Drama and Theatre

UNIT 1 DRAMA AND THEATRE

Structure

1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Origins of Drama/Theatre
1.3 Growth of Drama
1.4 Types of Stage
1.5 Let Us Sum Up
1.6 Questions
1.7 Suggested Readings

1.0 OBJECTIVES
The aim of this unit is to familiarize the readers with the origin of drama, and to
highlight the role and significance of theatre as a distinct practice. Drama has its
roots in the oral literature of Greek theatre and religious-social life of the Athenian
people. As time passed this initial beginning of performative behaviour gave
way to dance drama which in turn pawed way for formal written and performed
plays. This unit intends to focus on the origin and growth of drama and, later
emphasizes different kind of use of stage that evolved in the last few centuries.
The soul of drama is its spectators. Thus the audience plays a vital and pivotal
role for the aim and purpose of drama/theatre is performance.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
Drama is a literary composition involving conflict, action, crisis and atmosphere
meant to be acted by players on a stage before an audience. This definition may
be applied to motion picture drama as well as to the traditional stage. In Abram’s
word the drama is, “the form of composition designed for performance in the
theatre, in which actors take the roles of the characters, perform the indicated
action and the written dialogue.” Thus the essential ingredients of a drama are
actors, dialogue, setting, plot and action. It is primarily meant for enactment on
the stage. Thus the stage and the spectators are equally important. Marjorie
Boulton says that “A true play is three dimensional; it is literature that walks and
talks before our eye”. A drama operates within the limits and framework of
space and time. It is distinguished from other literary forms by its special, complex
relationship to the reality we call time. As a narrative art, it addresses to the
telling of events which take place in the past, present or future. But as a performing
art, along with music and dance it has its existence in time. Thus it is a temporal
act. Drama can never be a subject of purely literary study. It has to be known in
relation to the stage, to the theatre. Tom F. Driver writes:
The act of performing the play in the theatre becomes a miniature reflection
of historical action taking place within the limit imposed by the conventions
of the theatre. This will be particularly true in those dramatic periods, such
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Drama: An Introduction as the Greek and the Elizabethan, where the theatre was frankly accepted as
the locus of the action and where there was not, an attempt to black out both
audience and theatre ... The theatre tends to reflect the assumptions of its age
regarding time and history because it is on the one hand a narrative of temporal
events, and on the other hand an enactment taking place within a moment of
time. The mimetic instinct is confined to no single nation; it is universal in
its appeal and reveals itself as one of the most primitive of human emotions.
It is the earliest of imitative arts.
Drama may be defined as a well-told cohesive story presented in action. Compton-
Rickett writes:
It must be articulate -that is, spoken; for a pantomime is a story in action,
and the orator who declares may give us an articulate story, though not
necessarily in action . . . for effective drama conflict of some kind is essential...
If the conflict be a trivial one, we get a farce. If a serious one, ending happily
for hero and heroine, we have a comedy. If a serious one with an unhappy
ending, we term it a tragedy.

