began to appear almost simultaneously in the sixteenth cen-
tury vernacular dramas of Italy, Spain, France and England,
following the contact of the medieval stage with humanistic
innovation; that these productions steadily increased in number
and popularity with the growth of the drame libre, assuming
in course of time more or less definite characteristics, enlist-
ing critical defenders and opponents, and forming no incon-
siderable part of the seventeenth century national drama of
each country; and finally, that after a period of varied ascend-
ency the vogue of the tragicomedy declined, until by the eigh-
teenth century plays so entitled practically disappeared from
the popular stage. The English phase of this transient dra-
matic evolution assumes a special interest on a realization of
its importance as a factor in the great Elizabethan drama.
Developing out of the pre-Shaksperian stage, English tragi-
comedy first sprang into full-blown existence in the early seven-
teenth century; thence it speedily grew in popular favor, en-
listing the best efforts of the last of the great Elizabethans,
and maintaining preëminence over all other forms of drama
until the civil wars closed the theaters. With the Restoration
its popularity began to abate; changes in social and theatrical
conditions accomplished its steady decay; and by the dawn of
the Augustan era the type in England was a relic of the past.

By tragicomedy, then, we are to understand, first of all, an
extinct dramatic species, and one whose origin and develop-
ment, while paralleled in several countries alike, we propose to
trace in English drama alone, with only incidental notice of
its related foreign aspects. Under these limitations, we are,
therefore, not concerned with parceling out the whole of Eng-
lish drama according to some empiric standard of what may
or ought to constitute this or that dramatic kind. English
tragicomedy, properly so-called, enjoyed but a transient exist-
ence; and consequently it is futile to look beyond certain
definite bounds for plays of the species.

With the scope of the subject thus roughly indicated, let
us consider for a moment the nature of tragicomedy in the
abstract. While baffling final definition, the word as it stands
may be taken to convey an idea of something that is neither

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