This presentation is made as a part of semester 1 presentation. This presentation is based on the topic of the emergence and the Development of English Drama.

1. The 󰉍󰈩󰉏󰇵󰈘op󰈚󰈩󰈞t 󰈢󰇾
En󰈇󰈘is󰈊 D󰈹󰈀m󰇽

2. Prepared by Trushali Dodiya
Roll no:- 21
Enrollment no:- 4069206420220011
Sem:- 1(M. A.) Batch:- 2022-24
Paper no. :-105 Paper Code:- 22396
Paper name:- The History of English Literature
Submitted to:- Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of
English, M.K.B.U.
Dated on:- 19/10/2022
Email:- trushalidodiya84@gmail.com

3. Po󰈎n󰉃󰈼 t󰈢 󰇼e 󰇶󰈎s󰇹󰉊󰈼se󰇷
● In󰉃󰈹od󰉉󰇹󰉄󰈏on
● Mir󰈀󰇹󰈘󰇵s 󰈥󰈘ay󰈻
● My󰈻󰉄er󰉘 󰈦l󰈀󰉘
● Mor󰈀󰈗 󰈦󰇵ri󰈡󰇷
● Ar󰉃i󰈼t󰈎󰇹 󰈦󰇵ri󰈡󰇷
● Dec󰈗󰈎󰈞󰇵 of D󰈸󰈀󰈛󰇽
● Lat󰈩󰈸 󰉍󰇵󰉐el󰈡󰈥󰈛󰇵n󰉃 o󰇿 Dr󰈀󰈚󰇽
● Con󰇹󰈘󰉉s󰈏o󰈝

4. In󰉃󰈹od󰉉󰇹󰉄󰈏on
According to Merriam Webster dictionary:-
“Drama is a composition in verse or prose intended to portray life
or character or tell a story usually involving conflicts and emotions
through action and dialogue and typically designed for theatrical
performance”.
● The word drama came in English in 16th century via Latin from
Greek word “dran” means “Do,or Act”

5. According to William J Long, the development of
the Drama in English can be classified into three
main periods:-
1. The Religious period
2. The Moral period
3. The Artistic period (Long)

6. ● In Europe, the drama was originated in Religion
● The first character is from new Testament
● Aim:- to make service of the Church more
impressive and give moral lessons
● In Roman Empire, church found stage possessed
by Corrupt plays, so it was forbidden by the church
(boycott)
● Soon Church itself provided these play in the form
of Mystery and miracles

7. Mir󰈀󰇹󰈘󰇵 p󰈗a󰉙s
● Representation of the lives of Saints, origin in the
Bible
● Only one record of Miracle plays in English
The Ludus de Sancta Katharina in 1110
● Chief actors speak Latin and French and minor
characters speak in English
● In 1300, it were out of ecclesiastical hand
● Later on Church started preaching
against these drama
● It was replaced by the Elizabethan
Drama

8. ● Scenes from the life of Christ and stories from the old Testament
with the coming of Messiah
● Divided into two classes:-
○ At Christmas:- Birth of Christ
○ At Easter :- His death and triumph
● Performed on various localities, United in single cycle
● Beginning with the Creation and ending with the Final Judgement
(Beadle)
My󰈻󰉄er󰉘 󰈦l󰈀󰉘󰈼

9. ● Presented every spring on Corpus
Christi Day
● At present four cycles exist:-
Chester, York, Towneley or
Wakefield and Coventry.
● Humour
● No originality in the plot was
possible, only variety in songs and
jokes, and in the prank of the
devil. (Long)

10. ● Allegorical personage i.e., virtues and
vices
● Free scope for imagination
● Character of Vice - similar to our
modern Clown and Jester
● Ended with the triumph of virtue and
punishment to the devil ● Interludes:-
Originated in a
sense of humour
Mor󰈀󰈗 󰈦󰇵ri󰈡󰇷

11. ● Representation of human life as it is
● First play in English “Ralph Royater Doyster” by Nicholas
Udall - mixture of classic and English
● First domestic Comedy- “Gammer Gurton’s Middle
● First tragedy:- “Gorboduc” by Sackville and Norton -
blank verse
Two schools of writing:-
● The University wits
● Two school wits:- Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton
Ar󰉃i󰈼t󰈎󰇹 󰈦󰇵ri󰈡󰇷

12. ● The decline of the Drama begins with Johnson and continued with
Beaumont and Fletcher, Dekker, Heywood.
● Chief reasons of the fall of the Drama:
1. Narrowing of the ample of Shakespearean motive, which
comprises all mankind, into themes of temporary, local and
fragmentary importance.
2. Superficial improvisation
3. Lack of creative power
4. Vulgarity
Temporary Banned in the Puritan Age- Massinger and Ford continued
Elizabethan spirit. (Albert)
Dec󰈗󰈎󰈞󰇵 of D󰈸󰈀󰈛󰇽

13. Lat󰈩󰈸 󰉍󰇵󰉐el󰈡󰈥󰈛󰇵n󰉃 o󰇿 Dr󰈀󰈚󰇽
● In the Neo Classical and Victorian period - Novel
● Henry Fielding, Pope, Steele, Samuel Johnson, Goldsmith, Charles
Dickens
● The Romantic period - Poetry
● Scott, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Tennyson, Thackeray, Browning
In ‘Retrospect of Drama’, Henry Beers says that “Drama is not meant to
be read, but to acted… The Drama can subsist without any dialogue at
all, as in pantomime.
According to Brander Matthew “The skeleton of Every play is a
Pantomime.” (Beers)

14. The 󰉃󰈋󰈩󰇽t󰈸e, 󰈎󰈞d󰇵e󰇷 󰈎󰈼 n󰈢󰉃 󰇶e󰈀d; 󰈏󰉃 󰈋as 󰇹󰈡󰈞t󰈏󰈝u󰈩󰇶 t󰈢
li󰉏󰈩 󰇽󰈞d 󰉃o 󰇿l󰈡󰉊󰈸i󰈼h, 󰈀󰈝󰇶 󰈏t 󰇾󰈘o󰉉r󰈏󰈻󰈋in󰈇 󰈩󰈞t󰇵󰈸󰉄a󰈎n󰈚󰇵󰈞t
to 󰈥󰉉󰇻l󰈏󰇹 󰉄o-d󰈀󰉘 󰇽󰈼 it 󰇷󰈎󰇶 t󰉒󰈢 󰈋un󰇷󰈹󰈩d 󰈚󰇽󰉙, t󰉒o
t󰈊o󰉉󰈼󰇽n󰇷 󰉙e󰈀r󰈻 󰇽󰈈o. (B󰈩󰇵r󰈻)

15. Wor󰈔 󰉑󰈎󰉄󰇵d
Beadle, R., & King, P. M. (1999). York mystery plays: A selection in modern
spelling. Oxford University Press.
Beers, Henry A. “Retrospects of the Drama.” The North American Review, vol.
185, no. 619, 1907, pp. 623–34. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25105939.
Accessed 19 Oct. 2022.
“Drama Definition & Meaning.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-
Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/drama.
Long, William. English Literature, Its History and Its Significance for the Life of
the English-Speaking World. Enl. Ed. Ginn and Co, 1945,
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10609/pg10609-images.html, Accessed
2004.

16. Thank you