1.2 ORGINS OF DRAMA/THEATRE

Twenty-five hundred years ago, Western theatre was born in Athens, Greece.
Between 600 and 200 B.C. the ancient Athenians created a theatre culture whose
form, technique and terminology have lasted two millennia, and they created
plays that are still considered among the greatest works of world drama. Their
achievement is truly remarkable when one considers that there have been only
two other periods in the history of theatre that could be said to approach the
greatness of ancient Athens - Elizabethan England and the Twentieth century.
The theatre of Ancient Greece evolved from religious rites which date back to at
least 1200 BC. At that time Greece was peopled by tribes that we in our arrogance
might label ‘primitive’. In northern Greece, in an area called Thrace, a cult arose
that worshipped Dionysus, the god of fertility and procreation. The Cult of
Dionysus practiced ritual celebration. The cult’s most controversial practice
involved, it is believed, uninhibited dancing and emotional displays that created
an altered mental state. This altered state was known as ‘ecstasies’. Ecstasy was
an important religious concept to the Greeks, who would come to see theatre as
a way of releasing powerful emotions. Though it met with resistance, the cult
spread through the tribes of Greece. (Dionysiac, hysteria and ‘catharsis’ also
derive from Greek words for emotional release or purification). During this
time, the rites of Dionysus became mainstream and more formalised and symbolic.
An essential part of the rites of Dionysus was the dithyramb. The word means
‘choric hymn’. This chant or hymn was probably introduced into Greece early
accompanied by mimic gestures, and probably music. It began as a part of a
religious ceremony, like a hymn, describing the adventures of Dionysus. It was
performed by a chorus of men, group of dancers, and band of revellers. In this
way, over a period of time dithyramb evolved into stories in play form now
known as drama.
Greek Theatre: By 600 BC in Greece the most prominent city state was Athens.
It was here that the Rites of Dionysus evolved into theatre. In about 600 BC,
10 Arion of Mehtymna (Corinth) wrote down formal lyrics for the dithyramb. Later
Thespis of Attica (Athens) added an actor who interacted with the chorus. This Drama and Theatre
actor was called the protagonist meaning the main character of a drama. When
Thespis, the director of choruses, his face smeared with white lead perhaps in
simulation of the dead god, stood on a table and addressed the leader of the
chorus, dialogue was born in Greece. With his inspired step Thespis also created
the classic actor as distinct from the dancer. His table (which probably served as
an altar for animal sacrifice) was the first inkling of a stage as distinguished from
the primitive dancing circle. In time, a second speaker was introduced and one
moved from one art to another, from choric chant to theatre. Gradually the leaders
of the dithyramb could include other related details taken from the many tales of
ancestral and local heroes which were being recited by poets. The words associated
with dithyrambic dances became elaborate and dramatic plot was introduced. In
534 BC, Pisistratus the ruler of Athens, instituted drama competitions. These
competitions became popular annual events. A government authority called the
archon chose the competitors and the choregos, wealthy patrons financed the
productions. The ‘theatre’ was constructed – The Theatre of Delphi, the Attic
Theatre and the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens. In fact, the word ‘theatre’ derives
from the Greek word ‘theatron’ which referred to the wooden spectator stands
erected on the hill sides; and the word ‘orchestra’ is derived from the Greek
word for a platform between the raised stage and the audience on which the
chorus was situated. Thespis who acquired a theatre building where his plays (he
was the first prize winning playwright in 535 BC) were performed in a permanent
circular dancing ground of stone with a stone temple in the background. Plays in
those days were performed in the daytime. Actors wore little or no to make up.
There was no scenery. Actors wore masks and buskins (leather boots upto the
knees). Until 484 BC the Athenian drama competitions consisted of dithyrambs
and a satyr play. Their style of presentation was choral rather than dramatic.
