produced from images available at the   
,digital  ,multimedia ,center1 ,michigan
 ,state ,university ,libraries47        
,,how ,,to ,,see ,a ,,play  ,,by        
,,richard ,,burton  ,new ,york ,,the    
,,macmillan ,,company #aiad   ,now here 
are twenty criticks 444 and yet every   
one is a critick after his own way2 that
 is1 such a play is best because ,i like
 it4 ,a very familiar argument1         
methinks1 to prove the excellence of a  
play1 and to which an author would be   
very unwilling to appeal for his        
success4  --,from ,farquhar's ,a        
,discourse ,upon ,comedy4   ,,copyright1
 #aiad ,,by ,,the ,,macmillan ,,company 
,set up and ,electrotyped4 ,published   
,november1 #aiad ,,the ,,macmillan      
,,company ,,new                         
,,york--,,boston--,,chicago             
,,dallas--,,atlanta--,,san ,,francisco  
,,macmillan  ,,co41 ,,limited           
,,london--,,bombay--,,calcutta          
,,melbourne ,,the ,,macmillan ,,co4 ,,of
 ,,canada1 ,,ltd4 ,,toronto  99 99 99   

,,preface  ,chapter3 ,i1 ,,ii1 ,,iii1   
,,iv1 ,v1 ,,vi1 ,,vii1 ,,viii1 ,,ix1 ,x1
 ,,xi  ,,notes  99 99 99     ,,preface  
,this book is aimed squarely at the     
theater-goer4 ,it hopes to offer a      
concise general treatment upon the use  
of the theater1 so that the person in   
the seat may get the most for his money2
 may choose his entertainment wisely1   
avoid that which is not worth while1 and
 appreciate the values artistic and     
intellectual of what he is seeing and   
hearing4  ,this purpose should be borne 
in mind1 in reading the book1 for while 
,i trust the critic and the playwright  
may find the discussion not without     
interest and sane in principle1 the     
desire is primarily to put into the     
hands of the many who attend the        
playhouse a manual that will prove      
helpful and1 so far as it goes1 be an   
influence toward creating in this       
country that body of alert theater      
auditors without which good drama will  
not flourish4 ,the obligation of the    

theater-goer to insist on sound plays is
 one too long overlooked2 and just in so
 far as he does insist in ever-growing  
numbers upon drama that has technical   
skill1 literary quality and interpretive
 insight into life1 will that better    
theater come which must be the hope of  
all who realize the great social and    
educative powers of the playhouse4 ,the 
words of that veteran actor-manager and 
playwright of the past1 ,colley ,cibber1
 are apposite here3 ,it is not to the   
actor therefore1 but to the vitiated and
 low taste of the spectator1 that the   
corruptions of the stage 7of what kind  
soever7 have been owing4 ,if the        
publick1 by whom they must live1 had    
spirit enough to discountenance and     
declare against all the trash and       
fopperies they have been so frequently  
fond of1 both the actors and the        
authors1 to the best of their power1    
must naturally have served their daily  
table with sound and wholesome diet4    
,and again he remarks3 ,for as their    

hearers are1 so will actors be2 worse or
 better1 as the false or true taste     
applauds or discommends them4 ,hence    
only can our theaters improve1 or must  
degenerate4 ,not for a moment is it     
implied that this book1 or any book of  
the kind1 can make playwrights4         
,playwrights as well as actors are born1
 not made--at least1 in the sense that  
seeing life dramatically and having a   
feeling for situation and climax is a   
gift and nothing else4 ,the wise ,cibber
 may be heard also upon this4 ,to excel 
in either art1 he declares1 is a        
self-born happiness1 which something    
more than good sense must be mother of4 
,but this may be granted1 while it is   
maintained stoutly that there remains to
 the dramatist a technic to be acquired1
 and that practice therein and          
reflection upon it makes perfect4 ,the  
would-be playwright can learn his trade1
 even as another1 and must1 to succeed4 
,and the spectator 7our main point of   
attack1 as was said71 the necessary     

coadjutor with player and playwright in 
theater success1 can also become an     
adept in his part of this cooeperative  
result4 ,this book is written to assist 
him in such cooeperation4     ,,how ,,to
 ,,see ,a ,,play     ,,chapter ,i  ,,the
 ,,play1 ,a ,,form ,,of ,,story         
,,telling   ,the play is a form of story
 telling1 among several such forms3 the 
short story1 or tale2 the novel2 and in 
verse1 the epic and that abbreviated    
version of it called the ballad4 ,all of
 them1 each in its own fashion1 is      
trying to do pretty much the same thing1
 to tell a story4 ,and by story1 as the 
word is used in this book1 it will be   
well to say that ,i mean such a         
manipulation of human happenings as to  
give a sense of unity and growth to a   
definite end4 ,a story implies a        
connection of characters and events so  
as to suggest a rounding out and        
completion1 which1 looked back upon1    
shall satisfy man's desire to discover  
some meaning and significance in what is

 called ,life4 ,a child begging at the  
mother's knee for the end of the story1 
before bedtime1 really represents the   
race2 the instinct behind the request is
 a sound one4 ,a story1 then1 has a     
beginning1 middle and end1 and in the   
right hands is seen to have proportion1 
organic cohesion and development4 ,its  
parts dovetail1 and what at first       
appeared to lack direction and          
connective significance finally is seen 
to possess that wholeness which makes it
 a work of art4 ,a story1 therefore1 is 
not a chance medley of incidents and    
characters2 but an artistic texture so  
woven as to quicken our feeling that a  
universe which often seems disordered   
and chance-wise is in reality ordered   
and pre-arranged4 ,art in its           
story-making does this service for life1
 even if life does not do it for us4    
,and herein lies one of the differences 
between art and life2 art1 as it were1  
going life one better in this           
rearrangement of material4  ,of the     

various ways referred to of telling a   
story1 the play has its distinctive     
method and characteristics1 to separate 
it from the others4 ,the story is told  
on a stage1 through the impersonation of
 character by human beings2 in word and 
action1 assisted by scenery1 the story  
is unfolded4 ,the drama 7a term used    
doubly to mean plays in general or some 
particular play7 is distinguished from  
the other forms mentioned in            
substituting dialogue and direct        
visualized action for the indirect      
narration of fiction4  ,a play when     
printed differs also in certain ways2   
the persons of the play are named apart 
from the text2 the speakers are         
indicated by writing their names before 
the speeches2 the action is indicated in
 parentheses1 the name business being   
given to this supplementary information1
 the same term that is used on the stage
 for all that lies outside dialogue and 
scenery4 ,and the whole play1 as a rule1
 is sub-divided into acts and often1    

especially in earlier drama1 into       
scenes1 lesser divisions within the     
acts2 these divisions being used for    
purposes of better handling of the plot 
and exigencies of scene shifting1 as    
well as for agreeable breathing spaces  
for the audience4 ,the word scene1 it   
may be added here1 is used in           
,english-speaking lands to indicate a   
change of scene1 whereas in foreign     
drama it merely refers to the exit or   
entrance of a character1 so that a      
different number of persons is on the   
stage4  ,but there are1 of course1      
deeper1 more organic qualities than     
these external attributes of a play4    
,the stern limits of time in the        
representation of the stage             
story--little more than two hours1 the  
two hours traffic of the stage mentioned
 by ,shakespeare--necessitates telling  
the story with emphasis upon its salient
 points2 only the high lights of        
character and event can be              
advantageously shown within such limits4

 ,hence the dramatic story1 as the      
adjective has come to show1 indicates a 
story presenting in a terse and telling 
fashion only the most important and     
exciting things4 ,to be dramatic is thus
 to be striking1 to produce effects by  
omission1 compression1 stress and       
crescendo4 ,to be sure1 recent modern   
plays can be named in plenty which seem 
to violate this principle2 but they do  
so at their peril1 and in the history of
 drama nothing is plainer than that the 
essence of good play-making lies in the 
power to seize the significant moments  
of the stage story and so present them  
as to grip the interest and hold it with
 increasing tension up to a culminating 
moment called the climax4  ,certain     
advantages and certain limitations      
follow from these characteristics of a  
play4 ,for one thing1 the drama is able 
to focus on the really interesting1     
exciting1 enthralling moments of human  
doings1 where a novel1 for example1     
which has so much more leisure to       

accomplish its purpose to give a picture
 of life1 can afford to take its time   
and becomes slower1 and often1 as a     
result1 comparatively prolix and        
indirect4 ,this may not be advisable in 
a piece of fiction1 but it is often     
found1 and masterpieces both of the past
 and present illustrate the possibility2
 the work of a ,richardson1 a ,henry    
,james1 a ,bennett4 ,but for a play this
 would be simply suicide2 for the drama 
must be more direct1 condensed and      
rapid4 ,and just in proportion as a     
novel adopts the method of the play do  
we call it dramatic and does it win a   
general audience2 the story of a        
,stevenson or a ,kipling4  ,again1      
having in mind the advantages of the    
play1 the stage story is both heard and 
seen1 and important results issue from  
this fact4 ,the play-story is actually  
seen instead of seen by the eye of the  
imagination through the appeal of the   
printed page2 or indirectly again1 if   
one hears a narrative recited4 ,and this

 actual seeing on the stage brings      
conviction1 since seeing is believing1  
by the old saw4 ,scenery1 too1          
necessitates a certain truthfulness in  
the reproducing of life by word and act 
and scene1 because the spectator1 who is
 able to judge it all by the test of    
life1 will more readily compare the     
mimic representation with the actuality 
than if he were reading the words of a  
character in a book1 or being told1     
narrative fashion1 of the character's   
action4 ,in this way the stage story    
seems nearer life4  ,moreover1 the      
seeing is fortified by hearing2 the     
spectator is also the auditor4 ,and here
 is another test of reality4 ,if the    
intonation or accent or tone of voice of
 the actor is not life-like and in      
consonance with the character portrayed1
 the audience will instantly be quicker 
to detect it and to criticize than if   
the same character were shown in        
fiction2 seeing1 the spectator insists  
that dress and carriage1 and scenery1   

which furnishes a congruous background1 
shall be plausible2 and hearing1 the    
auditor insists upon the speech being   
true to type4  ,the play has an immense 
superiority also over all printed       
literature in that1 making its appeal   
directly through eye and ear1 it is not 
literary at all2 ,i mean1 the story in  
this form can be understood and enjoyed 
by countless who read but little or even
 cannot read4 ,literature1 in the       
conventional sense1 may be a closed book
 to innumerable theater-goers who       
nevertheless can witness a drama and    
react to its exhibition of life4 ,the   
word1 which in printed letters is so    
all-important1 on the stage becomes     
secondary to action and scene1 for the  
story can be1 and sometimes is1 enacted 
in pantomime1 without a single word     
being spoken4 ,in essence1 therefore1 a 
play may be called unliterary1 and thus 
it makes a wider1 more democratic appeal
 than anything in print can4 ,yet1 by an
 interesting paradox1 when the words of 

the play are written by masters like    
,calderon1 ,shakespeare1 ,moliere or    
,ibsen1 the drama becomes the chief     
literary glory of ,spain1 ,england1     
,france and ,norway4 ,for in the final  
reckoning only the language that is fit 
and fine preserves the drama of the     
world in books and classifies it with   
creative literature4 ,thus the play can 
be all things to all men2 at once       
unliterary in its appeal1 and yet1 in   
the finest examples1 an important       
contribution to letters4  ,a peculiar   
advantage of the play over the other    
story-telling forms is found in the fact
 that while one reads the printed story1
 short or long1 the epic or ballad1 by  
oneself in the quiet enjoyment of the   
library1 one witnesses the drama in     
company with many other human           
beings--unless the play be a dire       
failure and the house empty4 ,and this  
association1 though it may remove some  
of the more refined and aristocratic    
experiences of the reader1 has a        

definite effect upon individual pleasure
 in the way of enrichment1 and even     
reacts upon the play itself to shape its
 nature4 ,a curious sort of sympathy is 
set up throughout an audience as it     
receives the skillful story of the      
playwright2 common or crowd emotions are
 aroused1 personal variations are       
submerged in a general associative      
feeling and the individual does not so  
much laugh1 cry and wonder by himself as
 do these things sympathetically in     
conjunction with others4 ,he becomes a  
simpler1 less complex person whose      
emotions dominate the analytic processes
 of the individual brain4 ,he is a more 
plastic receptive creature than he would
 be alone4 ,any one can test this for   
himself by asking if he would have      
laughed so uproariously at a certain    
humorous speech had it been offered him 
detached from the time and place4 ,the  
chances are that1 by and in itself1 it  
might not seem funny at all4 ,and the   
readiness with which he fell into       

cordial conversation with the stranger  
in the next seat is also a hint as to   
his magnetized mood when thus subjected 
to the potent influence of mob          
psychology4 ,for this reason1 then1     
among others1 a drama heard and seen    
under the usual conditions secures      
unique effects of response in contrast  
with the other sister forms of telling  
stories4  ,a heightening of effect upon 
auditor and spectator is gained--to     
mention one other advantage--by the fact
 that the story which in a work of      
fiction may extend to a length          
precluding the possibility of its       
reception at one sitting1 may in the    
theater be brought within the compass of
 an evening1 in the time between dinner 
and bed4 ,this secures a unity of       
impression whereby the play is a gainer 
over the novel4 ,a great piece of       
fiction like ,david ,copperfield1 or    
,tom ,jones1 or ,a ,modern ,instance1 or
 ,alice for ,short cannot be read in a  
day1 except as a feat of endurance and  

under unusual privileges of time to     
spare4 ,but a great play--,shakespeare's
 ,hamlet or ,ibsen's ,a ,doll's         
,house--can be absorbed in its entirety 
in less than three hours1 and while the 
hearer has perhaps not left his seat4   
,other things being equal1 and whatever 
the losses1 this establishes a          
superiority for the play4 ,a coherent   
section of life1 which is what the story
 should be1 conveyed in the whole by    
this brevity of execution1 so that the  
recipient may get a full sense of its   
organic unity1 cannot but be more       
impressive than any medium of story     
telling where this is out of the        
question4 ,the merit of the novel1      
therefore1 supreme in its way1 is       
another merit2 one star differeth from  
another in glory4 ,it will be recalled  
that ,poe1 with this matter of brevity  
of time and unity of impression in mind1
 declared that there was no such thing  
as a long poem2 meaning that only the   
short poem which could be read through  

at one sitting could attain to the      
highest effects4  ,but along with these 
advantages go certain limitations1 too1 
in this form of story telling2          
limitations which warn the play not to  
encroach upon the domain of fiction1 and
 which have much to do with making the  
form what it is4  ,from its very nature 
the novel can be more thorough-going in 
the delineation of character4 ,the      
drama1 as we have seen1 must1 under its 
stern restrictions of time1 seize upon  
outstanding traits and assume that much 
of the development has taken place      
before the rise of the first curtain4   
,the novel shows character in process of
 development2 the play shows what       
character1 developed to the point of    
test1 will do when the test comes4 ,its 
method1 especially in the hands of      
modern playwrights like ,ibsen and      
,shaw1 is to exhibit a human being acted
 upon suddenly by a situation which     
exposes the hidden springs of action and
 is a culmination of a long evolution   

prior to the plot that falls within the 
play proper4 ,in the drama characters   
must for the most part be displayed in  
external acts1 since action is of the   
very essence of a play2 in a novel1     
slowly and through long stretches of    
time1 not the acts alone but the        
thoughts1 motives and desires of the    
character may be revealed4 ,obviously1  
in the drama this cannot be done1 in any
 like measure1 in spite of the fact that
 some of the late psychologists of the  
drama1 like ,galsworthy1 ,bennett and   
others1 have tried to introduce a more  
careful psychology into their           
play-making4 ,at the best1 only an      
approximation to the subtlety and       
penetration of fiction can be thus      
attained4 ,it were wiser to recognize   
the limitation and be satisfied with the
 compensating gain of the more vivid1   
compelling effect secured through the   
method of presenting human beings1      
natural to the playhouse4  ,there are   
also arbitrary and artificial           

conventions of the stage conditioning   
the story which may perhaps be regarded 
as drawbacks where the story in fiction 
is freer in these respects4 ,both forms 
of story telling strive--never so       
eagerly as to-day--for a truthful       
representation of life4 ,the stage1     
traditionally1 in its depiction of      
character through word and action1 has  
not been so close to life as fiction2   
the dialogue has been further removed   
from the actual idiom of human speech4  
,it is only of late that stage talk in  
naturalness has begun to rival the      
verisimilitude of dialogue in the best  
fiction4 ,this may well be for the      
reason 7already touched upon7 that the  
presence of the speakers on the stage   
has in itself a reality which corrects  
the artificiality of the words spoken4  
,i did not know1 the theater auditor    
might be imagined as saying1 that people
 talked like that2 but there they are1  
talking2 it must be so4  ,the drama in  
all lands is trying as never before to  

represent life in speech as well as act2
 and the strain hitherto put upon the   
actor1 who in the past had as part of   
his function to make the artificial and 
unreal plausible and artistic1 has been 
so far removed as to enable him to give 
his main strength to genuine            
interpretation4  ,the time values on the
 stage are a limitation which makes for 
artificiality2 actual time must of      
necessity be shortened1 for if true     
chronology were preserved the play would
 be utterly balked in its purpose of    
presenting a complete story that1       
however brief1 must cover more time than
 is involved in what is shown upon the  
boards of a theater4 ,as a result all   
time values undergo a proportionate     
shrinkage4 ,this can be estimated by the
 way meals are eaten on the stage4 ,in  
actual life twenty minutes are allotted 
for the scamped eating time of the      
railway station1 and we all feel it as a
 grievance4 ,half an hour is scant      
decency for the unpretentious private   

meal2 and as it becomes more formal an  
hour is better1 and several hours more  
likely4 ,yet no play could afford to    
allow twenty minutes for this function1 
even were it a meal of state2 it would  
consume half an act1 or thereabouts4    
,consequently1 on the stage1 the effect 
of longer time is produced by letting   
the audience see the general details of 
the feast2 food eaten1 wine drunk1      
servants waiting1 and conversation      
interpolated4 ,it is one of the demands 
made upon the actor's skill to make all 
these condensed and selected minutiae of
 a meal stand for the real thing2 once  
more art is rearranging life1 under     
severe pressure4 ,if those interested   
will test with watch in hand the actual 
time allowed for the banquet in ,a      
,parisian ,romance1 so admirably        
envisaged by the late ,richard          
,mansfield1 or the famous ,thanksgiving 
dinner scene in ,shore ,acres1          
fragrantly associated with the memory of
 the late ,james ,a4 ,herne1 they will  

possibly be surprised at the brevity of 
such representations4  ,because of this 
necessary compression1 a scale of time  
has to be adopted which shall secure an 
effect of actualness by a cunning       
obeyance of proportion2 the reduction of
 scale is skillful1 and so the result is
 congruous4 ,and it is plain that       
fiction may take more time if it so     
desires in such scenes2 although even in
 the novel the actual time consumed by a
 formal dinner would be reproduced by   
the novelist at great risk of boring his
 reader4  ,again1 with disadvantages in 
mind1 it might be asserted that the     
stage story suffers in that some of the 
happenings involved in the plot must    
perforce transpire off stage2 and when  
this is so there is an inevitable loss  
of effect1 inasmuch as it is of the     
nature of drama1 as has been noted1 to  
show events1 and the indirect narrative 
method is to be avoided as undramatic4  
,tyros in play-writing fail to make this
 distinction2 and as a generalization it

 may be stated that whenever possible a 
play should show a thing1 rather that   
state it4 ,seeing is believing1 to      
repeat the axiom4 ,yet a qualifier may  
here be made1 for in certain kinds of   
drama or when a certain effect is       
striven for the indirect method may be  
powerfully effective4 ,the murder in    
,macbeth gains rather than loses because
 it takes place outside the scene2      
,maeterlinck in his earlier ,plays for  
,marionettes1 so called1 secured        
remarkable effects of suspense and      
tension by systematically using the     
principle of indirection2 as where in   
,the ,seven ,princesses the princesses  
who are the particular exciting cause of
 the play are not seen at all by the    
audience2 the impression they make1 a   
great one1 comes through their effect   
upon certain characters on the stage and
 this heightens immensely the dramatic  
value of the unseen figures4 ,we may    
point to the ,greeks1 too1 in           
illustration1 who in their great folk   

dramas of legend regularly made use of  
the principle of indirect narration when
 the aim was to put before the vast     
audiences the terrible occurrences of   
the fable1 not coram populo1 as ,horace 
has it1 not in the presence of the      
audience1 but rather off stage4         
,nevertheless1 these exceptions can be  
explained without violating the general 
principle that in a stage story it is   
always dangerous not to exhibit any     
action that is vital to the play4 ,and  
this compulsion1 it will be evident1 is 
a restriction which may at times cripple
 the scope of the dramatist1 while yet  
it stimulates his skill to overcome the 
difficulty4  ,summarizing the           
differences which go to make drama      
distinctive as a story-telling form and 
distinguish it from other story molds3 a
 play in contrast with fiction tells its
 tale by word1 act and scene in a rising
 scale of importance1 and within briefer
 time limits1 necessitating a far more  
careful selection of material1 and a    

greater emphasis upon salient moments in
 the handling of plot2 and because of   
the device of act divisions1 with       
certain moments of heightened interest  
culminating in a central scene and thus 
gaining in tension and intensity by this
 enforced method of compression and     
stress2 while losing the opportunity to 
amplify and more carefully to delineate 
character4 ,it gains as well because the
 story comes by the double receipt of   
the eye and ear to a theater audience   
some of whom at least1 through          
illiteracy1 might be unable to          
appreciate the story printed in a book4 
,the play thus is the most democratic   
and popular form of story telling1 and  
at the same time is capable of          
embodying1 indeed has embodied1 the     
greatest creative literature of various 
nations4 ,and for a generation now1     
increasingly1 in the ,european countries
 and in ,english-speaking lands1 the    
play has begun to come into its own as  
an art form with unique advantages in   

the way of wide appeal and cultural     
possibilities4     ,,chapter ,,ii  ,,the
 ,,play1 ,a ,,cultural ,,opportunity    
,certain remarks at the close of the    
preceding chapter hint at what is in    
mind in giving a title to the present   
one4 ,the play1 this democratic mode of 
story telling1 attracting vast numbers  
of hearers and universally popular      
because man is ever avid of amusement   
and turns hungrily to such a medium as  
the theater to satisfy a deeply         
implanted instinct for pleasure1 can be 
made an experience to the auditor       
properly to be included in what he would
 call his cultural opportunity4 ,that is
 to say1 it can take its place among    
those civilizing agencies furnished by  
the arts and letters1 travel and the    
higher aspects of social life4 ,a drama1
 as this book seeks to show1 is in its  
finest estate a work of art comparable  
with such other works of art as         
pictures1 statuary1 musical compositions
 and the achievements of the book world4

