the shepherds search his home, they find it and he and his wife pass it off as an elf-child; but the shepherds are not deceived, and the play ends by their giving Mak a good trouncing. This episode has the distinction of being the first of its kind.

ENGLISH DRAMA

Question. Did English comedy develop independently from the introduction of the comic episode into the morality play?

Answer. Yes; although it was influenced by the revived interest in the drama of the classic period during the Renaissance in England in the fifteenth century.

Q. Trace the steps in the development of the English comedy from this comic episode.

A. The morality play was followed by another type of play, known as the interlude, which marked an important transition; with it the allegorical personification of virtues and vices was abandoned.

Q. Who perfected the interlude?

A. John Heywood.

Q. Which is the best known of his Interludes?

A. "Four P's; a Merry Interlude of a Palmer, a Pardoner, a Potycary, and a Pedlar." This was true comedy. Heywood died in 1565, when Shakespeare was a year old.

Q. To what did the interlude lead?

A. It led directly to the more fully elaborated plays. The year 1551 witnessed the full-fledged English comedy by Udall, with the title of "Ralph Royster Doyster."

Q. What served as a basis for the development of tragedy?

A. The histories of the kings of England and the British and English legends.

Q. What were the first plays having historical bases called?

A. Chronicle plays.

Q. What were some of the English Chronicle plays?

A. "The Misfortunes of Arthur," "The History of King Leir and his Three Daughters," "Famous Victories of Henry V," "The Contention of the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster."

Q. What is the first regular tragedy in Eng

lish?

A. Norton and Sackville's "Gorboduc" (1562). The plot was suggested by the old chronicle play, "Leir and his Three Daughters," and the form was an imitation of the classic drama of Seneca, which form was appropriated by subsequent dramatic writers.

Q. What is a melodrama?

A. A dramatic effort in which the music is of moderate merit and the plot and scenes of a decidedly romantic and sensational character. Q. How did it originate?

A. First it was a dramatic composition in which vocal or instrumental music alternated with the dialogue, probably first used in Germany. Its beginnings are noticeable in "The Frog of Blood," by Thomas Kyd, which appeared in 1605.

Q. What are its characteristics?

A. It always has a tragic element; it usually has a comedy intrigue and incongruous deductions, evolved from a golden-haired heroine and a dyed-in-the-wool villain. The great redeeming point of melodrama is that it always upholds virtue at the expense of vice.

Q. Name some well-known modern melodramas.

A. "Uncle Tom's Cabin," by Harriet Beecher Stowe; "The Count of Monte Cristo," by Dumas père; "The Two Orphans," translated from the French.

Q. What is a comedy?

A. A play which ends happily.

"The test of

true comedy is that it shall awaken thoughtful

laughter."

Q. Give some important comedies and their authors between the tragedy "Gorboduc and the plays of Shakespeare.

A. "Alexander and Campaspe," by John Lyly; "The Old Wives' Tale," by George Peele; and "The Honourable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay," by Robert Greene.

Q. Name some important tragedies of this period.

A. "The Spanish Tragedy," by Thomas Kyd; "A Woman Killed with Kindness," by Thomas Heywood; "The Witch of Edmonton," by Ford and Dekker. The greatest tragedies were written by Christopher Marlowe. They are "The Jew of Malta," "Doctor Faustus," "Tamburlaine," and "Edward II." Marlowe of the "mighty line" established blank verse as the form for tragedy. He was born in the same year as Shakespeare, 1564, and was killed in a tavern brawl at the age of twenty-nine. It is safe to say that had he lived he might have equalled Shakespeare in many respects.

Q. What position does Shakespeare occupy? A. The first in the world's dramatic literature. Q. What are the undisputed facts regarding him?

A. His birth at Stratford on Avon in 1564,