Around 484 BC there appeared on the Athenian theatre scene a playwright named
Aeschylus. He introduced props and scenery and reduced the chorus 50 to 12.
Aeschylus’ Persians, written in 472 BC, is the earliest play in existence. His
crowning work was The Orestia, which tells the legend of Agamemnon, the
Greek war hero who was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and pursuit of
justice by his children, Orestes and Electra. Thematically, it is about the tragedy
of excessive human pride, arrogance or hubris. Aeschylus is also known the
Father of Tragedy. Of the ninety-two plays of Aeschylus only seven have come
down to us. Hundreds of scattered fragments and comments provide an inkling
of the subjects he treated. He is a master of the picturesque. His characters are
colourful creatures, many of them supernatural, barbaric and his speech is
metaphorical. Prometheus Bound is an unforgettable work as its theme was God
himself. He turned from the drama of God to the drama of man in his last two
tragedies of which one is Agamemnon. In 468 BC Aeschylus was defeated in the
tragedy competition by Sophocles.
Sophocles, contribution to drama was the addition of actors, and an emphasis on
drama between humans rather than between humans and Gods. He was a fine
craftsman. He won 20 competitions. He experimented, tried different styles and
struggled painstakingly for perfection. He used only one play for each plot and
was consequently constrained to pack all his actions into it. In all respects the
shorter form offered the greater dramatic possibilities. His works bear a strong
resemblance to the architecture and sculpture of his time which favoured small
temples and statues of gods who are not much larger than well-built human beings. 11
Drama: An Introduction Sophocles is precise rather than rhapsodic. It is noteworthy that Sophocles is the
first writer known to have used some comic details in his tragedies, a procedure
that could only be motivated by a desire for contrast and variety. He is a master
of the device of tragic suspense and tragic irony of which Oedipus the King is a
supreme example. Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone and Philoctetes are the other
well known works.
Another contemporary Greek playwright was Euripides. His plays were about
real people. He placed peasants alongside princes and gave their feelings equal
weight. He showed the reality of war, criticized religion, and portrayed the
forgotten of society - women, slaves and old people. Euripides is credited with
adding to the dramatic form the Prologue which set the stage at the beginning of
the play. He managed to create the most forceful realism and social criticism of
the classic stage. The Trojan Women, Medea, Hippolytus, Cyclops and Alcestis
are the well known plays of Euripides.
Tragedy was not the only product of Athenian theatre but comedy also thrived at
the time. Greek comedy had two periods: Old Comedy represented by Cratinus
and Aristophanes; and New Comedy, whose main exponent was Menander.
Aristophanes, theatrical works were presented at the Athenian festivals. He used
three actors, a chorus that sang, danced and sometimes participated in the dialogue.
His first two comedies The Banqueters and The Babylonians were lost but it is
known that they were a satire on new education and a political satire respectively.
The Acharnians is the world’s first anti-war comedy. His other comedies include
The Wmps on deterioration of Athens, Peace an anti- imperialistic comedy, The
Frogs and Plutus.
The use of overt satire, topicality and the pointed lampooning of celebrated
characters to be found in Aristophanes’ style were replaced by mistaken identities,
ironic situations, ordinary characters and wit. Menander is the more significant
name in the New Comedy. His main contribution was to create a comedy model
that greatly influenced later comedy. His characters were not celebrities but
ordinary people. The chorus resembled modem chorus singers and dancers who
provided fillers between acts. They were also portrayed as drunken audience
members. His characters were classic comedy archetypes. Emphasis on mistaken
identity, romance and situational humour became the model for subsequent
comedy, from the Romans to Shakespeare to Broadway. His talent is witnessed
in his comedy of errors – The Girl From Samos, The Shearing of Glycera and
The Arbitration. The work of Menander was reincarnated in the Latin comedies
of Plautus and Terrence.

