LECTURES

ON THE

DRAMATIC LITERATURE

OF THE

AGE OF ELIZABETH.

BY WILLIAM HAZLITT.

:

NEW-YORK:

WILEY AND PUTNAM, 161 BROADWAY.

1845.

THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

AS A TRIBUTE

TO PUBLIC VIRTUE AND PRIVATE WORTH,

AND AS A MEMORIAL OF LONG AND TRIED FRIENDSHIP,

THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED, IN THE

NAME OF ITS AUTHOR,

TO

BASIL MONTAGU.

CONTENTS.

LECTURE L

Introductory.-General View of the Subject........

LECTURE II.

On the Dramatic Writers contemporary with Shakspeare, Lyly, Mar-

lowe, Heywood, Middleton, and Rowley..

LECTURE III.

On Marston, Chapman, Decker and Webster

LECTURE IV.

PAGE

1

22

57

On Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Ford, and Massinger

85

LECTURE V.

On single Plays, Poems, &c., the Four P's, the Return from Parnassus,

Gammer Gurton's Needle, and other Works....

LECTURE VI.

115

On Miscellaneous Poems, F. Beaumont, P. Fletcher, Drayton, Daniel,

&c., Sir P. Sidney's Arcadia, and Sonnets.

..138

LECTURE VII.

Character of Lord Bacon's Works-compared as to style with Sir Thos.

Brown and Jeremy Taylor...

LECTURE VIII.

174

On the Spirit of Ancient and Modern Literature-on the German Drama,

contrasted with that of the Age of Elizabeth.......

..........195