Description
Excerpt from Gorboduc, or Ferrex and Porrex: A Tragedy
At the beginning of Elizabeth''s reign before the birth of Shakespeare (a. D. 1558) there was an English Drama and there was an English stage, but both were in a State of transition. The English people of old loved shows and plays, and the clergy here as elsewhere had skillfully turned this natural taste to account by encou raging and permitting the representation of Biblical history. For ages the religion of the nation informed poetry and literature, and thus sought to make felt its human and picturesque elements, to the glory of God or of the Virgin; hence we have the Cursor Mandi and the collections of Mystery plays, without which there would not have been in later times a Milton''s Paradise Lost or perhaps even a George Her bert''s Temple.
The religious plays so popular down to the time of the Reformation, were dramas with actors, scenes, and a stage. We know less perhaps of the origin of their literary form than of the manner of their produc tion, but they had some in?uence upon other forms of the dramatic genius, though (as is contended) what is called the regular English drama did not immediately grow out of them. The desire for Show and personified ideals, animated by the new stirrings of Wycliffe, which had inspired the Vision of Piers Plowman, when touched by the increasing moral sense of the Reformation spirit.
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Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
At the beginning of Elizabeth''s reign before the birth of Shakespeare (a. D. 1558) there was an English Drama and there was an English stage, but both were in a State of transition. The English people of old loved shows and plays, and the clergy here as elsewhere had skillfully turned this natural taste to account by encou raging and permitting the representation of Biblical history. For ages the religion of the nation informed poetry and literature, and thus sought to make felt its human and picturesque elements, to the glory of God or of the Virgin; hence we have the Cursor Mandi and the collections of Mystery plays, without which there would not have been in later times a Milton''s Paradise Lost or perhaps even a George Her bert''s Temple.
The religious plays so popular down to the time of the Reformation, were dramas with actors, scenes, and a stage. We know less perhaps of the origin of their literary form than of the manner of their produc tion, but they had some in?uence upon other forms of the dramatic genius, though (as is contended) what is called the regular English drama did not immediately grow out of them. The desire for Show and personified ideals, animated by the new stirrings of Wycliffe, which had inspired the Vision of Piers Plowman, when touched by the increasing moral sense of the Reformation spirit.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Details
Publisher - Forgotten Books
Author(s) - Thomas Norton
Hardback
Published Date -
ISBN - 9780265548912
Dimensions - 22.9 x 15.2 x 1 cm
Page Count - 134
Paperback
Published Date -
ISBN - 9781334050725
Dimensions -
Page Count -
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