Abstract
In the literary productiveness of "history repeats itself" a period of analysis invariably followed a great creative period. Greece in the fourth century B.C. and seventeenth century England are corresponding illustrations in that regard. Each followed a period of great creative activity and each underwent a similar transformation. Just as Sophocles had been followed by Menander, and he by Theophrastus, so Shakespeare was followed by Jonson, and he by Hall and Overbury. From the display of character in action, emphasis was placed on character In and for itself; the creative gave way to the analytic. In both instances men were relegated to general types and sketched.