The Old English Dramatists

Name: The Old English Dramatists
Author: James Russell Lowell

James Russell Lowell's "The Old English Dramatists" collects a series of lectures, delivered at the Lowell Institute thirty-two years after his first course there, revisiting a subject he had loved since his youth and first written about in 1843. Lowell opens by reflecting on the constraints of lecturing to a fixed hour, contrasts his younger self's enthusiasm with his more discriminating later judgment, and frames his purpose as offering readings and appreciative commentary rather than exhaustive criticism, since Lamb, Hazlitt, and Coleridge had already covered the ground so well. He traces the origins of the English drama, arguing against a strict evolutionary theory that derives it wholly from medieval Mysteries, Moralities, and Interludes. He finds English Interludes crude and nearly unreadable, contrasts them with the comparatively richer early literatures of France and Spain (citing "Aucassin and Nicolete," the "Song of Roland," "Patelin," Calderón's autos sacramentales, and "Celestina"), and credits the revival of learning and the growth of London as a true metropolis with fostering the sudden flowering of Elizabethan drama. He dwells on the freshness of the English language at that moment, the camaraderie of the Mermaid Tavern, and the debt owed to Spenser and Sidney for refining English verse before the dramatists could put it to full use. Lowell then surveys the dramatists individually, weighing each against Shakespeare's incomparable artistry, imagination, and command of form. He dismisses Robert Greene and George Peele as largely dull, redeemed only by scattered fine lines. Thomas Dekker he finds a genuine but uneven poet of careless, extravagant fancy, best exemplified in "Old Fortunatus." Christopher Marlowe receives sustained, admiring treatment: Lowell recounts his brief life, defends him against charges of atheism, and praises his "translunary" energy and rare gift for single resplendent lines, while faulting his lack of self-restraint, his absence of true dramatic characterization (Barabas in "The Jew of Malta" is called a bugaboo rather than a man), and his plays' want of organic structure—except "Edward II," whose abdication and murder scenes Lowell shows directly influenced Shakespeare's "Richard II." He also praises "Doctor Faustus" and "Hero and Leander," tracing Marlowe's influence on Milton, Spenser, and Keats. Turning to structure and "Form," Lowell contrasts Shakespeare's organic plotting with the looser, more arbitrary construction typical of his contemporaries, illustrated through a detailed analysis of John Webster's "The Devil's Law Case." He then examines Webster's masterpieces, "The White Devil" and "The Duchess of Malfi," admiring their fascinated, almost nightmarish power over crime and horror—comparing Webster to Victor Hugo—while noting that the horror is too often physical rather than psychological. A digression follows on biography and privacy: Lowell questions the value of prying into dramatists' private lives, arguing that a writer's genuine self is best inferred from deliberate self-revelation in the work itself, and that posthumous exposure of scandal (including speculation about Shakespeare's sonnets) degrades rather than illuminates. George Chapman is treated next: his grave character, his controversial play "Byron's Tragedy," his coarse but occasionally eloquent comedies, his sententious and hyperbolic tragic style, and above all his celebrated translation of Homer, which Lowell judges to capture Homer's spirit and energy, if not his precise voice. Beaumont and Fletcher are discussed as an inseparable pair whose individual contributions can rarely be disentangled, though Lowell credits Fletcher with the higher poetic and picturesque gift. He analyzes "Philaster" in detail, praises their comedies (especially "Wit without Money") for lively wit, and critiques their sentimental, decorative pathos as falling short of Shakespeare's tragic depth—illustrated by comparing Lear's storm speech to their gentler effects. He also weighs the disputed Shakespeare-Fletcher collaboration "The Two Noble Kinsmen." Philip Massinger is examined through scant biographical fragments (including a begging letter co-signed with actor Nathaniel Field and a censored political play), and praised for his moral seriousness, generous idealized world, skillful plotting, and dignified though less inspired verse, with "A New Way to Pay Old Debts" cited as his most effective stage piece. Finally, John Ford is treated more critically: Lowell, revising an earlier youthful admiration, now finds Ford's pathos artificial and sentimental rather than genuinely moving, contrasting a maudlin passage unfavorably with Shakespeare's economy in "Macbeth." Lowell closes by defending imaginative literature's value against narrowly practical or "realist" standards, arguing that poetry offers a necessary sanctuary and ideal standard of feeling, and citing Thomas Heywood on the civilizing uses of poets.

By James Russell Lowell · Genre: Literary Criticism, Literary History, Educational Essay · 6 chapters · 43,724 words

First lines

When the rule limiting speeches to an hour was adopted by Congress, which was before most of you were born, an eminent but somewhat discursive person spent more than that measure of time in convincing me that whoever really had anything to say could say it in less. I then and there acquired a conviction of this truth, which has only strengthened with years. Yet whoever undertakes to lecture must adapt his discourse to the law which requires such exercises to be precisely sixty minutes long, just as a certain standard of inches must be reached by one who would enter the army. If one has been studying all his life how to be terse, how to suggest rather than to expound, how to contract rather than to dilate, something like a strain is put upon the conscience by this necessity of giving the full measure of words, without reference to other considerations which a judicious ear may esteem of more importance. Instead of saying things compactly and pithily, so that they may be easily carried away, one is tempted into a certain generosity and circumambience of phrase, which, if not adapted to conquer Time, may at least compel him to turn his glass and admit a drawn game. It is so much harder to fill an hour than to empty one!

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Work type: Essay
Author: James Russell Lowell
Date: Date unknown
Language: English
Genres: Literary Criticism, Literary History, Educational Essay, Cultural Criticism, Biographical Criticism
Length: 43,724 words
Structure: 6 chapters, 357 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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Genres

Literary Criticism — The work is a sustained critical examination of Old English dramatists' works, analyzing their strengths, weaknesses, styles, and contributions to literature with detailed textual analysis and comparative judgment.
Literary History — Lowell traces the historical development of English drama from medieval mystery plays through the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, examining how literary movements evolved and influenced one another.
Educational Essay — Formatted as a lecture delivered to an audience at the Lowell Institute, the work functions as instructional discourse designed to teach readers about dramatic literature and literary appreciation.
Cultural Criticism — The work examines broader cultural values, social contexts, and the role of literature in society, including discussions of language refinement, national consciousness, and moral purpose of theater.