J. TEMPLEMAN, 248, REGENT STREET;

J. R. SMITH, 4, OLD COMPTON STREET, SOHO.

MDCCCXL.

340.

CONTENTS TO VOL. II.

LECTURE X.-(Continued.)

French tragic theatre.

Page 1

LECTURE XI.

French comedy.-Molière.-Criticism of his works.-Scarron,

Boursault, Regnard; Comedies in the time of the Regency;

Marivaux and Destouches; Piron and Gresset.-Later at-

tempts. The heroic opera.-Quinault.-Operettes and Vau-

devilles. Diderot's attempted change of the theatre.-The

weeping drama.-Beamarchais.-Melo-dramas.-Merits and

defects of the histrionic art.

-

LECTURE XII.

39

Comparison of the English and Spanish theatres.-Spirit of the

romantic drama. Shakspeare. His age and the circum-

stances of his life.-How far costume is necessary, or may be

dispensed with.-Shakspeare the greatest drawer of characters.

--Vindication of the genuineness of his pathos.- Play on

words. Moral delicacy.-Irony.-Mixture of the tragic and

comic.—The part of the Fool or Clown.-Shakspeare's lan-

guage and versification.-Account of his several works: co-

medies, tragedies, and historical dramas.-Appendix on the

pieces of Shakspeare said to be spurious.

94

LECTURE XIII.

Two periods of the English theatre ;-the first the most im-

portant. The first conformation of the stage, and its ad-

vantages.-State of the histrionic art in Shakspeare's time.—

Antiquities of dramatic literature. Lilly, Marlow, Hey-

wood.- Ben Jonson.- Criticism of his works. - Masks. -

Beaumont and Fletcher.-General characterisation of these

poets, and remarks on some of their pieces.-Massinger and

other contemporaries of Charles the First.-Closing of the

stage by the Puritans.-Revival of the stage under Charles the

Second.-Depravity of taste and morals.-Dryden, Otway, and

others. Characterisation of the comic poets from Wycherley

and Congreve to the middle of the eighteenth century.—

Tragedies of the same period. - Rowe.-Addison's Cato.

-Later pieces.-Familiar tragedy: Lillo.-Garrick.-Latest

state.

269

LECTURE XIV.

Spanish Theatre.-Its three periods; Cervantes, Lope de Vega,

Calderon.-Spirit of the Spanish poetry in general.-Influence

of the national history on it.-Form, and various species of the

Spanish drama.- Decline since the beginning of the eigh-

teenth century.

LECTURE XV.

337

Origin of the German theatre.-Hans Sachs.-Gryphius.-The

age of Gottsched.-Wretched imitation of the French.-Les-

sing, Geothe, and Schiller.-Review of their works. Their

influence on chivalrous dramas, affecting dramas, and family

pictures.-Prospect for futurity.

366

LECTURES

ON

DRAMATIC LITERATURE.

CONTINUATION OF

LECTURE X.

FRENCH TRAGIC THEATRE.

A NEW epoch of French Tragedy begins with Voltaire, whose first appearance on the theatre, in his early youth, followed close upon the age of Louis the Fourteenth. I have already, in a general way, alluded to the changes and enlargements which he projected, and partly carried into execution. Corneille and Racine may be said to have led a true artist's life: they were dramatic poets with their whole soul; their desire, as authors, was confined to that object alone, and all their studies were directed to the stage. But Voltaire wished to shine in every possible department; a restless vanity would not allow him to be satisfied with the attempt to attain perfection in any one walk of literature; and from the