It is good to know that a considerably expanded English
edition of this study of the Elizabethan theatre by Professor
Sisson, of Elphinstone College, University of Bombay, is in preparation, for it is an important and exceedingly interesting work. Professor Sisson has approached his subject through the psychology of the reader and spectator of the period and its influence on the dramatist. In a preliminary chapter he traces the origins of the popular taste in the mystery- plays and various shows of more primitive times, and then goes on to discuss the psychology of the England of the Renaissance. The effect of the Renaissance upon England was peculiar. Cut off by her seas from the more cosmo- politan atmosphere of the Continent, she had established a vigorous national and political life of her own into which the Renaissance came simply as a tributary influence. It sup- planted nothing ; its function was to modify. Professor Sisson is very interesting on the subject of the public taste, which he maintains was fundamentally the same for all classes of society. Romance and realism, which modem criticism tends to treat as antithetical qualities, are, he shows, the salient features of the Elizabethan drama, and in the tragedies of Shakespeare we see them completely reconciled. We have not the space to consider Professor Sisson's study in detail. We must, for the moment, content ourselves with repeating that it is of the highest interest and look forward to discussing the English version, when it appears.
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