ON THE

DRAMATIC LITERATURE

OF THE

AGE OF ELIZABETH.

BY WILLIAM HAZLITT,

NEW YORK:
JOHN WILEY, 161 BROADWAY,

AND 13 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.

1849.

AS A TRIBUTE

TO PUBLIC VIRTUE AND PRIVATE WORTH,

AND AS A MEMORIAL OF LONG AND TRIED FRIENDSHIP,

THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED, IN THE

NAME OF ITS AUTHOR,

TO

.BASIL MONTAGƯ.

1 DEC 1951

LIBRARY

CONTENTS

LECTURE I.

Introductory.-General View of the Subject ............

PAOB

LECTURE II.

On the Dramatic Writers contemporary with Shakspeare, Lyly, Mar-

lowe, Heywood, Middleton, and Rowley.........

.......... 22

LECTURE III.

On Marston, Chapman, Decker and Webster .......

......... 57

LECTURE IV.

On Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Ford, and Massinger..... .... 85

LECTURE V.

On single plays, Poems, &c., the Four P's, the Return from Parnassus,

Gammer Gurton's Needle, and other Works ........

......115

LECTURE VI.

On Miscellaneous Poems, F. Beaumont, P. Fletcher, Drayton, Daniel,

&c., Sir P. Sidney's Arcadia, and Sonnets......

...........138

LECTURE VII.

Character of Lord Bacon's Works—compared as to style with Sir Thos.

Brown and Jeremy Taylor........

.........174

LECTURE VIII.

On the Spirit of Ancient and Modern Literature-on the German Drama,

contrasted with that of the Age of Elizabeth...

......................195