 ,i shall endeavor later to show a      
little more in detail wherein lie the   
artistic requirements and successes of  
the play2 and a suggestion of this has  
been already made in chapter one4  ,but 
this thought of the play as a work of   
art has hardly been in the minds of folk
 of our race and speech until the recent
 awakening of an enlightened interest in
 things dramatic2 a movement so brief as
 to be embraced by the present          
generation4 ,the theater has been       
regarded carelessly1 thoughtlessly1     
merely as a place of idle amusement1 or 
worse2 ignorant prejudice against it has
 been rife1 with a natural reaction for 
the worse upon the institution itself4  
,the play has neither been associated   
with a serious treatment of life nor    
with the refined pleasure derivable from
 contact with art4 ,nor1 although the   
personality of actors has always been   
acclaimed1 and an infinite amount of    
silly chatter about their private lives 
been constant1 have theater-goers as a  

class realized the distinguished skill  
of the dramatist in the handling of a   
very difficult and delicate art1 nor    
done justice to the art which the actor 
represents1 nor to his own artistry in  
it4 ,but now a change has come1 happily4
 ,the ,english-speaking lands have begun
 at least to get into line with other   
enlightened countries1 to comprehend the
 educational value of the playhouse1 and
 the consequent importance of the play4 
,the rapid growth to-day in what may be 
called social consciousness has         
quickened our sense of the social       
significance of an institution that1    
whatever its esthetic and intellectual  
status1 is an enormous influence in the 
daily life of the multitude4 ,gradually 
those who think have come to see that   
the theater1 this people's pleasure1    
should offer drama that is rational1    
wholesome amusement2 that society in    
general has a vital stake in the nature 
of an entertainment so widely diffused1 
so imperatively demanded and so surely  

effective in shaping the ideals of the  
people at large4 ,the final chapter will
 enlarge upon this suggestion4  ,and    
this idea has grown along with the now  
very evident re-birth of a drama which1 
while practical stage material1 has     
taken on the literary graces and makes  
so strong an appeal as literature that  
much of our best in letters is now in   
dramatic form3 the play being the most  
notable contribution1 after the novel1  
of our time4 ,leading writers everywhere
 are practical dramatists2 men of       
letters1 yet also men of the theater1   
who write plays not only to be read but 
to be acted1 and who have conquered the 
difficult technic of the drama so as to 
kill two birds with the one stone4  ,the
 student of historical drama will       
perceive that this welcome change is but
 a return to earlier and better         
conditions when the mighty play-makers  
of the past--,calderon1 ,moliere1       
,shakespeare and their compeers--were   
also makers of literature which we still

 read with delight4 ,and1 without       
referring to the past1 a glance at      
foreign lands will reveal the fact that 
other countries1 if not our own1 have   
always recognized this cultural value of
 the stage and hence given the theater  
importance in the civic or national     
life1 often spending public moneys for  
its maintenance and using it 7often in  
close association with music7 as a      
central factor in national culture4 ,the
 traveler to-day in ,germany1 ,france1  
,russia and the ,scandinavian lands     
cannot but be impressed with this fact1 
and will bring home to ,america some    
suggestive lessons for patriotic native 
appreciation4 ,in the modern educational
 scheme1 then1 room should be made for  
some training in intelligent play-going4
 ,so far from there being anything      
,quixotic in the notion1 all the signs  
are in its favor4 ,the feeling is       
spreading fast that school and college  
must include theater culture in the     
curriculum and people at large are      

seeking to know something of the        
significance of the theater in its long 
evolution from its birth to the present1
 of the history of the drama itself1 of 
the nature of a play regarded as a work 
of art2 of the specific values1 too1 of 
the related art of the actor who alone  
makes the drama vital2 and of the       
relative excellencies1 in the actual    
playhouses of our time1 of plays1       
players and playwrights2 together with  
some idea of the rapidly changing       
present-day conditions4 ,such changes   
include the coming of the one-act play1 
the startling development of the moving 
picture1 the growth of the ,little      
,theater1 the rise of the masque and    
pageant1 and so on with other           
manifestations yet4 ,surely1 some       
knowledge in a field so broad and       
humanly appealing1 both for legitimate  
enjoyment of the individual and in view 
of his obligations to fellow man1 is of 
equal moment to a knowledge of the      
chemical effect of hydrochloric acid    

upon marble1 or of the working of a     
table of logarithms4 ,these last are    
less involved in the living of a normal 
human being4  ,here are signs of the    
time1 which mark a revolution in        
thought4 ,in the light of such facts1 it
 is curious to reflect upon the neglect 
of the theater hitherto for centuries as
 an institution and the refusal to think
 of the play as worthy until it was     
offered upon the printed page4 ,the very
 fact that it was exhibited on the stage
 seemed to stamp it as below serious    
consideration4 ,and that1 too1 when the 
very word play implies that it is       
something to be played4 ,the taking over
 of the theaters by uneducated persons  
to whom such a place was1 like a        
department store1 simply an emporium of 
desired commodities1 together with the  
,puritanic feeling that the playhouse1  
as such1 was an evil thing frowned upon 
by ,god and injurious to man1 combined  
to set this form of entertainment in ill
 repute4 ,bernard ,shaw1 in that        

brilliant little play1 ,the ,dark ,lady 
of the ,sonnets1 sets certain shrewd    
words in the mouths of ,shakespeare and 
,queen ,elizabeth pertinent to this     
thought3  ,,shakespeare3 ,of late1 as   
you know1 the ,church taught the people 
by means of plays2 but the people       
flocked only to such as were full of    
superstitious miracles and bloody       
martyrdoms2 and so the ,church1 which   
also was just then brought into straits 
by the policy of your royal father1 did 
abandon and discountenance playing2 and 
thus it fell into the hands of poor     
players and greedy merchants that had   
their pockets to look to and not the    
greatness of your kingdom4  ,,elizabeth3
 ,master ,shakespeare1 you speak sooth2 
,i cannot in anywise amend it4 ,i dare  
not offend my unruly ,puritans by making
 so lewd a place as the playhouse a     
public charge2 and there be a thousand  
things to be done in this ,london of    
mine before your poetry can have its    
penny from the general purse4 ,i tell   

thee1 ,master ,will1 it will be three   
hundred years before my subjects learn  
that man cannot live by bread alone1 but
 by every word that cometh from the     
mouth of those whom ,god inspires4  ,the
 height of the incongruous absurdity was
 illustrated in the former teaching of  
,shakespeare4 ,here was a writer        
incessantly hailed as the master poet of
 the race2 he bulked large in school and
 college1 perforce4 ,yet the teacher was
 confronted by the embarrassing fact    
that ,shakespeare was also an actor3 a  
profession given over to the sons of    
,belial2 and a playwright who actually  
wrote his immortal poetry in the shape  
of theater plays4 ,this was sad1 indeed6
 ,the result was that in both the older 
teaching and academic criticism emphasis
 was always placed upon ,shakespeare the
 poet1 the great mind2 and ,shakespeare 
the playwright was hardly explained at  
all2 or if explained the illumination   
was more like darkness visible1 because 
those in the seats of judgment were so  

ignorant of play technic and the        
requirements of the theater as to make  
their attempts well-nigh useless4 ,it   
remained for our own time and scholars  
like ,george ,p4 ,baker and ,brander    
,matthews1 with intelligent1 sympathetic
 comprehension of the play as a form of 
art and the playhouse as conditioning   
it1 to study the ,stratford bard        
primarily as playwright and so give us a
 new and more accurate portrait of him  
as man and creative worker4  ,i hope it 
is beginning to be apparent that        
intelligent play-going starts long      
before one goes to the theater4 ,it     
means1 for one thing1 some acquaintance 
with the history of drama1 and the      
theater which is its home1 both in the  
development of ,english culture and that
 of other important nations whose       
dramatic contribution has been large4   
,this aspect of culture will be enlarged
 upon in the following chapters4  ,much 
can be done--far more than has been     
done--in this historical survey in      

school and college to prepare ,american 
citizens for rational theater enjoyment4
 ,there is nothing pedantic in such     
preparation4 ,nobody objects to being   
sufficiently trained in art to          
distinguish a chromo from an oil        
masterpiece or to know the difference in
 music between a cheap organ-grinder    
jingle and the rhythmic marvels of a    
,chopin4 ,it is equally foolish to be   
unable to give a reason for the         
preference for a play by ,shaw or       
,barrie over the meaningless coarse     
farce by some stage hack4 ,it is all in 
the day's culture and when once the idea
 that the theater is an art has been    
firmly seized and communicated to many  
all that seems bizarre in such a thought
 will disappear--and good riddance6     
,the first and fundamental duty to the  
theater is to attend the play worthy of 
patronage4 ,if one be a theater-goer1   
yet has never taken the trouble to see a
 certain drama that adorns the          
playhouse1 one is open to criticism4    

,the abstention1 when the chance was    
offered1 must in fact either be a       
criticism of the play or of the person  
himself because he refrained from       
supporting it4  ,but let it be assumed  
that our theater-goer is in his seat1   
ready to do his part in the patronage of
 a good play4 ,how1 once there1 shall he
 show the approval1 or at least         
interest1 his presence implies8  ,by    
making himself a part of the sympathetic
 psychology of the audience1 as a whole2
 not resisting the effect by a position 
of intellectual aloofness natural to a  
human being burdened with the           
self-consciousness that he is a critic2 
but gladly recognizing the human and    
artistic qualities of the entertainment4
 ,next1 by giving external sign of this 
sympathetic approval by applause4       
,applause in this country generally     
means the clapping of the hands2 only   
exceptionally1 and in large cities1 do  
we hear the bravos customary in ,europe4
  ,but suppose the play merit not       

approval but the reverse2 what then8    
,the gallery gods1 those disthroned     
deities1 were wont more rudely to       
supplement this manual testimony by the 
use of their other extremities1 the     
feet4 ,the effect1 however1 is not      
desirable4 ,yet1 in respect of this     
matter of disapproval1 it would seem as 
if the ,british in their frank booing of
 a piece which does not meet their      
wishes were exercising a valuable check 
upon bad drama4 ,in the ,united ,states 
we signify positive approval1 but not   
its negation4 ,the result is that the   
cheaper element of an audience may      
applaud and so help the fate of a poor  
play1 while the hostility of those      
better fitted to judge is unknown to all
 concerned with the fortunes of the     
drama1 because it is thus silent4 ,a    
freer use of the hiss1 heard with us    
only under rare circumstances of        
provocation1 might be a salutary thing1 
for this reason4 ,an audible expression 
of reproof would be of value in the case

 of many unworthy plays4  ,but perhaps  
in the end the rebuke of non-attendance 
and the influence of the minatory word  
passed on to others most assists the    
failure of the play that ought to fail4 
,if the foolish auditor approve where he
 should condemn1 and so keep the bad    
play alive by his backing1 the better   
view has a way of winning at the last4  
,certainly1 for conspicuous success some
 qualities of excellence1 if not all of 
them1 must be present4  ,but intelligent
 play-going means also a perception of  
the art of acting1 so that the technic  
of the player1 not his personality1 will
 command the auditor's trained attention
 and he will approve skill and frown    
upon its absence4  ,and while it is     
undoubtedly more difficult to convey    
this information educationally1 the     
ideal way being to see the best acting  
early and late and to reflect upon it in
 the light of acknowledged principles1  
something can certainly be done to      
prepare prospective theater-goers for   

appreciation of the profession of the   
player2 substituting for the blind1     
time-honored ,i know what ,i like1 the  
more civilized3 ,i approve it for the   
following good and sufficient reasons4  
,even in school1 and still more in      
college1 the teacher can cooeperate with
 the taught by suggesting the plays to  
be seen1 amateur as well as             
professional2 and by classroom          
discussion afterward1 not only of the   
plays but concerning their rendition4   
,students are quick to respond when this
 is done1 for the vital object lesson of
 current drama always appeals to them1  
and they are glad to observe a          
connection between their amusement and  
their culture4 ,at present1 or at least 
up to a very recent time1 the           
eccentricity of such a procedure would  
all but have endangered the position of 
the teacher so foolhardy as to act upon 
the assumption that the drama seen the  
night before could be in any way used to
 impart permanent lessons concerning a  

great art to the minds of the pupils4   
,luckily1 a more liberal view is taking 
the place of this crass ,philistinism4  
,in a proper appreciation of the actor  
the hearer will look beyond the         
pulchritude of an actress or the fit of 
an actor's clothes2 he will judge ,miss 
,ethel ,barrymore by her power of       
envisaging the part she assumes1 and not
 be overly interested in an argument as 
to her increase of avoirdupois of late  
years4 ,he will not allow himself to    
consume time over the question whether  
,mr4 ,william ,gillette in private life 
is addicted to chloral because ,sherlock
 ,holmes is a victim of that most       
reprehensible habit4  ,and above all he 
will constantly remind himself that     
acting is the art of impersonation1     
exactly that2 and1 therefore1 just as   
high praise goes to the player who      
admirably portrays a disagreeable part  
as to one in whose mouth the playwright 
has set lines which make him beloved    
from curtain to curtain4 ,yet the       

majority of persons in a typical        
,american theater audience hopefully    
confuse the part with the player1 and   
award praise or blame according as they 
like or dislike the part itself4  ,the  
intelligent auditor will also give      
approval to the stage artist who1       
instead of drawing attention to himself 
by the use of exaggerated methods1      
quietly does his work1 keeps always     
within the stage picture1 and trusts to 
his truthful representation to secure   
conviction and reward4 ,how common is it
 to see some player overstressing his   
part1 who1 instead of being boohed and  
hissed as he deserves and as he         
infallibly would be in some countries1  
receives but the more applause for his  
inexcusable overstepping of the modesty 
of his art4 ,it becomes part of the duty
 of our intelligent play-goer to teach  
such pseudo-artists their place1 for as 
long as they win the meed of ill-timed  
and ignorant approval1 so long will they
 flourish4  ,nor will the critic of the 

acceptable actor fail to observe that   
the latter prefers working for the      
ensemble--team work1 in the sporting    
phrase--to that personal display        
disproportionate to the general effect  
which will always make the judicious    
grieve4 ,in theatrical parlance1 hogging
 the stage has flourished simply for the
 reason that it deceives a sufficient   
number in the seats to secure applause  
and so throws dust in the eyes of the   
general public as to its true iniquity4 
,the actor is properly to be judged1 not
 by his work detached from that of his  
fellows1 but ever in relation to the    
totality of impression which means a    
play instead of a personal exhibition4  
,it is his business to cooeperate with  
others in a single effect in which each 
is a factor in the exact measure of the 
importance of his part as conceived by  
the dramatist4 ,where a minor part      
becomes a major one through the ability 
of a player1 as in the famous case of   
the elder ,sothern's ,lord ,dundreary1  

it is at the expense of the play2 ,our  
,american ,cousin was negligible as     
drama1 and hence it did not matter4 ,but
 if the drama is worth while1 serious   
injury to dramatic art may follow4      
,again1 the intelligent play-goer will  
carefully distinguish in his mind       
between actor and playwright4 ,realizing
 that the play's the thing1 he will     
demand that even the so-called star 7too
 often an actor foisted into prominence 
for a non-artistic reason7 shall obey   
the laws of his art and those of drama1 
and not unduly minimize for personal    
reasons the work of his coadjutors in   
the play1 nor that of the playwright who
 intended him to go so far and no       
further4 ,the actor who1 whatever his   
fame1 and no matter how much an         
unthinking audience is complaisant when 
he does it1 makes a practice of giving  
himself a center-of-the-stage prominence
 beyond what the drama calls for1 is no 
artist1 but a show man1 neither more nor
 less1 who deserves to be rated with the

 mountebanks rather than with the       
artists of his profession4 ,but it may  
be feared that stars will continue to   
seek the stage center and crowd others  
of the cast out of the right focus1 to  
say nothing of distorting the work of   
the dramatist1 under the goad of        
megalomania1 so long as a goodly number 
of unintelligent spectators egg him on4 
,his favorite line of poetry will be    
that of ,wordsworth3  ,fair as a star   
when only one is shining in the sky4 ,it
 is to help the personnel of such an    
audience that our theater-goer needs his
 training4  ,a general realization of   
all this will definitely affect one's   
theater habit and make for the good of  
all that concerns the art of the        
playhouse4 ,it will lead the properly   
prepared person to see a good play      
competently done1 but with no supreme or
 far-famed actor in the company1 in     
preference to a foolish play1 or worse1 
carried by a star2 or a play negligible 
as art or hopelessly passe as art or    

interpretation of life for which an     
all-star cast has been provided1 as if  
to take the eye of the spectator off the
 weaknesses of the drama4 ,often a      
standard play revived by one of these   
hastily gathered companies of noted     
players resolves itself into an interest
 in individual performances which must  
lack that organic unity which comes of  
longer association4 ,the opportunity    
afforded to get a true idea of the play 
is made quite secondary1 and sometimes  
entirely lost sight of4  ,nor will the  
trained observer in the theater be      
cheated by the dollar mark in his       
theatrical entertainment4 ,he will come 
to feel that an adequate stock company1 
playing the best plays of the day1 may  
afford him more of drama culture for an 
expenditure of fifty cents for an       
excellent seat than will some           
second-rate traveling company which     
presents a drama that is a little more  
recent but far less worthy1 to see which
 the charge is three or four times that 

modest sum4 ,all over the land to-day   
nominally cultivated folk will turn     
scornfully away from a fifty-cent show1 
as they call it1 only because it is     
cheap in the literal sense1 whereas the 
high-priced offering is cheap in every  
other sense but the cost of the seat4   
,such people overlook the nature of the 
play presented1 the playwright's        
reputation1 and the quality of the      
performance2 incapable of judging by the
 real tests1 they stand confessed as    
vulgarians and ignoramuses of art4 ,we  
shall not have intelligent audiences in 
,american theaters1 speaking by and     
large1 until theater-goers learn to     
judge dramatic wares by some other test 
than what it costs to buy them4 ,such a 
test is a crude one1 in art1 however    
infallible it may be in purely material 
commodities2 indeed1 is it not the wise 
worldling in other fields who becomes   
aware in his general bartering that it  
is unsafe to estimate his purchase      
exclusively by the price tag8  ,to one  

who in this way makes the effort to     
inform himself with regard to the things
 of the theater--plays1 players and     
playwrights--concerning dramatic history
 both as it appertains to the drama and 
the theater2 and concerning the         
intellectual as well as esthetical and  
human values of the theater-going       
experience1 it will soon become apparent
 that it offers him cultural opportunity
 that is rich1 wide and of ever         
deepening enjoyment4 ,and taking        
advantage of it1 he will dignify one of 
the most appealing pleasures of         
civilization by making it a part of his 
permanent equipment for satisfactory    
living4  ,other aspects of this thought 
may now be expounded1 beginning with a  
review of the play in its history2 some 
knowledge of which is obviously an      
element in the complete appreciation of 
a theater evening4 ,for the proper      
viewing of a given play one should have 
reviewed plays in general1 as they      
constitute the body of a worthy dramatic

 literature4     ,,chapter ,,iii  ,,up  
,,to ,,shakespeare   ,the recent vogue  
of plays like ,the ,servant in the      
,house1 ,the ,passing of the ,third     
,floor ,back1 ,the ,dawn of ,to-morrow1 
and ,everywoman sends the mind back to  
the early history of ,english drama and 
is full of instruction4 ,such drama is a
 reversion to type1 it suggests the     
origin of all drama in religion4 ,it    
raises the interesting question whether 
the blase modern theater world will not 
respond1 even as did the primitive      
audiences of the middle ages1 to plays  
of spiritual appeal1 even of distinct   
didactic purpose4 ,and the suggestion is
 strengthened when the popularity is    
recalled of the morality play of        
,everyman a few years since1 that being 
a revival of a typical mediaeval drama  
of the kind4 ,it almost looks as if we  
had failed to take into account the     
ready response of modern men and women  
to the higher motives on the stage2 have
 failed to credit the substratum of     

seriousness in that chance collection of
 human beings which constitutes a       
theater audience4 ,after all1 they are  
very much like children1 when under the 
influence of mob psychology2 sensitive1 
plastic to the lofty and noble as they  
are to the baser suggestions that come  
to them across the footlights4 ,in any  
case1 these late experiences1 which came
 by way of surprise to the professional 
purveyors of theatrical entertainment1  
give added emphasis to the statement    
that the stage is the child of mother   
church1 and that the origin of drama in 
the countries whereof we have record is 
always religious4 ,the mediaeval        
beginnings in ,europe and ,england have 
been described in their details by many 
scholars4 ,suffice it here to say that  
the play's birthplace is at the altar   
end of the cathedral1 an extension of   
the regular service4 ,the actors were   
priests1 the audience the vast hushed   
throngs moved upon by incense1 lights1  
music1 and the intoned sacred words1    

and1 for the touch of the dramatic which
 was to be the seed of a wonderful      
development1 we may add some portion of 
the sacred story acted out by the stoled
 players and envisaged in the scenic    
pomp of the place4 ,the lesson of the   
holy day was thus brought home to the   
multitude as it never would have been by
 the mere recital of the ,latin words2  
scene and action lent their persuasive  
power to the natural associations of the
 church4 ,such is the source of modern  
drama2 what was in the course of time to
 become mere amusement1 in the foolish  
phrase1 began as worship2 and if we go  
far back into the ,orient1 or to the    
south-lying lands on the ,mediterranean1
 we find in ,india and ,greece alike    
this union of art and worship1 whether  
the play began within church or temple  
or before ,dionysian altars reared upon 
the green sward4 ,the good and the      
beautiful1 the esthetic and the         
spiritual1 ever intertwined in the story
 of primitive culture4  ,and the gradual

 growth from this mediaeval beginning is
 clear4 ,first1 a scenic elaboration of 
part of the service1 centering in some  
portion of the life and death of        
,christ2 then1 as the scenic side grew  
more complex1 a removal to the grounds  
outside the cathedral2 an extension of  
the subject-matter to include a reverent
 treatment of other portions of the     
,bible narrative2 next1 the taking over 
of biblical drama by the guilds1 or     
crafts1 under the auspices of the patron
 saints of the various organizations1 as
 when1 on ,corpus ,christi day1 one of  
the great saints' days of the year1 a   
cycle of plays was presented in a town  
with the populace agog to witness it1   
and the movable vans followed each other
 at the street corners1 presenting scene
 after scene of the story4 ,then a      
further extension of motives which      
admitted the use of the lives of the    
saints who presided over the guilds2 and
 finally the further enlargement of     
theme due to the writing of drama of    

which the personages were abstract moral
 qualities1 giving the name of ,morality
 to this kind of play4 ,such1 described 
with utter simplicity and brevity1 was  
the interesting evolution4  ,aside from 
all technicalities1 and stripped of much
 of moment to the specialist1 we have in
 this origin and early development a    
blend of amusement and instruction2 a   
religious purpose linked with a frank   
recognition of the fact that if you make
 worship attractive you strengthen its  
hold upon mankind--a truth sadly lost   
sight of by the later ,puritans4 ,the   
church was wise1 indeed1 to unite these 
elements of life1 to seize upon the     
psychology of the show and to use it for
 the purpose of saving souls4 ,it was   
not until the sixteenth century and the 
immediate predecessors of ,shakespeare  
that the play1 under the influence of   
renaissance culture and the inevitable  
secularization of the theater in        
antagonism to the ,puritan view of      
amusement1 waxed worldly1 and little by 

little lost the ear-marks of its holy   
birth and upbringing4  ,the day when the
 priests1 still the actors of the play1 
walked down the nave and issued from the
 great western door of the cathedral1 to
 continue the dramatic representations  
under the open sky1 was truly a         
memorable one in dramatic history4 ,the 
first instinct was not that of          
secularization1 but rather the desire   
for freer opportunity to enact the      
sacred stories2 a larger stage1 more    
scope for dramatic action4 ,yet1        
although for generations the play       
remained religious in subject-matter and
 intent1 it was inevitable that in time 
it should come to realize that its      
function was to body forth human life1  
unbounded by ,bible themes3 all that can
 happen to human beings on earth and    
between heaven and hell and beyond them1
 being fit material for treatment1 since
 all the world's a stage1 and flesh and 
blood of more vital interest to humanity
 at large than aught else4 ,the rapid   

humanization of the religious material  
can be easily traced in the coarse      
satire and broad humor introduced into  
the ,bible narratives3 a free and easy  
handling of sacred scene and character  
natural to a more naive time and by no  
means implying irreverence4 ,thus1 in   
the ,noah story1 ,mrs4 ,noah becomes a  
stout shrew whose unwillingness to come 
in out of the wet and bestow herself in 
dry quarters in the ,ark must have been 
hugely enjoyed by the fifteenth century 
populace4 ,and the ,vice of the morality
 play degenerates into the clown of the 
performance1 while even the ,devil      
himself is made a cause for laughter4   
,another significant step in the advance
 of the drama was made when the crafts  
took over the representations2 for it   
democratized the show1 without          
cheapening it or losing sight of its    
instructional nature4 ,when the booths1 
or pageants as they were called1 drew up
 at the crossing of the ways and        
performed their part in some story of   

didactic purport and broadly human1     
hearty1 ,english atmosphere1 with an    
outdoor flavor and decorative features  
of masque and pageantry1 the spectators 
saw the prototype of the historic       
pageants which just now are coming again
 into favor4 ,the drama of the future   
was shaping in a matrix which was the   
best possible to assure a long life1    
under popular1 natural conditions4      
,these conditions were to be modified   
and distorted by other1 later additions 
from the cultural influence of the past 
and under the domination of literary    
traditions2 but here was the original   
mold4  ,the method of presentation1 too1
 had its sure effect upon the theater   
which was to follow this popular folk   
beginning4 ,the movable van1 set upon   
wheels1 with its space beneath where    
behind a curtain the actors changed     
their costumes1 suggests in form and    
upfitting the first primitive stages of 
the playhouses erected in the second    
half of the sixteenth century4 ,since   

but one episode or act of the play was  
to be given1 there was no need of a     
change of scene1 and the stage could be 
simple accordingly4 ,contemporary cuts  
show us the limited dimensions1 the     
shallow depth and the bareness of       
accessories typical of this earliest of 
the housings of the drama1 for such it  
might fairly be called4 ,obviously1 on  
such a stage1 the manner and method of  
portrayal are strictly defined3 done out
 of doors1 before a shifting multitude  
of all classes1 with no close cohesion  
or unity1 since another part of the     
story was told in another spot1 the     
play1 to get across--not the footlights1
 for there were none--but the           
intervening space which separated actors
 and audience1 must be conveyed in broad
 simple outline and in graphic episodes1
 the very attributes which to-day1      
despite all subtleties and finesse1 can 
be relied upon to bring response from   
the spectators in a theater4 ,it must   
have been a great event when1 in some   

