Drama

The form of composition designed for performance in the theater, in which actors take the roles of the characters, perform the indicated action, and utter the written dialogue. (The common alternative name for a dramatic composition is a play.) In poetic drama the dialogue is written in verse, which in English is usually blank verse and in French is the twelve-syllable line called an Alexandrine; almost all the heroic dramas of the English Restoration Period, however, were written in heroic couplets (iambic pentameter lines rhyming in pairs).-MH Abrams

Drama in England had its origin in religion; it grew out of Liturgy (a religious ceremony) of the church. The early religious plays were broadly of the two types: The Mysteries, based upon the subjects taken from the Bible; and The Miracles play dealing with the lives of saints. It was written by clergy and acted by the clergy within the church, and its language was Latin. The Morality Plays marked the next stage in the growth of drama in England. These plays were also didactic and religious in nature, but the characters were not drawn from the scriptures on the lives of the saints but were personified abstractions. Through such personifications was represented the conflict in the human soul.

The Elizabethan Age is the golden age of English drama. It was now that plays came to be divided into five acts and a number of scenes. Strictly speaking the drama has two divisions: comedy and tragedy, in which are included the many subordinate forms of tragicomedy, mellow-drama, lyric or opera drama, farce, comedy of humors, satire etc.

In the Golden Age drama was everywhere. In this age, a mixed mode of drama was developed called Tragicomedy, a popular non- Aristotelian form. Tragicomedy is a type of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama which intermingled with the both standard of characters and the subject matters with the standard plot form of tragedy and comedy. 

The second period of the Elizabethan Drama was dominated by "University Wits", for they all were university educated men. All of them began as actors, revised old plays and then became independent writers. In the Elizabethan Age, Shakespeare’s plays had raised the drama to the highest level of perfection; but after him, that is, during the Jacobean period (1603-25) and even thereafter during the Caroline period, the drama decayed quickly. Ben Jonson’s ode “Come Leave the Loathed Stage” is the judgement of a large and honest nature grown weary of the plays and the players of the Elizabethan time. We read with a sense of relief that in 1642, only twenty-six year after Shakespeare’s death, both houses of Parliament voted to close the theaters as breeders of lies and immortality.

As we know, the theatres in England were closed during the commonwealth in 1642. All the dramatic activities had almost come down to a stand still during this Puritannic Age. But on the restoration of King Charles II in 1660, the theatres were reopened, and dramatic activities restarted with full vigour and zeal. Thus, the drama was closed in England for a short period and it was restarted after 1660 known as Restoration drama. The Comedy of Manner is a peculiar product of Restoration Era, and it reflects the very spirit of the age. Congreve is supreme master of this kind of drama and The Way of the World is best comedy.

As far the drama is concerned, 18th century is considered as a barren period having only half-a dozen names of drama. John Gay’s balled opera The Beggar’s Opera 1718 is one of the outstanding achievements of the English stage in 18th century. Only two men of genius appear on the scene in Oliver Goldsmith and Richard Sheridan, they make the seventies century of the eighteenth century one of the distinguished periods in English drama.

Early in the Romantic Age a new kind of play came to be written, Poetic Play, a special type of play which is basically different from the normal stage play. The Poetic Play is complete in itself. It can be read and enjoyed by the reader in his own closet or study-room without any external aid. The principle writers of poetic plays were practically all the Romantic poets including Wordsworth, Byron, Southey, Shelley, Keats and later on Tennyson and Browning.

 But Form the dramatic point of view, the first half of 19th century was almost completely barren. It was not until the nineties or last of the Victorian Age, when the influence of Ibsen was making itself strongly felt, and Shaw produced his first days using the serious drama for consideration of social, domestic or personal problems. It was Ibsen whose work become known in England about 1890 and gave enormous impetus to the realistic movement. He claims the credit for extending the scope of Modern dramatist. No account of revival of English drama can be complete without a consideration of the contribution of Bernard Shaw. He brought to the English stage, a type of drama entirely new--- a type, which only few could follow--- Comedy of Purpose.

The beginning of 20th century marked a revolt against the traditions and customs of the Victorian Age, and new values and ideas began to be cherished and stressed. New problems arose and the dramatist, artists, novelists and poets took upon themselves the task of discussing various problems in their works. During the early decades of 20th century there was a Revival of Comedy of Manners. In it, wit and sparkling dialogues are chief source of interests.

In Modern times, as life became more and more busy, Three Act plays came into vogue. Still further on, even the Three Act play was replaced by One Act play. So much so that even Shakespearean play is now acted on the stage in an abridged form. Now most of the dramatists are writing One Act plays.