ture; but his
main borrowing was the essential story of a crime and its punishment. He
thus brought to the Elizabethan stage the classical theme of
retribution. In his _Spanish Tragedy_, a murder is avenged under the
direction of a ghost, by a hesitating and soliloquizing protagonist, who
is driven through doubt and speculation almost to madness, and then to
craft, with which he outwits the wily villain and brings all the leading
_dramatis personae_ to a final slaughter.

Blood revenge was established as the favorite motive of tragedy; the
conflict of craft between protagonist and villain made up the action,
and the speculations of the avenger gave a chance for wisdom and
eloquence. One other play, probably by Kyd, the lost _Hamlet_, also
presented these features and later formed the basis for Shakespeare's
tragedy. Other plays, as _Soliman and Perseda_, _The True Tragedy of
Richard III_, and _Locrine_ immediately adopted Kyd's theme and technic;
indeed the stage for half a dozen years abounded in avenging heroes,
diabolical villains, shrieking ghosts, and long soliloquies on fate,
death, retribution, and kindred themes. _Titus Andronicus_ is quite in
the Kydian vein. Many plays combined the salient traits of Marlowe and
Kyd, and henceforth no one wrote tragedy without paying homage to their
inventions.

[Page Heading: English History Plays]

We have now noticed the most important developments in comedy and
tragedy made by the time that Shakespeare began writing for the
theaters; and he made quick use of the progress accomplished by Plautian
and Lylyan comedy, by Greene's romances, and by the tragedies of Kyd and
Marlowe. There were other plays not easily classified under these names
and of less service to Shakespeare. But to the critical playgoer of 1590
few plays would have seemed either 'right comedies' or 'right
tragedies.' The majority were mere dramatizations of story without close
construction or selection of material, seeking merely varied and
abundant action. They drew their material from all kinds of narrative
sources, Italian _novelle_, current pamphlets, Latin historians, or
English chronicles; and, whether historical or fictitious, were usually
known as Histories, _i.e._, stories.

The patriotic interest in English history fostered the presentation of
its scenes upon the stage. The chronicles of Halle and Holinshed
furnished abundant material; and embassies, processions, and pitched
battles filled the