quiet ,english town upon a day          
significant in church annals1 the       
players' booths began their cycle1 and  
the motley crowd gathered to hear the   
,bible narratives familiar to each and  
all1 even as the ,greek myths which are 
the stock material of the ,greek drama  
were known to the vast concourse in the 
hillside theater of that day4 ,in effect
 the circus had come to town1 and we may
 be sure every urchin knew it and could 
be found open-mouthed in the front row  
of spectators4 ,no possibility here of  
subtlety and less of psychologic        
morbidity4 ,the beat of the announcing  
drum1 the eager murmur of the multitude1
 the gay costumes and colorful booth1   
all ministered to the natural delight of
 the populace in show and story4 ,the   
fun relieved the serious matter1 and the
 serious matter made the fun acceptable4
 ,with no shift of scenery1 the broadest
 liberty1 not to say license1 in the    
particulars of time and place were      
practiced2 the classic unities were for 

a later and more sophisticate drama4    
,there was no curtain and therefore no  
entr'act to interrupt the two hours'    
traffic of the stage2 the play was      
continuous in a sense other than the    
modern4  ,as a result of these early    
conditions1 the ,english play was to    
show through its history a fluidity1 a  
plastic adaptation of material to end1  
in sharp contrast with other nations1   
the ,french1 for one1 whose first drama 
was enacted in a tennis court of fixed  
location1 deep perspective and static   
scenery4  ,on the holy days which1 as   
the etymology shows1 were also holidays 
from the point of view of the crowd1    
drama was vigorously purveyed which made
 the primitive appeals of pathos1       
melodrama1 farce and comedy4 ,the actors
 became secular1 but for long they must 
have been inspired with a sense of moral
 obligation in their work2 a beautiful  
survival of which is to be seen at      
,oberammergau to-day4 ,and the play     
itself remained religious in content and

 intention for generations after it had 
walked out of the church door4 ,the     
church took alarm at last1 aware that an
 instrument of mighty potency had been  
taken out of its hands4 ,it is not      
surprising to find various popes passing
 edicts against this new and growingly  
influential form of public              
entertainment4 ,it seemed to be on the  
way to become a rival4 ,this may well   
have had its effect in the rapid taking 
over of the drama by the guilds1 as     
later it was adopted by still more      
worldly organizations4  ,it was not from
 the people that the change to complete 
secularization of subject-matter and    
treatment came2 but from higher cultural
 sources3 from the schools and          
universities1 touched by renaissance    
influences2 as where ,bishop ,still     
produced ,gammer ,gurton's ,needle for  
school use1 the first ,english comedy2  
or from court folk1 as when ,lord       
,buckhurst with his associate1          
,sackville1 wrote the frigid ,gorbudoc  

based on the ,senecan model and         
honorable historically because it is the
 first ,english tragedy4 ,the play of   
,plautian derivation1 ,ralph ,roister   
,doister1 our first comedy of intrigue1 
is another example of cultural          
influences which came in to modify the  
main stream of development from the folk
 plays4  ,this was in the sixteenth     
century1 but for over two centuries the 
genuine ,english play had been forming  
itself in the religious nursery1 as we  
saw4 ,now these other exotic and        
literary influences began to blend with 
the native1 and the story of the drama  
becomes therefore more complex4 ,the    
school and the court1 classic literature
 and that of mediaeval ,europe1 which   
represented the humanism it begot1 fast 
qualified the product4 ,but the         
straightest1 most natural issue from the
 naive morality and miracle genre is the
 robustious melodrama illustrated by    
such plays as ,kyd's ,spanish ,tragedy  
and ,marlowe's ,edward ,,ii2 which in   

turn lead directly on to ,shakespeare's 
,titus ,andronicus1 ,hamlet and         
chronicle history drama like ,richard   
,,iii2 and on the side of farce1 ,gammer
 ,gurton's ,needle1 so broadly ,english 
in its fun1 is in the line of descent4  
,and in proportion as the popular       
elements of rhetoric1 show and          
moralizing were retained1 was the appeal
 to the general audience made1 and the  
drama genuinely ,english4  ,up to #aegf 
we are concerned with the history of the
 drama and there is no public theater in
 the sense of a building erected for    
theatrical performances4 ,after the     
strolling players with their booths1    
plays were given in scholastic halls1 in
 schools and in private residences2     
while the more democratic and direct    
descendant of the pageants is to be seen
 in the inn yards where the stable end  
of the courtyard1 inclosed on three     
sides by its parallelogram of galleries1
 is the rudimentary plan for the        
,elizabethan playhouse1 when it comes1  

toward the end of the sixteenth century4
 ,but with the year #aegf and the       
erection in ,shoreditch of the first    
,theater on ,english soil--so called1   
because it had no rivals and the name   
was therefore distinctive--the proper   
history of the institution begins4 ,it  
marks a most important forward step in  
dramatic progress4  ,there is           
significance in the phrase descriptive  
of this first building2 it was set up in
 the fields1 as the words run3 which    
means1 beyond city limits1 for the city 
fathers1 increasingly ,puritan in       
feeling1 looked dubiously upon an       
amusement already so much a favorite    
with all classes2 it might prove a moral
 as well as physical plague spot by its 
crowding together of a heterogeneous    
multitude within pent quarters4 ,once   
started1 the theater idea met with such 
hospitable reception that these houses  
were rapidly increased1 until by the    
century's end half a dozen of the       
curious wooden hexagonal structures     

could be seen on the southward bank of  
the ,thames1 near the water1 central in 
interest as we now look back upon them  
being ,the ,globe1 built in #aeii from  
the material of the demolished          
,shoreditch playhouse1 and famed forever
 as ,shakespeare's own house4 ,here at  
three o'clock of the afternoon upon a   
stage open to the sky and with the      
common run of spectators standing in the
 pit where now lounge the luxuriant     
occupants of orchestra seats1 while     
those of the better sort sat on the     
stage or in the boxes which flanked the 
sides of the house and suggested the inn
 galleries of the earlier arrangement1  
were first seen the robust predecessors 
of ,shakespeare1 ,marlowe1 and ,kyd and 
,peele and ,nash2 and later1            
,shakespeare1 ,beaumont and ,fletcher1  
,ben ,jonson and the other immortals    
whose names are names to conjure with1  
even to this day4 ,played in the        
daylight1 and most crudely lighted1 the 
play was deprived of the illusion       

produced by modern artificial light1 and
 the stage1 projecting far down into the
 audience1 made equally impossible the  
illusion of the proscenium arch1 a      
picture stage set apart from life and   
constituting a world of its own for the 
representation of the mimic story4      
,there was small need for make-up on the
 part of the actors1 since the garish   
light of day is a sad revealer of grease
 paint and powder2 and the flaring      
cressets of oil that did service as     
footlights must1 it would seem1 have    
made darkness visible1 when set beside  
the modern devices4 ,it is plain enough 
that under these conditions a           
performance of a play in the particulars
 of seeing and hearing must have been   
seriously limited in effect4 ,to reach  
the audience must have meant an appeal  
that was broadly human1 and essentially 
dramatic4 ,fine language was            
indispensable2 and a language drama is  
exactly what the ,elizabethan theater   
gives us4 ,compelling interest of story1

 skillful mouthing of splendid poetry1  
virile situations that contained the    
blood and thunder elements always dear  
to the heart of the groundlings1 these  
the play of that period had to have to  
hold the audiences4 ,impudent breakings 
in from the gentles who lounged on the  
stage and blew tobacco smoke from their 
pipes into the faces perchance of       
,burbage and ,shakespeare himself2      
vulgar interpolations of some clown     
while the stage waited the entrance of a
 player delayed in the tiring room must 
have been daily occurrences4 ,and yet1  
from such a stage1 confined in extent   
and meager in fittings1 and under such  
physical limitations of comfort and     
convenience1 were the glories of the    
master poet given forth to the world4   
,our sense of the wonder of his work is 
greatly increased when we get a         
visualized comprehension of the         
conditions under which he accomplished  
it4 ,it is well to add that one of the  
most fruitful phases of contemporary    

scholarship is that which has thrown so 
much light upon the structure of the    
first ,english theaters4 ,we now realize
 as never before the limits of the      
scenic representation and the necessary 
restriction consequent upon the style of
 drama given4  ,another interesting and 
important consideration should also be  
noted here2 and one too generally       
overlooked4 ,the groundlings in the pit1
 albeit exposed to wind and weather and 
deprived of the seats which minister to 
man's ease and presumably dispose him to
 a better reception of the piece1 were  
yet in a position to witness the play as
 a play superior to that of the more    
aristocratic portions of the assemblage4
 ,however charming it may have been for 
the sprigs of the nobility to touch     
elbows with ,shakespeare on the boards  
as he delivered the tender lines of old 
,adam in ,as ,you ,like ,it1 or to      
exchange a word aside with ,burbage just
 before he began the immortal soliloquy1
 ,to be or not to be1 it is certain that

 these gentry were not so advantageously
 placed to enjoy the rendition as a     
whole as were master ,butcher or ,baker 
at the front4 ,and it would seem        
reasonable to believe that the nature of
 the ,elizabethan play1 so broadly      
humorous1 so richly romantic1 so large  
and obvious in its values and languaged 
in a sort of surplusage of exuberance1  
is explained by the fact that it was the
 common herd to whom in particular the  
play was addressed in these early       
playhouses3 not the literature in which 
it was written so much as the unfolding 
story and the tout ensemble which they  
were in a favorable position to take in4
 ,to the upper-class attendant at the   
play the unity of the piece must have   
been less dominant4 ,and surely this    
must have tended to shape the play1 to  
make it a democratic people's product4  
,for it is an axiom that the dominant   
element in an audience settles the fate 
of a play4  ,but this new plaything1 the
 theater1 was not only the physical     

embodiment of the drama1 it became a    
social institution as well4 ,nor was it 
without its evils4 ,the splendors of    
,elizabethan literature have often      
blinded criticism to the more sleazy    
aspects of the problem4 ,but            
investigation has made apparent enough  
that the ,puritan attitude toward the   
new institution was not without its     
excuse4 ,as we have seen1 from the very 
first a respectable middle class element
 of society looked askance at the       
playhouse1 and while this view became   
exaggerated with the growth of          
,puritanism in ,england1 there is       
nothing to be gained in idealizing the  
stage conditions of that time1 nor1 more
 broadly1 to deny that the manner of    
life involved and in some regards the   
nature of the appeal at any period carry
 with them the likelihood of license and
 of dissipation4 ,the actor before      
,shakespeare's day had little social or 
legal status2 and despite all the       
leveling up of the profession due to him

 and his associates1 the strolling      
player had to wait long before he became
 the self-respecting and courted        
individuality of our own day4 ,women did
 not act during the ,elizabethan period1
 nor until the ,restoration2 so that one
 of the present possibilities of        
corruption was not present4 ,but on the 
other hand1 the stage was without the   
restraining1 refining influence of their
 presence2 a coarser tone could and did 
prevail as a result4 ,the fact that     
ladies of breeding wore masks at the    
theater and continued to do so into the 
eighteenth century speaks volumes for   
the public opinion of its morals2 and   
the scholar who knows the wealth of     
idiomatic foulness in the best plays of 
,shakespeare1 luckily hidden from the   
layman in large measure1 does not need  
to be told of the license and lewdness  
prevalent at the time4 ,the ,puritans   
are noted for their repressive attitude 
toward worldly pleasures and no doubt   
part of their antagonism to the         

playhouse was due to the general feeling
 that it is a sin to enjoy oneself1 and 
that any institution which was thronged 
by society for avowed purposes of       
entertainment must derive from the      
devil4 ,but documentary evidence exists 
to show that an institution which in    
,england made possible the drama of     
,shakespeare1 ,beaumont and ,fletcher1  
,webster1 ,ford1 ,jonson and ,dekkar1   
writings which we still point to with   
pride as our chief contribution to the  
creative literature of the world1 could 
include abuses so flagrant as to call   
forth the stern denunciations of a      
,cromwell1 and later even shock the     
decidedly easy standards of a ,pepys4   
,the religious element in society was1  
at intervals1 to break out against the  
stage from pulpit or through the pen1 in
 historical iteration of this early     
attitude2 as with ,collier in his famed 
attack upon its immorality at the close 
of the seventeenth century1 and numerous
 more modern diatribes from such        

clergymen as ,spurgeon and ,buckley4    
,and in order to understand the peculiar
 relation of the respectable classes in 
,america to the theater1 it is necessary
 to realize that those cherishing this  
antipathy were our forefathers1 the     
,puritan settlers4 ,the attitude was    
inimical1 and of course the             
circumstances were all against a proper 
development of the function of the      
playhouse4 ,art and letters upon        
,american soil1 forsooth1 had to await  
their day in the seventeenth and        
following centuries1 when our ancestors 
had to give their full strength to more 
utilitarian matters1 or to the grave    
demands of the future life4 ,the        
,anglo-,saxon notion that the theater is
 evil is to be traced directly to these 
historic causes2 and transplanted to so 
favorable a soil as ,america1 it has    
produced most unfortunate results in our
 dramatic history1 the worst of all     
being the general unenlightened view    
respecting the use and usufruct of an   

institution in its nature capable of so 
much good alike to the masses and the   
classes4     ,,chapter ,,iv  ,,growth   
,,to ,,the ,,nineteenth ,,century       
,preparedness in the appreciation of a  
modern play presupposes a knowledge of  
the origin and early development of     
,english drama1 as briefly sketched in  
the preceding pages4 ,it also1 and more 
obviously1 involves some acquaintance   
with the master dramatists who led up to
 or flourished in the ,elizabethan      
period1 with ,shakespeare as the central
 figure2 it must1 too1 be cognizant of  
the gradual deterioration of the product
 in the post-,elizabethan time2 of the  
temporary close of the public theaters  
under ,puritan influence during the     
,commonwealth2 and of the substitution  
for the mighty poetry of ,shakespeare   
and his mates of the corrupt            
,restoration comedy which was introduced
 into ,england with the return of the   
second ,stuart to the throne in #affj4  
,this brilliant though brutally indecent

 comedy of manners1 with ,congreve1     
,wycherley1 ,etherage1 ,vanbrugh and    
,farquhar as chief playwrights1 while it
 represents in literature the moral     
nadir of the polite section of ,english 
society1 is of decided importance in our
 dramatic history1 because it reflected 
the manners and morals of the time1 and 
quite as much because it is conspicuous 
for skillful characterization1 effective
 dialogue and a feeling for scene and   
situation--all elements in good         
dramaturgy4  ,this intelligent attempt  
to know what lies historically behind   
present drama will also make itself     
aware of the falling away early in the  
eighteenth century1 in favor of the new 
literary form1 the ,novel2 and the all  
too brief flashing forth of another     
comedy of manners with ,sheridan and    
,goldsmith1 which retained the sparkle1 
wit and literary flavor of the          
,restoration1 with a later decency and a
 wholesomer social view2 to be followed 
again by a well-nigh complete divorce of

 literature and the stage until well    
past the middle of the nineteenth       
century1 when began the gradual re-birth
 of a drama which once more took on the 
quality of letters and made a serious   
appeal as an esthetic art and a worthy  
interpretation of life3 what may be     
called the modern school initiated by   
,ibsen4  ,all this interesting growth   
and wonderfully varied accomplishment   
may be but lightly touched upon here1   
for admirable studies of the different  
periods and schools by many scholars are
 at hand and the earnest theater student
 may be directed thereto for further    
reading4 ,the work of ,professor        
,schelling on ,elizabethan drama is     
thorough and authoritative4 ,the modern 
view of ,shakespeare and his            
contribution 7referred to in ,chapter   
,,iii7 will be found in ,professor      
,baker's ,development of ,shakespeare as
 a ,dramatist and ,professor ,matthews' 
,shakespeare as a ,playwright4 ,the     
general reader will find in ,the        

,mermaid ,series of plays good critical 
treatment of the main ,elizabethan and  
post-,elizabethan plays1 together with  
the texts1 so that a practical          
acquaintance with the product may be    
gained4 ,the series also includes the   
,restoration dramas in their best       
examples4 ,for the ,sheridan-,goldsmith 
plays a convenient edition is that in   
the ,drama section of the ,belles       
,lettres series of ,english ,literature1
 where the representative plays of an   
author are printed with enlightening    
introductions and other critical        
apparatus4 ,in becoming familiar with   
these aids the reader will receive the  
necessary hints to a further            
acquaintance with the more technical    
books which study the earlier1 more     
difficult part of dramatic evolution1   
and give attention to the complex story 
of the development of the theater as an 
institution4  ,a few things stand out   
for special emphasis here in regard to  
this developmental time4 ,let it be     

remembered that the story of ,english   
drama in its unfolding should be viewed 
in twin aspects3 the growth of the play 
under changing conditions2 and the      
growth of the playhouse which makes it  
possible4 ,what has been said already of
 the physical framework of the early    
,english theater throws light at once1  
as we saw1 upon the nature of the play4 
,and in fact1 throughout the            
development1 the play has changed its   
form in direct relation to the change in
 the nature of the stage upon which the 
play has been presented4 ,the older type
 is a stage suitable for the            
fine-languaged1 boldly charactered1     
steadily presented play of ,shakespeare 
acted on a jutting platform where the   
individual actor inevitably is of more  
prominence1 and so poorly lighted and   
scantily provided with scenery that     
words perforce and robustious effects of
 acting were necessitated1 instead of   
the scenic appeals1 subtler histrionism 
and plastic face and body work of the   

modern stage which has shrunk back to   
become a framed-in picture behind the   
proscenium arch4 ,as the reader makes   
himself familiar with ,marlowe1 who led 
on to ,shakespeare1 with the comedy and 
masque of ,ben ,jonson1 with the        
romantic and social plays of ,beaumont  
and ,fletcher1 the lurid tragic writing 
of ,webster1 the softer tragedy of ,ford
 and the rollicking folk comedy1        
pastoral poetry or serious social       
studies of ,dekkar and ,heywood1 he will
 come to realize that on the one hand   
what he supposed to be the sole touch of
 ,shakespeare in poetic expression was  
largely a general gift of the spacious  
days of ,elizabeth1 poetry1 as it were1 
being in the very air men breathed,a2   
and yet will recognize that the         
,stratford man walked commonly on the   
heights only now and again touched by   
the others4 ,and as he reads further the
 plays of dramatists like ,massinger1   
,tourneur1 ,shirley1 and ,otway he will 
find1 along with gleams and glimpses of 

the grand manner1 a steady degeneration 
from high poetry and tragic seriousness 
to rant1 bombast1 and the pseudo-poetry 
that is rhetoric1 with the declension of
 tragedy into melodrama4 ,high poetry   
gradually disintegrates1 and the way is 
prepared for the ,restoration comedy4   
,in reflecting upon the effect of a     
closing of the public theaters for      
nearly twenty years 7#afdb-affj7 the    
student will appreciate what a body blow
 this must have been to the true        
interests of the stage2 and find in it  
at least a partial explanation of the   
rebound to the vigorous indecencies of  
,congreve and his associates            
7,wycherley1 ,etherage1 ,vanbrugh1      
,farquhar7 when the ban was removed2    
human nature1 pushed too far1 ever      
expressing itself by reactions4  ,the   
ineradicable and undeniable literary    
virtues of the ,restoration writers and 
their technical advancement of the play 
as a form and a faithful mirror of one  
phase of ,english society will reconcile

 the investigator to a picture of life  
in which every man is a rake or cuckold 
and every woman a light o' love2 a sort 
of boudoir atmosphere that has a tainted
 perfume removing it far from the       
morning freshness of the ,elizabethans4 
,and consequently he will experience all
 the more gratitude in reaching the     
eighteenth century plays3 ,the ,school  
for ,scandal1 ,the ,rivals1 and ,she    
,stoops to ,conquer1 when they came a   
generation later4 ,while retaining the  
polish and the easy carriage of good    
society1 these dramas got rid of the    
smut and the smirch1 and added a flavor 
of hearty ,english fun and a saner      
conception of social life2 a drama      
rooted firmly in the fidelities instead 
of the unfaithfulnesses of human        
character4 ,these eighteenth century    
plays1 like those of the                
,restoration--,the ,plain ,dealer1 ,the 
,way of the ,world1 ,the ,man of ,mode1 
,the ,relapse1 and ,the ,beaux          
,stratagem--were still played in the    

old-fashioned playhouses1 like ,drury   
,lane1 or ,covent ,garden1 with the     
stage protruding into the auditorium and
 the classic architecture ill adapted to
 acoustics1 and the boxes so arranged as
 to favor aristocratic occupants rather 
than in the interests of the play       
itself4 ,the frequent change of scene1  
the five-act division of form1 the      
prologue and epilogue and the free use  
of such devices as the soliloquy and    
aside remind us of the subsequent       
advance in technic4 ,these marks of a   
by-gone fashion we are glad to overlook 
or accept1 in view of the essential     
dramatic values and permanent           
contribution to letters which ,sheridan 
and ,goldsmith made to ,english comedy4 
,but at the same time it is only common 
sense to felicitate ourselves that these
 methods of the past have been outgrown1
 and better methods substituted4 ,and we
 shall never appreciate eighteenth      
century play-making to the full until we
 understand that the authors wrote in   

protest against a sickly sort of        
unnatural sentimentality1 mawkish and   
untrue to life1 which had become        
fashionable on the ,english stage in the
 hands of ,foote1 ,colman and others4   
,sheridan brought back common sense and 
,goldsmith dared to introduce low       
characters and laughed out of acceptance
 the conventional separation of the     
socially high and humble in ,english    
life4 ,his preface to ,the ,good        
,natured ,man will be found instructive 
reading in relation to this service4    
,from #agge to #ahfj the ,english stage1
 looked back upon from the vantage point
 of our time1 appears empty1 indeed4 ,it
 did not look so barren1 we may believe1
 to contemporaries4 ,shakespeare was    
doctored to suit a false taste2 so great
 an actor-manager as ,garrick           
complacently playing in a version of    
,lear in which the ruined king does not 
die and ,cordelia marries ,edgar2 an    
incredible prettification and           
falsification of the mighty tragedy6    

