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as the perfect ideal of a Christian Knight and gentleman? Why can you call him a mediator, another saviour? - How many of the twelve books which were designed did Spenser complete? Tell me what you know about the stanza which he used for the epic? Has the Faerie Queene been forgotten like the rest of the patriotic epics dating from the days of the Spanish wars? - Has it ever been a popular poem? Try to explain why Spenser has remained a force in English literature. Summary1). The great maritime discoveries had engendered an heroic spirit which, when rivalry at sea had led to the defeat of Spain's "Invincible" Armada, found its literary expression in a patriotic epic poetry. Edmund Spenser, a fine poet and a great scholar, who was familiar with Greek and Latin and Italian literatures as well as the allegorical verse tales of Medieval England, made of the legendary Prince Arthur the national hero of Britain, the subject of a great romantic epic, called the Faerie Queene, which reflects the Renaissance culture and the new national and protestant spirit of the Elizabethan age. This great metrical romance was never completed. Puritanism, i. e. the desire to get free from hierarchy: priestly government, ecclesiastical control was its leading motive. Thus, Arthur, the perfect ideal of a Christian gentleman representing Magnificence, the combination of the cardinal virtues, was to act the part of Saviour, his task being to help twelve knights, each the representative of some particular virtue, in their fight against the foul monsters just when they can no longer resist, and to lead them to the court of Gloriana, i. e. the Heavenly Glory, his destined bride. Written in a noble stanza of nine lines which bears the author's name, Spenser's fragmentary epic, which combines in the highly artistic form of an allegory the Englishman's strong feeling for the tradition of his country with a Christian and national English conception of life, has remained a force in the literature of England ever since its appearance in 1590, though it has never been a popular poem, in the sense of a poem for the people. 2).

1) Es empfiehlt sich, solche kurzen Zusammenfassungen des dargebotenen Stoffes den Schülern zur Einprägung zu diktieren. 2) "Spenser is generally known as "The Poets' Poet" because of his influence on other poets e. g. Byron and Keats, and as far as the people of England are concerned, he has remained an author respected, but seldom read."

Now I'll give you the argument of Book I, which contains the story of the deeds of the Red Cross Knight, who represents Holiness (Frömmigkeit). L. erzählt den Inhalt nach Delmer. Die Stelle aus dem Gedicht, die in Herrig-Förster enthalten ist, Una and the Lion, wird in die Darstellung eingefügt, indem einige Strophen gelesen und erklärt oder in deutscher Übersetzung vorgetragen werden.

2. The Elizabethan Drama.

a) The Theatre.

1. Stunde. I have said the heroic spirit of the age of Elizabeth found its expression in a patriotic literature. You see it in its epic poetry, and, later on, in its historical drama, especially in that of Shakespeare. The first London playhouse was built in 1576, only some fifteen years before Shakespeare's first play was acted. Its name was The Theatre. It was not in London at all, but outside the City. You wonder why. Well, as the members of the city corporation were of Puritan temper, they thought that theatrical performances were no fit: proper amusements for the people, and that is why the theatres of those days were built in the suburbs. Here I have brought a picture of one of these Elizabethan theatres. You'll see from it that they were rather primitive buildings, these first theatres. (Put the picture on the mapstand.) Can you read the inscription on it? Sch.: The Globe Theatre as rebuilt after the fire of 1613. The original Globe Theatre was put up in 1590 for Shakespeare and his company, the Lord Chamberlain's Servants, as they called themselves. As the social status of actors was very low, they sought the patronage: protection of a nobleman. If they were not "licensed" players, i. e. if they hadn't got a permit from a nobleman to act in his service, they might be treated as rogues and vagabonds. Now look at this picture. What do you see in the background? Sch.: The river Thames with some boats and barges on it. L.: The Globe was close to London Bridge on the south bank of the river, where most of the theatres were situated. What does it look like? Sch. It is a circular building or rather a L.: you want to say an octagonal or hexagonal structure; count its sides: angles. - The circle or octagon is roofed, the central portion is an open court

