Theatre among primitive peoples -- The origins of Greek tragedy and the satyric drama -- Greek tragedy in the fifth century B.C. -- Aristophanes and Greek comedy -- The architecture of Hellenistic and Roman theatres -- Roman theatre -- Everyday theatre in the Middle Ages: mimes and minstrels -- Liturgical drama -- The mystery-plays: religious theatre for the people -- The humanist revival of ancient classical theatre -- Learning, speculation and archeology in the Renaissance -- The baroque vogue for opera -- The commedia dell'arte -- French professional acting from farce to tragedy -- The comedie francaise in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries -- Theatre on wheels and in courtyards in the golden age -- For the kings of England -- four and five fencing foils and one wooden hoop -- English theatre during the Restoration -- Garrick and Shakespearian interpretation -- Lessing and middle-class theatre -- History, Shakespeare, and romanticism -- The boulevards of Paris and the strolling players of romantic Italy -- Forms and motifs in the oriental tradition -- Naturalism and psychological realism: Antoine and Stanislavsky -- The theatre artist and his symbols -- Theatre and poltic and the strolling players of romantic Italy -- Forms and motifs in the oriental tradition -- Naturalism and psychological realism: Antoine and Stanislavsky -- The theatre artist and his symbols -- Theatre and political strife -- The disintegration of theatrical space