,jonson writes for the stage1 though the
 last man who should have done so4      
,sheridan ,knowles1 in the early        
nineteenth century1 gives us ,virginius1
 which is still occasionally heard1     
persisting because of a certain vigor   
and effectiveness of characterization1  
though hopelessly old-fashioned in its  
rhetoric and its formal obeyance of     
outworn conventions1 both artistic and  
intellectual4 ,the same author's ,the   
,honeymoon is also preserved for us     
through possessing a good part for the  
accomplished actress4 ,later ,bulwer1   
whose feeling for the stage cannot be   
denied1 in ,money1 ,richelieu1 and ,the 
,lady of ,lyons1 shows how a certain    
gift for the theatrical1 coupled with   
less critical standards1 will combine to
 preserve dramas whose defects are now  
only too apparent4  ,as the nineteenth  
century advances the fiction of ,reade  
and ,dickens is often fitted to the     
boards and the fact that the latter was 
a natural theater man gave and still    

gives his product a frequent hearing on 
the stage4 ,to meet the beloved         
characters of this most widely read of  
all ,english fictionists is in itself a 
pleasure sufficient to command generous 
audiences4 ,boucicault's ,london        
,assurance is good stage material rather
 than literature4 ,tom ,taylor produced 
among many stage pieces a few of        
distinct merit2 his ,new ,men and ,old  
,acres is still heard1 in the hands of  
experimental amateurs1 and reveals      
sterling qualities of characterization  
and structure4  ,but the fact remains1  
hardly modified by the sporadic         
manifestations1 that the ,english stage 
was frankly separating itself from      
,english literature1 and by #ahfj the   
divorce was practically complete4 ,there
 was a woful lack of public             
consideration for its higher interests  
on the one hand1 and no definite        
artistic endeavor to produce worthy     
stage literature on the other4 ,authors 
who wrote for the stage got no          

encouragement to print their dramas and 
so make the literary appeal2 there was  
among them no esprit de corps1 binding  
them together for a self-conscious      
effort to make the theater a place where
 literature throve and art maintained   
its sovereignty4 ,no leading or         
representative writers were dramatists  
first of all4 ,if such wrote plays1 they
 did it half heartedly1 and as an       
exercise rather than a practical aim4   
,it is curious to ask ourselves if this 
falling away of the stage might not have
 been checked had ,dickens given himself
 more definitely to dramatic writing4   
,his bias in that direction is well     
known4 ,he wrote plays in his younger   
days and was throughout his life a fine 
amateur actor3 the dramatic and often   
theatric character of his fiction is    
familiar4 ,it was his intention as a    
youth to go on the stage4 ,but he chose 
the novel and perhaps in so doing       
depleted dramatic history4  ,literature 
and the stage1 then1 had at the best a  

mere bowing acquaintance4 ,browning1 who
 under right conditions of encouragement
 might have trained himself to be a     
theater poet1 was chagrined by his      
experience with ,the ,blot on the       
',scutcheon and thereafter wrote closet 
plays rather than acting drama4         
,swinburne1 master of music and mage of 
imagination1 was in no sense a practical
 dramatist4 ,shelley's dramas are also  
for book reading rather than stage      
presentation1 in spite of the fact that 
his ,cenci has theater possibilities to 
make one regret all the more his lack of
 stage knowledge and aim4 ,bailey's     
,festus is not an acting play1 though it
 was acted2 the sporadic drama1 in fact1
 between #ahej and #ahgj1 light or      
serious1 was frankly literary in the    
academic sense and not adapted to stage 
needs2 or else consisted of book        
dramatizations from ,reade and ,dickens2
 or simply represented the journeymen   
work of prolific authors with little or 
no claim to literary pretensions4  ,the 

practical proof of all this can be found
 in the absence of drama of the period  
in book form1 except for the acting     
versions1 badly printed and cheaply     
bound1 which did not make the literary  
appeal at all4 ,where to-day our leading
 dramatists publish their work as a     
matter of course1 offering it as they   
would fiction or any other form of      
literature1 the reading public of the   
middle century neither expected nor     
received plays as part of their mental  
pabulum1 and an element in the          
contemporary letters4 ,the drama had not
 only ceased to be a recognized section 
of current literature1 but was also no  
longer an expression of national life4  
,the first faint gleam of better things 
came when ,t4 ,w4 ,robertson's genteel  
light comedies began to be produced at  
the ,court ,theater in #ahfh4 ,as we    
read or see ,caste or ,society to-day   
they seem somewhat flimsy material1 to  
speak the truth2 and their technic1     
after the rapid development of a        

generation1 has a mechanical creak for  
trained ears4 ,but we must take them at 
the psychologic moment of their         
appearance1 and recognize that they were
 a very great advance on what had gone  
before4 ,they brought contemporary      
social life upon the stage as did       
,congreve in #afhj1 ,sheridan in #agfe2 
and they made that life interesting to  
large numbers of theater-goers who      
hitherto had abstained from play acting4
 ,and so ,caste and its companion plays1
 of which it is the best1 drew crowded  
houses and the stage became once more an
 amusement to reckon with in polite     
circles4 ,the royal box was once more   
occupied1 the playhouse became          
fashionable1 no longer quite negligible 
as a form of art4 ,to be sure1 this was 
a town drama1 and for the upper classes1
 as was the ,restoration ,comedy and    
that of the eighteenth century4 ,it was 
not a people's theater1 the ,theater    
,robertson1 but it had the prime merit  
of a more truthful representation of    

certain phases of the life of its day4  
,and hence ,robertson will always be    
treated as a figure of some historical  
importance in the ,british drama1 though
 not a great dramatist4  ,in the        
eighteen eighties another influence     
began to be felt1 that of ,ibsen4 ,the  
great dramatist from the ,north was made
 known to ,english readers by the       
criticism and translations of ,gosse and
 ,archer2 and versions of his plays were
 given1 tentatively and occasionally1 in
 ,england1 as in other lands4 ,thus     
readers and audiences alike gradually   
came to get a sense of a new force in   
the theater3 an uncompromisingly        
truthful1 stern portrayal of modern     
social conditions1 the story told with  
consummate craftsmanship1 and the       
national note sounding beneath the      
apparent pessimism4 ,here were1 it was  
evident1 new material1 new method and a 
new insistence upon intellectual values 
in the theater4 ,it can now be seen     
plainly enough that ,ibsen's influence  

upon the drama of the nineteenth century
 is commensurate in revolutionary       
results with that of ,shakespeare in the
 sixteenth4 ,he gave the play a new and 
improved formula for play-writing2 and  
he showed that the theater could be used
 as an arena for the discussion of vital
 questions of the day4 ,even in ,france1
 the one country where dramatic         
development has been steadily important 
for nearly three centuries1 his         
influence has been considerable2 in     
other ,european lands1 as in ,england1  
his genius has been a pervasive force4  
,whether he will or no1 the typical     
modern dramatist is a son of ,ibsen1 in 
that he has adopted the ,norwegian's    
technic and taken the function of       
playwright more seriously than before4  
,both with regard to intellectual values
 and technic1 then1 it is no            
exaggeration to speak of the modern     
drama1 although it be an expression of  
the spirit of the time in reflecting    
social evolution1 as bearing the special

 hallmark of ,ibsen's influence4 ,a word
 follows on the varied and vital        
accomplishment of the present period4   
,,chapter ,v  ,,the ,,modern ,,school   
,we have noted that ,ibsen's plays began
 to get a hearing in ,england in the    
eighteen nineties4 ,in fact1 it was in  
#ahhi that ,mr4 ,j4 ,t4 ,grein had the  
temerity to produce at his ,independent 
,theater in ,london ,a ,doll's ,house1  
and followed it shortly afterward by the
 more drastic ,ghosts4 ,the influence in
 arousing an interest in and knowledge  
of a kind of drama which entered the    
arena for the purpose of social         
challenge and serious satiric attack was
 incalculable4 ,both ,jones and ,pinero1
 honorable pioneers in the making of the
 new ,english drama1 and still actively 
engaged in their profession1 had begun  
to write plays some years before this   
date2 but it may be believed that the   
example of ,ibsen1 if not originating   
their impulse1 was part of the          
encouragement to let their own work     

reflect more truthfully the social time 
spirit and to study modern character    
types with closer observation1 allowing 
their stories to be shaped not so much  
by theatric convention as by honest     
psychologic necessity4  ,jones began    
with melodrama1 of which ,the ,silver   
,king 7#ahhb71 ,saints and ,sinners     
7#ahhd7 and ,the ,middle ,man 7#ahhi7   
are examples2 ,pinero with ingenious    
farces happily associated with the      
fortunes of ,sir ,squire ,bancroft and  
his wife1 ,the ,magistrate 7#ahhe7 being
 an excellent illustration of the type4 
,the dates are significant in showing   
the turning of these skillful           
playwrights to play-making that was more
 serious in the handling of life and    
more artistic in constructive values2   
they are practically synchronous with   
the introduction of ,ibsen into         
,england4 ,both authors have now long   
lists of plays to their credit1 with    
acknowledged masterpieces among them4   
,pinero's earlier romantic style may be 

seen in the enormously successful ,sweet
 ,lavender1 a style repeated ten years  
later in ,trelawney of the ,wells2 his  
more mature manner being represented in 
,the ,second ,mrs4 ,tanqueray1 the best 
of a number of plays which center in the
 woman who is a social rebel1 the       
dramatist's tone being almost austerely 
grim in carrying the study to its       
logical conclusion4 ,for a time ,sir    
,arthur seemed to be preoccupied with   
the soiled dove as dramatic inspiration2
 but so fine a recent play as ,the      
,thunderbolt shows he can get away from 
it4 ,jones' latest and best work as well
 has a tendency to the serious satiric  
showing-up of the failings of prosperous
 middle-class ,english society2 this1   
however1 in the main1 kept in abeyance  
to story interest and constructive skill
 in its handling3 ,mrs4 ,dane's         
,defense1 ,the ,case of ,rebellious     
,susan1 ,the ,liars1 ,the ,rogue's      
,comedy1 ,the ,hypocrites1 and ,michael 
and ,his ,lost ,angel stand for         

admirably able performances in different
 ways4  ,at the time when these two     
dramatists were beginning to produce    
work that was to change the ,english    
theater ,bernard ,shaw1 after writing   
several pieces of fiction1 had begun to 
give his attention to plays so advanced 
in technic and teaching that he was     
forced to wait more than a decade to get
 a wide hearing in the theater4 ,his    
debt to the ,norwegian has been         
handsomely acknowledged by the ,irish   
dramatist1 wit and philosopher who was  
to become the most striking phenomenon  
of the ,english theater3 with all the   
differences1 an ,english ,ibsen4 ,a     
little later1 in the early eighteen     
nineties1 another brilliant ,irishman1  
,oscar ,wilde1 wrote a number of social 
comedies whose playing value to-day     
testifies to his gift in telling a stage
 story1 while his epigrammatic wit and  
literary polish gave them the literary  
excellence likely to perpetuate his     
name4 ,for the comedy of manners1 light1

 easy1 elegant1 keen1 and with satiric  
point in its reflection of society1     
nothing of the time surpasses such      
dramas as ,lady ,windermere's ,fan and  
,a ,woman of ,no ,importance4 ,the      
author's farce--farce1 yet more than    
farce in dialogue and                   
characterization--,the ,importance of   
,being ,earnest1 is also a genuine      
contribution in its kind4 ,and the      
strange1 somber1 intensely poetic       
,salome is a remarkable tour de force in
 an unusual field4  ,the tendency to    
turn from fiction to the drama as       
another form of story telling fast      
coming into vogue is strikingly set     
forth and embellished in the case of    
,sir ,james ,barrie1 who1 after many    
successes in novel and short story1     
became a dramatist some twenty years ago
 and is now one of the few men of genius
 writing for the stage4 ,his ,peter     
,pan1 ,the ,little ,minister1 ,the      
,admirable ,crichton1 and ,what ,every  
,woman ,knows are four of over a dozen  

dramas which have given him world fame4 
,uniquely1 among ,english writers whose 
work is of unquestionable literary      
quality1 he refrains from the           
publication of plays2 a very regrettable
 matter to countless who appreciate his 
rare quality4 ,he is in his droll way of
 whimsy a social critic beneath the     
irresponsible play of a poet's fancy and
 an idealist's vision4 ,his keen yet    
gentle interpretations of character are 
solidly based on truth to the           
everlasting human traits1 and his poetry
 is all the better for its foundation of
 sanity and its salt of wit4 ,one has an
 impulse to call him the ,puck of the   
,english theater2 then feels compelled  
to add a word which recognizes the      
loving wisdom mingling with the pagan   
charm4 ,sir ,james is as unusual in his 
way as ,shaw in his4 ,of late he has    
shown an inclination to write brief1    
one-act pieces1 thereby adding to our   
interest in a form of drama evidently   
just beginning to come into greater     

regard4  ,for daring originality both of
 form and content ,bernard ,shaw is     
easily the first living dramatist of    
,england4 ,he is a true son of ,ibsen1  
in that he insists on thinking in the   
theater1 as well as in the experimental 
nature of his technic1 which has led him
 to shape for himself the drama of      
character and thesis he has chosen to   
write4 ,to the thousands who know his   
name through newspaper publicity or the 
vogue of some piece of his in the       
playhouse1 ,shaw is simply a witty      
,irishman1 dealer in paradox and wielder
 of a shillelah swung to break the heads
 of ,philistines for the sheer ,celtic  
love of a row4 ,to the few1 however1 an 
honorable minority now rapidly          
increasing1 he is a deeply earnest1     
constructive social student and         
philosopher1 who uses a popular         
amusement as a vehicle for the wider    
dissemination of perfectly serious      
views3 a socialist1 a mystic who        
believes in the ,life ,force sweeping   

man on 7if man but will7 to a high      
destiny1 and a lover of fellow man who  
in his own words regards his life as    
belonging to the community and wishes to
 serve it1 in order that he may be      
thoroughly used up when he comes to die4
 ,he has conquered as a playwright      
because beneath the sparkling sally1 the
 startling juxtaposition of character   
and the apparent irreverence there hides
 a genuinely religious nature4 ,shaw    
shows himself an immoralist only in the 
sense that he attacks jejune1 vicious   
pseudo-morals now existent4 ,for sheer  
acting values in the particulars of     
dialogue1 character1 scenic             
effectiveness1 feeling for climax and   
unity of aim such plays as ,candida1    
,arms and the ,man1 ,captain            
,brassbound's ,profession1 ,the ,devil's
 ,disciple1 ,john ,bull's ,other        
,island1 ,man and ,superman1 ,the       
,showing ,up of ,blanco ,posnett1 and   
others yet1 are additions to the serious
 comedy of ,england likely to be of     

lasting luster1 so far as contemporary  
vision can penetrate4  ,one of the most 
interesting developments of recent years
 has been the ,irish theater movement1  
in itself part of the general           
rehabilitation of the higher imaginative
 life of that remarkable people4 ,the   
drama of the gentle idealist poet       
,yeats1 of the shrewdly observant ,lady 
,gregory and of the grimly realistic yet
 richly romantic ,synge has carried far 
beyond their little country1 so that    
plays like ,yeats' ,the ,land of        
,heart's ,desire and ,the ,hour ,glass1 
,lady ,gregory's ,spreading the ,news   
and ,synge's ,riders to the ,sea and    
,the ,playboy of the ,western ,world are
 heard wherever the ,english language is
 understood1 this stage literature being
 aided in its travels by the excellent  
company of ,irish ,players founded to   
exploit it and giving the world a fine  
example of the success that may come    
from a single-eyed devotion to an ideal3
 namely1 the presentation for its own   

sake of the simple typical native life  
of the land4  ,it should be remembered  
that while these three leaders are best 
known1 half a dozen other able ,irish   
dramatists are associated with them1 and
 doing much to interpret the farmer or  
city folk3 writers like ,mayne1 ,boyle1 
,mc,comas1 ,murray1 and ,robinson4      
,under the stimulus of ,shaw in his     
reaction against the machine-made piece 
and the tiresome reiteration of sex     
motives1 there has sprung up a younger  
school which has striven to introduce   
more varied subject-matter and a broader
 view1 also greater truth and subtler   
methods in play-making4 ,here belong    
,granville ,barker1 with his ,voysey    
,inheritance 7his best piece71          
noteworthy also as actor-manager and    
producer2 the novelists1 ,galsworthy and
 ,bennett2 and ,masefield1 whose        
,tragedy of ,nan contains imaginative   
poetry mingled with melodrama2 and still
 later figures1 conspicuous among them  
the late ,stanley ,houghton1 whose      

,hindle ,wakes won critical and popular 
praise2 others being ,mc,donald         
,hastings with ,the ,new ,sin2 ,githa   
,sowerby1 author of the grim1 effective 
play1 ,rutherford and ,son2 ,elizabeth  
,baker1 with ,chains to her credit2     
,wilfred ,gibson1 who writes brief      
poignant studies of east ,london in     
verse that in form is daringly          
realistic2 ,cosmo ,hamilton1 who made us
 think in his attractive ,the ,blindness
 of ,virtue2 and ,j4 ,o4 ,francis1 whose
 ,welsh play1 ,change1 was recognized as
 doing for that country the same service
 as the group led by ,yeats and ,synge  
has performed for ,ireland4  ,a later   
,synge seems to have arisen in ,lord    
,dunsany1 whose dramas in book form have
 challenged admiration2 and since his   
early death ,st4 ,john ,hankin's        
dramatic work is coming into importance 
as a masterly contribution to light     
comedy1 the sort of drama that1 after   
the ,wilde fashion1 laughs at folly1    
satirizes weakness1 refrains from taking

 sides1 and never forgets that the      
theater should offer amusement4  ,of all
 these playwrights1 rising or risen1 who
 have got a hearing after the veterans  
first mentioned1 ,galsworthy seems most 
significant for the profound social     
earnestness of his thought1 the great   
dignity of his art and the fact that he 
rarely fails to respect the stage demand
 for objective interest and story       
appeal4 ,some of these new dramatists go
 too far in rejecting almost scornfully 
the legitimate theater mood of amusement
 and the necessity of a method differing
 from the more analytic way of fiction4 
,mr4 ,galsworthy1 however1 though severe
 to austerity in his conceptions and    
nothing if not serious in treatment1    
certainly puts upon us something of the 
compelling grip of the true dramatist in
 such plays as ,the ,silver ,box1       
,strife and1 strongest of them all and  
one of the finest examples of modern    
tragedy1 ,justice1 where the themes are 
so handled as to increase their         

intrinsic value4 ,this able and         
high-aiming novelist1 when he turns to  
another technic1 takes the trouble to   
acquire it and becomes a stage influence
 to reckon with4 ,the ,pigeon1 the most 
genial outcome of his dramatic art1 is a
 delightful play3 and ,the ,eldest ,son1
 ,the ,fugitive and ,the ,mob1 if none  
of them have been stage successes1 stand
 for work of praiseworthy strength4  ,on
 the side of poetry1 and coming a little
 before the ,irish drama attracted      
general attention1 ,stephen ,phillips   
proved that a poet could learn the      
technic of the theater and satisfy the  
demands of reader and play-goer4        
,saturated with literary traditions1    
frankly turning to history1 legend1 and 
literature itself for his inspiration1  
,mr4 ,phillips has written a number of  
acting dramas1 all of them possessing   
stage value1 while remaining real       
poetry4 ,his best things are ,paolo and 
,francesca and ,herod1 the former a play
 of lovely lyric quality and genuinely  

dramatic moments of suspense and climax2
 the latter a powerful handling of the  
,bible motive4 ,very fine too in its    
central character is ,nero2 and         
,ulysses1 while less suited to the      
stage1 where it seems spectacle rather  
than drama1 is filled with noble poetry 
and has a last act that is a little play
 in itself4 ,several of ,mr4 ,phillips' 
best plays have been elaborately staged 
and successfully produced by            
representative actor-managers like ,sir 
,herbert ,beerbohm ,tree and ,sir       
,george ,alexander4  ,still with poetry 
in mind1 it may be added that ,lawrence 
,binyon has given evidence of distinct  
power in dramatic poetry in his ,attila1
 and the delicate ,pierrot play1        
,prunella1 by ,messrs4 ,housman and     
,granville ,barker is a success in quite
 another genre4  ,israel ,zangwill has  
turned1 like ,barrie1 ,galsworthy and   
,bennett1 from fiction to the play1 and 
,the ,children of the ,ghetto1 ,merely  
,mary ,ann1 ,the ,melting ,pot1 ,the    

,war ,god and ,the ,next ,religion show 
progressively a firmer technic and the  
use of larger themes4 ,other playwrights
 like ,alfred ,sutro1 ,sidney ,grundy1  
,w4 ,s4 ,maugham1 ,hubert ,davies1 and  
,captain ,marshall have a skillful hand1
 and in the cases of ,maugham and       
,davies1 especially the latter1 clever  
social satire has come from their pens4 
,louis ,r4 ,parker has shown his range  
and skill in successful dramas so widely
 divergent as ,rosemary1 ,pomander ,walk
 and ,disraeli4  ,it may be seen from   
this category1 suggestive rather than   
complete1 that there is in ,england     
ample evidence for the statement that   
drama is now being vigorously produced  
and must be reckoned with as an         
appreciable and welcome part of         
contemporary letters4 ,in the ,united   
,states1 so far1 the showing is slighter
 and less impressive4 ,yet it is within 
the facts to say that the native        
play-making has waxed more              
serious-minded and skillful 7this       

especially in the last few years7 and so
 has become a definite adjunct to the   
general movement toward the             
reinvestiture of drama4  ,in the prose  
drama which attempts honestly to        
reproduce ,american social conditions1  
elder men like ,howard and ,herne1 and  
later ones like ,thomas1 ,gillette and  
,clyde ,fitch1 have done worthy pioneer 
work4 ,among many younger playwrights   
who are fast pressing to the front1     
,eugene ,walter1 who in ,the ,easiest   
,way wrote one of the best realistic    
plays of the day1 ,edward ,sheldon1 with
 a dozen interesting dramas to his      
credit1 notably ,the ,nigger and        
,romance2 and ,william ,vaughan ,moody1 
whose material in both ,the ,great      
,divide and ,the ,faith ,healer is      
healthfully ,american and truthful1     
although the handling is romantic and   
that of the poet1 deserve first mention4
  ,women are increasingly prominent in  
this recent activity and in such hands  
as those of ,rachel ,crothers1 ,ann     

,flexner1 ,marguerite ,merrington1      
,margaret ,mayo and ,eleanor ,gates our 
social life is likely to be exploited in
 a way to hint at its problems1 and     
truthfully and amusingly set forth its  
types4  ,moody1 though he wrote his     
stage plays in prose1 was essentially   
the poet in viewpoint and imagination4  
,a poet too1 despite the fact that more 
than half his work is in prose1 is      
,percy ,mackaye1 the son of a           
distinguished earlier playwright and    
theater reformer1 author of ,hazel      
,kirke and ,paul ,kauvar4 ,mr4          
,mackaye's prose comedy ,mater1 high    
comedy in the best sense1 and his       
satiric burlesque1 ,anti-,matrimony1    
together with the thoughtful drama      
,tomorrow1 which seeks to incorporate   
the new conception of eugenics in a     
vital story of the day1 are good        
examples of one aspect of his work2 and 
,jeanne d',arc1 ,sapho and ,phaon1 verse
 plays1 and the romantic spectacle play1
 ,a ,thousand ,years ,ago1 illustrate   

his poetic endeavor4 ,taking a hint from
 a short story by ,hawthorne1 he has    
written in ,the ,scarecrow one of the   
strongest and noblest serious dramas yet
 wrought by an ,american4 ,he has also  
done much for the pageant and outdoor   
masque1 as his ,the ,canterbury         
,pilgrims1 ,sanctuary and ,st4 ,louis1  
,a ,civic ,masque1 presented in ,may of 
#aiad on an heroic scale in that city1  
testify4 ,a poet1 whether in lyric or   
dramatic expression1 is ,josephine      
,preston ,peabody4 ,her lovely reshaping
 of the familiar legend known best in   
the hands of ,browning1 ,the ,piper1    
took the prize at the ,stratford on     
,avon spring ,shakespeare festival some 
years ago1 and has been successful since
 both in ,england and ,america4 ,her    
other dramatic writing has not as yet   
met so well the stage demands1 but is   
conspicuous for charm and ideality4  ,in
 the imaginative field of romance1      
poetry and allegory we may also place   
the ,americanized ,englishman1 ,charles 

,rann ,kennedy1 who has put the touch of
 the poet and prophet upon homely modern
 material4 ,his beautiful morality play1
 ,the ,servant in the ,house1 secured   
his reputation and later plays from ,the
 ,winter ,feast to ,the ,idol ,breaker1 
inclusive of several shorter pieces1 the
 one act form being definitely practiced
 by this author1 have been interesting  
work1 skillful of technic and surcharged
 with social sympathy and significance4 
,edward ,knoblauch1 the author of ,the  
,faun1 of ,milestones in collaboration  
with ,mr4 ,bennett1 and of the fantastic
 oriental divertissement1 ,kismet2 and  
,austin ,strong1 who wrote ,the         
,toymaker of ,nuremberg1 are among the  
younger dramatists from whom much may   
yet be expected4  ,in this enumeration1 
all too scant to do justice to newer    
drama in the ,united ,states1 especially
 in the field of realistic satire and   
humorous perception of the large-scaled 
clashes of our social life1 it must be  
understood that ,i perforce omit to     

mention fully two score able and earnest
 young workers who are showing a most   
creditable desire to depict ,american   
conditions and have learned1 or are     
rapidly learning1 the use of their stage
 tools4 ,the purpose here is to name    
enough of personal accomplishment to    
buttress the claim that a promising     
school has arisen on the native soil    
with aims and methods similar to those  
abroad4  ,and all this work1 ,english or
 ,american1 shows certain ear-marks to  
bind it together and declare it of our  
day in comparison with the past4 ,what  
are these distinctive features8  ,on the
 side of technic1 a greater and greater 
insistence on telling the story         
dramatically1 with more of truth1 to the
 exclusion of all that is non-dramatic1 
although preserved in the conventions of
 the theater for perhaps centuries2 the 
elimination of subplot and of subsidiary
 characters which were of old deemed    
necessary for purposes of exposition2   
the avoidance of the prologue and such  

ancient and useful devices as the aside 
and the soliloquy2 and such             
simplification of form that the typical 
play shall reduce itself most likely to 
three acts1 and is almost always less   
than five2 a play that often has but one
 scene where the action is compressed   
within the time limits of a few hours1  
or1 at the most1 a day or two4 ,all this
 is the outcome of the influence of     
,ibsen with its subtlety1 expository    
methods and its intenser psychology4 ,in
 word1 dress1 action and scene1 too1    
this modern type of drama approximates  
closer to life2 and inclines to minimize
 scenery save as congruous background1  
thus implying a distinct rebellion from 
the stupidly literal scenic envisagement
 for which the influence of a ,belasco  
is responsible4 ,the new technic also   
has1 in its seeking for an effect of    
verisimilitude1 adopted the naturalistic
 key of life in its acting values and   
has built small theaters better adapted 
to this quieter1 more penetrating       

presentation4  ,in regard to subject    
matter1 and the author's attitude to his
 work1 a marked tendency may be seen to 
emphasize personality in the character  
drawing1 to make it of central interest 
7contrasted with plot7 and a bold       
attempt to present it in the more minute
 variations of motive and act rather    
than in those more obvious reactions to 
life which have hitherto characterized  
stage treatment2 and equally noticeable 
if not the dominant note of this        
latter-day drama1 has been the social   
sympathy expressed in it and making it  
fairly resonant with kindly human       
values3 the author's desire to see      
justice done to the under-dog in the    
social struggle2 to extend a fraternal  
hand to the derelicts of the earth1 to  
understand the poor and strive to help  
those who are weak or lost2 all the     
underlings and incompetents and         
ill-doers of earth find their explainers
 and defenders in these writers4 ,this  
is the note which sounds in the         

