Elizabethan Dramatists Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, Jonsons Every Man in His Humour, Beaumont and Fletcher's, Philaster With an Introduction and Notes

Excerpt from Elizabethan Dramatists Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, Jonsons Every Man in His Humour, Beaumont and Fletcher's, Philaster With an Introduction and NotesIT is not the purpose of this introduction to trace the history of English drama from its origin, but rather to present as brie?y as may be the conditions in which that marvellous production of Elizabethan days came forth. We must pass by the old liturgical plays, the mysteries, miracles, interludes, and masks that served as forerunners of the perfected form. The lines between tragedy and comedy had been fixed, and the struggle between classic and romantic types was well on when Marlowe of the mighty line went to London to find his fortune, not to make it. The causes of that tremendous burst of lyrical and dramatic splendor are in part conjectural. Literature is an expression of life, national and individual; and whenever there comes to the individual or to soci ety a realization and recognition of self, there comes also the expression of that idea. Neither conception nor expression can be dragged or driven, cajoled or coaxed. Conditions and men are equally essential.