It is further
possible that the Italian stage was on the way to something great when
the Counter-reformation broke in upon it, and, aided by the Spanish
rule over Naples and Milan, and indirectly over almost the whole
peninsula, withered the best flowers of the Italian spirit. It would be
hard to conceive of Shakespeare himself under a Spanish viceroy, or in
the neighbourhood of the Holy Inquisition at Rome, or in his own
country a few decades later, at the time o English Revolution. The
stage, which in its perfection is a product of every civilization, must
wait for its own time and fortune.
We must not, however, quit this subject without mentioning certain
circumstances which were of a character to hinder or retard a high
development of the drama in Italy, till the time for it had gone by.
As the most weighty of these causes we must mention without doubt that
the scenic tastes of the people were occupied elsewhere, and chiefly in
the mysteries and religious processions. Throughout all Europe dramatic
representations of sacred history and legend form the origin of the
secular drama; but Italy, as will be shown more fully in the sequel,
had spent on the mysteries such a wealth of decorative splendor as
could not but be unfavorable to the dramatic element. Out of all the
countless and costly representations, there sprang not even a branch of
poetry like the 'Autos Sagramentales' of Calderon and other Spanish
poets, much less any advantage or foundation for the secular drama.
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