fraternalism of ,kennedy's ,the ,servant
 in the ,house1 the arraignment of      
society in ,walter's ,the ,easiest ,way 
and ,paterson's ,rebellion1 the contrast
 of the ideals of east and west in      
,moody's ,the ,great ,divide1 and the   
democratic fellowship of ,sheldon's     
,salvation ,nell4 ,it is the note abroad
 which gives meaning to ,hauptmann's    
,the ,weavers1 ,galsworthy's ,justice   
and ,wedekind's ,the ,awakening of      
,spring1 different as they are from each
 other4 ,it stands for a tolerant1 even 
loving comprehension of the other       
fellow's case4 ,there is in it a belief 
in the age1 too1 and in modern man2 a   
faith in democracy and an aspiration to 
see established on the earth a social   
condition which will make democracy a   
fact1 not merely a convenient political 
catch-word4  ,some authors1 in their    
obsession with truth on the stage1 have 
too much neglected the fundamental      
demands of the theater and so sacrificed
 the crisp crescendo treatment of crisis

 in climax as to indulge in a tame1     
undramatic and bafflingly subtle        
manipulation of the story2 a remark     
applicable1 for example1 to a writer    
like ,granville ,barker4  ,but the      
growth and gains in both countries1 with
 ,america modestly second1 are          
encouraging4 ,in these modern hands the 
play has been simplified1 deepened1 made
 more truthful1 more sympathetic2 and is
 now being given the expressional form  
that means literature4 ,the bad1 the    
cheap1 the flimsy are still being       
produced1 of course1 in plenty2 so has  
it always been1 so ever will be4 ,but   
the drama that is worthy1 skillful1     
refreshing in these different           
kinds--farce1 comedy light1 polite1 or  
satiric2 broad comedy or high1          
melodrama1 tragedy1 romance and         
morality--is now offered1 steadily1     
generously1 and it depends upon the     
theater-goer who has trained himself to 
know1 to reject and accept rightly1 to  
appreciate and so make secure the life  

of all drama that is worth preservation4
         99       99       99       99  
99  ,this survey of the ,english theater
 and the drama which has been produced  
in it from the beginning--a survey the  
brevity of which will not detract1 it   
may be hoped1 from its clearness1 may   
serve to place our play-goer in a       
position the better to appreciate the   
present conditions2 and to give him more
 respect for a form of literature which 
he turns to to-day for intelligent      
recreation1 deeming it a helpfully      
stimulating form of art4 ,from this     
vantage-point1 he may now approach a    
consideration of the drama as an        
artistic problem4 ,he will be readier   
than before1 perhaps1 to realize that   
the playwright1 with this history behind
 him1 is the creature of a long and     
important development1 in a double      
sense3 in his treatment of life1 and in 
the manner of that treatment4           
,naturally1 the theater-goer will not   
stop with the ,english product4 ,the    

necessity alone of understanding ,ibsen1
 as the main figure in this complex     
modern movement1 will lead him to a     
study of the author of ,a ,doll's       
,house4 ,and1 working from center to    
circumference1 he will with ever        
increasing stimulation and delight      
become familiar with many other foreign 
dramatists of national or international 
importance4 ,he will give attention to  
those other ,scandinavians1 ,strindberg1
 ,drachman and ,bjoernson2 to the       
,russians1 ,tolstoy1 ,tchekoff and      
,gorky2 to ,frenchmen like ,rostand and 
,maeterlinck1 ,becque1 ,hervieu1        
,lavedan1 ,donnay and ,brieux2 to the   
,germans and ,austrians1 ,hauptmann1    
,sudermann1 ,wedekind1 ,hofmansthal and 
,schnitzler2 to the ,italian1           
,d',annunzio1 and the ,spanish          
,echgeragay1--to mention but a few4 ,it 
may even be that1 once aroused to the   
value of the expression of the ,present 
in these representative writers for the 
stage1 he will wish to trace the        

dramatic history behind them in their   
respective countries1 as he has         
7supposedly7 already done with the      
dramatists of his own tongue4 ,if he do 
so1 the play-goer will surely add       
greatly not only to his general literary
 culture but to his power of true       
appreciation of the play of the moment  
he may be witnessing4 ,for all this     
reading and reflection and comparison   
will tend to make him a                 
critic-in-the-seat who settles the fate 
of plays to-day because he knows the    
plays of yesterday and yesteryear4      
,,chapter ,,vi  ,,the ,,play ,,as       
,,theme ,,and ,,personal ,,view   ,we   
may now come directly to a consideration
 of the play regarded as a work of art  
and a piece of life4 ,after all1 this is
 the central aim in the attempt to      
become intelligent in our play-going4 ,a
 play may properly be thought of as a   
theme2 it has a definite subject1 which 
involves a personal opinion about life  
on the author's part2 a view of human   

beings in their complex interrelations  
the sum of which make up man's existence
 on this globe4  ,the play has a story1 
of course1 and that story is so handled 
as to constitute a plot3 meaning a      
tangle of circumstances in which the    
fates of a handful of human beings are  
involved1 a tangle to which it is the   
business of the plot to give meaning and
 direction4 ,but back of the story1 in  
any drama that rises to some worth1     
there is a theme1 in a sense4 ,thus1 the
 theme of ,macbeth is the degenerating  
effect of sin upon the natures of the   
king and his spouse2 and the theme of   
,ibsen's ,a ,doll's ,house is the evil  
results of treating a grown-up woman as 
if she were a mere puppet with little or
 no relation to life's serious          
realities4  ,the thing that gives       
dignity and value to any play is to be  
found just here3 a distinctive theme1   
which is over and above the interest of 
story-plot1 sinks into the consciousness
 of the spectator or reader1 and gives  

him stimulating thoughts about life and 
living long after he may have quite     
forgotten the fable which made the      
framework for this suggestive impulse of
 the dramatist4 ,give the statement a   
practical test4 ,plenty of plays suffice
 well enough perhaps to fill an evening 
pleasantly1 yet have no theme at all1 no
 idea which one can take with him from  
the playhouse and ruminate at leisure4  
,for1 although the story may be         
skillfully handled and the technic of   
the piece be satisfying1 if it is not   
about anything1 the rational auditor is 
vaguely dissatisfied and finds in the   
final estimate that all such plays fall 
below those that really have a theme4   
,to illustrate3 ,mr4 ,augustus ,thomas's
 fine play1 ,the ,witching ,hour1 has a 
theme embedded in a good1 old-fashioned 
melodramatic story2 and this is one of  
the reasons for its great success4 ,but 
the same author's ,mrs4 ,leffingwell's  
,boots1 though executed with practiced  
skill1 has no theme at all and therefore

 is at the best an empty1 if amusing1   
trifle1 far below the dramatist's full  
powers4 ,frankly1 it is a pot boiler4   
,and1 similarly1 ,mr4 ,thomas's capital 
western ,american drama1 ,arizona1 while
 primarily and apparently story for its 
own sake1 takes on an added virtue      
because it illustrates1 in a            
story-setting1 certain typical and      
worthy ,american traits to be found at  
the time and under those conditions in  
the far west4 ,to have a theme is not to
 be didactic1 neither to argue for a    
thesis nor moot a problem4 ,it is simply
 to have an opinion about life involved 
in and rising naturally out of the      
story1 and never1 never lugged in by the
 heels4 ,the true dramatist does not    
tell a story because he has a theme he  
wishes to impose upon the audience2 on  
the contrary1 he tells his story because
 he sees life that way1 in terms of     
plot1 of drama1 and in its course1 and  
in spite of himself1 a certain notion or
 view about sublunary things enters into

 the structure of the whole creation1   
and emanates from it like an atmosphere4
 ,one of the very best comedies of      
modern times is the late ,sidney        
,grundy's ,a ,pair of ,spectacles4 ,it  
has sound technic1 delightful           
characterization1 and a simple1         
plausible1 coherent and interesting     
fable4 ,but1 beyond this1 it has a      
theme1 a heart-warming one3 namely1 that
 one who sees life through the kindly   
lenses of the optimist is not only      
happier1 but gets the best results from 
his fellow beings2 in short1 is nearer  
the truth4 ,and no one should doubt that
 this theme goes far toward explaining  
the remarkable vogue of this admirable  
comedy4 ,without a theme so clear1      
agreeable and interpretive1 a play      
equally skillful would never have had   
like fortune4  ,and this theme in a     
play1 as was hinted1 must1 to be        
acceptable1 express the author's        
personal opinion1 honestly1 fearlessly  
put forth4 ,if it be merely what he     

ought to think in the premises1 what    
others conventionally think1 what it    
will1 in his opinion1 or that of the    
producer of the play1 pay to think1 the 
drama will not ring true1 and will be   
likely to fail1 even if the technic of a
 lifetime bolster it up4 ,it must embody
 a truth relative to the writer1 a fact 
about life as he sees it1 and nothing   
else4 ,a theme in a play cannot be      
abstract truth1 for to tell us of       
abstract truth is the metier of the     
philosopher1 and herein lies his        
difference from the stage story-teller4 
,relative truth is the play-maker's aim 
and the paramount demand upon him is    
that he be sincere4 ,he must give a view
 of life in his story which is an honest
 statement of what human beings and     
human happenings really are in his      
experience4 ,if his experience has been 
so peculiar or unique as to make his    
themes absurd and impossible to people  
in general1 then his play will pretty   
surely fail4 ,he pays the penalty of his

 warped1 or too limited or degenerate   
experience4 ,no matter3 show the thing  
as he sees it and knows it1 that he     
must2 and then take his chances4  ,and  
so convincing1 so winning is sincerity1 
that even when the view that lies at the
 heart of the theme appears monstrous   
and out of all belief1 yet it will stand
 a better chance of acceptance than if  
the author had trimmed his sails to     
every wind of favor that blows4  ,mr4   
,kennedy wrote an odd drama a few years 
ago called ,the ,servant in the ,house1 
in which he did a most unconventional   
thing in the way of introducing a mystic
 stranger out of the ,east into the     
midst of an ordinary mundane ,english   
household4 ,anybody examining such a    
play in advance1 and aware of what sort 
of drama was typical of our day1 might  
have been forgiven had he absolutely    
refused to have faith in such a work4   
,but the author was one person who did  
have faith in it2 he had a fine theme3  
the idea that the ,christ ideal1 when   

projected into daily life--instead of   
cried up once a week in church--and     
there acted on1 is efficacious4 ,he had 
an unshaken belief in this idea4 ,and he
 conquered1 because he dared to         
substitute for the conventional and     
supposed inevitable demand an apparently
 unpopular personal conviction4 ,he     
found1 as men who dare commonly do1 that
 the assumed personal view was the      
general view which no one had had the   
courage before to express4  ,in the same
 way1 ,m4 ,maeterlinck1 another idealist
 of the day1 wrote ,the ,blue ,bird4 ,it
 is safe to say that those in a position
 to be wise in matters dramatic would   
never have predicted the enormous       
success of this simple child play in    
various countries4 ,but the writer dared
 to vent his ideas and feelings with    
regard to childhood and concerning the  
spiritual aspirations of all mankind2 in
 other words1 he chose a theme for some 
other reason than because it was good1  
tried theater material2 and the world   

knows the result4 ,it may be said       
without hesitation that more plays fail 
in the attempt to modify view in favor  
of the supposed view of others--the     
audience1 the manager or somebody       
else--than fail because the dramatist   
has sturdily stuck to his point of view 
and honestly set down in his story his  
own private reaction to the wonderful   
thing called life2 a general possession 
and yet not one thing1 but having as    
many sides as there are persons in the  
world to live it4  ,consider1 for       
example1 the number of dramas that1     
instead of carrying through the theme   
consistently to the end1 are deflected  
from their proper course through the    
playwright's desire 7more often it is an
 unwilling concession to others' desire7
 to furnish that tradition-condiment1 a 
pleasant ending4 ,now everybody normal  
would rather have a play end well than  
not2 he who courts misery for its own   
sake is a fool4 ,but1 if not a fool1 he 
does not wish the pleasantness at the   

expense of truth1 because then the      
pleasantness is no longer pleasant to   
the educated taste1 and so defeats its  
own end4 ,and it is an observed fact    
that some stories1 whether fiction or   
drama1 begin to end well1 as ,stevenson 
expressed it2 while others1 just as     
truly1 begin to end ill4 ,hence1 when   
such themes are manhandled by the cheap1
 dishonest wresting of events or        
characters or both1 so as presumably to 
send the audience home happy1 we get a  
wretched malversion of art1--and without
 at all attaining the object in view4   
,for even the average1 or               
garden-variety1 of audience is uneasy at
 the insult offered its intelligence in 
such a nefarious transaction4 ,it has   
been asked to witness a piece of real   
life1 for1 testimony to the contrary    
notwithstanding1 that is what an        
audience takes every play to be4 ,up to 
a certain point1 this presentation of   
life is convincing2 then1 for the sake  
of leaving an impression that all is    

well because two persons are united who 
never should be1 or because the hero    
didn't die when he really did1 or       
because coincidence is piled on         
coincidence to make a fairy tale        
situation at which a fairly intelligent 
cow would rebel1 presto1 a lie has to be
 told that would not deceive the very   
children in the seats4 ,it is pleasant  
to record truthfully that this miserable
 and mistaken demand on the part of the 
short-sighted purveyors of              
commercialized dramatic wares is        
yielding gradually to the more          
enlightened notion that any audience    
wants a play to be consistent with      
itself1 and feels that too high a price 
can be paid even for the good ending    
whose false deification has played havoc
 with true dramatic interests4  ,another
 mode of dishonesty1 in which the writer
 of a play fails in theme1 is to be     
found whenever1 instead of sticking to  
his subject matter and giving it the    
unity of his main interest and the      

wholeness of effect derived from paying 
it undivided attention1 extraneous      
matter is introduced for the sake of    
temporary alleviation4 ,not to stick to 
your theme is almost as bad at times as 
to have none4 ,no doubt the temptation  
comes to all practical playwrights and  
is a considerable one4 ,but it must be  
resisted if they are to remain          
self-respecting artists4 ,the late      
,clyde ,fitch1 skilled man of the       
theater though he was1 sinned not seldom
 in this respect4 ,he sometimes         
introduced scenes effective for novelty 
and truth of local color1 but so little 
related to the whole that the trained   
auditor might well have met him with the
 famous question asked by the ,greek    
audiences of their dramatists who       
strayed from their theme3 ,what has this
 to do with ,apollo8 ,the remark applies
 to the drastically powerful scene in   
his posthumous play ,the ,city1 where   
the theme which was plainly announced in
 the first act is lost sight of in the  

dramatist's desire to use material well 
adapted to secure a sensational effect  
in his climax4 ,it is only fair to say  
that1 had this drama received the final 
molding at the author's hands1 it might 
have been modified to some extent4 ,but 
there is no question that this was a    
tendency with ,fitch4  ,the late ,oscar 
,wilde had an almost unparalleled gift  
for witty epigrammatic dialogue4 ,in his
 two clever comedies1 ,lady             
,windermere's ,fan and ,a ,woman of ,no 
,importance1 he allowed this gift to run
 away with him to such an extent that   
the opening acts of both pieces contain 
many speeches lifted from his notebooks1
 seemingly1 and placed arbitrarily in   
the mouths of sundry persons of the     
play3 some of the speeches could quite  
as well have been spoken by others4     
,this constituted a defect which might  
have seriously militated against the    
success of those dramas had they not    
possessed in full measure brilliant     
qualities of genuine constructive       

play-making4 ,the theme1 after all1 was 
there1 once it was started2 and so was  
the deft handling4 ,but dialogue not    
motivated by character or necessitated  
by story is always an injury1 and much  
drama to-day suffers from this fault4   
,the producer of the play declares that 
its tone is too steadily serious and    
demands the insertion of some humor to  
lighten it1 and the playwright1 poor1   
helpless wight1 yields1 though he knows 
he is sinning against the ,holy ,ghost  
of his art4 ,or perhaps the play is too 
short to fill the required time and so  
padding is deemed necessary2,b or it may
 be that the ignorance or               
short-sightedness of those producing the
 play will lead them to confuse the     
interests of the chief player with that 
of the piece itself2 and so a departure 
from theme follows1 and unity be        
sacrificed4 ,that is what unity means3  
sticking to theme4  ,and unity of story1
 be sure1 waits on unity of theme4 ,this
 insistence upon singleness of purpose  

in a play1 clinging to it against all   
allurements1 does not imply that what is
 known as a subplot may not be allowed  
in a drama4 ,it was common in the past  
and can still be seen to-day1 though the
 tendency of modern technic is to       
abandon it for the sake of greater      
emphasis upon the main plot and the     
resulting tightening of the texture1    
avoiding any risk of a splitting of     
interest4 ,however1 a secondary or      
subplot in the right hands--as we see it
 in ,shakespeare's ,merchant of ,venice1
 or1 for a modern instance1 in ,pinero's
 ,sweet ,lavender--is legitimate enough4
 ,those who manipulate it with success  
will be careful to see that the minor   
plot shall never appear for a moment to 
be major2 and that both strands shall be
 interwoven into an essential unity of  
design1 which is admirably illustrated  
in ,shakespeare's comedy just mentioned4
  ,have a theme then1 let it be quite   
your own1 and stick to it1 is a succinct
 injunction which every dramatist will  

do well to heed and the critic in the   
seat will do well to demand4 ,neither   
one nor the other should ever forget    
that the one and only fundamental unity 
in drama1 past1 present and to come1 is 
unity of idea1 and the unity of action  
which gathers about that idea as surely 
as iron filings around the magnetized   
center4 ,the unities of time and place  
are conditional upon the kind of drama  
aimed at1 and the temporal and physical 
characteristic of the theater2 the      
,greeks obeyed them for reasons peculiar
 to the ,greeks1 and many lands1        
beginning with the ,romans1 have        
imitated these so-called laws since4    
,but ,shakespeare destroyed them for    
,england1 and to-day1 if unity of time  
and place are to be seen in an ,ibsen   
play1 it simply means that1 in the      
psychological drama he writes1 time and 
place are naturally restricted4 ,but in 
the unity of action which means unity of
 theme we have a principle which looks  
to the constitution of the human mind2  

for the sake of that ease of attention  
which helps to hold interest and produce
 pleasure1 such unity there must be2 the
 mind of man 7when he has one7 is made  
that way4  ,there is a special reason   
why the intelligent play-goer must      
insist upon this fundamental unity3     
because much in our present imaginative 
literature is1 as to form1 in direct    
conflict with that appeal to a sustained
 effect of unity offered by a           
well-wrought drama4 ,the short story    
that is all too brief1 the vaudeville   
turn1 the magazine habit of reading a   
host of unrelated scamped trifles1 all  
militate against the habit of           
concentrated attention2 all the more    
reason why it should be cultivated4     
,let me return to the thought that the  
dramatist1 in making the theme his own1 
may be tempted to present a view of life
 not only personal but eccentric and    
vagarious to the point of insanity4     
,his view1 to put it bluntly1 may       
represent a crack-brained distortion of 

life rather than life as it is          
experienced by men in general4 ,in such 
a case1 and obviously1 his drama will be
 ineffective and objectionable1 in the  
exact degree that it departs from what  
may be called broadly the normal and the
 possible4 ,as ,i have already asserted1
 distortion for distortion1 even a crazy
 handling of theme that is honest is to 
be preferred to one consciously a       
deflection from belief4 ,but the former 
is not right because the latter is      
wrong4 ,both should be avoided1 and will
 be if the play-maker be at the same    
time sincere and healthily              
representative in his reaction to life  
of humanity at large4 ,the really great 
plays1 and the good plays that have     
shown a lasting quality1 have sinned in 
neither of these particulars4  ,it is   
especially of import that our           
critic-in-the-seat should insist on this
 matter of normal appeal1 because ours  
happens to be a day when personal       
vagaries1 extravagant theories and      

lawless imaginings are granted a freedom
 in literary and other art in general   
such as an earlier day hardly conceived 
of4 ,the abuses under the mighty name of
 ,art are many and flagrant4 ,all the   
more need for the knowing spectator in  
the theater1 or he who reads the play at
 home1 to be prepared for his function1 
quick to reprimand alike tame           
subserviency or the abnormalities of    
unrestrained genius4 ,it is fair to say 
that absolute honesty on the dramatist's
 part in the conception and presentation
 of theme will meet all legitimate      
criticisms of his work4 ,within his     
limitations1 we shall get the best that 
is in him1 if he will only show us life 
as he sees it1 and have the courage of  
his convictions1 allowing no son of man 
to warp his work from that purpose4     
,,chapter ,,vii  ,,method ,,and         
,,structure   ,i  ,so far we have       
considered the material of the          
dramatist1 his theme and subject matter1
 and his attitude toward it4 ,but his   

method in conceiving this material and  
of handling it is of great importance   
and we may now examine this a little in 
detail1 to realize the peculiar problem 
that confronts him4  ,at the beginning  
let it be understood that the dramatist 
must see his subject dramatically4      
,every stage story should be seen or    
conceived in a central moment which is  
the explanation of the whole play1 its  
reason for being4 ,without that moment1 
the drama could not exist2 if the story 
were told1 the plot unfolded without    
presenting that scene1 the play would   
fall flat1 nay1 there would1 strictly   
speaking1 be no play there4 ,that is why
 the ,french 7leaders in nomenclature1  
as in all else dramatic7 call it the    
scene a faire1 the scene that one must  
do2 or1 to adopt the ,english equivalent
 offered by ,mr4 ,archer in his         
interesting and able manual of          
stagecraft entitled ,playmaking1 the    
obligatory scene3 that is1 the scene one
 is obliged to show4 ,this moment in the

 story is a climax1 because it is the   
crowning result of all the preceding    
growth of the drama up to a point where 
the steadily increasing interest has    
reached its height and an electric      
effect of suspense and excitement       
results4 ,this suspensive excitement    
depends upon the clash of human wills   
against each other or against           
circumstances2 events are so tangled    
that they can be no further involved and
 something must happen in the way of    
cutting the knot2 the fates of the      
persons are so implicated that their    
lives must be either saved or destroyed1
 in order to break the deadlock4 ,thus  
along with the clash goes a crisis      
presented in a breathless climactic     
effect which is the central and         
imperative scene of the piece1 the      
backbone of every good play4  ,if this  
obligatory scene be absent1 you may at  
once suspect the dramatist2 whatever his
 other virtues 7fine dialogue1 excellent
 characterization1 or still other       

merits71 it is probable he is not one   
genuinely called to tell a story in the 
manner of drama within stage            
limitations4  ,it is sometimes said that
 a play is written backward4 ,the remark
 has in mind this fundamental fact of   
the climax2 all that goes before leads  
up to it1 is preparation for it1 and    
might conceivably be written after the  
obligatory scene has been conceived and 
shaped2 all that comes after it is an   
attempt to retire gracefully from the   
great moment1 rounding it out1 showing  
its results1 and conducting the         
spectator back to the common light of   
day in such a way as not to be dull1 or 
conventional or anti-climactic4 ,what   
follows this inevitable scene is        
7however disguised7 at bottom a sort of 
bridge conveying the auditor from the   
supreme pleasure of the theater back to 
the rather humdrum experience of actual 
life2 it is an experiment in gradation4 
,and the prepared play-goer will deny   
the coveted award of well done to any   

play1 albeit from famous hands and by no
 means wanting in good qualities1 which 
nevertheless fails in this prime        
requisite of good drama3 the central1   
dynamic scene illuminating all that goes
 before and follows after1 without which
 the play1 after all1 has no right to   
existence4  ,with the coming of the     
modern psychologic school of which      
,galsworthy1 ,barker and ,bennett are   
exemplars1 there is a distinct tendency 
to minimize or even to eliminate this   
obligatory scene2 an effort which should
 be carefully watched and remonstrated  
against2 since it is the laying of an   
axe at the roots of dramatic writing4   
,it may be confessed that in some       
instances the results of this violation 
of a cardinal principle are so charming 
as to blind the onlooker perhaps to the 
danger2 as in the case of ,milestones by
 ,messrs4 ,bennett and ,knoblauch1 or   
,the ,pigeon by ,galsworthy1 or ,louis  
,parker's ,georgian picture1 ,pomander  
,walk4 ,but this only confuses the      

issue4 ,such drama may prove delightful 
for other reasons2 the thing to bear in 
mind is that they are such in spite of  
the giving up of the peculiar1          
quintessential merit of drama in its    
full sense4 ,their virtues are          
non-dramatic virtues1 and they succeed1 
in so far as success awaits them1 in    
spite of the violation of a principle1  
not because of it4 ,they can be1 and    
should be1 heartily enjoyed1 so long as 
this is plainly understood and the two  
accomplishments are perceived as        
separate4 ,for it may be readily granted
 that a pleasant and profitable evening 
at the theater may be spent1 without the
 very particular appeal which is        
dramatic coming into the experience at  
all4 ,there are more things in the      
modern theater than drama2 which is     
well1 if we but make the discrimination4
  ,but for the purposes of intelligent  
comprehension of what is drama1 just    
that and naught else1 the theater-goer  
will find it not amiss to hold fast to  

