Shakspere and His Predecessors Author:Frederick Samuel Boas General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1896 Original Publisher: C. Scribner Subjects: English drama English literature Drama / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Drama / Shakespeare Literary Criticism / Drama Literary Criticism / Shakespeare Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It... more » has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. THE RISE OF THE THEATRES. MARLOWE'S DRAMATIC REFORM. With the third decade of Elizabeth's reign opens its most glorious period, political and intellectual. One of the tendencies of the Renaissance epoch throughout Europe was to break down the mediaeval hierarchy of classes, and to substitute a compact national body with the throne as head and centre of its life. This movement had affected England, but it had been partially checked by the religious and political troubhs springing from the Reformation, which had created so much discord during the reigns of Edward VI and Mary, and the earlier years of Elizabeth. Twenty years, however, of the maiden queen's strong government had produced, broadly speaking, order and unity in Church and State. The mass of the people were thoroughly well affected to the throne and to its policy; Roman Catholics on the one hand, and Puritan extremists on the other, might chafe or conspire against the existing settlement, but they were powerless to upset it. The days of Elizabeth's coquetting with France or Spain were over; the logic of events and the aspirations of the people were more and more clearly defining the position of England as the champion of the Protestant cause in the west. The national spirit ran higher year by year, and found for itself splendid expression in deeds of adventure and daring. Between 1577 and 1580, Frobisher made his voyages to the n...« less