romantic love episode and a clown, written by Grimald and acted at Oxford
in 1547, and his "Christus Redivivus" published in 1543 as a "comoedia
tragica," all belong to the same mixed species. A representative of the
controversial drama appears in John Foxe's "Christus Triumphans" about
1550, which drew much from the famous "Pammachius," already translated by
Bale and acted at Oxford to the great scandal of Gardiner. Of plays in the
vernacular we hear of a few called tragedies, but the term was used without
any exactness, and no extant play has any just claim to the title. Ten
tragedies and comedies are attributed by Bale to Ralph Radcliffe, a
pedagogue, who in 1538 opened a theatre in his schoolhouse and gave plays
before the 'plebs.' Some of these were certainly in Latin, but some may
have been in English, and the titles are interesting as emphasizing again
the prevailing humanistic influences. Of the tragedies, two, "The Burning
of Sodom" and "The Delivery of Susannah," are on biblical themes evidently
chosen for the purpose of edification; the third, "The Condemnation of John
Huss," suggests the controversial type. Of the comedies, four have biblical
themes, while three, "Patient Griselda," "Meliboeus," and "Titus and
Gisippus," indicate the growing search for secular and even romantic
themes. In this confusion of many species of drama, created by a mixture of
medieval and humanistic influences, there is at least no clear evidence of
any English tragedy on Senecan lines before "Gorboduc." Of the development
of the moralities toward tragedy, of which signs are not lacking, we get
the clearest examples in plays a little later, which will be treated in the
next chapter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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