A

COURSE OF LECTURES

ON

DRAMATIC ART AND LITERATURE,

BY

AUGUSTUS WILLIAM SCHLEGEL.

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGIVAL GERMAN

BY JOHN BLACK.

Second Edition.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

LONDON:

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.-Criticisin 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.

39

LECTURE XII.

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.

337

LECTURE XV.

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

.

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