Drama (from the Greek drew, I act), is a class of writings which almost entirely consist of dialogue, persons being represented as acting and speaking, and the pieces being usually intended to be acted on a stage by parties assuming the characters of the respective persons.
Its two great branches are tragedy and comedy, the former, roughly speaking, melancholy in character, the latter cheerful. The origin of the drama must be sought for in the love of imitation, and dramatic performances of some kind are to be met with probably among all nations.
Dramatic compositions are found in the Old Testament, for example in Job and the Song of Solomon; and ancient India and China both developed a dramatic literature of their own.
The European drama bad its origin in Greece. Both forms, tragic and comic, took their rise in the celebrations of the Greek festivals of Dionysus (Bacchus), at which hymns and chants were sung by choruses in honour of the god, and the chorus continued to be a prominent feature of the old Greek drama. Greek comedy commenced about 580-560 BC with Susarion, but it was long in attaining regular form. Of the old Greek comedy the chief representatives were Oratinus, Eupolis, Pherecrates, and Aristophanes - the last the greatest.
The invention of tragedy is generally ascribed to Thespis about 530 BC, who was followed by Phrynichus. But the true creator of tragedy was Aeschylus, in whose works and those of Sophocles and Euripides it found its most perfect expression. Thespis had only one actor, who from time to time relieved the chorus by declamation. Aeschylus changed this representation into real action by making use of two actors in addition to the chorus. Aeschylus also introduced masks; and by means of a long gown and the cothurnus, or buskin, the lofty stature of the heroes was imitated. A third actor was first introduced by Sophocles. The accommodations for the spectators were improved, and machinery and scenery introduced. The theatres, which had been formerly built of wood, were now large stone erections, capable of containing the greater number of the citizens. The regular drama among the Romans was borrowed from the Greeks. Plautus and Terence were imitators of the Greek comedy, Livius Andronicus (240 BC) of the Greek tragedy. Of the Roman tragedy, the dramas of Seneca are the only specimens extant.
In most modern European countries the regular drama took its rise in the mysteries, miracle-plays, and moralities of the middle ages. In Italy, however, it began with a reproduction in Latin of classical models. The earliest tragedy in Italian is Trissino's Sofonisba (1502). Regular comedies in Italian were written by Ariosto, Aretino, Macchiavelli, and others; and to the same period (15th and 16th centuries) belongs the Italian Pastoral Drama, which sprung from the ancient idylls, and aimed at a fanciful delineation of Arcadian and mythological scenes. Among the pastoral dramatists of this period are Poliziano, Tasso, and Guarini. The pastorals gave birth to the opera, early masters of which, so far as it may be included in the poetic drama, are Zenoand Metastasio. The Italian drama waned in the 17th century, but in the 18th genuine comedy and classic tragedy were restored, the former by Goldoni, the latter by Alfieri. Monti, Manzoni, and Niccolini are among the later writers of tragedy.
The other European nations cultivated the dramatic art much later than the Italians. The English and Spaniards devoted their attention to it almost at the game time; the former reaching their acme in William Shakespeare, the latter in Lope de Vega and Calderon. The history of the English theatre and the drama is naturally divided into two parts, the first of which begins with the reign of Elizabeth I and ends with the reign of Charles I. The rapid developmentof the drama during the reign of Elizabeth I was entirely unhampered by foreign influence. Lyly, Peele, Greene, Marlowe, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletchor, Chapman, Webster, Middleton, Marston, Ford,and Massinger are among the chief names connected with the brilliant period of the English drama.
During the Commonwealth the Puritans prohibited all kinds of plays, and the theatres were shut up for thirteen years. With Charles II the drama reappeared, and exhibited a licentiousness hardly equalled by that of any other Christian nation. Among the chief names belonging to this period are Dryden, Otway, Lee, Shadwell, Wycherley, and Etherege. From the close of the 17th to that of the 18th century British comedy was cultivated with much success by Cibber, Farquhar, Congreve, Sheridan, and others.
