Oxford, 1911.
Feuillerat, A. Documents relating to the Revels at Court in the time of King Edward VI
>
and Queen Mary. Bang's Materialien, XLIV, 1914.
Wallace, C. W. The Evolution of the English Drama up to Shakespeare. Berlin,
1912.
Reed, A. W. John Heywood and his Friends. The Library. 1917.
p. 411 W. H. Williams's edition of Jacke Jugeler was published in 1914 by the
Cambridge University Press.
p. 413 1. 44 the following has been added : Photographic facsimile and reprint, ed.
Tucker Brooke, C. F. Yale and Oxford, 1915.
pp. 414–21 added to the bibliography of chapter VI:
Arraignment of Paris, The. Edd. Child, H. H. and Greg, W. W. Malone Soc. 1910.
Jordan, J. C. Robert Greene. Columbia Univ. Press, 1915.
p. 419 The J. M. Brown entry has been altered as follows :
Brown, J. M. An Early Rival of Shakespere. The New Zealand Magazine, Auckland,
No. 6, April 1877, pp. 97-133.
p. 423 added to the bibliography of chapter VII:
Baker, G. P. Dramatic Technique in Marlowe. Essays and Studies. Vol. iv. Oxford,
1913.
pp. 456-72 bibliography of chapter XII:
p. 457 The C. A. Richter entry has been altered as follows:
Richter, C. A. Shakespeare in Deutschland in den Jahren 1739-1770. Oppeln, 1912.
p. 460 added under 12. III. i. b. :
Ballantyne, A. Voltaire's Visit to England 1726-29. 1893.
p. 467 added under 12. III. vi. :
See, also, Lirondelle, A. , Shakespeare en Russie 1748–1840, Paris, 1912.
Addenda to the present (2nd) impression.
p. 89, 11. 26–29 for At an early age. . . received read It has been believed hitherto that,
at an early age, Heywood entered the royal service, probably as a chorister, since, on
21 January 1514/15 'John Haywoode' is set down in the Book of Payments of
Henry VIII as receiving wages at 8d. per day. But the reference appears to be to a
yeoman usher of the same name. There is no doubt, however, that the dramatist
is the 'John Haywoode, synger' to whom a series of payments were made in 1519
and 1520. [footnote. See Reed, A. W. , “John Heywood and his friends,' The Library,
July 1917, pp. 250-6.
For further grants and pensions to Heywood, see, also, pp.
268-9. ] In 1525, he received
pp. 426-56 add to the bibliography of chapters VIII-XI:
8 1. Annotated catalogue of the Shakespeare Exhibition held at the Grafton Galleries,
London, 1916.
Bartlett, H. C. Catalogue of the exhibition of Shakespeareana held at the New
York Public Library, April 2 to July 15, 1916. New York, 1917.
## p. xvii (#23) ############################################
xvii
Bartlett, H. C. and Pollard, A. W. A census of Shakespeare's plays in quarto,
1594-1709. New Haven and London, 1916.
Catalogue of the Shakespeare exhibition held in the Bodleian Library to com-
memorate the death of Shakespeare. Oxford, 1916.
Jaggard, W. Shakespeare bibliography (pp. 729). Stratford-on-Avon, 1911.
Pollard, A. W. Shakespeare's fight with the pirates and the problems of the
transmission of the text. (Sandars Lectures 1915. ) 1917.
83. Morgann's Essay on Falstaff (see p. 433). Ed. by Gill, W. A. Oxford, 1912.
Also rptd in Smith, D. N. , Eighteenth century essays on Shakespeare,
1903.
The Tragedy of King Richard II. Printed 1598. Reproduced in facsimile. With
an introduction by Pollard, A. W. 1916.
$4, Sonnets. From the quarto of 1609, with variorum readings and commentary.
Ed. by Alden, R. M. 1916.
8. Ainger, A. Lectures and Essays. 1905.
Brooke, S. A. Ten more plays of Shakespeare. 1913.