1.3 GROWTH OF DRAMA

Gassner writes:
... there is not a single human impulse, moral or otherwise, that cannot be
associated with the growth of the stage; the masters of the drama are the
children of life . . . . The first playwright began indeed as a player and a
magic maker. But he gradually took the whole world of experience and
thought form his field….in copying movements or gestures, repeating sounds,
and employing human, animal and even vegetable disguises, primitive man
12 was instinctively bringing himself in touch with his environment. And in
 playing he was not only discharging excess energy but preparing himself for Drama and Theatre
purposeful action. ... Man danced out his desires until the pantomimic dance
became the most finished early form of drama. ...The playwright leads the
pantomime since the form and execution of the performances requires a
guiding intellect ... he is also a social philosopher, for it is he who organizes
the performance as a commercial activity and extends the psychological
reality of commune.
From Greece, the stage was passed on to Rome. With the fall of Rome in the
fourth century, the theatre virtually vanished. Drama in England does not begin
until the tenth century. The medieval theatre also developed out of the religious
services. It was the creation of the Church. Thus it is true to say that the “cradle
of the drama rested on the altar.” The clergy were obliged to find some method
of teaching and explaining to the ignorant masses the doctrinal truths of religion.
The Gospel stories were illustrated by a series of living pictures in which the
performers acted the story in dumb show. In the next stage the actors spoke as
well as acted their parts. These early plays were known as Mysteries and
Miracles. The former were stories taken from the Scripture narrative while the
latter are plays dealing with incidents in the lives of Saints and Martyrs. Drama
is inherent in the very ritual of the Church, and the Mass itself was a factor in the
dramatic development.
Miracle plays grew out of the liturgy itself, with its solemn rites and the chants
alternating between priest and congregation. They began as short dialogues.
Recited at first inside the church these dialogues developed into title plays acted
in the church porch. One of the most important was the play of Adam written in
the 12th C by a Norman. It is in three parts, showing the fall of Adam and Eve,
the death of Abel and the line of prophets announcing the advent of the Saviour.
This play was written in French. Another important play was Noah, about Noah,
about Noah finishing the Ark, informing his wife and begging her to enter the
ark. Thus the plays folded scenes from the Scriptures, depicted scenes from the
Life of Christ, and celebrated Holy days like Christmas, Easter or Corpus Christi.
Certain towns, either by reason of the importance of their fairs, or through the
more powerful organization of their trade guilds became noted for the presentation
of their miracle plays. These cycle plays were known by the names of the places
where they were shown - Chester, York, Coventry, Norwich, Newcastle and
Wakefield. The guilds played an important part in the powerful organization.
One of the most touching plays is that of Abraham and Issac.
Mystery and miracle plays gave way to Moralities and Interludes. In the
Mystery and Miracle plays, serious and comic elements were interwoven. Now
they part: the Morality presenting the serious and the Interlude the lighter side of
things. The characters typified certain qualities - Sin, Grace, Repentance.
Moralities emanate from allegory. Bible characters are replaced by abstract virtues
and vices personified. Their aim was primarily the teaching of the Christian
faith. If in the miracle plays the scenes had a movable pageant, the moralities
required a fixed stage. The moralities were concerned with wider issues and
showed human life wavering between good and evil, between God and the Devil.
Well known plays were Castell of Perseverance, Everyman and Mankind. The
protagonist was mankind at large. If on one side were grouped the person of evil
angel and his minions the Seven Deadly Sins, then on the other side were the
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Drama: An Introduction good angel and the Divine Graces. Thus the debate was between Sin, Jealousy,
Malice, Gluttony etc. and Mercy, Justice, Peace, Truth, etc. The persons of the
mystery plays were nearly all given individual names and the drama was rooted
in reality. The performances consisted of a group of local amateurs who formed
an association for the specific purpose of acting - in other words, a fifteenth
century amateur dramatic society. The three plays mentioned above were pointers
to the varied courses that drama looked to. The miracle plays ceased to be acted
about 1600, but by that time the regular drama was established.
No masterpiece was produced during the years 1520 - 1578AD.
Interludes were comic dialogues and Heywood’s interludes were popular as his
originality consists in the fact that he avoids moralizing and aims at amusement.
The best known is The Four P’s - Palmer, Pardoner, Pothecary and Pedlar.
Heywood’s The Mery Play Between the Pardoner and the Frere was also very
popular. Such interludes indicate that an effort was made to combine good healthy
instruction with much comic business.
The first English drama was Gorboduc written by Sackville and Norton and
played before Elizabeth at Whitehall in 1562. When published it was called
Ferrex and Porrex. The tragic story is divided into five acts. Norton wrote the
fourth and fifth. The action takes place behind the scenes, and each act ends
with a chorus, in imitation of the tragedies of Seneca. It is written in blank verse
and treats of an episode in national history.
The first regular English comedy was produced in 1553 by Nicholas Udall and
was titled Ralph Roister Doister. Udall is justly entitled as the “Father of English
Comedy.” The play is neither farce nor debate but is a comedy full of incident
and intrigue, well ordered and well planned. Gammer Gurton’s Needle is the
second English comedy written by Mr. S.
The foundation of a truly national theatre was helped by the formation of
companies of professional players. In 1576, the first theatre was built in
Shoreditch. Gradually the Rose, the Swan, the Globe and the Fortune were
built.

1.4 TYPES OF STAGE

Drama has undergone significant changes with passage of time. Stage types
also changed and have thus required different forms of acting.
Drama, period-wise can be classified into broad categories as follows:
1. Classical Theatre (Greek and Roman)
2. Native Drama (1066-1 500)
3. Renaissance Drama (1500- 1660)
a) Elizabethan Drama: Shakespeare and Contemporaries.
b) Jacobean and Caroline
4. The Neoclassical Period or Restoration Drama (1660-1700)
5. Drama in 1 8h, 19th and 20" Century.
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Greek Theatre Drama and Theatre

