in this field.

The chapel boys also presented at Blackfriars in the same year George
Peele's (1558-1597) _The Arraignment of Paris_, a pastoral drama in
riming verse. In Juno's promise to Paris, Peele shows how the
possibilities of the New World affected his imagination:--

"Xanthus shall run liquid gold for thee to wash thy hands;
And if thou like to tend thy flock and not from them to fly,
Their fleeces shall be curled gold to please their master's eye."

While _The Arraignment of Paris_ and his two other plays, _David and
Bathsabe_ and _The Old Wives' Tale_, are not good specimens of
dramatic construction, the beauty of some of Peele's verse could
hardly have failed to impress both Marlowe and Shakespeare with the
poetic possibilities of the drama. Peele writes without effort--

"Of moss that sleeps with sound the waters make,"

and has David build--

"...a kingly bower,
Seated in hearing of a hundred streams."

Robert Greene (1560-1592) showed much skill in (1) the construction
of plots, (2) the revelation of simple and genuine human feeling, and
(3) the weaving of an interesting story into a play. His best drama is
the poetic comedy _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_. In this play, he
made the love story the central point of interest.

Thomas Lodge (1558-1625), author of the story _Rosalynde_, which
Shakespeare used to such good advantage, wrote in collaboration with
Greene, _A Looking Glass for London and England_, and an independent
play, _The Wounds of Civil War_. Thomas Nashe (1567-1601), best
known for his picaresque novel, _The Unfortunate Traveler_, wrote a
play, _Summer's Last Will and Testament_, but he and Lodge had little
dramatic ability.

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. Although this play is not free from classical influences,
yet its excellence of construction, effective dramatic situations,
vigor of movement, and romantic spirit helped to prepare the way for
the tragedies of Marlowe and Shakespeare.

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE, 1564-1593

Life.--The year 1564 saw the birth of the two greatest geniuses in
the English drama, Marlowe and Shakespeare. Marlowe, the son of a
shoemaker, was born at Canterbury, and educated at Cambridge. When he
was graduated, the dramatic profession was the only one that gave f