The two most important foreign influences on English Renaissance Drama were SENECA and ARISTOTLE: under their influences, traditional English Drama abandoned the Biblical plays, interludes, fabliaux and farce.

The most important influences of the Italian Renaissance on the English Drama were:

The study of the dramatic theory of Aristotle;

The new interest in Hellenistic tragedy;

The interest in Roman drama and the imitation of Seneca.

Comedies followed Plautus influence.

The originality of the English Renaissance Drama is epitomized by ARISTOTELIAN DEFINITION OF TRAGEDY.

The word TRAGEDY derives from the Greek "Tragoedia"( song of the goat): it refers to a form of ritual in honour of the god Dionisyus.

The Aristotelian tragedy, the model of classical tragedy, was divided into three acts (parts); often a fourth part was added: the "burlesque", a comic interlude which had to calm the audience after the cathartic experience they had had.