Excerpt from Magnificence: A Moral Play; With Introduction, Notes, and GlossaryHe is, indeed, the first personality of any sort whom we encounter in the annals of the stage, with the exception of Henry Medwall, author of Nature. Medwall was not a man of letters. He acquired no literary fame apart from his dramatic efforts, and only the accident of his position secured the survival of his name. A chaplain of Archbishop Morton's, he belonged to the class by whom moralities had always been written. The composition of interludes was probably a part of his duties, as it was for the almoner of the Earl of N orthumberland. Skelton too had taken orders, but his dramatic venture, though perhaps connected with this fact, cannot be wholly thus explained for so had Barclay, and so had Lydgate and Occleve in the preceding century. Shelton's priesthood at all times sat lightly on him. His talent was essentially undramatic.

His experiment in the new field was both a proof of his audacity and a Sign of the times. The drama was at last ready to take its place as a literary form. Skelton was closely followed by Heywood and Lyndsay, Bale and Udall, and a host of others, all professional penmen.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy.

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