the idea that a play without its central
 scene hereinbefore described is not a  
play in the exact definition of that    
form of art1 albeit ever so enjoyable   
entertainment4 ,the history of drama in 
its failures and successes bears out the
 statement4 ,and of all nations1 ,france
 can be studied most profitably with    
this in mind1 since the ,french have    
always been past masters in the feeling 
for the essentially dramatic1 and       
centuries ago developed the skill to    
produce it4 ,the fact that we get such a
 term as the scene a faire from them    
points to this truth4  ,accepting the   
fact1 then1 that a play sound in        
conception and construction has and must
 have a central scene which acts as a   
centripetal force upon the whole drama1 
unifying and solidifying it1 the next   
matter to consider is the subdivision of
 the play into acts and scenes4 ,since  
the whole story is shown before the     
footlights1 scenes and acts are such    
divisions as shall best mark off and    

properly accentuate the stages of the   
story1 as it is unfolded4 ,convention   
has had something to do with this       
arrangement and number1 as we learn from
 a glance at the development of the     
stage story4 ,the earlier ,english drama
 accepted the five-act division under   
classic influence1 though the greatest  
dramatist of the past1 ,shakespeare1 did
 so only half-heartedly1 as may be      
realized by looking at the first        
complete edition of his plays1 the      
,first ,folio of #afba4 ,hamlet1 for    
instance1 as there printed1 gives the   
first two acts1 and thereafter is       
innocent of any act division2 and ,romeo
 and ,juliet has no such division at    
all4 ,but with later editors1 the       
classic tradition became more and more a
 convention and the student with the    
modernized text in hand has no reason to
 suspect the original facts4 ,an        
old-fashioned work like ,freitag's      
,technique of the ,drama assumes this   
form as final and endeavors to study    

dramatic construction on that           
assumption4  ,the scenes1 too1 were many
 in the ,elizabethan period1 for the    
reason that there was no scene shifting 
in the modern sense2 as many scenes     
might therefore be imagined as were     
desirable during the continuous         
performance4 ,it has remained for modern
 technic to discover that there was     
nothing irrevocable about this fivefold 
division of acts2 and that1 in the      
attempt at a general simplification of  
play structure1 we can do better by a   
reduction of them to three or four4     
,hence1 five acts have shrunk to four or
 three2 so that to-day the form         
preferred by the best dramatic artists1 
looking to ,ibsen for leadership1 is the
 three-act play1 though the nature of   
the story often makes four desirable4 ,a
 careful examination of the best plays  
within a decade will serve to show that 
this is definitely the tendency4  ,the  
three-act play1 with its recognition    
that every art structure should have a  

beginning1 middle and end--,aristotle's 
simple but profound observation on the  
tragedy of his day--might seem to be    
that which marks the ultimate technic of
 drama2 yet it would be pedantic and    
foolish to deny that the simplification 
may proceed further still and two acts  
succeed three1 or1 further still1 one   
act embrace the complete drama1 thus    
returning to the scene individable of   
the ,greeks and ,shakespeare4           
,certainly1 the whole evolution of form 
points that way4  ,but1 whatever the    
final simplification1 the play as a     
whole will present certain constructive 
problems2 problems which confront the   
aim ever to secure1 most economically   
and effectively1 the desired dramatic   
result4 ,the first of these is the      
problem of the opening act1 which we may
 now examine in particular4   ,,ii  ,the
 first act has a definite aim and       
difficulties that belong to itself      
alone4 ,broadly speaking1 its business  
is so to open the story as to leave the 

audience at the fall of the first       
curtain with a clear idea of what it is 
about2 not knowing too much1 wishing to 
know more1 and having well in mind the  
antecedent conditions which made the    
story at its beginning possible4 ,if1 at
 the act's end1 too much has been       
revealed1 the interest projected forward
 sags2 if too little1 the audience fails
 to get the idea around which the story 
revolves1 and so is not pleasurably     
anxious for its continuance4 ,if the    
antecedent conditions have not clearly  
been made manifest1 some omitted link   
may throw confusion upon all that       
follows4 ,on the other hand1 if too much
 time has been expended in setting forth
 the events that lead up to the story's 
start on the stage1 with the rise of the
 curtain1 not enough time may be left1  
within act limits1 to hold the attention
 and fix interest so it may sustain the 
entr'act break and fasten upon the next 
act4  ,thus it will be seen that a      
successful opening act is a considerable

 test of the dramatist's skill4         
,another drawback complicates the       
matter4 ,the playwright has at his      
disposal in the first act from half to  
three-quarters of an hour in which to   
effect his purpose4 ,but he must lose   
from five to ten minutes of this        
precious time allotment1 at the best    
very short1 because1 according to the   
detestable ,anglo-,saxon convention1 the
 audience is not fairly seated when the 
play begins1 and general attention      
therefore not riveted upon the stage    
action4 ,under ideal conditions1 and    
they have never existed in all respects 
in any time or country1 the audience    
will be in place at the curtain's rise1 
alert to catch every word and movement4 
,as a matter of fact1 this practically  
never occurs2 particularly in ,america1 
where the drama has never been taken so 
seriously as an art as music2 for some  
time now people have not been allowed1  
in a hall devoted to that gentle sister 
art1 to straggle in during the          

performance of a composition1 or the    
self-exploitation of a singer1 thereby  
disturbing the more enlightened hearers 
who have come on time1 and regard it1   
very properly1 as part of their breeding
 to do so4 ,but in the theater1 as we   
all know1 the barbarous custom obtains  
of admitting late comers1 so that for   
the first few minutes of the performance
 a steady insult is thus offered to the 
play1 the players1 and the portion of   
the audience already in their seats4 ,it
 may be hoped1 parenthetically1 that as 
our theater gradually becomes civilized 
this survival of the manners of bushmen 
may become purely historic4 ,at present1
 however1 the practical playwright      
accepts the existing conditions1 as     
perforce he must1 and writes his play   
accordingly4 ,and so the first few      
minutes of a well-constructed drama1 it 
may be noticed1 are generally devoted to
 some incident1 interesting or amusing  
in itself1 preferably external so as to 
catch the eye1 but not too vital1 and   

involving1 as a rule1 minor characters1 
without revealing anything really       
crucial in the action4 ,the matter      
presented thus is not so much important 
as action that leads up to what is      
important2 and its lack of importance   
must not be implied in too barefaced a  
way1 lest attention be drawn to it4     
,this part of the play marks time1 and  
yet is by way of preparation for the    
entrance of the main character or       
characters4  ,much skill is needed1 and 
has been developed1 in regard to the    
marshaling of the precedent conditions3 
to which the word exposition has been by
 common consent given4 ,exposition      
to-day is by no means what it was in    
,shakespeare's2 indeed1 it has been     
greatly refined and improved upon4 ,in  
the earlier technic this prefatory      
material was introduced more frankly and
 openly in the shape of a prologue2 or  
if the prologue was not used1 at least  
the information was conveyed directly   
and at once to the audience by means of 

minor characters1 stock figures like the
 servant or confidante1 often employed  
mainly1 or even solely1 for that        
purpose4 ,this made the device too      
obvious for modern taste1 and such as to
 injure the illusion2 the play lost its 
effect of presenting truthfully a piece 
of life1 just when it was particularly  
important to seem such2 that is1 at the 
beginning4 ,for with the coming of the  
subtler methods culminating in the deft 
technic of an ,ibsen1 which aims to draw
 ever closer to a real presentation of  
life on the stage1 and so strove to find
 methods of depiction which should not  
obtrude artifice except when            
unavoidable1 the stage artist has       
learned to interweave these antecedent  
circumstances with the story shown on   
the stage before the audience4 ,and the 
result is that to-day the exposition of 
an ,ibsen1 a ,shaw1 a ,wilde1 a ,pinero 
or a ,jones is so managed as hardly to  
be detected save by the expert in stage 
mechanics4 ,the intelligent play-goer   

will derive pleasure and profit from a  
study of ,ibsen's growth in this        
respect2 observing1 for example1 how    
much more deftly exposition is hidden in
 a late work like ,hedda ,gabler than in
 a comparatively early one like ,pillars
 of ,society2 and1 again1 how bald and  
obvious was this master's technic in    
this respect when he began in the middle
 of the nineteenth century to write his 
historical plays4  ,in general1 it is   
well worth while to watch the handling  
of the first act on the part of         
acknowledged craftsmen with respect to  
the important matter of introducing into
 the framework of a two hours' spectacle
 all that has transpired before the     
picture is exhibited to the spectators4 
,one of the definite dangers of the     
first act is that of giving an audience 
a false lead as to character or turn of 
story4 ,by some bit of dialogue1 or even
 by an interpolated gesture on the part 
of an actor who transcends his rights 7a
 misleading thing1 as likely as not to  

be charged to the playwright71 the      
auditor is put on a wrong scent1 or     
there is aroused in him an expectation  
never to be realized4 ,thus the real    
issue is obscured1 and later trouble    
follows as the true meaning is divulged4
 ,a ,french critic1 commenting on the   
performance in ,paris of a play by      
,bernard ,shaw1 says that its meaning   
was greatly confused because two of the 
characters took the unwarranted liberty 
of exchanging a kiss1 for which1 of     
course1 there was no justification in   
the stage business as indicated by the  
author4 ,all who know ,shaw know that he
 has very little interest in stage      
kisses4  ,closely associated with this  
mistake1 and far more disastrous1 is    
such a treatment of act one as to       
suggest a theme full of interest and    
therefore welcome1 which is then not    
carried through the remainder of the    
drama4 ,fitch's ,the ,city has been     
already referred to with this in mind4  
,a more recent example may be found in  

,veiller's popular melodrama1 ,within   
the ,law4 ,the extraordinary vogue of   
this melodrama is sufficient proof that 
it possesses some of the main qualities 
of skillful theater craft3 a strong1    
interesting fable1 vital                
characterization1 and considerable      
feeling for stage situation and climax1 
with the forthright hand of execution4  
,nevertheless1 it distinctly fails to   
keep the promise of the first act1      
where1 at the fall of the curtain1 the  
audience has become particularly        
interested in a sociological problem1   
only to be asked in the succeeding acts 
to forget it in favor of a conventional 
treatment of stock melodramatic         
material1 with the usual thieves1       
detectives pitted against each other1   
and gunplay for the central scene of    
surprise and capture4 ,that such current
 plays as ,the ,city and ,within the    
,law can get an unusual hearing1 in     
spite of these defects1 suggests the    
uncritical nature of ,american          

audiences2 but quite as truly implies   
that drama may be very good1 indeed1 in 
most respects while falling short of the
 caliber we demand of masterpieces4     
,with the opening act1 then1 so handled 
as to avoid these pitfalls1 the         
dramatist is ready to go on with his    
task4 ,he has sufficiently aroused the  
interest of his audience to give it a   
pleasurable sense of entertainment      
ahead1 without imparting so much        
knowledge as to leave too little for    
guesswork and lessen the curiosity      
necessary for one who must still spend  
an hour and a half in a place of bad air
 and too heated temperature4 ,he has    
awakened attention and directed it upon 
a theme and story1 yet left it          
tantalizingly but not confusingly       
incomplete4 ,now he has before him the  
problem of unfolding his play and making
 it center in the climactic scene which 
will make or mar the piece4 ,we must    
observe1 then1 how he develops his story
 in that part of the play intermediate  

between the introduction and the crisis2
 the second act of a three-act drama or 
the third if the four-act form be       
chosen4     ,,chapter ,,viii            
,,development   ,the story being        
properly started1 it becomes the        
dramatist's business1 as we saw1 so to  
advance it that it will develop         
naturally and with such increase of     
interest as to tighten the hold upon the
 audience as the plot reaches its       
crucial point1 the obligatory scene4    
,this can only be done by the sternest  
selection of those elements of story    
which can be fitly shown on the stage1  
or without a loss of interest be        
inferred clearly from off-stage         
occurrences4 ,since action is of the    
essence of drama1 all narrative must be 
shunned that deals with matters which1  
being vital to the play and naturally   
dramatic material1 can be presented     
directly to the eye and ear4 ,and       
character must be economically handled1 
so that as it is revealed the revelation

 at the same time furthers the story1   
pushing it forward instead of holding it
 static while the character is being    
unfolded4 ,dialogue should always do one
 of these two things and the best       
dialogue will do both3 develop plot in  
the very moment that it exhibits the    
unfolding psychology of the dramatis    
personae4 ,the fact that in the best    
modern work plot is for the sake of     
character rather than the reverse does  
not violate this principle2 it simply   
redistributes emphasis4 ,character      
without plot may possibly be attractive 
in the hands of a ,galsworthy or        
,barker2 but the result is extremely    
likely to be tame and inconclusive4     
,and1 contrariwise1 plot without        
character1 that is1 with character that 
lacks individuality and meaning and     
merely offers a peg upon which to hang a
 series of happenings1 results in       
primitive drama that1 being destitute of
 psychology1 falls short of the finest  
and most serious possibilities of the   

stage4  ,this portion of the play1 then1
 intermediate between introduction and  
climax1 is very important and tries the 
dramatist's soul1 in a way1 quite as    
truly as do beginning and end4  ,in a   
three-act play--which we may assume as  
normal1 without forgetting that four are
 often necessary to the best telling of 
the story1 and that five acts are still 
found convenient under certain          
circumstances1 as in ,rostand's ,cyrano 
de ,bergerac and ,shaw's ,pygmalion--the
 work of development falls on the second
 act1 in the main4 ,the climax of action
 is likely to be at the end of the act1 
although plays can be mentioned1 and    
good ones1 where the playwright has seen
 fit to place his crucial scene well on 
into act three4 ,in this matter he is   
between two dangers and must steer his  
course wisely to avoid the rocks of his 
,scylla and ,charybdis4 ,if his climax  
come too soon1 an effect of anti-climax 
is likely to be made1 in an act too long
 when the main stress is over4 ,if1 on  

the other hand1 he put his strongest    
effect at the end of the piece or close 
to it1 while the result is admirable in 
sustaining interest and saving the best 
for the last1 the close is apt to be too
 abrupt and unfinished for the purposes 
of art2 sending the audience out into   
the street1 dazed after the shock of the
 obligatory scene4  ,therefore1 the     
skillful playwright inclines to leave   
sufficient of the play after the climax 
to make an agreeable rounding out of the
 fable1 tie up loose ends and secure an 
artistic effect of completing the whole 
structure without tedium or anti-climax4
 ,he thus preserves unity1 yet escapes  
an impression of loose texture in the   
concluding part of his play4 ,it may be 
seen that this makes the final act a    
very special problem in itself1 a fact  
we shall consider in the later          
treatment4  ,and now1 with the          
second-act portion of the play in mind1 
standing for growth1 increased tension1 
and an ever-greater interest1 a         

peculiarity of the play which           
differentiates it from the fiction-story
 can be mentioned4 ,it refers to the    
nature of the interest and the attitude 
of the auditor toward the story4  ,in   
fiction1 interest depends largely upon  
suspense due to the uncertainty of the  
happenings2 the reader1 unaware of the  
outcome of events1 has a pleasing sense 
of curiosity and a stimulating desire to
 know the end4 ,he reads on1 under the  
prick of this desire4 ,the novelist     
keeps him more or less in the dark1 and 
in so doing fans the flame of interest4 
,what will be the fate of the hero8     
,will the heroine escape from the       
impending doom8 ,will the two be mated  
before the ,finis is written8 ,such are 
the natural questions in a good novel1  
in spite of all our modern overlaying of
 fiction with subtler psychologic       
suggestions4  ,but the stage story is   
different4 ,the audience from the start 
is taken into the dramatist's           
confidence2 it is allowed to know       

something that is not known to the      
dramatis personae themselves2 or1 at    
least1 not known to certain very        
important persons of the story1 let us  
say1 the hero and heroine1 to give them 
the simple old-fashioned description4   
,and the audience1 taken in this        
flattering way into the playwright's    
secret1 finds its particular pleasure in
 seeing how the blind puppets up on the 
stage act in an ignorance which if      
shared by the spectators would qualify1 
if not destroy1 the special kind of     
excitement they are enjoying4  ,just why
 this difference between play and novel 
exists is a nice question not so easily 
answered2 that it does exist1 nobody who
 has thought upon the subject can doubt4
 ,occasionally1 it is true1 successful  
plays are written in apparent violation 
of this principle4 ,that eminently      
skillful and effective piece of theater 
work1 ,bernstein's ,the ,thief1 is an   
example2 a large part of the whole first
 act1 if not all of it1 takes place     

without the spectator suspecting that   
the young wife1 who is the real thief1  
is implicated in the crime4             
,nevertheless1 such dramas are the      
exception4 ,broadly speaking1 sound     
dramaturgy makes use of the principle of
 knowing cooeperation of the audience in
 the plot1 and always will2 if for no   
other reason1 because the direct stage  
method of showing a story makes it      
impracticable to hoodwink those in the  
auditorium and also perhaps because the 
necessary compression of events in a    
play would make the suddenness of the   
discovery on the part of the audience   
that they had been fooled unpleasant3 an
 unpleasantness1 it may be surmised1    
intensified by the additional fact that 
the fooling has been done in the        
presence of others--their fellow        
theater-goers4 ,the quickness of the    
effects possible to the stage and       
inability of the playwright to use      
repetition no doubt also enter in the   
result4 ,the novelist can return1       

explain1 dwell upon the causes of the   
reader's readjustment to changed        
characters or surprising turns of       
circumstance2 the dramatist must go     
forthright on and make his strokes tell 
for once and for all4  ,be this as it   
may1 the theater story1 as a rule1 by a 
tradition which in all probability roots
 in an instinct and a necessity1 invites
 the listener to be a sort of           
eavesdropper1 to come into a secret and 
from this vantage point watch the       
perturbations of a group of less-knowing
 creatures shown behind the footlights3 
he not only sees1 but oversees4 ,as an  
outcome of this trait1 results follow   
which also set the play in contrast with
 the other ways of story telling4 ,the  
playwright should not deceive his       
audience either in the manipulation of  
characters or occurrences4 ,pleasurable 
as this may be in fiction1 in the       
theater it is disastrous4 ,the audience1
 disturbed in its superior sense of     
knowledge1 sitting as it were like the  

gods apart and asked suddenly1          
peremptorily1 to reconstruct its        
suppositions1 is baffled and then       
irritated4 ,this is one of several      
reasons why1 in the delineation of      
character on the stage1 it is of very   
dubious desirability to spring a        
surprise2 making the seeming hero turn  
out a villain or the presumptive villain
 blossom into a paragon of all the      
virtues3 as ,dickens does in ,our       
,mutual ,friend2 in that case1 to the   
added zest of the reader4 ,the risk in  
subtilizing stage character lies just   
here4 ,persons shown so fleetingly in a 
few selected moments of their whole     
lives1 after the stage fashion1 must be 
seen in high relief1 if they are to be  
clearly grasped by the onlookers4       
,conceding that in actual life folk in  
general are an indeterminate gray rather
 than stark black and white1 it is none 
the less necessary to use primary       
colors1 for the most part1 in painting  
them1 in order that they may be         

realized4 ,here again we encounter the  
limitations of art in depicting life1   
and its difference therefrom4 ,in a     
certain sense1 therefore1 stage         
characters must be more primitive1 more 
elemental1 as well as elementary1 than  
the characters in novels1 a thought we  
shall have occasion to come back to1    
from another angle1 later on4  ,equally 
is it true that good technic forbids the
 false lead3 any hint or suggestion     
which has the appearance of conducting  
on to something to come later in the    
play1 which shall verify and fortify the
 previous allusion or implication4      
,every word spoken is thus1 besides its 
immediate significance1 a preparation   
for something ahead4 ,it is a continual 
temptation to a dramatist with a feeling
 for character 7a gift most admirable in
 itself7 to do brushwork on some person 
of his play1 which1 while it may        
illuminate the character as such1 may   
involve episodic treatment that will    
entirely mislead an audience into       

supposing that the author has far more  
meaning in the action shown than he     
intended4 ,these false leads are of     
course always the enemies of unity and  
to be all the more carefully guarded    
against in proportion to their          
attraction4 ,so attractive1 indeed1 is  
this lure into by-paths away from the   
main path of progress that it is fairly 
astonishing to see how often even       
veteran playwrights fall in love with   
some character1 disproportionately      
handle it1 and invent unnecessary       
tangential incidents in order to exhibit
 it4 ,and1 rather discouragingly1 an    
audience forgives episodic treatment and
 over-emphasis in the enjoyment of the  
character1 as such2 willing to let the  
drama suffer for the sake of a welcome  
detail4  ,in developing his story in    
this intermediate part of it1 a more    
insidious1 all-pervasive lure is to be  
seen in the change in the very type of  
drama intended at first1 or clearly     
promised in act one4 ,the play may start

 out to be a comedy of character and    
then be deflected into one where        
character is lost sight of in the       
interest of plot2 or a play farcical in 
the conditions given may turn serious on
 the dramatist's hands4 ,or1 worse yet1 
that which is a comedy in feeling and   
drift1 may in the course of the         
development become tragic in conclusion4
 ,or1 once more1 what begins for        
tragedy1 with its implied seriousness of
 interest in character and philosophy of
 life1 may resolve itself1 under the    
fascination of plot and of histrionic   
effectivism1 into melodrama1 with its   
undue emphasis upon external sensation  
and its correlative loss in depth and   
artistry4  ,all these and still other   
permutations a play suffers in the sin  
committed whenever the real type or     
genre of a drama1 implied at the start1 
is violated in the later handling4 ,the 
history of the stage offers many        
illustrations4 ,in a play not far1      
everything considered1 from being the   

greatest in the tongue1 ,shakespeare's  
,hamlet1 it may be questioned if there  
be not a departure in the final act from
 the emphasis placed upon psychology in 
the acts that lead up to it4 ,the       
character of the melancholy prince is   
the main thing1 the pivot of interest1  
up to that point2 but in the fifth act  
the external method of completing the   
story1 which involves the elimination of
 so many of the persons of the play1 has
 somewhat the effect of a change of     
kind1 an abrupt and incongruous cutting 
of the ,gordian knot4 ,doubtless1 the   
facts as to the composite nature of this
 play viewed in its total history may   
have much to do with such an effect1 if 
it be set down here aright4,c ,in any   
case1 it is certain that every week     
during the dramatic season in ,new ,york
 new plays are to be seen which1 by this
 mingling of genres1 fall short of the  
symmetry of true art4  ,one other       
requirement in the handling of the play 
in the section between introduction and 

climax3 the playwright must not linger  
too long over it1 nor yet shorten it in 
his eagerness to reach the scene which  
is the crown and culmination of all his 
labors4 ,probably the experienced       
craftsman is likely to make the second  
mistake rather than the first1 though   
both are often to be noted4 ,he fails   
sometimes to realize the increase in    
what ,i may call reverberatory power    
which is gained by a slower approach to 
the great moment through a series of    
deft suggestions of what is to come2    
appetizing hints and withdrawals1       
reconnaitres before the actual          
engagement1 all of it preparatory to the
 real struggle that is pending4 ,it is a
 law of the theater1 applying to        
dialogue1 character and scene1 that     
twice-told is always an advantage4 ,one 
distinguished playwright rather         
cynically declared that you must tell an
 audience you are going to do it1 are   
doing it1 and have done it4 ,examples in
 every aspect of theater work abound4   