Plays in ancient Greece were staged in amphitheatres, which were marked by a

round stage about three quarters surrounded by the audience. Since amphitheatres
were very large and could hold great masses of people (upto 25,000), the actors
could hardly be seen from far back, and for this reason, acting included speaking
in a loud, declamatory voice, wearing masks and symbolical costumes and acting
with large gestures. The chorus was a vital part of ancient drama. It had the
function of commenting on the play as well as giving warning and advice to
characters. The stage scenery was neutral and was accompanied by the real
landscape surrounding the amphitheatre. Plays were performed in day light.
Ancient Greek drama was performed on special occasions like religious
ceremonies, and it thus had a more ritual, symbolic and also didactic purpose.
The audience consisted only of free men; slaves and women were excluded.
The Theatre in Epidaurus (Theatre in Stone): The theatre at Epidaurus shows on
open-air Greek theatre, with seats for the audience hewn out on the slope of a
hill. The most prominent feature of the theatre is the large dancing circle, or
orchestra, for the chorus. At the side to the right is one of the passageways or
paradoi, affording entrance and exit for the chorus and processions. At the back,
are the ruins of the stone scene building, the skene, which could represent a
temple or a palace, and served as a permanent scenic background for the stage
productions. During 5th century BC, the skene became a two-storey stone building
where the upper storey or episkenion was used for the stage machinery, by means
of which the gods were lowered to the stage level. The front of the lower story
had a colannade or proskenion. Most of the acting transpired on a low platform
in front of this structure, which had three doors and was flanked by projecting
wings as paraskenia. The theatre at Epidauros belongs to the Hellenistic period
(4th century BC), but the above- mentioned architectural features were also present
in the theatre of Dionysus. Gradually the stage production became elaborate.
The Skene was usually rectangular and divided into rooms. The front wall of the
ground story had a series of pillars between which were set painted wooden
panels or pinakes. The actors usually performed on the second story level, so
that the stage was about a foot high and from 8 to 10 feet deep running the entire
length of the building. At the back of this stage stood the colonnaded front wall
of the second story, pierced by three doors, and served as the background. Between
the columns of this upper colonnade, too, pinakes might be placed. There was
less inter-mingling between the actors and the chorus.
Later under Roman influence, the Greek theatre underwent other modifications,
the stage or acting-area was lower by a few feet but deeper, the frontage of the
stage lost its colonnade but became a highly decorated scenic facade, and the
orchestra was no longer a complete circle.
Later, tragedy was stately and comedy was extravagant. The actors were trained
in speech, dance and pantomime.
Native Drama
Medieval plays (Mysteries and Moralities) were performed during religious
festivities. They were staged on wagons (pageants), which stopped somewhere
in the market place and were entirely surrounded by the audience. The close 15
Drama: An Introduction vicinity between actors and audience had to account for a way of acting. Actors
took into account the everyday experiences. Rarely were the mystery plays
exhibited anywhere except out of doors and no attempt was made to construct
for them any theatre. Within the church stations or locations (sedes/ seats; loci/
places; domus/houses) were in view of the method of stage representation called
‘simultaneous setting’ or ‘multiple setting’. When the liturgical plays ceded
their position to the mystery cycles, the seats or small platforms elaborated into
mansions - sometimes made into little rooms by provision of curtains at the sides
and back, sometimes decorated with carved or painted scenery and the platea
served its original function. The stationary set presented the mansions in a curving
row facing the audience. The second involved the placing of the mansions on
wheels, so that they became pageants, which could be drawn from spot to spot.
The actors were amateur - members of various guilds or companies who for a
time put aside their labour to perform. They were generally paid for their services.
Heaven and Hell were presented either on left and right sides respectively or top
and bottom. Costuming was not only gorgeous but imaginative. On a multiple
stage live animals such as rabbits and lambs were employed. Placards were used.
The attention of the audience was concentrated on gestures, delivery of numerous
monologues and the many tirades for effect. There were no actresses, boys took
the parts of women. The heterogeneous audience from the groundlings to courtiers
were simple folk willing to be taught and edified. They appreciated the essentials
of drama: life, pathos and humour.
Apron Stage
The Elizabethan stage was typically found in public theatres, i.e. plays were no
longer performed outside. However it was still open air theatre. From 1580 to
1642 London theatres presented almost everyday a number of plays both old and
new, each one a medley of styles. Theatres were simple in structure, mostly
circular in form; within was a courtyard open to the sky, surrounded by two or
three tiers of covered galleries. At one side of the courtyard projected a platform
which formed the stage. In the centre, on either side of the platform, two pillars
supported them ceiling; at the back, between two doors which served for the
entrance and exit of the actors, was another stage overlooked by a gallery with
balcony and windows; in front of this rear - stage was a movable curtain. There
were no wings, only elementary accessories. The front stage served most purposes.
On the bare stage the actors, performance was all important. The most common
stage form in Renaissance England was the open stage which was surrounded by
the audience on three sides and there was still close vicinity between audience
and actors. The vestigial platform was known as the apron and it stood in front of
the proscenium arch and accommodated most of the acting. Playwrights wrote
long speeches regularly into their plays, employed the embellishments of rhetoric,
and made free of asides and soliloquies. The Elizabethan theatre could hold
upto 2,000 people and the audience was heterogeneous. Plays of the period
typically combine various subject matters and modes because they attempted to
appeal to as wide an audience as possible. The apron was cut down and was
finally discarded entirely after the middle of the 19th century. Once the actor
played close to the scenery within the setting, as became customary, he was
disproportionately tall and the painted scenery looked false. Stage illusion
deteriorated.
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Restoration Stage Drama and Theatre

