In the literary-historical and theoretical sense, the ancient drama established the initial genre of drama as the basis for its future evolution. Despite the poetic differences in understanding the certain elements of drama, ancient authors established a basis for continuity of development of European drama in future centuries, literary periods and stylistic formations. Diachronic perspective of the drama development in English literature will also play a certain role in the centuries that follow. However, the existence of a rich national dramatic tradition in England had, after all, greater impact on dramatic literature, which will allow classical models only to steer the development of drama in the right direction, not allowing the authors to be captured in rules and uniformity. University wits, with their adaptation of ancient drama conventions and their combination with traditional medieval elements, created the model for a comedy and a tragedy which needed only a natural skill of a genius to use them in proportion and to raise them to a higher level of dramatic art. Then, fortunately, William Shakespeare, who will achieve that aesthetic-axiological dramatic scale, appears. Like many great writers, Shakespeare was not a founder of a new tradition, but the culmination of an existing one, like Veselin Kostić put it. The appearance of the classical interpretation of drama and great interest in Seneca, Terence and Plautus quickly found its way from the academic circles to the national theaters and Shakespeare did not remain immune to these influences.