Exercise 7. Fill in the blanks with the following words and phrases and translate the text.

Imitation; discreet; closet dramas; all but forgotten; dramatizations; yearly; choral performances; complex; Morality Play; freedom of speech; plot; Resurrection; surviving plays; religious foundations; playwright; comedy of manners, tragedy; dramatic tradition; noteworthy; highest point.

During the sixth century B.C. in ancient Athens, episodes from lives of the many Grecian religious cult heroes were celebrated in public … of poetry during yearly religious festivals. Drama, as we know it, specifically …, began when a small number of choral members started to impersonate the heroes; impersonation or … was the key. The heroes of course were … for their achievements, but they were not immortal and they suffered death, and they also experienced grief and sorrow. Therefore the … about them which in Greek were called “goat songs” portrayed their tribulations and often even their deaths. It was this pattern of drama that during the fifth century B.C. produced the powerful tragedies that are represented by the … of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.

Not long afterward, comedy became an additional feature of the … festivals. Because the ancient Athenians tolerated great …, the comedy writers created a boisterous, lewd, and freely critical type of comedy, known as “Old Comedy”. Later it was replaced by “Middle Comedy”, more … and international drama, and then by “New Comedy”, a type of play featuring the development of …, situation, and character that has also been called “…”.

The two Greek forms (tragedy and comedy) were adopted by the Romans during the periods of the Republic and the Empire, and the only significant … during the days of the Empire was the tragedian Seneca (4 B.C. - A.D. 65), who wrote “…” – that is, plays for reading and not performing.

After the breakup of the Roman Empire in the west (A.D. 5) drama was.... When it reemerged it had nothing to do with the Greek and Roman … because it took place in the churches during Easter and Christmas masses. By the end of the 13^th century, plays had become too long and … to be performed as part of religious services and they were moved outdoors as part of post Easter celebrations, particularly Corpus Christi Day. These dramatizations called … or Corpus Christi Plays were collections or … of plays dramatizing Biblical stories such as Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham and Isaac, the Shepherds Abiding in the Field, the trial of Jesus, and the Crucifixion and.... Later, another type of play developed, the …, the objective of which was how to live a Christian life.

By the 16^th century, drama became liberated from these … and began rendering the twists and turns of purely human conflicts. A revival of the culture and drama of ancient Greece and Rome began, therefore the performing tradition growing out of the medieval church was combined with the surviving classical tragedies and comedies to create an entirely new drama that quickly reached its … in the plays of Shakespeare. It was the European Renaissance of the dramatic forms originated by Greeks.

Exercise 8. Prepare a talk or a discussion on one of the topics given below.

1. Tell about the development of tragedy with specific examples.

2. Tell about the evolution of comedy with specific illustrations.

3. Tragicomedy as a mixed dramatic pattern.

4. Farce, melodrama, and social drama.

5. The functions of scenery.

6. Dramatic language and its specific features.

7. Tone and atmosphere in drama.

8. Verbal and situational irony as playwrights’ method.

9. The meaning of symbols in drama.

10. Allegory in drama: cross-cultural view.

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