dated as beginning with the reign of the last king of Poland, Stanislaus II. Augustus, who in 1765 solemnly opened a national Polish. theatre at Warsaw. This institution was carried on till the fatal year 1794, and saw the production of a considerable number of Polish plays, mostly translated or adapted, but in part original—as in the case of one or two of those from the active pen of the secretary to the educational commission, Zablonski. But it was not till after the last partition that, paradoxically though not wholly out of accordance with the history of the relations between political and literary history, the attempts of W. Bogulawski and J. N. Kaminski to establish and carry on a Polish national theatre were crowned with success. Its literary mainstay was a gifted Franco-Pole, Count Alexander Fredro (1793–1876), who in the period between the Napoleonic revival and the long exodus fathered a long-lived species of modern Polish comedy, French in origin (for Fredro was a true disciple of Molière), and wholly out of contact with the sentiment that survived in the ashes of a doomed nation.[1] His complaint as to the exiguity of the Polish literary public—a brace of theatres and a bookseller’s handcart—may have been premature; but a national drama was most certainly impossible in a denationalised and dismembered land, in whose historic capital the theatre in which Polish plays continued to be produced seemed garrisoned by Cossack officers.
Much in the same way, though with a characteristic difference, the Russian regular drama had its origin in the cadet corps at St Petersburg, a pupil of which, A. Sumarokov (1718–1777), has been regarded as the founder of the modern Russian theatre. As a tragic poet he seems to have imitated Racine and Voltaire, Russian.though treating themes from the national history, among others the famous dramatic subject of the False Demetrius. He also translated Hamlet. As a comic dramatist he is stated to have been less popular than as a tragedian; yet it is in comedy that he would seem to have had the most noteworthy successors. Among these it is impossible to pass by the empress Catherine II., whose comedies seem to have been satirical sketches of the follies and foibles of her subjects, and who in one comedy as well as in a tragedy had the courage to imitate Shakespeare. Comedy aiming at social satire long continued to temper the conditions of Russian society, and had representatives of mark in such writers as A. N. Ostrovsky of Moscow and Griboyedov, the author of Gore et uma.
In any survey of the Slav drama that of the Czech peoples, whose national consciousness has so fully reawakened, must not be overlooked. A Czech theatre was called into life at Prague as early as the 18th century; and in the 19th its demands, centring in a sense of nationality, were met by J. N. Stepinek (1783–1844), W. C. Klicpera (1792–1859) and J. C. Tyl (1808–1856); and later writers continued to make use of the stage for a propaganda of historical as well as political significance.
Bibliography.—The following works treat the general theory of the drama and the dramatic art, together with the principles of dramaturgy and of the art of acting. Works which have reference to the drama of a particular period or of a particular nation only are mentioned separately. Works which deal with special authors only have been intentionally omitted in this bibliography, as being mentioned in the articles in the several authors.
Aristotle’s Poetics (text and transl. by S. H. Butcher, London, 1895; transl. by T. Twining, London, 1812; see also Donaldson’s Theatre of the Greeks); H. Baumgart, Aristoteles, Lessing, u. Goethe. Über das ethische u. ästhetische Princip der Tragödie (Leipzig, 1877); H. A. Bulthaupt, Dramaturgie des Schauspiels (4 vols., Oldenburg u. Leipzig, 1893–1902); L. Campbell, Tragic Drama in Aeschylus, Sophocles and Shakespeare (London, 1904); P. Corneille, Discours du poëme dramatique—de la tragédie—des trois unités, Œuvres, vol. i. (Paris, 1862); W. L. Courtney, The Idea of Tragedy in Ancient and Modern Drama (Westminster, 1900); Diderot, De la poésie dramatique. Entretiens sur le Fils Naturel, Œuvres complètes, vii. (Paris, 1875); J. Dryden, Essay of Dramatic Poesy and other critical essays (Essays of J. Dryden, ed. W. P. Ker, 2 vols., Oxford, 1900); G. Freytag, Die Technik des Dramas (5th ed., Leipzig, 1886); G. W. F. Hegel, Vorlesungen über Ästhetik, ed. H. G. Hotho, bd. 3, chap. iii. c. Die dramatische Poesie (Werke, x. 3; Berlin, 1838); G. Larroumet, Études d’histoire et de critique dramatiques, 2 sér. (Paris, 1892–1899); G. E. Lessing, Hamburgische Dramaturgie. Erläutert von F. Schröter u. R. Thiele (Halle, 1877); Materialien zu Lessing’s Hamburgische Dramaturgie, von W. Cosack (Paderborn, 1876); G. H. Lewes, On Actors and the Art of Acting (London, 1875); Sir T. Martin, Essays on the Drama (London, 1874); K. Mantzius, History of Theatrical Art in Ancient and Modern Times, transl. by L. von Cossel (London, 1903, &c.); G. Meredith, Essay on Comedy (Westminster, 1897); R. Prolss, Katechismus der Dramaturgie (Leipzig, 1877); H. T. Rötscher, Die Kunst der dramatischen Darstellung (3 vols., Berlin, 1841–1846); Jahrbücher für dramatische Kunst u. Literatur (Berlin and Frankfort, 1848–1849); P. de Saint-Victor, Les Deux Masques, tragédie—comédie (3rd ed., 3 vols., Paris, 1881, &c.); Saint-Marc Girardin, Cours de littérature dramatique (7th ed., 5 vols., Paris, 1868); A. W. von Schlegel, Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature (Eng. transl., London, 1846); Sir W. Scott, Essays on Chivalry, Romance and the Drama (including his article “Drama” written for the Supplement to the 4th edition of the Ency. Brit., and reprinted in the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th editions); F. T. Vischer, Ästhetik, vol. iv. (Stuttgart, 1857).
