Preface of the Translator.

Author's Preface.

Memoir of the Life of Augustus William Schlegel.

LECTURE I.

Introduction—Spirit of True Criticism—Difference of Taste between the
Ancients and Moderns—Classical and Romantic Poetry and Art—Division of
Dramatic Literature; the Ancients, their Imitators, and the Romantic Poets.

LECTURE II.

Definition of the Drama—View of the Theatres of all Nations—Theatrical
Effect—Importance of the Stage—Principal Species of the Drama.

LECTURE III.

Essence of Tragedy and Comedy—Earnestness and Sport—How far it is possible to become acquainted with the Ancients without knowing Original Languages—Winkelmann.

LECTURE IV.

Structure of the Stage among the Greeks—Their Acting—Use of Masks—False comparison of Ancient Tragedy to the Opera—Tragical Lyric Poetry.

LECTURE V.

Essence of the Greek Tragedies—Ideality of the Representation—Idea of
Fate—Source of the Pleasure derived from Tragical Representations—Import
of the Chorus—The materials of Greek Tragedy derived from Mythology—
Comparison with the Plastic Arts.

LECTURE VI.

Progress of the Tragic Art among the Greeks—Various styles of Tragic Art
—Aeschylus—Connexion in a Trilogy of Aeschylus—His remaining Works.

LECTURE VII.

Life and Political Character of Sophocles—Character of his different
Tragedies.

LECTURE VIII.

Euripides—His Merits and Defects—Decline of Tragic Poetry through him.

LECTURE IX.

Comparison between the Choephorae of Aeschylus, the Electra of
Sophocles, and that of Euripides.

LECTURE X.

Character of the remaining Works of Euripides—The Satirical Drama—
Alexandrian Tragic Poets.

LECTURE XI.

The Old Comedy proved to be completely a contrast to Tragedy—Parody—
Ideality of Comedy the reverse of that of Tragedy—Mirthful Caprice—
Allegoric and Political Signification—The Chorus and its Parabases.

LECTURE XII.

Aristophanes—His Character as an Artist—Description and Character of his remaining Works—A Scene, translated from the Acharnae, by way of Appendix.

LECTURE XIII.

Whether the Middle Comedy was a distinct species—Origin of the New
Comedy—A mixed species—Its prosaic character—Whether versification is
essential to Comedy—Subordinate kinds—Pieces of Character, and of
Intrigue—The Comic of observation, of self-consciousness, and arbitrary
Comic—Morality of Comedy.

LECTURE XIV.

Plautus and Terence as Imitators of the Greeks, here examined and
characterized in the absence of the Originals they copied—Motives of the
Athenian Comedy from Manners and Society—Portrait-Statues of two
Comedians.

LECTURE XV.

Roman Theatre—Native kinds: Atellane Fables, Mimes, Comoedia Togata— Greek Tragedy transplanted to Rome—Tragic Authors of a former Epoch, and of the Augustan Age—Idea of a National Roman Tragedy—Causes of the want of success of the Romans in Tragedy—Seneca.

LECTURE XVI.

The Italians—Pastoral Dramas of Tasso and Guarini—Small progress in
Tragedy—Metastasio and Alfieri—Character of both—Comedies of Ariosto,
Aretin, Porta—Improvisatore Masks—Goldoni—Gozzi—Latest state.

LECTURE XVII.

Antiquities of the French Stage—Influence of Aristotle and the Imitation of the Ancients—Investigation of the Three Unities—What is Unity of Action?—Unity of Time—Was it observed by the Greeks?—Unity of Place as connected with it.

LECTURE XVIII.

Mischief resulting to the French Stage from too narrow Interpretation of the Rules of Unity—Influence of these rules on French Tragedy—Manner of treating Mythological and Historical Materials—Idea of Tragical Dignity— Observation of Conventional Rules—False System of Expositions.

LECTURE XIX.

Use at first made of the Spanish Theatre by the French—General Character of Corneille, Racine, and Voltaire—Review of the principal Works of Corneille and of Racine—Thomas Corneille and Crebillon.

LECTURE XX.

Voltaire—Tragedies on Greek Subjects: Oedipe, Merope, Oreste—
Tragedies on Roman Subjects: Brute, Mort de CÉsar, Catiline, Le
Triumvirat—Earlier Pieces: Zaire, Alzire, Mahomet, Semiramis,
And Tancred.

LECTURE XXI.

French Comedy—MoliÈre—Criticism of his Works—Scarron, Boursault,
Regnard; Comedies in the Time of the Regency; Marivaux and Destouches;
Piron and Gresset—Later Attempts—The Heroic Opera: Quinault—Operettes
and Vaudevilles—Diderot's attempted Change of the Theatre—The Weeping
Drama—Beaumarchais—Melo-Dramas—Merits and Defects of the Histrionic Art.

LECTURE XXII.

Comparison of the English and Spanish Theatres—Spirit of the Romantic
Drama—Shakspeare—His Age and the Circumstances of his Life.

LECTURE XXIII.

Ignorance or Learning of Shakspeare—Costume as observed by Shakspeare, and how far necessary, or may be dispensed with, in the Drama—Shakspeare the greatest drawer of Character—Vindication of the genuineness of his pathos—Play on Words—Moral Delicacy—Irony-Mixture of the Tragic and Comic—The part of the Fool or Clown—Shakspeare's Language and Versification.

LECTURE XXIV.

Criticisms on Shakspeare's Comedies.

LECTURE XXV.

Criticisms on Shakspeare's Tragedies.

LECTURE XXVI.

Criticisms on Shakspeare's Historical Dramas.

LECTURE XXVII.

Two Periods of the English Theatre: the first the most important—The
first Conformation of the Stage, and its Advantages—State of the
Histrionic Art in Shakspeare's Time—Antiquities of Dramatic Literature—
Lilly, Marlow, Heywood—Ben Jonson; Criticism of his Works—Masques—
Beaumont and Fletcher—General Characterization of these Poets, and
Remarks on some of their Pieces—Massinger and other Contemporaries of
Charles I.

LECTURE XXVIII.

Closing of the Stage by the Puritans—Revival of the Stage under Charles
II.—Depravity of Taste and Morals—Dryden, Otway, and others—
Characterization of the Comic Poets from Wycherley and Congreve to the
Middle of the Eighteenth Century—Tragedies of the same Period—Rowe—
Addison's Cato—Later Pieces—Familiar Tragedy: Lillo—Garrick—
Latest State.

LECTURE XXIX.

Spanish Theatre—Its three Periods: Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Calderon— Spirit of the Spanish Poetry in general—Influence of the National History on it—Form, and various Species of the Spanish Drama—Decline since the beginning of the Eighteenth Century.

LECTURE XXX.

Origin of the German Theatre—Hans Sachs—Gryphius—The Age of Gottsched—
Wretched Imitation of the French—Lessing, Goethe, and Schiller—Review of
their Works—Their Influence on Chivalrous Dramas, Affecting Dramas, and
Family Pictures—Prospect for Futurity.