the balance until
the very end. The happy ending to tragic entanglements won a favor it
has never lost on the English stage, and tragi-comedy of the Fletcherian
type continued the most popular form of the drama until Dryden.

[Page Heading: Tragi-Comedy]

It is unnecessary here to dwell long over the drama after Shakespeare's
death. Jonson, Dekker, Heywood, and Webster wrote from time to time, and
Middleton devoted his versatile talent to whatever kind of play was in
vogue, now rather to Websterian tragedy and Fletcherian tragi-comedy
than to realistic comedy. Yet, in collaboration with Rowley, he produced
the powerful tragedy, _The Changeling_, and the much-admired
tragi-comedy, _A Fair Quarrel_. After Fletcher's death in 1625,
Massinger took his place as leader of the stage, and his work, with that
of Ford and Shirley, carry on the great traditions of the drama to the
very end. A host of minor writers, as Brome, D'Avenant, Suckling,
Cartwright, offer little that is new; but no survey of the drama,
however brief, can neglect to mention the skilful exposition, admirable
psychology, and sound structural principles that characterized the best
of Massinger's many plays, the unique and amazing dramatic genius shown
in Ford's masterpieces, _The Broken Heart_ and _'Tis Pity She's a
Whore_, and the ingenuity in plot, adroitness in characterization, and
genuine poetic gifts of Shirley.

Comedies from 1616 to 1642 reveal two chief influences; they are
realistic and satiric, following Jonson, or they are light-hearted,
lively combinations of manners and intrigue, after Fletcher. In the
former class are Massinger's two great comedies, _The City Madam_ and _A
New Way to Pay Old Debts_. To the latter class belong most of the
comedies of Shirley. Tragi-comedies follow Fletcher with the variations
due to the authors' ingenuity, and include perhaps the most attractive
plays of Massinger and Shirley. Tragedies usually mingle lust, devilish
intrigue, physical horror, after the fashion of Webster and Tourneur,
but now often with romantic variation on the theme of love, and a
technic of suspense and surprise similar to Beaumont and Fletcher. These
are the main tendencies in the last twenty years of the drama, and
characterize in the large the work of the greater men as well as of the
less. Shakespeare's influence is widespread, but appears incidentally in
particular scene, situation, character, or phrase, rather than as
affecting the m