Excerpt from The Ancient Classical Drama, a Study in Literary Evolution: Intended for Readers in English and in the Original I have ventured to entitle this work 'A Study in Literary Evolution.' It is obvious that some of the familiar processes and results of evolution are to be traced in literature. Within the field of the Ancient Classical Drama we can see a common starting-point from which lines of development extend in various directions; the rise of new literary species, or transitional tendencies not amounting to distinction of species; developments traceable in embryo and on to maturity, with precious links preserving processes of change all but lost; unstable forms that continually originate literary changes, reversions to type, and survivals of forms long after their raison d'être has passed away; while the Drama as a whole will present the double process of growth in simplicity from the indefinite to the regular, and the passage from simple to complex. Thus to survey the phenomena of literary development gives a point of view distinct from that of literary history. History is concerned with the sum of individual works produced: evolution takes account only of literary varieties. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This 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. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.