INTRODUCTION TO THE TRAGEDY OF NERO.

Few finer things have been said on the raison d'être of tragedy from the time when Aristotle in the Poetics formulated his memorable dictum.

" THE TRAGEDY OF NERO, Newly Written.

Marlowe's tragedy was first entered in the Stationers' books in 1600-1, but brought upon the stage many years before.

There is time to be allowed, also, for maturity of design: which, amongst great and prudent persons, such as are often represented in Tragedy, cannot, with any likelihood of truth, be brought to pass at so short a warning.

As, suppose it were the King's Bedchamber; yet the meanest man in the Tragedy, must come and despatch his business there, rather than in the Lobby or Courtyard (which is [were] fitter for him), for fear the Stage should be cleared, and the Scenes broken.

Many knew that Tom and his chum had made their ascent without a third passenger, and the presence of Lieutenant Beverly announced that some sort of tragedy of the air had occurred.

Then calling for his will, and settling his temporal affairs, the last scene of this tragedy, was the parting between the two brothers.

Insatiate Countess, a Tragedy, acted at White-Fryars, printed in Quarto 1603, under the title of Isabella the insatiable countess of Suevia.

Wonder of Women, or Sophonisba, a tragedy, acted at Black Fryars, printed in Octavo, 1633.

The tragedy of Gorboduc, the first regular English tragedy written in blank verse, was acted in 1561, three years before the birth of Shakespeare.

The tragedy of Gorboduc, the first regular English tragedy written in blank verse, was acted in 1561, three years before the birth of Shakespeare.

In spite of their heavy narrative form, these poems are in places even more dramatic than the dull tragedy of Gorboduc, which was fashioned after the classical rules of Seneca and the Greeks.

Thomas Kyd (1558-1594), although lacking a university education, succeeded in writing, about 1586, the most popular early Elizabethan play, The Spanish Tragedy, a blank verse drama, in which blood flows profusely.

The legend on which the play is based came from Germany, but Marlowe breathed his own imaginative spirit into the tragedy.

Romeo and Juliet has 405 lines of prose in a total of 3052 lines, while Hamlet, a tragedy of 3931 lines, has 1208 lines of prose.

In as excellent an early tragedy as Romeo and Juliet, the hero fights more with outside obstacles than with himself.

" Shakespeare is also the one English author who is equally successful in depicting the highest type of both comedy and tragedy.

In his greatest plays, for instance, in Macbeth, he sought to impress the incalculable danger of meddling with evil, the impossibility of forecasting the tragedy that might thereby result, the certainty that retribution would follow, either here or beyond "this bank and shoal of time.

Two of their greatest plays, Philaster and The Maid's Tragedy, are probably their joint production.

John Marston (1576?-1634) wrote Antonio and Mellida, a blood and thunder tragedy, and collaborated with Jonson and Chapman to produce Eastward Hoe, an excellent comic picture of contemporary life.

Three dramatists: John Webster (1602-1624), Cyril Tourneur (1575?-1626), and John Ford (1586-1640?), had a love for the most somber tragedy.

" Tourneur's The Atheist's Tragedy is in Webster's vein, but far inferior to The Duchess of Malfi.

Ford's The Broken Heart is a strong, but unpleasant, tragedy.

Bradley's Shakespearean Tragedy (excellent).

A TRAVESTY.

But it would be a travesty of the truth to assert that Germany has not envied her that position, together with the advantages arising from it.

My life is but a travesty and slander on myself.

To distil the glowing conceptions, and to travesty the beautiful language of the ancients, through the medium of a language estranged to all its peculiarities and all its elegancies.

There are several encomiums on Mrs. Behn prefixed to her lover's watch; among the rest, Mr. Charles Cotton, author of Virgil Travesty, throws in his mite in her praise; though the lines are but poorly writ.

I do not like much to meet these holy things in a romance; but at least, when one speaks of them, he need not travesty them by his language.

The frame would not work for one thing, and if it had worked, I would not have put the thing up, for I would no more be seen under such a travesty of an umbrella than Falstaff would be seen marching through Coventry with his regiment of ragamuffins.

Misinterpretation N. misinterpretation, misapprehension, misunderstanding, misacceptation^, misconstruction, misapplication; catachresis^; eisegesis^; cross-reading, cross-purposes; mistake &c 495. misrepresentation, perversion, exaggeration &c 549; false coloring, false construction; abuse of terms; parody, travesty; falsification &c (lying) 544.

Misrepresentation N. misrepresentation, distortion, caricatura^, exaggeration; daubing &c v.; bad likeness, daub, sign painting; scratch, caricature; anamorphosis^; burlesque, falsification, misstatement; parody, lampoon, take-off, travesty.

V. misrepresent, distort, overdraw, exaggerate, caricature, daub; burlesque, parody, travesty.

Ridicule N. ridicule, derision; sardonic smile, sardonic grin; irrision^; scoffing &c (disrespect) 929; mockery, quiz^, banter, irony, persiflage, raillery, chaff, badinage; quizzing &c v.; asteism^. squib, satire, skit, quip, quib^, grin. parody, burlesque, travesty, travestie^; farce &c (drama) 599; caricature.

Such are the men who have studied the travesty on justice in the great labor trial at Montesano.

There was no fault to be found in the appearance of the soldiers, who were mostly Sikhs and hill men of good physique; but their ludicrous style of marching, the strange outlandish uniform of the men, and the shrill discord of their bands, created great amusement among the assembled Europeans, who had never seen such a travesty on soldiers before.

A TRAVESTY.

It was a wild and reckless crew and addicted to such entertainments as the travesty on Marc Antony, with music by Carl, who played Cleopatra, while Gretchen played Antony.

Scott was earnest in assuring Lockhart that he had written in no spirit of travesty, but only to test whether he would be likely to succeed in narrative verse of the same pattern.

I am a persistent advocate for the restoration of Poland, but at the same time it is very plain to me that it is a mere travesty of the facts to say that Poland, was a white lamb of a country torn to pieces by three wicked neighbours, Poland in the eighteenth century was a dangerous political muddle, uncertain of her monarchy, her policy, her affinities.

It was a crude travesty of a hymn much sung in religious camp-meetings and revivals, of which the proper chorus as often heard by me in Harry Monroe's mission in the Chicago slums, was: Hallelujah!

"This could be nothing more than a travesty, a jest.

It is clear enough now that the implication was mere calumny; the notion that Washington was either aiming at monarchy or was conniving at it through ignorance was a grotesque travesty of the shameful situation that actually existed; but fictions, pretenses, slanders, and calumnies that would never have been allowed utterance if the Administration and Congress had stood face to face now had opportunity to spread and infect public opinion.

In proportion as the representation of the plant was a secondary object, the travesty has been more and more complete.

The old pioneer's own language would have been far better than that which Filson used; for the latter's composition is a travesty of Johnsonese in its most aggravated form.

It reads like an unintentional travesty of Herbartian Psychology by one who has tried to improve upon it without being at the pains to master it.'

"I will not lend my countenance before them to such a villainous travesty.

The conduct of Rochester is so primevally and superhumanly caddish that Bret Harte in his admirable travesty scarcely exaggerated it.