Theatres of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were considerably smaller

than the Elizabethan theatre (held about 500 people) and performances took place
in closed rooms with artificial lighting. Audience was seated in a fully illuminated
room. The stage was closed in by a decorative frame and the distance between
audience and actors was thus enlarged. There was no curtain and changes of
scene had to take place on stage in front of the audience. The plays presented an
idealized, highly stylized image of scenery, characters, language and subject of
matter. Emergence of ‘Patent’ theatres and minor playhouses is a significant
move of the drama in the 17th and 18th century. As the old tightly - knit aristocratic
society began to disintegrate and the middle classes started to enter the playhouses,
the playhouse established its own tradition, which were passed on to the nineteenth
century and even to the present day. Nicoll writes: “Four popular species of
entertainment must be noted - the operatic, the spectacular, the terpsichorean
and the mimic.” The men and women liked show; music appealed to them and
dances were appreciated. The ballad-opera invented by John Gay exhibited that
the tastes lay within the field of extravagant and satirical.
Proscenium Stage
The stage of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is called proscenium or picture
frame stage because it is shaped in such a way that the audience watches the play
as it would regard a picture: The ramp clearly separates actors and audience, and
the curtain underlines this division. While the stage is illuminated during the
performance, the auditorium remains dark, which also turns the audience into an
anonymous mass. Since the audience is not disturbed and can fully concentrate;
it became easier to create an illusion of real life in plays. Scenery is elaborate,
and true - to - life. More detailed stage props, lighting and sound system are
possible due to new technologies. Multiple stages are operative simultaneously.
The play is not just a drama but moves like a film as it creates the illusion of a
story world ‘as it could be in real life.’ There is a wide range of different types of
stage in the present era, alongside the conventional proscenium stage or the
modern street theatre. With passing time, dramatic power has heightened, artistry
refined and situations secularized and universalized.

1.5 LET US SUM UP

At the end of this unit, we are familiar with
 the role of theatre
 the significance of theatre.

1.6 QUESTIONS
1. Elaborate Boulton’s statement; “A true play is three dimensional.”
2. Elucidate the fact that the ‘cradle of the drama rested on the altar’.
3. Write notes on:
a) Greek theatre 17
Drama: An Introduction b) Growth of British drama
c) Origin of tragedy and comedy
4. Development of stage is proportional to the growth of drama. How?
5. Define the terms:
a) Mystery plays
b) Morality plays
c) Chorus
d) Dithyramb
e) Theatre
f) Interludes
g) Apron stage

1.7 SUGGESTED READINGS

Abram, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 1941; Indian rpt. New Delhi: Harcourt
India, 1999.
Driver, Tom F. Sense of History in Greek and Shakespearean Drama. New York:
Columbia Uni. Press, 1960.
English Drama: Forms and Development (Essays in Honour of M.C. Bradbrook).
Ed. Marie Axton and Raymond Williams. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni. Press,
1977.
Gassner, John. Master of the Drama, 3 rd Ed. 1940; rpt. New York: Dover
Publication, 1954.
Legouis, Emile. A Short History of English Literature 1934; rpt. London: Oxford
Uni. Press, 1956.
Nicoll, Allardyee. British Drama, 5th Ed. 1925; rpt. London: George G. Harrap &
Co. Ltd., 1964.
Rickett, Arthur Compton. A History of English Literature. Indian rpt. New
Delhi: Universal Book Stall, 1991.

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