Matthews, J. B. Shakespeare as a playwright. 1913.
Pater, W. Appreciations. 1889.
Robertson, J. M. Shakespeare and Chapman. 1917.
Saintsbury, G. Shakespeare and the grand style. (Essays and Studies. Vol. 1.
Oxford 1910. )
Shaksperian Studies, by members of. . . Columbia University. Ed. by Matthews, B.
and Thorndike, A. H. New York, 1916.
Stephen, Sir Leslie. Shakespeare as a man. (Studies of a Biographer. Ser. ii,
vol. iv.
1902. )
Stopes, C. C. Shakespeare's industry. 1916.
Suddard, S. J. M. Essais de littérature anglaise. Cambridge, 1912.
Keats, Shelley, and Shakespeare. Cambridge, 1912.
Swinburne, A. C. Shakespeare. (Introductory essay to the 3 volume edition of
Shakespeare's works. ) Oxford, 1909.
Symons, A. Studies in two literatures. 1897.
Geikie, Sir Archibald. The birds of Shakespeare. Glasgow, 1916.
Whall, W. B. Shakespeare's sea terms explained. 1910.
$ 9. Onions, O. T. A Shakespeare glossary. Oxford, 1911.
Simpson, P. Shakespearian punctuation. Oxford, 1911.
$10. A book of homage to Shakespeare. Ed. by Gollancz. Oxford, 1916.
Lee, Sir Sidney. A Life of William Shakespeare. Re-written and enlarged
version. Second edition. 1916.
Madden, D. H. Shakespeare and his fellows. 1916.
Masson, D. Shakespeare personally. Ed. by Masson, R. 1914.
Neilson, W. A. and Thorndike, A. H. Facts about Shakespeare. New York,
1913.
Shakespeare's England, an account of the life and manners of his age. 2 vols.
Oxford, 1916.
Stopes, C. C. Shakespeare's environment. 1914.
Thompson, Sir E. M. Shakespeare's hand-writing: a study. Oxford, 1916.
$11. Lang, A. Shakespeare, Bacon, and the Great Unknown. 1912.
Greenwood, G. G. Is there a Shakespeare problem? 1916.
## p. xviii (#24) ###########################################
## p. 1 (#25) ###############################################
CHAPTER I
THE ORIGINS OF ENGLISH DRAMA
INTRODUCTORY
THE present volume and its successor will be devoted to the
discussion of English drama-a growth which, in the meridian
splendour of its maturity, is without an equal in the history of
literature. Attic drama, in literary art, at all events, the choicest
product of an age from which posterity has never ceased to
derive its serenest conceptions of human culture, was restricted
in its higher creativeness by the brief duration of that age itself.
.
Spanish drama, nearest to English in the exuberance of its
productivity, is, in its greatest period, associated with the decay
of the nation's vigour. French classical drama, in a much larger
measure than that in which the same assertion could be made of
English, was bound by its relations to a royal court, and de-
barred from an intimate union with the national life. English
drama, as, with marvellous rapidity, it rose to the full height of its
literary glories, reflected and partook of the imaginative strength
of an age in which England consciously, nor for a generation only,
assumed her place in the van of nations.
In view of the twofold fact, that English drama was destined
to rank not only among the most glorious but among the most
characteristic of national achievements, and that an English nation
and an English national literature were already in existence before
the Norman conquest, it may seem strange that, with the ex-
ception of certain suggestive features in the church liturgy to
which attention will be directed below, the beginnings of the
growth which we are considering cannot be safely traced beyond
that date. In other words, we are unable to assume the existence
in these islands, before the Norman conquest, of anything recog-
nisable by us as drama or dramatic literature. Our English
ancestors, with whose advent the Roman empire in Britain had
come to an abrupt end, can hardly, except in a few isolated
instances, have been brought into contact with the broken and
E. L. V.
1
CH. 1.
