he _interregnum_ of the
Revolution, and connected themselves more closely than is sometimes
assumed with later growths of English comedy.

The later academical drama.

Such was also the case with a special growth which had continued side by
side, but in growing frequency of contact, with the progress of the
national drama. The academical drama of the later Elizabethan period and
of the first two Stuart reigns by no means fell off either in activity
or in variety from that of the preceding generations. At Oxford, after
an apparent break of several years--though in the course of these one or
two new plays, including a _Tancred_ by Sir Henry Wotton at Queen's,
seem to have been produced--a long succession of English plays, some in
Latin doubtless from time to time intervening, were performed, from the
early years of the 17th century onwards to the dark days of the national
theatre and beyond. The production of these plays was distributed among
several colleges, among which the most conspicuously active were Christ
Church and St John's, where a whole series of festal performances took
place under the collective title of _The Christmas Prince_ (i.e. master
of the Christmas revels). They included a wide variety of pieces, from
the treatment by an author unnamed of the story of "Ovid's owne
Narcissus" (1602) and S. Daniel's _Queen's Arcadia_ (1606) to Barten
Holiday's _Technogamia_ (1618), a complicated allegory on the relations
between the arts and sciences quite in the manner of the moralities;
interspersed by romantic dramas of the ordinary contemporary type by T.
Goffe (1591-1629), W. Cartwright, J. Maine (1604-1672) and others. At
Cambridge the list of Latin and English academical plays, performed in
the latter half of Elizabeth's reign at Trinity, St John's, Queen's and
a few other colleges, contains several examples in each language which
for one reason or another possess a special interest. Thus E. Forsett's
_Pedantius_, probably acted at Trinity in 1581, ridicules a personage
who lived very near the rose--the redoubtable Gabriel Harvey;[201] a
_Laelia_, acted at Queen's in 1590 and again in 1598, resembles _Twelfth
Night_ in part of its plot; while in _Silvanus_, performed in 1596,
probably at St John's, there are certain striking similarities to _As
You Like It_. These are in Latin, as are the comedies _Hispanus_
(containing some curious allusions to the Armada, Drake and Dr Lopez)
and _Machiavellus_, acted at S