British drama / [electronic resource] Allardyce Nicoll.

I. The beginnings to Shakespeare: Introductory: the classical heritage -- The growth of native drama: Tropes and liturgical plays -- Mysteries and miracles -- The development of professional drama: moralities and interludes -- Comedy, tragedy, and tragicomedy -- II. Elizabethan drama: The theatres -- Shakespeare's immediate forerunners -- The arrival of Shakespeare -- The final achievements of Elizabethan drama -- III. The Jacobean and Caroline drama: Audiences and theatres -- Satirical and citizen comedy -- The flourishing of tragedy -- The cult of tragicomedy and social comedy -- Cavalier spectators and their tastes -- IV. Restoration drama: Drama under the Puritans -- The restoration theatre -- Love and honour drama -- The return to Shakespeare -- Opera and spectacle -- Comedies of humours and of intrigue -- The comedy of manners -- V. Drama in the eighteenth century: The changing playhouse world -- Pseudo-classic and pathetic tragedy -- The ballad-opera and pantomime -- The growth of sentimentalism -- Comedy's temporary revival -- The domestic drama -- VI. Drama in the nineteenth century: The main tendencies of the time -- The poetic plays -- Melodramas, farces, and extravaganzas -- The dramatic revival -- VII. Drama in the twentieth century: Conflicting trends -- The realistic social drama -- The comic, the fantastic, and the historical -- The poetic play -- The latest phase.

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