During the 19th century many writers have been conspicuous by their dramas. Among the chief of these may be noted Byron, Coleridge, Landor, Shelley, Maturin, Talfourd, Milman, Sir Henry Taylor, the first LordLytton, Knowles, R. H. Home, Arnold, Browning, Swinburne, and Tennyson. Among other 19th-century writers for the stage, who, however, may be called playwrights rather than dramatists, may be named, Douglas Jerrold, Tom Taylor, Charles Reade, Thomas Robertson, W. G. Wills, H. Byron, R. Buchanan, Dion Boucicault, W. S. Gilbert, J. M. Barrie, A. W. Pinero, H. A. Jones, etc.
The French drama was in a miserable state before Corncille (1606-84), who indeed is looked on as the founder of the drama in France. Racine, Moliere, Voltaire, and in later times Hugo, are some of the other distinguished French dramatists. Since about 1820 a new dramatic school has been formed in France, which, departing from the ancient strictness of what is called the classic, approaches more and more to the German or British, or what is called the romantic school. The establishment of this school formed part of the general reaction against the excessive adherence to classic models in literature, the leader in the movement being Victor Hugo. C. Delavigne marks the transition from the classical to the beginnings of the romantic school, and among the 19th century dramatists may be mentioned A. de Vigny, George Sand, A. de Musset, Merimee, Ponsard, Augier, Scribe, Dumas the Younger, and Sardou.
The German drama is of later birth than any thus far mentioned, and for a long time the Germans contented themselves with translations and adaptations from the French. Leasing was the first who, by word and deed, broke the French sway (1755), and he was succeeded by Schiller and Goethe, who rank as the greatest of the more modern dramatists. Prominent names in the German drama are Kotzebue, Korner, Schlegel, Tieck, Brentano, Grillparzer, Hebbel, Ludwig, Gutzkow, Freytag, Laube, Von Moser, etc.
The Dutch drama begins with the classical tragedies of Koster in the beginning of the 17th century, and reached its highest in Vondel (1587-1659). Holberg, Heiberg, Oehlenschlager, Ibsen, and Bjornson are the chief names connected with the Scandinavian drama.
The advent of moving pictures during the 20th century revolutionised drama, and introduced film or movies to the audience, with the USA quickly developing a reputation for film making based in Hollywood, and by the end of the 20th century the Indian city of Mumbai had become a leading center of Hindi language film making producing more films than even Hollywood. Research Drama
The gradual is the psalm, anthem, or hymn, said or sung in the service of the Roman Catholic Church between the Epistle and the Gospel. It is so named from being anciently chanted on the steps of the ambo or pulpit, or of the altar. By an easy transition the name was frequently applied to the Anti-phonary, which was originally one of the three service books of the church, but afterwards in the llth or 12th century included in the missal. Research Gradual
The Dipnoi are an order of fishes, including only the singular mud-fishes (Lepidosiren), important as exhibiting the transition, between fishes and the amphibia. Formerly Lepidosiren was reckoned the lowest of the amphibia, now it constitutes the highest order of fishes. The body is fish-like in shape, covered with small horny scales of a cycloid character; the pectoral and ventral fins are represented by two pairs of long filiform organs; the heart has two auricles and one ventricle, and the respiratory organs are twofold, consisting of ordinary gills opening externally, and of true lungs - formed by the modified swimming-bladder - communicating with the oesophagus by means of an air-duct or trachea, whence the name. They are also called Protopteri. The combination of respiratory organs is similar to that which is presented by the tailed amphibians with persistent gills (perennibranchiate), as the axolotl. This interesting group is allied to the ganoids through the Ceratodus of Queensland. The Lepidosiren paradoxa is found in the Amazon; Lepidosiren annectens in the Gambia. Research Dipnoi
Ammonius Saccas was a Greek philosopher who lived about 175-250. Originally a porter in Alexandria, he derived his epithet from the carrying of sacks of corn. The son of Christian parents, he abandoned their faith for the polytheistic philosophy of Greece. His teaching was historically a transition stage between Platonism and Neo-Platonism. Among his disciples were Plotinus, Longinus, Origen, etc. Research Ammonius Saccas
August Senoa was a Croatianwriter. He was born in 1838 at Zagreb, and died in 1881. A novelist, critic, editor, poet, and dramatist, he was instrumental in the modernisation and improvement of Croatian literature leading to its transition from Romanticism to Realism. Research August Senoa
Zi Xi was an Empress dowager of China. She was born in 1834 and died in 1908. She was presented as a concubine to the emperor Xianfeng. On his death in 1861 she became regent for her young son Tongzhi until 1873 and, after his death, for her nephew Guangxu until 1889. A ruthless conservative, she blocked the Hundred Days' Reform launched in 1898 and assumed power again, having Guangxu imprisoned. Her policies helped deny China a peaceful transition to political and economic reform. Research Zi Xi
In Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo was the god of the sun, music, poetry, prophecy, agriculture, and pastoral life, and leader of the Muses. He was the twin child of Zeus and Leto.
