English bourgeois tragedy from 1576 to 1642

Abstract

What is English bourgeois tragedy? What forces produced it, and what is its significance in the first great period of English drama? It is the purpose of this dissertation to answer these questions by a detailed study of bourgeois tragedy as it existed in England between 1576 and 1642, the dates of the building of the first London play-house and of the closing of the theaters by the puritans. This investigation includes the following points: a historical study of the influence of social, political, and religious conditions upon bourgeois tragedy in its rise, its flourishing, and its decline; an analysis of the basic conceptions which differentiate bourgeois tragedy from the main body of contemporary tragedy, constituting it a special and significant type; a study of its relations, through secondary and stylistic qualities, to antecedent English drama, to the contemporary English drama, and to other literary types.