Early English Classical Tragedies. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by
John W.. Cunliffe. (Oxford University Press. 7s. 6d. net.)—The failure of Senecan tragedy to obtain a foothold in England is a dispensation for which it is impossible to feel too grateful. Whether the causes of the failure were profound and inevitable (such things as the character of the English nation) or merely accidental (the particular structure, perhaps, of the English stage) must be argued by experts. " Gorboduo," "Jocasta," " Gismond of Salerno," and "The Misfortunes of Arthur," have been carefully edited and annotated by Professor Cunliffe, and remind us once again of the vanity of the dramatic school into whose coffin Marlowe knocked the last nail. An interesting feature of these pseudo-classical plays are the dumb- shows which occur at the beginning of each act, and of which not a trace is, of course, to be found in Seneca. Professor Cunliffe states in a note his belief that they were imported into tragedy from the contemporary masques and pageants (themselves derived from the medieval Miracle Plays). This would be curious as showing that the native theatrical element was strong enough to force its way even into these deliberate and scholastic imitations of classical drama.
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