drama, Western: Renaissance Drama

By the advent of the Renaissance in the 15th and 16th cent., most European countries had established native traditions of religious drama and farce that contended with the impact of the newly discovered Greek and Roman plays. Little had been known of classical drama during the Middle Ages, and evidently the only classical imitations during that period were the Christian imitations of Terence by the Saxon nun Hrotswitha in the 10th cent.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Twentieth-Century Drama
• Nineteenth-Century Drama
• Eighteenth-Century Drama
• Drama from 1750 to 1800
• England
• Spain
• France
• Italy
• Renaissance Drama
• Medieval Drama
• Roman Drama
• Greek Drama
• Bibliography

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Theater