Apollo, being persecuted by the jealousy of Hera, after tedious wanderings and nine days' labour, was delivered of him and his twin sister, Artemis, on the island of Delos. Skilled in the use of the bow, he slew the serpentPython on the fifth day after his birth; afterwards, with his sister Artemis, he killed the children of Niobe. He aided Zeus in the war with the Titans and the giants. He destroyed the Cyclopes, because they forged the thunderbolts with which Zeus killed his son and favourite Asklepios.
According to some traditions he invented the lyre, though this is generally ascribed to Hermes. Apollo was originally the sun-god; and though in Homer he appears distinct from Helios (the sun), yet his real nature is hinted at even here by the epithet Phoebus, that is, the radiant or beaming. In later times the view was almost universal that Apollo and Helios were identical. from being the god of light and purity in a physical sense he gradually became the god of moral and spiritual light and purity, the source of all intellectual, social, and political progress. He thus came to be regarded as the god of song and prophecy, the god that wards off and heals bodily suffering and disease, the institutor and guardian of civil and political order, and the founder of cities. His worship was introduced at Rome at an early period, probably in the time of the Tarquins. Ancient statues show Apollo as the embodiment of the Greek ideal of male beauty. Apollo epitomized the transition between adolescence and manhood in Greek male society. Research Apollo
In Greek mythology Thanatos (Mors in Roman Mythology) was the god of death, a son of Night and the twin brother of Sleep. He was frequently regarded with submission, or as coming opportunely, and was represented in the form of a quiet, pensive youth, winged, standing with his legs crossed, often beside an urn with a wreath on it, and holding an extinguished torch reversed. Or, as a personification of endless repose, he appeared in the form of a beautiful youth leaning against the trunk of a tree, with one arm thrown up over his head - an attitude by which ancient artists usually expressed repose. It was probably owing to the spread of the belief that death was a transition from life to Elysium, that in later times this more attractive representation of the god of death took the place of the former repulsive representations, whether as a powerful and violent god, or as a black child in the arms of his mother, Night. Among the figures sculptured on the chest of Cypselas, a description of which we have still in Pausanius, was that of Night carrying twin children in her arms - the one white, representing Sleep, and the other black, representing Death. Research Thanatos
Cholera is an acute, infectious, often fatal disease caused by the micro organism Vibrio cholerae. It is endemic in India and some other tropical countries and occasionally spreading to temperate climates. The symptoms of cholera are diarrhoea and the loss of water and salts in the stool.
In its more ordinary form it commences with sickness, vomiting, or perhaps two or three loose evacuations of the bowels; after which follow a sense of burning at the praecordia, an increased purging and vomiting of a white or colourless fluid, great prostration of strength, spasms at the extremities, which increase in violence with the vomiting and purging. Such cases may last from twelve to thirty- six hours; after this the patient generally sinks into a state of extreme collapse, and this stage in most cases passes by a gradualtransition into a febrile one, which in a majority of instances proves fatal. Sometimes the patient is suddenly stricken down and dies, collapsed within a few hours without diarrhoea or vomiting.
