7CENTREforREFORMATIONandRENAISSANCESTUDIESVICTORIA MUNIVERSITY jfEARLY PLAYSFROM THE ITALIANEDITED, WITH ESSAY, INTRODUCTIONSAND NOTESBYR. WARWICK BOND M.A.EDITOR OF THE OXFORD LYLY AND OTHER WORKSOXFORDAT THE CLARENDON PRESSMDCCCCXIHENRY FKOWDE, M.A.PUDLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORDLONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORKTORONTO AND MELBOURNEPREFACEWHAT I have endeavoured to do in this little bookis something wider than an edition of three plays, andcloser than can well be done in a literaryhistory. I started with the wish to show how ancientGreek and Roman Comedy finds representation in ourown, not only in subject and spirit, but in matters ofform and technique; and to show this not only bystatement and discussion, but by giving therewithactual plays to which the reader might instantly turnfor verification of indicated parallelism or imitation. Iwished to bring under the purely English reader's noticesome facts about ancient comedy for its own sake, factsusually too cursorily dismissed in histories of the moderndrama to leave a very distinct impression on the mind ;and at the same time I wished to show the great impor-tance of Italian Renaissance Comedy in handing on theclassical form and substance to modern Europe, whileintroducing considerable modifications of it.The general influence of Italy has been stated againand again. Critic after critic has raked together theallusions to Italian ...
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