Here we do have two long sentences. So, see what they convey to us and then see what is going on. Let get started


Contemporary literary scholars have come to discard the once-conventional image of English theater in the time of Elizabeth I as an anomalous literary wonder, a sudden flowering of creativity rooted not in the dramatic traditions of England but the theater of ancient Greece and Rome.

This sentence mainly says: the literary scholars of today dismisses the once mainstream idea that the theater at the time of Eliz I is a flash, a lightning of genius but rather it is rooted in the ancient Greece tradition (plus Rome).


While acknowledging the debt of the Elizabethan playwrights to the dramas of Terence, Plautus, and Seneca, and to the Poetics of Aristotle, the majority of theater scholars today regard Elizabeth drama as being organically related to traditional English drama, above all to the medieval cycles of mystery and morality plays.

However, the theater scholars even though they think the drama certainly is rooted in the ancient culture (Greece) it also has a debt to the medieval age, in particular, the cycles of mistery and morality.

I.E. the literary scholars reject that Elizabethan drama has its root only and solely in classical Greek and Roman drama

Now, let analyze every single answer choice

A) Theater historians have significantly altered their views of the origins of Elizabethan drama.


here nobody has altered anything. We just analyze two lines of thought


B) England had a native dramatic tradition antedating the Elizabethan era.

No antedating. We are just saying that literary scholars say that the theater is rooted in the ancient culture. theater scholars that is rooted in the medieval age, even though it also has a linkage with the ancient


C) Although Elizabethan drama deals with English subject matter, it derives its form and method solely from classical Greek and Roman theater.

This is untrue. it is evident from the passage


D) Once envisioned as a historical and literary anomaly, Elizabethan drama now is interpreted as part of a historical continuum.


We do not have any anomaly and we do not have any historical continuum

E) Modern theater scholars view Elizabethan drama as a direct offshoot of Greek and Roman dramatic traditions.


This is untrue. No doubt on this



Hope this helps.

Regards

According to this explanation, C and E are consistent with the passage while question asks 'NOT consistent with the passage'.

Yes but because the scholars reject that the Elizabethan drama is derived only from Greek and Roman drama but also from the medieval heritage.

C and E are untrue. Fixed. This is what I meant.

Thank to point out.

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