Scholars have once disputed whether there was an independent genre of drama with the name of"historical drama"and what was its concept in the English Renaissance since John Heminge and Henry Condell,the editors of Shakespeare's First Folio,divided his plays into comedies,historical dramas and trag-edies in 1623.This article attempts to differentiate and analyze its concept from the perspective of drama sub-ject,intention and theme,and argues that the historical drama is an independent genre of drama.In terms of sources of subject matter,they are mainly drawn from historical materials like chronicles,historical romances and mythical history.As for dramatic intention,the purpose of historical drama is to use history as a metaphor for the politics at that time to provide political teachings for the rulers.In terms of drama theme,the basic theme is the fate of modern British nation-state.
维普
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