In severe cholera, the patient develops violent diarrhoea with characteristic 'rice-water stools,' vomiting, thirst, muscle cramps, and sometimes circulatory collapse. Death can occur as quickly as a few hours after the onset of symptoms. The mortality rate is more than 50 percent in untreated cases, but falls to less than 1 percent with proper treatment. Treatment consists mainly of intravenous or oral replacement of fluids and salts. Packets for dilution containing the correct mixture of sodium, potassium, chloride, bicarbonate, and glucose have been made widely available by the WHO. Most patients recover in three to six days. Antibiotics such as tetracyclines, ampicillin, chloramphenicol, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole can shorten the duration of the disease, but have their own long term risks in damage to the immune system.
Cholera first appeared (in recognised form) in Europe in 1829, and reached Britain in 1831, spreading thence to America. Western Europe was again visited by it in 1847, 1853, 1865, 1873, 1875, and in 1885. In 1892 Russia and Western Europe suffered severely.
By 1905 it was ascertained that the primary and essential element in the production of cholera was a constituent of the excreta of cholera patients. At the time it wasn't known what the agent was, but that it is an organism capable of propagating itself when it is taken into the alimentarycanal in food, impure water, or the like, was beyond a doubt. Dr. Koch asserted that the essential cause was a bacillus, having the form of a curved rod, hence then called the comma bacillus, and that the disease was caused by the multiplication of this organism in the small intestines.
A method of protective inoculation against cholera was tried in India, with some success around 1900. At the same time it was established that the contagion of cholera is not so likely to be conveyed by personal intercourse as by residence in an infected district. Sanitary measures proved to be the only efficacious means of arresting an epidemic; insanitary conditions decidedly favour it - quite obvious as the disease is spread through contact with infected faeces.
What is called British cholera is a bilious disease, long known in most countries, and is characterized by copious vomiting and purging, with violent griping, cramps of the muscles of the abdomen and lower extremities, and great depression of strength. It is most prevalent at the end of summer or the beginning of autumn. Cholera infantum (infants' cholera) is the name sometimes given to a severe and dangerous diarrhoea to which infants are liable in hot climates or in the hot season. Research Cholera
A battle is a combat between two armies. In ancient times and the middle ages the battle-ground was often chosen by agreement, and the battle was a mere trial of strength, a duelengros; and as the armies of the ancients were imperfectly organized, and the combatants fought very little at a distance, after the battle had begun manoeuvres were much more difficult, and troops almost entirely beyond the control of the general. Under these circumstances the battle depended almost wholly upon the previous arrangements and the valour of the troops.
In the 19th century, however, the finest combinations, the most ingenious manoeuvres, were rendered possible by the better organization of the armies, and it was the skill of the general rather than the courage of the soldier that determined the event of a battle. By the Great War of 1914 tactics had changed with the advent of rapid firing weapons, long range artillery and armoured warfare.
Traditionally battles were distinguished as offensive or defensive on either side, but there was a natural and ready transition from one method to the other. As a rule the purely defensive attitude was condemned by tacticians except in cases where the only object desirable was to maintain a position of vital consequence, the weight of precedent being in favour of the dash and momentum of an attacking force even where opposed to superior forces. Where the greatest generals have acted upon the defensive, it has almost always been with the desire to develop an opportunity to pass to the offensive, and having discovered their opponent's hand, to marshal against the enemy, exhausted with attack, the whole strength of their resources. Napoleon won more than one great victory by this method, and Wellington's reputation was largely based upon his skill in defensive-offensive operations. Tacticians have divided a battle into three periods: those of disposition, combat, and the decisive moment. In some measure they require distinct qualities in a commander, the intellect which can plot a disposition being by no means always of the prompt judgment passing to instant action which avails itself of the crucial moment to crush an enemy.
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Drama