## p. 2 (#26) ###############################################
2 The Origins of English Drama
scattered remnants of the Roman theatre—the strolling mimes
who, after their fashion, may have preserved some ignoble remi-
niscences of the Roman acting drama in the days of its decadence.
And when Christianity—that is to say, Roman Christianity-came
to England, and gradually, more especially through the efforts
of king Alfred, fostered the growth of English literature, the
last literary form which it was likely to introduce or sanction
was that of the drama, the feeder of the theatre. The strange
and shifting relations between the Christian church and the stage
had begun, in the fourth century, with loud anathemas launched
by the one against the other; in the fifth, the whole craft of
actors and entertainers was denounced by an ecclesiastical council;
and, as the empire of the west broke up under the inroads of
the barbarians, histriones and nugatores went forth as homeless
outlaws under the ban of both church and state. If any of these
found their way to England and, as they passed along the high-
ways and byways, displayed their tricks for a crust of bread or a
cup of ale, they were, no doubt, despised and accounted infamous.
Far otherwise was it with the gleeman, who sat among the warriors,
telling in a solemn and religious strain of the great deeds of the
past, and the scop, whose songs had the king and his companions for
an audience, and who, on his travels, found himself everywhere an
honoured guest. Anything less dramatic could hardly be imagined
than the poems or recitations of the Old English singer, and even in
those dialogues which form an interesting part of English literature
before the Norman conquest a dramatic element is only occasion-
ally perceptible--for there could be no greater mistake than to
suppose that a dialogue, be its progress never so vivacious, is,
of necessity, a drama in embryo. A certain species of English
dialogues, however, to which reference is made in the next
chapter, and of which examples are to be found both before and
after the Norman conquest, the estrifs, one of the forms of the Old
French débats, must be allowed to contain dramatic elements,
or the possibilities of dramatic development; and one of these,
The Harrowing of Hell, dealt with a theme afterwards treated
in religious drama (both in an isolated piece and in two of the
collective mysteries). In The Pride of Life, which, in its turn, has
been described as the earliest written text of an English morality,
a contention of this sort, as we learn from the prologue to the frag-
mentary play, was introduced in the shape of a disputation between
body and soul, held at the request of the Blessed Virgin, after the
devils had laid hands on the King of Life's soul, in the struggle
## p. 3 (#27) ###############################################
The Normans and their Minstrels
3
of the King with Death? Other debates of the kind may, like-
wise, have incidentally influenced the early growth of English
drama; but no general connection between it and Old English
literature has been proved.
The Norman conquest brought into England a foreign baron-
age; the high places in church and state were now filled by foreign
occupants; at the altars of many of the churches of the land knelt
foreign priests ; in the cloisters of most of its convents walked
foreign monks. But it also provided with an English 'establish-
ment' many a French or Flemish adventurer of lowly origin or
doubtful past. Moreover, these very Normans, who had been the
hero-adventurers of the western world, who were the combatant
sons of the church, and some of whose most signal successes were
even now only in process of achievement, had begun to enter into
a phase of chivalry in which doughty deeds are done, and difficult
enterprises are carried on, with one eye to a crown of glory and
the other to material profit. Thus, the influence of the Norman
conquest upon English life, where it was something more than
the pressure exercised by overbearing masters, was by no means
altogether ennobling or elevating. The diversions, too, of what
was now the ruling class in England were so mixed in character
that the very names of their purveyors cannot be kept asunder
with precision. The trouvères of Normandy and northern France,
'inventors' of romances about deeds of prowess which they
sang to their own accompaniment on harp or lute or viol, were
frequently called jongleurs (joculatores)—a term so compre-
hensive that it may appropriately be translated by entertainers. '
The third designation, ménestrels or minstrels, which became the
usual term in England, is, of course, only another form of the
Latin ministeriales, servants of the house, implying the attach-
ment of those who bore it to a particular household, whence,
however, they might set forth to exhibit their skill abroad.