,the catch phrase put in the mouth of   
the comic character is only mildly      
amusing at first2 it gains steadily with
 repetition until1 introduced at just   
the right moment1 the house rocks with  
laughter4 ,often the difference between 
a detached witticism1 like one of ,oscar
 ,wilde's mots1 and a bit of genuine    
dramatic humor rests in the fact that   
the fun lies in the setting3 it is a mot
 de situation1 to borrow the ,french    
expression1 not a mere mot d'esprit4 ,by
 appearing to be near a crisis1 and then
 introducing a barrier from which it is 
necessary to draw back and approach once
 more over the same ground1 tension is  
increased and tenfold the effect secured
 when at last the match is laid to the  
fire4  ,plenty of plays fail of their   
full effect because the climax is come  
at before every ounce of value has been 
wrung out of preceding events4 ,if the  
screen scene in ,the ,school for        
,scandal be studied with this principle 
in mind1 the student will have as good  

an object lesson as ,english drama can  
show of skilled leading up to a climax  
by so many little steps of carefully    
calculated effect that the final fall of
 the screen remains one of the great    
moments in the theater1 despite the     
mundane nature of the theme and the     
limited appeal to the deeper qualities  
of human nature4 ,within its limitations
 7and theater art1 as any other1 is to  
be judged by success under accepted     
conditions7 ,sheridan's work in this    
place and play is a permanent           
master-stroke of brilliant technic1 as  
well as one explanation of the          
persistence of that delightful          
eighteenth century comedy4  ,but the    
dramatist1 as ,i have said1 may also err
 in delaying so long in his preparation 
and growth1 that the audience1 being    
ready for the climax before it arrives1 
will be cold when it comes1 and so the  
effect will hang fire4 ,it is safe to   
say that in a three-act play1 where the 
first act has consumed thirty-five to   

forty minutes1 and the climax is to     
occur at the fall of the second curtain1
 it is well if the intermediate act does
 not last much above the same length of 
time4 ,of course1 the nature of the     
story and the demands it makes will     
modify the statement2 but it applies    
broadly to the observed phenomena4 ,the 
first act1 for reasons already          
explained1 is apt to be the longest of  
the three1 as the last act is the       
shortest1 other things being equal4 ,if 
the first act1 therefore1 run fifty     
minutes1 forty to forty-five1 or even   
thirty-five1 would be shapely for act   
two2 which1 with twenty to twenty-five  
minutes given to the final act1 would   
allot to the entire play about two hours
 and ten minutes1 which is close to an  
ideal playing time for a drama under    
modern conditions4 ,this time allowance1
 with the added fraction of minutes     
given to the entr'acts thrown in1 would1
 for a play which began at #h3ae1 drop  
the final curtain at about #aj3cj4  ,in 

case the climax1 as has been assumed of 
a three-act play1 be placed at the end  
of the second act1 the third act will   
obviously be shorter4 ,should1 however1 
the growth be projected into the third  
act1 and the climax be sprung at a point
 within this act--beyond the middle1 let
 us say--then the final act is          
lengthened and act two shortened in     
proportion4 ,the principle is that1 with
 the main interest over1 it is hard to  
hold the auditor's attention2 whereas if
 the best card is still up the sleeve we
 may assume willingness to prolong the  
game4  ,with the shift of climax from an
 earlier to a later place in the piece1 
the technic of the handling is changed  
only according to these commonsense     
demands4 ,a knowledge of the psychology 
of human beings brought together for the
 purpose of entertainment will go far   
toward settling the question4 ,and      
whether the playwright place his        
culminating effect in act two or three1 
or whether for good and sufficient      

reasons of story complication the three 
acts become four or even five1 the      
principles set forth in the above pages 
apply with only such modifications as   
are made necessary by the change4  ,the 
theater-goer1 seeking to pass an        
intelligent opinion upon a drama as a   
whole1 will during this period of growth
 ask of the playwright that he keep the 
auditor's interest and increase it      
symmetrically2 that he show the plot    
unfolding in action1 instead of talking 
about it2 that he do not reach the      
eagerly expected conflagration too soon1
 nor delay it too long2 and that he make
 more and more apparent the meaning of  
the characters in their relations to    
each other and to the plot4 ,if the     
spectator be confused1 baffled1         
irritated or bored1 or any or all of    
these1 he has a legitimate complaint    
against the dramatist4 ,and be it noted 
that while the majority of a theater    
audience may not with self-conscious    
analysis know why they are dissatisfied1

 under these conditions1 the            
dissatisfaction is there1 just the same1
 and thus do they become critics1 though
 they know it not1 even as ,m4 ,jourdain
 talked prose all his days without being
 aware of it4     ,,chapter ,,ix        
,,climax   ,with the play properly      
introduced in act one1 and the          
development carried forward upon that   
firm foundation in the following act or 
acts1 the playwright approaches that    
part of his play which will1 more than  
anything else1 settle the fate of his   
work4 ,as we have noted1 if he have no  
such scene1 he will not have a play at  
all4 ,if on arrival it fail to seem     
indispensable and to be of dynamic      
quality1 the play will be broken-winged1
 at best4 ,the proof that he is a       
genuine playwright by rightful calling  
and not a literary person1 producing    
books for closet reading1 lies just     
here4 ,the moment has come when1 with   
his complication brought to the point   
where it must be solved1 and all that   

has gone before waiting upon that       
solution1 he must produce an effect with
 one skillful right-arm stroke which    
shall make the spectators a unit in the 
feeling that the evening has been well  
spent and his drama is true to the best 
tradition of the stage4  ,the stress has
 steadily increased to a degree at which
 it must be relieved4 ,the strain is at 
the breaking point4 ,the clash of       
characters or of circumstances operating
 upon characters is such that a crisis  
is at hand4 ,by some ingenious interplay
 of word1 action and scene1 by an       
emotional crescendo crystallizing in a  
stage picture1 by some unexpected       
reversion of incident or of human       
psychology 7known in stage technic as   
peripety7 or by an unforeseen accident  
in the fall of events1 an electric      
change is exhibited1 with the emotions  
of the dramatis personae at white heat  
and the consequent enthraldom of the    
audience4 ,of all the varied pleasures  
of the playhouse1 this moment1 scene1   

turn of story1 is that which appeals to 
the largest number and has made the     
theater most distinctive4 ,this is not  
to say that a profound revelation of    
character1 or a pungent reflection on   
life1 made concrete in a situation1 may 
not be a finer thing to do4 ,it is      
merely to recognize a certain unique    
thing the stage can do in story telling1
 as against other forms1 and to confess 
its universal attraction4 ,while there  
is much in latter day play-making that  
seems to deaden the thrill of the       
obligatory scene1 a clear comprehension 
of its central importance is basal in   
appreciation of the drama4 ,a play may  
succeed without it1 and a temporary     
school of psychologues may even pretend 
to pooh-pooh it as an outworn mode of   
cheap theatrics4 ,the influence of      
,ibsen1 and there is none more potent1  
has been cited as against the scene a   
faire1 in the ,french sense2 and it is  
true that his curtains are less         
obviously stressed and appear to aim not

 so much at the palpably heightened     
effects traditional of the development  
in ,french hands1--the most skillful    
hands in the world4 ,but it remains true
 that this central and dominant scene is
 inherent in the very structure of      
dramatic writing4 ,to repeat what was   
said before1 the play that abandons     
climax may be good entertainment1 but is
 by so much poorer drama4 ,the best and 
most successful dramaturgy of our day   
therefore will seek to preserve the     
obligatory scene1 but hide under more   
subtle technic the ways and means by    
which it is secured4 ,the ways of the   
past became so open in the attempt to   
reach the result as to produce in many  
cases a feeling of bald artifice4 ,this 
the later technic will do all in its    
power to avoid1 while clinging          
persistently to the principle of climax1
 a principle of life just as truly as a 
principle of art4 ,physicians speak in a
 physiological sense of the grand       
climacteric of a man's age4  ,a test of 

any play may be found in the readiness  
with which it lends itself to a simple  
threefold statement of its story2 the   
proposition1 as it is called by         
technicians4 ,this tabloid summary of   
the essence of the play is valuable in  
that it reveals plainly two things3     
whether there is a play in hand1 and    
what and where is its obligatory scene4 
,all who wish to train themselves to be 
critical rather than captious or silly  
in their estimate of drama1 cannot be   
too strongly urged to practice this     
exercise of reducing a play to its      
lowest terms1 its essential elements4   
,it will serve to clarify much that     
might remain otherwise a muddle4 ,and   
one of the sure tests of a good play may
 be found here2 if it is not a workable 
drama1 either it will not readily reduce
 to a proposition or else cannot be     
stated propositionally at all4 ,further1
 a play that is a real play in          
substance1 and not a hopelessly         
undramatic piece of writing arbitrarily 

cut up into scenes or acts1 and         
expressed in dialogue 7like some of the 
dramas of the ,bengalese ,taghore71 can 
be stated clearly and simply in a brief 
paragraph4 ,this matter of reduction to 
a skeleton which is structurally a sine 
qua non may be illustrated4  ,a         
proposition1 to define it a little more 
carefully1 is a threefold statement of  
the essence of a play1 so organically   
related that each successive part       
depends upon and issues from the other4 
,it contains a condition 7or situation71
 an action1 and a result4 ,for instance1
 the proposition of ,macbeth may be     
expressed as follows3  ,i4 ,a man1      
ambitious to be king1 abetted by his    
wife1 gains the throne through murder4  
,,ii4 ,remorse visits them both4  ,,iii4
 ,what will be the effect upon the pair8
  ,reflection upon this schematic       
summary will show that the interest of  
,shakespeare's great drama is not       
primarily a story interest2 plot is not 
the chief thing1 but character4 ,the    

essential crux lies in the painful      
spectacle of the moral degeneration of  
husband and wife1 sin working upon each 
according to their contrasted natures4  
,both have too much of the nobler       
elements in them not to experience      
regret and the prick of conscience4     
,this makes the drama called ,macbeth a 
fine example of psychologic tragedy in  
the true sense4  ,or take a well-known  
modern play1 ,camille3  ,i4 ,a young man
 loves and lives with a member of the   
demi-monde4  ,,ii4 ,his father pleads   
with her to give him up1 for his own    
sake4  ,,iii4 ,what will she do8  ,it   
will be observed that the way the lady  
of the camellias answers the question is
 the revelation of her character2 so    
that the play again1 although its story 
interest is sufficient1 is primarily a  
character study1 surrounded by ,dumas   
fils with a rich atmosphere of          
understanding sympathy and with         
sentiment that to a later taste becomes 
sentimentality4  ,the ,school for       

,scandal might be stated in this way3   
,i4 ,an old husband brings his gay but  
well-meaning wife to town4  ,,ii4 ,her  
innocent love of fun involves her in    
scandal4  ,,iii4 ,will the two be       
reconciled1 and how8  ,ibsen's ,a       
,doll's ,house may be thus expressed in 
a proposition3  ,i4 ,a young wife has   
been babified by her husband4  ,,ii4    
,experiences open her eyes to the fact  
that she is not educated to be either   
wife or mother4  ,,iii4 ,she leaves her 
husband until he can see what a woman   
should be in the home3 a human being1   
not a doll4  ,these examples will serve 
to show what is meant by proposition and
 indicate more definitely the central   
purpose of the dramatic author and the  
technical demand made upon him4 ,be     
assured that under whatever varied garb 
of attraction in incident1 scene and    
character1 this underlying stern        
architectural necessity abides1 and a   
drama's inability to reduce itself thus 
to a formula is a confession that in the

 structural sense the building is       
lop-sided and insecure1 or1 worse1 that 
there is no structure there at all3     
nothing1 so to put it1 but a front      
elevation1 a mere architect's           
suggestion4  ,as the spectator          
breathlessly enjoys the climax and      
watches to see that unknotting of the   
knot which gives the ,french word       
denouement 7unknotting7 its meaning1 he 
will notice that the intensity of the   
climactic effect is not derived alone   
from action and word2 but that largely  
effective in the total result is the    
picture made upon the stage1 in front of
 the background of setting which in     
itself has pictorial quality1 by the    
grouped characters as the curtain falls4
  ,this effect1 conventionally called a 
situation1 is for the eye as well as for
 the ear and the brain1--better1 the    
heart4 ,it would be an unfortunate      
limitation to our theater culture if we 
did not comprehend to the full how large
 a part of the effect of a good play is 

due to the ever-changing series of      
artistic stage pictures furnished by the
 dramatist in collaboration with the    
actors and the stage manager4 ,this     
principle is important throughout a     
play1 but gets its most vivid           
illustration in the climax2 hence1 ,i   
enlarge upon it at this point4  ,among  
the most novel1 fruitful and interesting
 experiments now being made in the      
theater here and abroad may be mentioned
 the attempts to introduce more subtle  
and imaginative treatment of the        
possibilities of color and form in stage
 setting than have hitherto obtained4   
,the reaction influenced by familiarity 
with the unadorned simplicity of the    
,elizabethans1 the ,gordon ,craig       
symbolism1 the frank attempt to         
substitute artistic suggestion for the  
stupid and expensive reproduction on the
 stage of what is called real life1 are 
phases of this movement1 in which       
,germany and ,russia have been          
prominent4 ,the stage manager and scene 

deviser are daily becoming more         
important factors in the production of a
 play2 and along with this goes a       
clearer perception of the values of     
grouping and regrouping on the part of  
the plastic elements behind the         
footlights4,d ,many a scenic moment1    
many a climax1 may be materially damaged
 by a failure to place the characters in
 such relative positions as shall       
visualize the dramatic feeling of the   
scene and reveal in terms of picture the
 dramatist's meaning4 ,after all1 the   
time-honored convention that the main   
character1 or characters1 should1 at the
 moment when they are dominant in the   
story1 take the center of the stage1 is 
no empty convention2 it is based on     
logic and geometry4 ,there is a direct  
correspondence between the unity of     
emotion concentrated in a group of      
persons and the eye effect which reports
 that fact4 ,i have seen so fine a      
climax as that in ,jones's ,the         
,hypocrites--one of the very best in the

 modern repertory--well nigh ruined by a
 stock company1 when1 owing to the      
purely arbitrary demand that the leading
 man should have the center at a crucial
 moment1 although in the logic of the   
action he did not belong there1 the two 
young lovers who were dramatically      
central in the scene were shunted off to
 the side1 and the leading man1 whose   
true position was in the deep           
background1 delivered his curtain speech
 close up to the footlights on a spot   
mathematically exact in its historic    
significance4 ,true dramatic relations  
were sacrificed to relative salaries1   
and1 as a result1 a scene which         
naturally receives half a dozen curtain 
calls1 went off with comparative        
tameness4 ,it was a striking            
demonstration of the importance of      
picture on the stage as an              
externalization of dramatic facts4  ,if 
the theater-goer will keep an eye upon  
this aspect of the drama1 he will add   
much of interest to the content of his  

pleasure and do justice to a very       
important and easily overlooked phase of
 technic4 ,it is common in criticism1   
often professional1 to sneer at the     
tendency of modern actors1 under the    
stage manager's guidance1 continually to
 shift positions while the dialogue is  
under way2 thus producing an            
unnecessarily uneasy effect of          
meaningless action4 ,as a               
generalization1 it may be said that this
 is done 7though at times no doubt1     
overdone7 on a principle that is        
entirely sound3 it expresses the desire 
for a new picture1 a recognition of the 
law that1 in drama1 composition to the  
eye is as truly a principle as it is in 
painting4 ,and with that consideration  
goes the additional fact that motion    
implies emotion2 than which there is no 
surer law in psycho-physics4 ,abuse of  
the law1 on the stage1 is beyond        
question possible1 and frequently met4  
,but a redistribution of the positions  
of actors on the boards1 when not       

abused1 means they have moved under the 
compulsion of some stress of feeling and
 then the movement is an external symbol
 of an internal state of mind4 ,the     
drama must express the things within by 
things without1 in this way2 that is its
 method4 ,the audience is only properly 
irritated when a stage moment which1    
from the nature of its psychology1 calls
 for the static1 is injured by an       
unrelated1 fussy1 bodily activity4      
,motion in such a case becomes as       
foolish as the scene shifting in one of 
the highest colored and most            
phantasmagoric of our dreams4 ,the wise 
stage director will not call for a      
change of picture unless it represents a
 psychologic fact4  ,two men converse at
 a table2 one communicates to the other1
 quietly and in conversational tone1 a  
fact of alarming nature4 ,the other     
leaps to his feet with an exclamation   
and paces the floor as he talks about   
it2 nothing is more fitting1 because    
nothing is truer to life4 ,the          

repressive style of acting to-day1 which
 might try to express this situation    
purely by facial work1 goes too far in  
abandoning the legitimate tools of the  
craft4 ,let me repeat that1 despite all 
the refining upon older1 more violent   
and crudely expressive methods of       
technic1 the stage must1 from its very  
nature1 indicate the emotions of human  
beings by objective1 concrete bodily    
reaction4 ,the ,greek word for drama    
means doing4 ,to exhibit feeling is to  
do something4  ,or let us take a more   
composite group3 that which is seen in a
 drawing room1 with various knots of    
people talking together just before     
dinner is announced4 ,a shift in the    
groups1 besides effecting the double    
purpose of pleasing the eye and allowing
 certain portions of the dialogue to    
come forward and get the ear of the     
audience1 also incidentally tells the   
truth3 these groups in reality would    
shift and change more or less by the law
 of social convenience4 ,the general    

greetings of such an occasion would call
 for it4 ,in a word1 then1 the stage is1
 among other things1 a plastic          
representation of life1 forever making  
an appeal to the eye4 ,the application  
of this to the climax shows how vastly  
important its pictorial side may be4    
,the climax that is prolonged is always 
in danger4 ,lead up to it slowly and    
surely1 secure the effect1 and then get 
away from it instantly by lowering the  
curtain4 ,do not fumble with it1 or     
succumb to the insinuating temptation of
 clinging to what is so effective4 ,the 
dramatist here is like a fond father    
loath to say farewell to his favorite   
child4 ,but say the parting word he     
must1 if he would have his offspring    
prosper and not1 like many a father ere 
this1 keep the child with him to its    
detriment4 ,a second too much1 and the  
whole thing will he imperiled4 ,at the  
denouement1 every syllable must be      
weighed1 nor found wanting2 every       
extraneous word ruthlessly cut out1 the 

feats of fine language so welcome in    
other forms of literary composition     
shunned as an arch enemy4               
,colloquialism1 instead of literary     
speech1 even bad grammar where more     
formal book-speech seems to dampen the  
fire1 must be instinctively sought4 ,and
 whenever the action itself1 backed by  
the scenery1 can convey what is aimed   
at1 silence is best of all2 for then1 if
 ever1 silence is indeed golden4 ,all   
this the spectator will quietly note1   
sitting in his seat of judgment1 ready  
to show his pleasure or displeasure1    
according to what is done4  ,a          
difficulty that blocks the path of every
 dramatist in proportion as its removal 
improves his piece1 is that of          
graduating his earlier curtains so that 
the climax 7third act or fourth1 as it  
may7 is obviously the outstanding1      
over-powering effect of the whole play4 
,the curtain of the first act will do   
well to possess at least some slight    
heightening of the interest maintained  

progressively from the opening of the   
drama2 an added crispness perceptible to
 all who look and listen4 ,and the      
crisis of the second act must be        
differentiated from that of the first in
 that it has a tenser emotional value1  
while yet it is distinctly below that of
 the climax1 if the obligatory scene is 
to come later4 ,sad indeed the result if
 any curtain effect in appeal and power 
usurp the royal place of the climactic  
scene6 ,and this skillful gradation of  
effects upon a rising scale of interest1
 while always aimed at1 is by no means  
always secured4 ,this may happen because
 the dramatist1 with much good material 
in his hands1 has believed he could use 
it prodigally1 and been led to overlook 
the principle of relative values in his 
art4 ,a third act climax may secure a   
tremendous sensation by the device of   
keeping the earlier effects leading up  
to it comparatively low-keyed and quiet4
 ,the tempest may be1 in the abstract1  
only one in a teapot2 but a tempest in  

effect it is1 all the same4  ,ibsen's   
plays often illustrate and justify this 
statement1 as do the plays of the       
younger ,british school1 ,barker1       
,baker1 ,mc,donald1 ,houghton1 ,hankin4 
,and the reverse is equally true3 a     
really fine climax may be made pale and 
ineffective by too much of sensational  
material introduced earlier in the play4
  ,the climax of the drama is also the  
best place to illustrate the fact that  
the stage appeal is primarily emotional4
 ,if this central scene be not of       
emotional value1 it is safe to say that 
the play is doomed2 or will at the most 
have a languishing life in special      
performances and be cherished by the    
elite4 ,the stage story1 we have seen1  
comes to the auditor warm and vibrant in
 terms of feeling4 ,the idea which      
should be there1 as we saw1 must come by
 way of the heart1 whence1 as ,george   
,meredith declares1 all great thoughts  
come4 ,herein lies another privilege and
 pitfall of the dramatist4 ,privilege1  

because teaching by emotion will always 
be most popular2 yet a pitfall1 because 
it sets up a temptation to play upon the
 unthinking emotions which1 once        
aroused1 sweep conviction along to a    
goal perhaps specious and undesirable4  
,to say that the theater is a place for 
the exercise of the emotions1 is not to 
say or mean that it is well for it to be
 a place for the display and influence  
of the unregulated emotions4 ,legitimate
 drama takes an idea of the brain1 or an
 inspiration of the imaginative         
faculties1 and conveys it by the ruddy  
road of the feelings to the stirred     
heart of the audience2 it should be1 and
 is in its finest examples1 the happy   
union of the head and heart1 so blended 
as best to conserve the purpose of      
entertainment and popular instruction2  
popular1 for the reason that it is      
emotional1 concrete1 vital2 and         
instructive1 because it sinks deeper in 
and stays longer 7being more keenly     
felt7 than any mere exercise of the     

intellect in the world4  ,the student1  
whether at home with the book of the    
play in hand or in his seat at the      
theater1 will scrutinize the skilled    
effects of climax1 seeking principles   
and understanding more clearly his      
pleasure therein4 ,in reading           
,shakespeare1 for example1 he will see  
that the obligatory scene of ,the       
,merchant of ,venice is the trial scene 
and the exact moment when the height is 
reached and the fall away from it       
begins1 that where ,portia tells the    
,jew to take his pound of flesh without 
the letting of blood4 ,in modern drama1 
he will think of the scene in           
,sudemann's powerful drama1 ,magda1 in  
which ,magda's past is revealed to her  
fine old father as the climax of the    
action2 and in ,pinero's strongest      
piece1 ,the ,second ,mrs4 ,tanqueray1   
will put his finger on the scene of the 
return of ,paula's lover as the crucial 
thing to show4 ,and so with the scene of
 the cross-examination of the woman in  

,jones's ,mrs4 ,dane's ,defense1 and the
 scene in ,lord ,darlington's rooms in  
,wilde's ,lady ,windermere's ,fan1 and  
the final scene in ,shaw's ,candida1    
where the playwright throws forward the 
scene a faire to the end1 and makes his 
heroine choose between husband and      
lover4 ,these1 and many like them1 will 
furnish ample food for reflection and   
prove helpful in clarifying the mind in 
the essentials of this most important of
 all the phenomena of play-building4    
,it is with the climax1 as with         
everything else in art or in life3      
honesty of purpose is at the bottom of  
the success that is admirable4 ,mere    
effectivism is to be avoided1 because it
 is insincere4 ,in its place must be    
effectiveness1 which is at once sincere 
and dramatic4  ,the climax1 let it be   
now assumed1 has been successfully      
brought off4 ,the curtain falls on the  
familiar and pleasant buzz of           
conversation which is the sign          
infallible that the dramatist's dearest 

ambition has been attained4 ,could we   
but listen to the many detached bits of 
talk that fly about the house1 or are   
heard in the lobby1 we might hazard a   
shrewd guess at the success of the      
piece4 ,if the talk be favorable1 and   
the immediate reception of the          
obligatory scene has been hearty1 it    
would appear as if the playwright's     
troubles were over4 ,but hardly so4     
,even with his climax a success1 he is  
not quite out of the woods4 ,a task1    
difficult and hedged in with the        
possibilities of mistake1 awaits him2   
for the last act is just ahead1 and it  
may diminish1 even nullify the favorable
 impression he has just won by his      
manipulation of the scene a faire4 ,and 
so1 girding himself for the last battle1
 he enters the arena1 where many a good 
man before him has unexpectedly fallen  
before the enemy4     ,,chapter ,x      
,,ending ,,the ,,play   ,to one who is  
watchful in his theater seat1 it must   
have become evident that many plays1    

which in the main give pleasure and seem
 successful1 have something wrong with  
the last act4 ,the play-goer may feel   
this1 although he never has analyzed the
 cause or more than dimly been aware of 
the artistic problem involved4 ,an      
effect of anti-climax is produced by it1
 interest flags or utterly disappears2  
the final act seems to lag superfluous  
on the stage1 like ,johnson's player4   
,several reasons combine to make this no
 uncommon experience4 ,one may have     
emerged from the discussion of the      
climax4 ,it is the hard fortune of the  
last act to follow the great scene and  
to suffer by contrast2 even if the last 
part of the play be all that such an act
 should be1 there is in the nature of   
the case a likelihood that the auditor1 
reacting from his excitement1 may find  
this concluding section of the drama    
stale1 flat and unprofitable4 ,to       
overcome this disadvantage1 to make the 
last act palatable without giving it so 
much attraction as to detract from the  

scene a faire and throw the latter out  
of its due position in the center of    
interest1 offers the playwright a very  
definite labor and taxes his ingenuity  
to the utmost4 ,the proof of this is    
that so many dramas1 up to the final act
 complete successes and excellent       
examples of sound technic1 go to pieces 
here4 ,i am of the opinion that in no   
one particular of construction do plays 
with matter in them and some right of   
existence come to grief more frequently 
than in this successful handling of the 
act which closes the drama4 ,it may even
 be doubted if the inexperienced        
dramatist has so much trouble with his  
climax as with this final problem4 ,if  
he had no scene a faire he would hardly 
have written a play at all4 ,but this   
tricky ultimate portion of the drama1   
seemingly so minor1 may prove that which
 will trip him in the full flush of his 
victory with the obligatory scene4  ,at 
first blush1 it would seem as if1 with  
the big scene over1 little remained to  

be done with the play1 so far as story  
is concerned4 ,in a sense this is true4 
,the important elements are resolved2   
the main characters are defined for good
 or bad2 the obstacles which have       
combined to make the plot tangle have   
been removed or proved insurmountable4  
,the play has1 with an increasing sense 
of struggle1 grown to its height2 it    
must now fall from that height by a     
plausible and more gentle descent4 ,if  
it be a tragedy1 the fall spells        
catastrophe1 and is more abrupt and     
eye-compelling4 ,if comedy be the form1 
then the unknotting means a happy       
solution of all difficulties4 ,but in   
either case1 the chief business of this 
final part of the play would appear to  
be the rounding out of the fable1 the   
smoothing off of corners1 and the       
production of an artistic effect of     
finish and finality4 ,if any part of the
 story be incomplete in plot1 it will be
 in all probability that which has to do
 with the subplot1 if there be one1 or  

