Introductory

The preliminary study of tragedy and of comedy, and particularly the final glance at the arising and flourishing of farce, prepares the way for a consideration of those hybrid forms of dramatic productivity which filled the eighteenth century stage. Farce and sentiment, allied to the influence of the opera, inevitably gave rise to the ballad-opera of Gay and his successors. The desire for show and for spectacle, combined with the still prevalent love of artificialised heroic elements, produced the furore for the Italian opera. Some of the same tendencies, combined with the influence of the commedia dell' arte, aided in popularising pantomime. The frequent disgust felt by contemporaries at one or another of these forms, or at the dullness of the Augustan tragedy, gave rise to the many “rehearsals” and burlesques, which connect the original Rehearsal of Buckingham with The Critic of Sheridan.

It would have been impossible to deal satisfactorily with these various types of drama in the chapters devoted to tragedy and to comedy proper; a more adequate treatment seems obtainable only by banishing the motley crew to a chapter of its own. At the same time, it is to be observed that there are among these harlequinade elements not a few productions of sterling value, and that there are included here types of drama which in themselves are in no wise to be despised.