t the
interlude was not often so serious an affair, and it developed rapidly
in a way that gave us, in the sixteenth century, the interludes of John
Heywood (1497-1577), which are really short farces, {29} and no bad
ones at that. By reason of its character and the small number of
actors which it required, the interlude was usually given by
professional entertainers, who were either kept by persons of high
rank, or traveled from town to town. We find, therefore, in the acting
of interludes the conditions which gave rise to modern comedy and to
the modern traveling company.

+Classical Influences+.--In the preceding paragraphs we have considered
the early modern drama as an independent growth, but the influence of
the classical drama, particularly the Latin tragedies of Seneca and the
Latin comedies of Plautus and Terence, showed itself in the later
moralities and interludes, and was to appear again and again in the
later course of English drama. That great revival of interest in
classical learning which gave the Renaissance its name, was a mighty
force in the current of English thought throughout the sixteenth
century. The old Latin tragedies and comedies were revived and were
produced in the original and in translation at schools and colleges.
It was an easy step from this to the writing of English comedies after
Latin models. The earliest of such attempts which we know is the
comedy of _Ralph Roister Doister_, written by Nicholas Udall for Eton
boys at some time between 1534 and 1541. This, commonly called the
first English comedy, is little more than a clever adaptation of
Plautus to English manners and customs; but a comedy written soon
after, _Gammer Gurton's Needle_, is really an Interlude cast in the
Plautean mold. The first English tragedy, _Gorboduc_, closely
imitative of Seneca, but on {30} a mythical British subject and written
in English blank verse, did not appear until 1562, nearly a quarter of
a century later. Seneca's tragedies had little action, slight
characterization, and many extremely long speeches, which often
display, however, much brilliant rhetoric. _Gorboduc_ has all these
qualities except the brilliance. The history, the third of the types
into which the editors of the First Folio were to divide Shakespeare's
plays, was also affected by Senecan influence. We have already seen
how the historical figure of King John appeared in a morality, one
which shows little trace of classical tr