English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 -- History and criticism
I could not count the lines which on reperusal of this great tragic poem
I find apt for illustrative quotation, or suggestive of a tributary
comment: but enough has already been cited to prove beyond all chance of
cavil from any student worthy of the name that the place of Cyril
Tourneur is not among minor poets, nor his genius of such a temper as
naturally to attract the sympathy or arouse the enthusiasm of their
admirers; that among the comrades or the disciples who to us may appear
but as retainers or satellites of Shakespeare his rank is high and his
credentials to that rank are clear. That an edition more carefully
revised and annotated, with a text reduced to something more of
coherence and intelligible arrangement, than has yet been vouchsafed to
us, would suffice to place his name among theirs of whose eminence the
very humblest of their educated countrymen are ashamed to seem ignorant,
it would probably be presumptuous to assert. But if the noblest ardor of
moral emotion, the most fervent passion of eager and indignant sympathy
with all that is best and abhorrence of all that is worst in women or in
men--if the most absolute and imperial command of all resources and
conquest of all difficulties inherent in the most effective and the most
various instrument ever yet devised for the poetry of the tragic
drama--if the keenest insight and the sublimest impulse that can guide
the perception and animate the expression of a poet whose line of work
is naturally confined to the limits of moral or ethical tragedy--if all
these qualities may be admitted to confer a right to remembrance and a
claim to regard, there can be no fear and no danger of forgetfulness for
the name of Cyril Tourneur.
INDEX
Action, relation to character, 245.
Adventure, subject for drama, 242.
Aeschylus, Shakespeare compared with, 31;
Webster compared with, 52.
Allegory, 102, 168, 170, 179, 180.
Alleyn, 189.
"All Fools" (Chapman), 259.
"All's Lost by Lust," 196.
Amadis, 214.
"Amboyna" (Dryden), 82.
"Amphitruo," the, 217.
"Antipodes, The," 252.
_Antiquary, The_ (Scott), 84.
"Antonio and Mellida" (Marston), 30, 116, 117, 122, 124, 145, 148.
"Antonio's Revenge" (Marston), 122.
"Anything for a Quiet Life" (Middleton), 163.
"Appius and Virginia" (Webster), 198.
Arbuthnot, 228.
Ariosto, 110.
Aristophanes, Middleton compared with, 169;
caricaturist, 206.
Armada, 168, 206.
Arnold, Matthew, on Chapman, 107.
Asdrubal, speech of (Marston), 118.
"Asolani," 209.
"Astraea Redux," authorship, 157.
Astrophel and Stella, 66.
"Atheist's Tragedy, The" (Tourneur), 265;
reflects the age, 268, 273.
Athens, 169.
Audience in Shakespeare's age, 170, 245.
"Bachelor's Banquet, The" (Dekker), 97.
Bacon, Francis, 68, 256.
Balzac, Shakespeare and Marlowe compared with, 33;
Dekker compared with, 108.
Barkstead, William, 136.
Barnfield, 50.
"Bartholomew Fair" (Marston), 122.
Beaumont, 172;
and Fletcher, 182, 225.
"Beggars' Bush" (Fletcher), 178.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account