ses completely
depraved--therefore, in satisfying the demands of its audience, the
drama of the fifteenth and sixteenth and seventeenth centuries entirely
gave up all religious aim. It came to pass that the drama, which
formerly had such a lofty and religious significance, and which can, on
this condition alone, occupy an important place in human life, became,
as in the time of Rome, a spectacle, an amusement, a recreation--_only_
with this difference, that in Rome the spectacles existed for the whole
people, whereas in the Christian world of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and
seventeenth centuries they were principally meant for depraved kings and
the higher classes. Such was the case with the Spanish, English,
Italian, and French drama.

The dramas of that time, principally composed, in all these countries,
according to ancient Greek models, or taken from poems, legends, or
biographies, naturally reflected the characteristics of their respective
nationalities: in Italy comedies were chiefly elaborated, with humorous
positions and persons. In Spain there flourished the worldly drama, with
complicated plots and historical heroes. The peculiarities of the
English drama were the coarse incidents of murders, executions, and
battles taking place on the stage, and popular, humorous interludes.
Neither the Italian nor the Spanish nor the English drama had European
fame, but they all enjoyed success in their own countries. General fame,
owing to the elegance of its language and the talent of its writers,
was possessed only by the French drama, distinguished by its strict
adherence to the Greek models, and especially to the law of the three
Unities.

So it continued till the end of the eighteenth century, at which time
this happened: In Germany, which had not produced even passable dramatic
writers (there was a weak and little known writer, Hans Sachs), all
educated people, together with Frederick the Great, bowed down before
the French pseudo-classical drama. Yet at this very time there appeared
in Germany a group of educated and talented writers and poets, who,
feeling the falsity and coldness of the French drama, endeavored to find
a new and freer dramatic form. The members of this group, like all the
upper classes of the Christian world at that time, were under the charm
and influence of the Greek classics, and, being utterly indifferent to
religious questions, they thought that if the Greek drama, describing
the calamities an