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As in all cases of progress, literary and scientific, the lines of
demarcation cannot be very distinctly drawn, but as the morality had
superseded the mystery, and the interlude the morality, so now they were
all to give way before the regular drama. The people were becoming more
educated; the greater spread of classical knowledge had caused the
dramatists to study and assimilate the excellences of Latin and Greek
models; the power of the drama to instruct and refine, as well as to
amuse, was acknowledged, and thus its capability of improvement became
manifest. The forms it then assumed were more permanent, and indeed have
remained almost unchanged down to our own day.
What is called the _first_ comedy in the language cannot be expected to
show a very decided improvement over the last interludes or moralities,
but it bears those distinctive marks which establish its right to the
title.

THE FIRST COMEDY.--This was _Ralph Roister Doister_, which appeared in the
middle of the sixteenth century: (a printed copy of 1551 was discovered in
1818.


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