excellence of this poetry, if nothing else, compels their recognition in our world literature. This is not the place to discuss at length the plays of Racine and Molière: our only question is, How far these are to be considered a revival of Classical drama. Our first reflection is that it was a conscious revival: its inspiration was not so much the ancient dramatists themselves, as the theorist Aristotle. There was no attempt to revive what was the most fundamental feature of Greek tragedy-the Choral element: the Chorus occasionally used by Racine has no resemblance to the Greek Chorus, which was the unity bond of the whole drama, but is merely such lyric poetry as may enter into any variety of play. The point of imitation was rather the other leading feature of Classical art: the Modern Classical drama is drama of situation. Yet the new type is alive to the profounder and more complex nature of modern life; it is a common remark as to both Racine and Molière that in their plays the situations are subordinated to interest of character. Again: although Racine was a Greek scholar, it was Roman rather than Greek drama which influenced the French poets, Seneca and Plautus rather than Sophocles and Aristophanes. Racine's plays have been described as sculpture galleries of all antiquity; but the treatment is such as to give full scope for depicting passion-especially the passion of love. The rhetoric of Seneca may be an inspiration, but it is rhetoric tempered by the French genius for simplicity; not the simplicity that comes from lack of artifice, but from its complete mastery. Molière is above all things a master of the art of entertainment; he writes to order, and is ready to bring in all divertisements of dancing and music; he levies contributions on all types of drama-Spanish, Italian, the pieces of the commedia dell' arte, as well as the drama of Plautus and Terence. Where his plays come closest to the Latin originals, there is yet refreshing novelty in the modern 1 Compare Frederic Harrison's Choice of Books, pages 53-54. life that is fitted to the old molds. In his greatest dramas, such as Tartuffe and Le Misanthrope, the drama of situation becomes drama of character-situation: special types of personality surrounded by other personalities calculated to throw up the central figure. The enormous influence of Molière on modern comedy is due in the main to his inexhaustible flow of hilarious humor, a humor always adequate to the situation that has been created. In a later age there seems to be some rapprochement between the two great types of world drama. Victor Hugo has the French attraction to the drama of situation; he also has a deep appreciation of Shakespeare, and the rich variety of life depicted in the Shakespearean plays. The result is a modification, which does not enlarge situation to story as a whole, but deepens the particular situations to admit more of human life in variety and depth. The plays of Victor Hugo may be considered as a Romantic Drama of Situation.' VI It remains to remark that the Classical and Romantic drama, and the Mediaeval drama of mystery, miracle play, and morality, comprehend between them only a minor part of dramatic literature. Other types abound. There is notably the Spanish drama. The peculiar geographical position of Spain enables it to feel the various influences that agitate the rest of Europe, and yet to modify them in its own way. Spain has had a Romantic drama that was all its own: strongly leavened with lyric motives, and inspired by passionate chivalry, and what might almost be called passionate devoutness. Its two great masters, Lope de Vega and Calderon, have been poets of the 'I have developed this idea in my Introduction to J. D. Bruner's Victor Hugo's Dramatic Characters (Ginn); and Mr. Bruner's able analysis of the characters furnishes copious illustrations. highest genius and of almost incredible fertility. It is remarkable that the Romantic drama of Spain and the Romantic drama of England, while roughly contemporaneous, yet were in the main independent the one of the other. The influence of Spanish drama has been exerted on matter rather than on form: its stories and situations have contributed largely to the 'romance' which English and French poets have dramatized. Italy has a drama of its own, and led other nations in opera and ballet, and in the pastoral type of drama which has run a course through other European literatures. German drama was late in its appearance; but in Lessing and Schiller and Goethe has been cosmopolitan in character. At various periods specialized types have been in evidence, such as the heroic tragedy of Dryden, the comic drama of the Restoration in England, comedies of intrigue and comedies of manners; the comedy of sentiment; the literary burlesque of which the Rehearsal is an example; the problem drama in vogue at the present time. The modern nations of Europe are dramatically active, with the drama of Ibsen in the lead. But this drama of Ibsen itself shows various types: possibly the social plays now so popular will in the future be less prominent than such plays as The Pretenders, Peer Gynt, and the greatest of historical dramasthe ten-act drama of Emperor and Galilean. The review of all these types belongs to literary history. In connection with the morphology of our world literature the important point is that differentiation of dramatic types, which has always been in operation, is now free from any counteracting influences. The Mediaeval drama is of course obsolete. Classical and Romantic drama have spent their force: they remain as magnificent types, which can be imitated, but have no longer any dominating influence. The dramatic inspiration of our own times is free to mold its matter in any form that conduces to poetic effectiveness, without restraint from preconceptions of orthodox type. CHAPTER IX EVOLUTION IN LYRIC POETRY Lyric stands in a different position in our world literature from that of the other two branches of poetry. There is nothing in the field of lyric poetry corresponding to Homer in epic, or to Greek tragedy and comedy in drama. The morphological variations of lyric poetry seem natural; that is to say, they seem to arise from what is inherent in the nature of lyric poetry, without disturbing force from the paramount influence of some special type. The prominent points in the morphology of our lyric poetry are suggested in tabular form on page 198 (Chart XVIII). I In the chapter on literary elements, we noted as a fundamental property of lyric its power of mediating between the other two forms: how, without ceasing to be lyric, it could at any point take up epic narration, or pass into the presentative form of drama.1 This flexibility of lyric form is likely to show itself in any elaborate poem. Take, for example, The Bard of Gray, which announces itself as a Pindaric ode. At the commencement the poem is in a degree dramatic, for its opening words are addressed by the outraged Bard on his inacessible cliff to the English King moving with his army on the slopes beneath: 'Ruin sieze thee, ruthless King! Confusion on thy banners wait.' A few lines farther on we have the simple epic narration of the poet: Such were the sounds that o'er the crested pride Of the first Edward scattered wild dismay, As down the steep of Snowdon's shaggy side • Above, pages 44 ff. between Individual: the great mass of songs, odes, etc. Objective: the mood | Hymns and ritual-Incantations prescribed from without -Encomia-(modern) Elegies Occasional poems: PINDAREpithalamia, etc. Subjective: the crystallization of particular moods and sentiments: Love songs-Horatian odes-'Lyrics' par excellence miscellaneous differentiation into unlimited number of types: lyric form readily coalescing with other forms (e.g., in Browning) 4. Inspiration of Technique 5. Lyric Compounding Sonnet Brevities (miniature Freer form of Biblical sonnet-or earlier Euro pean (compare Hekatom pathia) Specific form of Italian and English sonnet: [Compare 'forms of false wit' in Addison's Spectator, No. 58] Biblical epigrams and number sonnets Classical and modern epigrams-especially the Greek Anthology and Martial Sanskrit quatrains Japanese 'tanka' [syllabic form] The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam The Odes of Horace-Sanskrit centuries Biblical Hallels-The Songs of Ascents Biblical acrostic poems-especially Lamentations Especially: Sonnet sequences (implying creative frame): |