The fullest general history of the drama extant is J. L. Klein’s Geschichte des Dramas, 13 vols. and index (Leipzig, 1865–1886). See also, for encyclopaedic information, W. Davenport Adams, A Dictionary of the Drama, vol. i. (London, 1904); C. M. E. Béquet, Encyclopédie de l’art dramatique (Paris, 1886); A. Pougin, Dictionnaire historique et pittoresque du théâtre et des arts qui s’y rattachent (Paris, 1885).
The drama of the Eastern nations is generally treated in:—A. P. Brozzi, Teatri e spettacoli dei popoli orientali Ebrei, Arabi, Persani, Indiani, Cinesi, Giapponesi e Giavanesi (Milan, 1887); Comte J. A. de Gobineau, Les Religions et les philosophies dans l’Asie centrale (2nd ed., Paris, 1866).
The following works deal with the Indian drama:—M. Schuyler, Bibliography of the Sanskrit Drama (Columbia Univ., Indo-Iranian, ser. iii., New York, 1906); H. H. Wilson, Select Specimens of the Theatre of the Hindus, transl. from the original Sanskrit (with introduction on the dramatic system of the Hindus), 3rd ed., 2 vols. (London, 1871); S. Levi, Le Théâtre indien (supplements Wilson) (Paris, 1891).
For Chinese:—Tscheng-Ki-Tong, Le Théâtre des Chinois (Paris, 1886); see also H. A. Giles, History of Chinese Literature (London, 1901).
For Japanese:—C. Florenz, Gesch. d. japan. Litteratur, vol. i. 1 (Leipzig, 1905); see also F. Brinkley, Japan, its History, Arts and Literature, vol. iii. (Boston and Tokyo, 1901).
For Persian:—A. Chodzko, Théâtre persan. Choix de téaziés ou drames, traduits pour la première fois du persan par A. Chodzko (Paris, 1878); E. Montet, Le Théâtre en Perse (Geneva, 1888); Sir L. Pelly, The Miracle Play of Hasan and Husain, collected from oral tradition; revised with explanatory notes by A. N. Wollaston (2 vols., London, 1879).
Of works treating of the ancient Greek and Roman drama only a small selection can be given here. In the case of the Greek drama, the chief histories of literature—such as G. Bernhardy’s, K. O. Müller’s (Eng. tr. by Sir G. C. Lewis, with continuation by J. W. Donaldson) and G. Murray’s—and general histories—such as Grote’s, Thirlwall’s, Curtius’s, &c.—should also be consulted; and for the administration and finance of the Attic theatre, Boeckh’s Public Economy of Athens, Eng. tr. (London, 1842). Much useful information will be found in A Companion to Greek Studies, ed. by L. Whibley (Cambridge, 1905). The standard collective edition of the ancient Greek dramatic poets is the Poetae scenici Graeci, ed. C. W. Dindorf (5th ed., Leipzig, 1869), and that of the Comic poets A. Meineke’s Historia critica comicorum Graecorum. Cum fragmentis (5 vols., Berlin, 1839–1857). Aristotle’s Poetics, cited above, will of course be consulted for the theory of the Greek drama in particular; and much valuable critical matter will be found in passages of Bentley’s Phalaris (1699), which are reprinted in Donaldson’s Theatre of the Greeks. The following later works, some of which treat of the ancient classical drama in general, may be noted:—E. A. Chaignet, La Tragédie grecque (Paris, 1877); J. Denys, Histoire de la comédie grecque (2 vols., Paris, 1886); J. W. Donaldson, The Theatre of the Greeks (7th ed., London, 1860); Du Méril, Histoire de la comédie. Période primitive (Paris, 1864); Histoire de la comédie ancienne (Paris, 1869); A. E. Haigh, The Tragic Drama of the Greeks (Oxford, 1896); The Attic Theatre (Oxford, 1898); G. Körting, Gesch. des Theaters in seinen Beziehungen zur Kunstentwickelung der dramatischen Dichtkunst, Bd. i. Gesch. des griechischen u. römischen Theaters (Paderborn, 1897); R. G. Moulton, The Ancient Classical Drama (Oxford, 1898); M. Patin, Étude sur les tragiques grecs (3 vols., Paris, 1861); C. M. Rapp, Gesch. des griechischen Schauspiels vom Standpunkt der dramatischen Kunst (Tubingen, 1862); H. Weil, Études sur le drame antique (Paris, 1897); F. G. Welcker, “Die griechischen Tragödien, mit Rücksicht auf den epischen Cyklus” (Rhein. Mus. Suppl. ii.) 3 pts. (Bonn, 1839–1841).
In addition to the works of individual Roman dramatists, and critical writings concerning them, see Scaenicae Romanorum poësis fragmenta, 2 vols. (I. Tragic, II. Comic) ed. by O. Ribbeck (3rd ed. Leipzig, 1897–1898). W. S. Teuffel’s History of Roman Literature, Eng. tr. (2 vols., London, 1891–1892), and M. Schanz’ Gesch. der römischen Litteratur bis Justinian (2 vols., Munich, 1890–1892), may be consulted for a complete view of the course of the Roman drama. For its later developments consult Dean Merivale’s History of the
- ↑ Pan Jowialski; Oludki i Poeta (The Misanthrope and the Poet).
