Frederick Wilse Bateson
Published: 2018-03-18
Total Pages: 168
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Excerpt from English Comic Drama, 1700-1750 Acurious ceremony ushered in the eighteenth century in England. By the old calendar the new century began on the zyth of March 1700, and on the evening of the 25th an inaugural pageant, in the form of a kind of allegorical ballet, was produced at Drury Lane, printed copies being 'deliver'd Gratis at the Theatre The moving spirits in the affair seem to have been Dryden and Vanbrugh, and probably Colley Cibber. The text was published again in June with the title, A Secular Masque and the information that it had been 'written by the late Great Poet Mr. Dryden, just before his Death, being the last of his Works'. The masque, in itself and because of the circumstances of its origin, is one of the most remarkable 'documents' in the history of criticism. Its interest is its self-consciousness. It might plausibly be described as a port 7720776772 by the age upon itself. It is a deliberate and considered epitome of the civilization of the preceding hundred years; and it exhibits for the last time that quality, or combination of qualities, which had distinguished their literature. From one point of view, indeed, the poem may be taken as a piéce dejurtzfcation. The declamation by Diana beginning. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