yard, round like “a wooden O". The tops of towers which you see here are part of the two-or three-storied structure at the back of the stage, and the flag which is seen flying here from the top of the theatre means that there is a performance on that day. And now let us look at the interior of an Elizabethan theatre. Here is another picture, (Hang it up, just leave the other on the stand). This picture represents the interior of the Swan Theatre, which was some way farther up the river, near the Globe. We see here the stage-half of the wooden O. There are no orchestra stalls in front of the stage. It was called the "yard" or "pit" as is nowadays the part of the auditorium which is behind the stalls on the floor. The pit was frequented by artisans, tradespeople, sailors, and low women. These "groundlings", as they were humorously called because they stood on the ground with no roof above their heads to shelter them from the rain or snow, used to while away the time with all sorts of jokes, cat-calls, and apple-throwing being among the favourite sports. The admission to the pit cost a penny, but we must not forget that a penny then was equal to about eight times as many now. Here you see the three tiers (spr. tiez) or rows of galleries which encircle the theatre. In the lowest there were the "gentlemen's rooms or boxes". Ladies seldom went to the playhouse, and if they did they wore masks. You would like to learn what the gentleman had to pay for a seat in the lowest gallery. I suppose about two shillings, and how much would that be in our present money? Sch.: Some sixteen or so. The upper galleries were the "two-penny galleries", the seats there being much cheaper. Now let us look at the stage. What first strikes us is that there is no orchestra separating it from the pit. The picture shows that the musicians were placed in the lowest gallery. They had to sound the signal calls and play between the acts for the entertainment of the audience, which was still the fashion some fifteen years ago1) at His Majesty's, London, where I saw six of Shakespeare's plays. Further, you see that the stage was not shut off from the spectator by a curtain. The persons here show you that the scenes were acted on a large platform running out into the yard. What size it was, you ask. Some forty or fifty feet square, I think. You don't see there any wings or scenery or painted background. A few

1) "and still is, I regret to say".

"movable properties" such as tables, chairs, and stools were all that was needed for the performance. The then stage-manager and the scene-painter had not in any way to do the same hard work as their modern colleagues have now in producing a Shakespearean play. The Elizabethan playgoer had to piece out: eke out, supplement the lacking or imperfect stage-scenery with his thoughts, and he could easily do so, as his fancy was nursed: fostered, fed by the spoken descriptions of landscape that so often occurred in the dramas. Sometimes, too, a board or placard may have been hung out on the stage to make the scene of action clear to everybody: to denote the place of action. I must not forget to mention a practice: custom, habit which modern playgoers would regard as a nuisance. Fancy, you are standing in the pit and eagerly looking at the scene that is being performed. Suddenly, these doors here open, and from the actors' dressing-room come a number of gallants, each bearing a stool in his hand. And now they put their stools on the stage and sit down. The scene is interrupted, the actors are incommoded, and your view is blocked. No matter. By paying an extra sixpence men of fashion got the right of sitting on the stage itself and disturbing the performance: trying the patience of actors and spectators alike. So much about the front stage. What then do we see at its back? Sch.: A towerlike building with two columns supporting a roof Yes, it's a sloping roof, a sort of penthouse or porch in front of the two doors. I have already said that these doors give access to the actors' dressingroom. Above them, you see a balcony. Our picture shows that in it distinguished people sometimes found a place, but the balcony as well as the top storey were often made use of in the performance of the play. As a rule, there was a curtain between the two columns. You do not see it in the picture. The dark cloth or "blanket", which might also play a part in the action of the drama, has probably been drawn aside. Let me add to what I have said about the stage a few words about the actors. They were splendidly dressed in silks and velvets, but their dresses were not historically true. Caesar, for instance, did not wear the tunic of a Roman, he looked like an Elizabethan nobleman. Women's parts were played by boys, who were trained specially for this purpose. They were most of them choir-boys of St. Paul's or the Chapel Royal. No women appeared on the English stage till after the Restoration. What should

you say if a boy of sixteen were to play (or played) the part of Lady Macbeth? It seems that the Elizabethan playgoer was not so hard to please as we are nowadays. What he wanted was action, movement look how the actor is drawn here, isn't he striding about in a tearing rage? — and if the plot was exciting, he cared little whether the actors looked their parts or not.

2. Stunde. Wiederholung des vorgetragenen Stoffes in kurzen Wiedergaben durch die Schüler an Hand der beiden. Bilder.

Summary. The first London theatre was built in 1576. The theatre of those days looked like a wooden O, the central part, called pit, being open to the sky. The stage was a large platform with hardly any scenery. At its back was a two-storied towerlike structure with a balcony and two columns supporting the projecting roof of the latter. The columns were hung with a curtain. While the common people used to stand in the pit, the roofed galleries in the circular building were reserved for gentlemen, ladies rarely going to the playhouse. The Elizabethan dramatist's spoken descriptions of landscape had to make up for the imperfect mounting of the play. The actors were dressed after the fashion of the day. Women's parts were acted by boys.

b) The "University Wits".

1. u. 2. Stunde. When Shakespeare was still a young man, the chief dramatists were people who had attended the university: studied at Oxford or Cambridge. They were mostly Bohemians, i. e. disorderly, untidy fellows of free-and-easy habits, who led wild lives, and died early and in poverty. They were, so to speak, outcasts. Society looked down upon these scholars who had devoted themselves with all their energy: heart and soul to writing plays. Plays were not yet regarded as serious literature, and so these young scholar dramatists lived apart from good society in taverns, in the company of low women and actors whose social status was equally very low in those times. The chief of these University Wits, as the young Bohemians were called, was Christopher or Kit Marlowe. He was the son of a poor shoemaker. After a youth full of privations he studied at Cambridge, took his degrees of B. A. and M. A., and came to London, where he turned to the stage which, though the