with the fates of subsidiary characters4
 ,if the playwright1 wishing to make his
 last act of interest1 and in order to  
justify the retention of the audience in
 the theater for twenty minutes to half 
an hour more1 should leave somewhat of  
the main story to be cleared up in the  
last act1 he has probably weakened his  
obligatory scene and made a strategic   
mistake4 ,and so his instinct is        
generally right when he prefers to get  
all possible dramatic satisfaction into 
the scene a faire1 even at the expense  
of what is to follow4  ,a number of     
things this act can1 however1           
accomplish4 ,it can1 with the chief     
stress and strain over1 exhibit         
characters in whom the audience has come
 to have a warm interest in some further
 pleasant manifestation of their        
personality1 thus offering incidental   
entertainment4 ,the interest in such    
stage persons must be very strong to    
make this a sufficient reason for       
prolonging a play4 ,or1 if the drama be 

tragic in its nature1 some lighter turn 
of events1 or some brighter display of  
psychology1 may be presented to mitigate
 pain and soften the awe and terror     
inspired by the main theme2 as1 for     
instance1 ,shakespeare alleviates the   
deaths of the lovers in ,romeo and      
,juliet by the reconciliation of the    
estranged families over their fair young
 bodies4 ,a better mood for leaving the 
playhouse is thus created1 without any  
lying about life4 ,the ,greeks did this 
by the use of lyric song at the end of  
their tragedies2 melodrama does it by an
 often violent wresting of events to    
smooth out the trouble1 as well as by   
lessening our interest in character as  
such4  ,also1 and here is1 ,i believe1  
its prime function1 the last act can    
show the logical outflow of the         
situation already laid down and brought 
to its issue in the preceding acts of   
the drama4 ,another danger lurks in this
 for the technician1 as may be shown4   
,it would almost seem that1 in view of  

the largely supererogatory character of 
this final act1 inasmuch as the play    
seems practically over with the scene a 
faire1 it might be best honestly to end 
the piece with its most exciting1       
arresting scene and cut out the final   
half hour altogether4  ,but there is an 
artistic reason for keeping it as a     
feature of good play-making to the end  
of the years2 ,i have just referred to  
it4 ,i mean the instinctive desire on   
the part of the dramatic artist and his 
cooeperative auditors so to handle the  
cross-section of life which has been    
exhibited upon the stage as to make the 
transition from stage scene to real life
 so gradual1 so plausible1 as to be     
pleasant to one's sense of esthetic     
vraisemblance4 ,to see how true this is1
 watch the effect upon yourself made by 
a play which rings down the last curtain
 upon a sensational moment1 leaving you 
dazed and dumb as the lights go up and  
the orchestra renders its final         
banality4 ,somehow1 you feel that this  

sudden1 violent change from life fictive
 and imaginative to the life actual of  
garish streets1 clanging trolleys1      
tooting motor cars and theater suppers  
is jarring and wrong4 ,art1 you whisper 
to yourself1 should not be so completely
 at variance with life2 the good artist 
should find some other better way to    
dismiss you4 ,the ,greeks1 as ,i said1  
sensitive to this demand1 mitigated the 
terrible happenings of their colossal   
legendary tragedies by closing with     
lofty lyric choruses4 ,turn to the last 
pages of ,sophocles's ,o,edipus         
,tyrannus1 perhaps the most drastic of  
them all1 for an example4 ,i should     
venture to go so far as to suggest it as
 possible that in an apparent exception 
like ,othello1 where the drama closes   
harshly upon the murder of the ewe lamb 
of a wife1 ,shakespeare might have      
introduced the alleviation of a final   
scene1 had he ever prepared this play1  
or his plays in general1 after the      
modern method of revision and final     

form1 for the ,argus-eyed scrutiny they 
were to receive in after-time4 ,however1
 that his instinct in this matter1 in   
general1 led him to seek the artistic   
consolation which removes the spectator 
from too close and unrelieved proximity 
to the horrible is beyond cavil4 ,if he 
do furnish a tragic scene1 there goes   
with it a passage1 a strain of music1 an
 unforgettable phrase1 which1 beauty    
being its own excuse for being1 is as   
balm to the soul harrowed up by the     
agony of a protagonist4 ,horatio1 over  
the body of his dear friend1 speaks     
words so lovely that they seem the one  
rubric for sorrow since4 ,and1 still    
further removing us from the solemn     
sadness of the moment1 enters           
,fortinbras1 to take over the cares of  
kingdom and1 in so doing1 to remind us  
that beyond the individual fate of      
,hamlet lies the great outer world of   
which1 after all1 he is but a small     
part2 and that the ordered cosmos must  
go on1 though the ,ophelias and ,hamlets

 of the world die4 ,the mere horrible1  
with this alleviation of beauty1 becomes
 a very different thing1 the terrible2  
the terrible is the horrible1 plus      
beauty1 and the terrible lifts us to a  
lofty mood of searching seriousness that
 has its pleasure1 where the horrible   
repels and dispirits4 ,thus1 the        
sympathetic recipient gets a certain    
austere satisfaction1 yes1 why not call 
it pleasure1 from noble tragedy4 ,but he
 asks that the last act pour the oil of 
peace1 of beauty and of philosophic     
vision upon the troubled waters of life4
  ,there is then an artistic            
justification1 if ,i am right1 for the  
act following the climax1 quite aside   
from the conventional demand for it as a
 time filler1 and its convenience too in
 the way of binding up loose ends4  ,as 
the function of the great scene is to   
develop and bring to a head the         
principal things of the play1 so that of
 this final act would seem to be the    
taking care of the lesser things1 to an 

effect of harmonious artistry4 ,and     
whenever a playwright1 confronting these
 difficulties and dangers1 triumphs over
 them1 whenever your comment is to the  
effect that1 since it all appears to be 
over1 it is hard to see what a last act 
can offer to justify it1 and yet if that
 act prove interesting1 freshly         
invented1 unexpectedly worth while1 you 
will1 if you care to do your part in the
 ,triple ,alliance made up of actors1   
playwright and audience1 express a      
sentiment of gratitude1 and admiration  
as well1 for the theater artist who has 
manipulated his material to such good   
result4  ,the last act of ,thomas's ,the
 ,witching ,hour can be studied with    
much profit with this in mind4 ,it is a 
masterly example of added interest when 
the things vital to the story have been 
taken care of4 ,another1 and very       
different1 example is ,louis ,parker's  
charming play1 ,rosemary1 where at the  
climax a middle-aged man parts from the 
young girl who loves him and whom he    

loves1 because he does not realize she  
returns the feeling1 and1 moreover1 she 
is engaged to another1 and1 from the    
conventions of age1 the match is not    
desirable4 ,the story is over1 surely1  
and it is a sad ending2 nothing can ever
 change that1 unless the dramatist tells
 some awful lies about life4 ,had he    
violently twisted the drama into a      
pleasant ending in the last act he would
 have given us an example of an         
outrageous disturbance of key and ruined
 his piece4 ,what does he do1 indeed1   
what can he do8 ,by a bold stroke of the
 imagination1 he projects the final     
scene fifty years forward1 and shows the
 man of forty an old man of ninety4 ,he 
learns1 by the finding of the girl's    
diary1 that she loved him2 and1 as the  
curtain descends1 he thanks ,god for a  
beautiful memory4 ,time has plucked out 
the sting and left only the flower-like 
fragrance4 ,this is a fine illustration 
of an addendum that is congruous4 ,it   
lifts the play to a higher category4 ,i 

believe it is true to say that this     
unusual last act was the work of ,mr4   
,murray ,carson1 ,mr4 ,parker's         
collaborator in the play4  ,one more    
example may be given1 for these         
illustrations will bring out more       
clearly a phase of dramatic writing     
which has not received overmuch         
attention in criticism4 ,the recent     
clever comedy1 ,years of ,discretion1 by
 the ,hattons1 conducts the story to a  
conventional end1 when the middle-aged  
lovers1 who have flirted1 danced and    
motored themselves into an engagement   
and marriage1 are on the eve of their   
wedding tour4 ,if the story be a love   
story1 and it is in essence1 it ought to
 be over4 ,the staid ,boston widow has  
been metamorphosed by gay ,new ,york1   
her maneuvers have resulted in the      
traditional end2 she has got her man4   
,what else can be offered to hold the   
interest8  ,and just here is where the  
authors have been able1 passing beyond  
the conventional limits of story1 to    

introduce1 in a lightly touched1        
pleasing fashion1 a bit of philosophy   
that underlies the drama and gives it an
 enjoyable fillip at the close4 ,we see 
the newly wed pair1 facing that wedding 
tour at fifty1 and secretly longing to  
give it up and settle down comfortably  
at home4 ,they have been playing young  
during the ,new ,york whirl1 why not be 
natural now and enjoy life in the decade
 to which they belong8 ,so1 in the      
charming garden scene they confess1 and 
agree to grow old gracefully together4  
,it is excellent comedy and sound       
psychology2 to some1 the last act is the
 best of all4 ,yet1 regarded from the   
act preceding1 it seemed superfluous4   
,still another trouble confronts the    
playwright as he comes at grapples with 
the final act4 ,he falls under the      
temptation to make a conventionally     
desirable conclusion1 the pleasant      
ending already animadverted against1    
which is supposed to be the constant    
petition of the theater ,philistine4    

,here1 it will be observed1 the pleasant
 ending becomes part of the constructive
 problem4 ,shall the playwright carry   
out the story in a way to make it       
harmonious with what has gone before1   
both psychologically and in the logic of
 events8 ,shall he make the conclusion  
congruous with the climax1 a properly   
deduced result from the situation       
therein shown8 ,if he do1 his play will 
be a work of art1 tonal in a totality   
whose respective parts are keyed to this
 effect4 ,or shall he1 adopting the tag 
line familiar to us in fairy tales1 and 
so they lived happily ever after1 wrest 
and distort his material in order to    
give this supposed-to-be-prayed-for     
condiment that the grown-up babes in    
front are crying for8 ,every dramatist  
meets this question face to face in his 
last act1 unless his plan has been to   
throw his most dramatic moment at the   
play's very end4 ,a large percentage of 
all dramas weaken or spoil the effect by
 this handling of the last part of the  

play4 ,the ending either is ineffective 
because unbelievable2 or unnecessary1   
because what it shows had better be left
 to the imagination4  ,an attractive and
 deservedly successful drama by ,mr4    
,zangwill1 ,merely ,mary ,ann1 may be   
cited to illustrate the first mistake4  
,up to the last act its handling of the 
relation of the gentleman lodger and the
 quaint little slavey is pitched in the 
key of truth and has a ,dickens-like    
sympathy in it which is the main element
 in its charm4 ,but in the final scene1 
where ,mary ,ann has become a           
fashionable young woman1 meets her      
whilom man friend1 and a match results1 
the improbability is such 7to say       
nothing about the impossibility7 as to  
destroy the previous illusion of        
reality2 the auditor1 if intelligent1   
feels that he has paid too high a price 
for such a union4 ,i am not arguing that
 the improbable may not be legitimate on
 the stage2 but only trying to point out
 that1 in this particular case1 the key 

of the play1 established in previous    
acts1 is the key of probability2 and    
hence the change is a sin against       
artistic probity4 ,the key of           
improbability1 as in some excellent     
farces1 ,baby ,mine1 ,seven ,days1      
,seven ,keys to ,baldpate1 and their    
kind--where it is basal that we grant   
certain conditions or happenings not at 
all likely in life--is quite another    
matter and not of necessity             
reprehensible in the least4 ,but ,merely
 ,mary ,ann is too true in its homely   
fashion to fob us off with lies at the  
end2 we believed it at first and so are 
shocked at its mendacity4  ,one of the  
best melodramas of recent years is ,mr4 
,mc,lellan's ,leah ,kleschna4 ,its      
psychology1 founded on the assumption   
that a woman whose higher nature is     
appealed to1 will respond to the appeal1
 is as sound as it is fine and          
encouraging4 ,she is a criminal who is  
caught opening a safe by the ,french    
statesman whose house she has entered4  

,his conversation with her is so        
effective that she breaks with her      
fellow thieves and starts in on another 
and better life in a foreign country1   
where the statesman secures for her     
honest employment4  ,it is in the last  
act that the playwright gets into       
trouble1 and illustrates the second     
possibility just mentioned2 unnecessary 
information which can readily be filled 
in by the spectator1 without the        
addition of a superfluous act to show   
it4 ,the woman has broken with her gang1
 she is saved2 arrangement has been made
 for her to go to ,austria 7if my memory
 locates the land71 there to work out   
her change of heart4 ,really1 there is  
nothing else to tell4 ,the essential    
interest of the play lay in the         
reclaiming of ,leah2 she is reclaimed6  
,why not dismiss the audience8 ,but the 
author1 perhaps led astray by the       
principle of showing things on the      
stage1 even if the things shown lie     
beyond the limits of the story proper1  

exhibits the girl in her new quarters1  
aided and abetted by the scene painter  
who places behind her a very expensive  
background of ,nature2 and then caps his
 unnecessary work by bringing the       
statesman on a visit to see how his     
protegee is getting along4 ,meanwhile1  
the knowing spectator murmurs in his    
seat 7let us hope7 and kicks against the
 pricks of convention4  ,these examples 
indicate some of the problems centering 
in an act which for the very reason that
 it is1 or seems1 comparatively         
unimportant1 is all the more likely to  
trip up a dramatist who1 buoyed up by   
his victory in a fine and effective     
scene of climactic force1 comes to the  
final act in a state of reaction1 and   
forgetful of the fact that pride goeth  
before a fall--the fall of the curtain6 
,no wonder that1 in order to dodge all  
such difficulties1 playwrights sometimes
 project their climax forward into the  
last act and so shorten what is left to 
do thereafter2 or1 going further1 place 

it at the play's terminal point4 ,but   
the artistic objections to this have    
been explained4 ,some treatment of the  
falling action after the climax1 longer 
or shorter1 is advisable2 and the       
dramatist must sharpen his wits upon    
this technical demand and make it part  
of the satisfaction of his art to meet  
it4  ,the fundamental business of the   
last act of a play1 let it be repeated1 
is to show the general results of a     
situation presented in the crucial      
scene1 in so far as those results are   
pertinent to a satisfactory grasp of    
story and idea on the part of the       
auditor4 ,these results must be in      
harmony with the beginning1 growth and  
crisis of the story and must either be  
demanded in advance by the audience1 or 
gladly received as pleasant and helpful1
 when presented4 ,the citation of such  
plays as ,rosemary and ,years of        
,discretion raises the interesting      
question whether a peculiar function of 
the final act may not lie in not only   

rounding out the story as such1 but in  
bringing home the underlying idea of the
 piece to the audience4 ,surely a rich  
opportunity1 as yet but little utilized1
 is here4 ,yet again danger lurks in the
 opportunity4 ,the last act might take  
on the nature of a philosophic tag1 a   
preachment not organically related to   
the preceding parts4 ,this1 of course1  
would be a sad misuse of the chance to  
give the drama a wider application and  
finer bloom4 ,but if the playwright have
 the skill and inventive power to merge 
the two elements of story and idea in a 
final act which adds stimulating        
material while it brings out clearly the
 underlying theme1 then he will have    
performed a kind of double function of  
the drama4 ,in the new technic of to-day
 and to-morrow this may come to be1 more
 and more1 the accepted aim of the      
resourceful1 thoughtful maker of plays4 
,the intelligent auditor in the         
playhouse with this aspect of technic   
before him will be able to assist in his

 cooeperation with worthy plays by      
noticing particularly if the closing    
treatment of the material in hand seem  
germane to the subject2 if it avoid     
anti-climax and keep the key2 and if it 
demonstrates skill in overcoming such   
obstacles as have been indicated4 ,such 
a play-goer will not slight the final   
act as of only technical importance1 but
 will be alertly on the watch to see if 
his friend the playwright successfully  
grapples with the last of the successive
 problems which arise during the complex
 and very difficult business of telling 
a stage story with clearness1           
effectiveness and charm4     ,,chapter  
,,xi  ,,the ,,social ,,significance ,,of
 ,,the ,,play   ,we have now surveyed   
the chief elements involved in the      
making of a play and suggested an       
intelligent attitude on the part of the 
play-goer toward them4 ,primarily the   
aim has been to broaden and sharpen the 
appreciation of a delightful experience2
 for the sake of personal culture4 ,but1

 as was briefly suggested in the chapter
 on the play as a cultural possibility1 
there is another reason why the student 
and theater attendant should realize    
that the drama in its possibilities is a
 work of art1 and the theater1 the place
 where it is exhibited1 can be a temple 
of art4 ,this other reason looks to the 
social significance of the playhouse as 
a great1 democratic people's amusement  
where stories can be heard and seen more
 effectively1 as to influence1 than     
anywhere else or under any other        
imaginable conditions4 ,it is a place   
where the great lessons of life can be  
emotionally received and so sink deep   
into the consciousness and conscience of
 folk at large4 ,and so the question of 
the theater becomes more than the       
question of private culture1 important  
as that is2 being1 indeed1 a matter of  
social welfare4 ,this fact is now coming
 to be recognized in the ,united        
,states1 as it has long been recognized 
abroad4 ,we see more plainly than we did

 that when states like ,france and      
,germany or the cities of such countries
 grant subventions to their theaters and
 make theater directors high officials  
of the government they do so not only   
from the conviction that the theater    
stands for culture 7a good thing for any
 country to possess7 but that they feel 
it to have a direct and vital influence 
upon the life of the citizens in        
general1 upon the civilization of the   
day4 ,they assume that the playhouse1   
along with the school1 library1         
newspaper and church1 is one of the five
 mighty social forces in suggesting     
ideas to a nation and creating ideals4  
,the intelligent theater-goer to-day1 as
 never before1 will therefore note with 
interest the change in the notions      
concerning this popular amusement that  
is yet so much more1 based upon much    
that has happened within our time2 the  
coming back of plays into literary      
significance and acceptance1 so that    
leaders in letters everywhere are likely

 to be playwrights2 the publication of  
contemporary drama1 foreign and         
domestic1 enabling the theater-goer to  
study the play he is to see or has seen2
 and the recognition of another aim in  
conducting this institution than a      
commercial one looking to private       
profit3 the aim of maintaining a house  
of art1 nourished by all concerned with 
the pride in and love of art which that 
implies1 for the good of the people4    
,the observer we have in mind and are   
trying to help a little will be         
interested in all such experiments as   
that of the ,little ,theaters in various
 cities1 in the children's theaters in  
,new ,york and ,washington1 in the      
fast-growing use of the pageant to      
illuminate local history1 in the        
attempts to establish municipal stock   
companies1 or competent repertory       
companies by enlightened private        
munificence4 ,and however successful or 
unsuccessful the particular ventures may
 be1 he will see that their significance

 lies in their meaning a new1 thoughtful
 regard for an institution which        
properly conducted can conserve the     
general social welfare4  ,he will find  
in the growth within a very few years of
 an organization like the ,drama ,league
 of ,america a sign of the times in its 
testimony to an interest1 as wide as the
 country1 and wider1 in the development 
and maintenance of a sound and worthy   
drama4 ,and he will be willing as lover 
of fellow-man as well as theater lover  
to do his share in the movement--it is  
no hyperbole to call it such--toward    
socializing the playhouse1 so that it   
may gradually become an enterprise      
conducted by the people and in the      
interests of the people1 born of their  
life and cherished by their love4 ,nor  
will he be indifferent to the thought   
that1 thus directed and enjoyed1 it may 
in time come to be one of the proudest  
of national assets1 as it has been      
before in more than one land and period4
  ,and with the general interests of the

 people in mind1 our open-eyed observer 
will be especially quick to approve any 
experiment toward bringing the          
stimulating life of the theater to      
communities or sections of the city     
which hitherto have been deprived of    
amusement that while amusing ministers  
to the mind and emotions of the hearers 
in a way to give profit with the        
pleasure4 ,catholic in his view1 he will
 just as warmly welcome a people's      
theater in ,south ,boston or on the     
,east ,side in ,new ,york1 or at ,hull  
,house in ,chicago1 as he will a ,new   
,theater in upper ,new ,york1 or a ,fine
 ,arts ,theater in ,chicago1 or a ,toy  
,theater in ,boston2 believing that     
since the playhouse is in essence and by
 the nature of its appeal democratic1 it
 must neglect no class of society in its
 service4 ,he will prick up his ears and
 become alert in hearing of the         
,minnesota experiment1 where a rural    
play1 written by a member of the        
agricultural school1 was given under    

university auspices fifty times in one  
season1 throughout the state4 ,he will  
rejoice at the action of ,dartmouth     
,college in accepting a #ajj1jjj bequest
 for the erection and conductment of a  
theater in the college community and    
serving the interests of both academic  
and town life4 ,and he will also be glad
 to note that the ,carnegie ,institute  
of ,technology1 in ,pittsburgh1 has     
initiated a ,school of ,drama as an     
organic part of the educational life4   
,he will see in such things a           
recognition among educators that the    
theater should be related to educational
 life4 ,and1 musing happily upon such   
matters1 it will come to him again and  
again that it is rational to strive for 
a people's price for a people's         
entertainment1 instead of a price for   
the best offerings prohibitive to       
four-fifths of all ,americans4 ,and in  
this fact he will see the explanation   
for the enormous growth of the moving   
picture type of amusement1 realizing it 

to be inevitable under present          
conditions1 because a form of           
entertainment popular in price as well  
as in nature1 and hence populously      
frequented4 ,and so our theater-goer1   
who has now so long listened with at    
least hypothetic patience to exposition 
and argument1 will be willing1 indeed1  
will wish1 as part of his watchful      
canniness with respect to the plays he  
sees and reads1 to judge the playwright1
 among other things1 according to his   
interpretation of life2 and especially  
the modern social life of his own day   
and country4  ,i have already spoken of 
the need to have an idea in drama2 a    
centralizing opinion about life or a    
personal reaction to it--something quite
 distinct from the thesis or propaganda 
which might change a work of art into a 
dissertation4 ,let it now be added that1
 other things being equal1 a play to-day
 will represent its time and be vital in
 proportion as it deals with life in    
terms of social interest4 ,to put it    

another way1 a drama to reflect our age 
must be aware of the intense and        
practically universal tendency to study 
society as an organism1 with the        
altruistic purpose of seeing justice    
prevail4 ,the rich are attacked1 the    
poor defended2 combinations of business 
are assailed1 and criminals treated as  
our sick brothers2 labor and capital    
contest on a gigantic scale1 and woman  
looms up as a central and most agitating
 problem4 ,all this and more1 arising   
from the same interest1 offers a vast   
range of subject-matter to drama and a  
new spirit in treating it on the stage4 
,within the last half century the two   
great changes that have come in human   
life are the growth in the democratic   
ideal1 with all that it suggests1 and   
the revolutionary conception of what    
life is under the domination of         
scientific knowledge4 ,all art forms1   
including this of the theater1 have     
responded to these twin factors of      
influence4 ,in art it means sympathy in 

studying fellow-man and an attempt to   
tell the truth about him in all artistic
 depictions4 ,therefore1 in the drama   
to-day likely to make the strongest     
claim on the attention of the           
intelligent play-goers1 we shall get the
 fullest recognition of this spirit and 
the frankest use of it as typical of the
 twentieth century4 ,this is what gives 
substance1 meaning and bite to the plays
 of ,shaw1 ,galsworthy1 and ,barker1 of 
,houghton1 and ,francis and ,sowerby1 of
 ,moody and ,kennedy and ,zangwill1 at  
their best4 ,to acknowledge this is not 
to deny that enjoyable farce1 stirring  
melodrama and romantic extravaganza are 
not welcome2 the sort of play which     
simply furnishes amusement in terms of  
good story telling1 content to do this  
and no more4 ,it is1 however1 to remind 
the reader that to be most              
representative of the day the drama must
 do something beyond this2 must mirror  
the time and probe it too2 yes1 must1   
like a wise physician1 feel the pulse of

 man to-day and diagnose his deepest    
needs and failings and desires2 in a    
word1 must be a social drama1 since that
 is the keynote of the present4 ,it will
 be found that even in the lighter forms
 of drama which we accept as typical and
 satisfactory this social flavor may be 
detected1 giving it body1 but not       
detracting from its pleasurableness4    
,miss ,crother's ,young ,wisdom has the 
light touch and the framework of farce1 
yet it deals with a definite aspect of  
feminism4 ,mr4 ,knoblauch's ,the ,faun  
is a romantic fantasia1 but is not      
without its keen social satire4 ,mr4    
,sheldon's ,the ,havoc seems also       
farcical in its type2 nevertheless it is
 a serious satiric thrust at certain    
extreme conceptions of marital          
relations4 ,and numerous dramas1        
melodramatic in form and intention1     
dealing with the darker economic and    
sociological aspects of our life--the   
overworked crime play of the            
day--indefinitely swell the list4 ,and  

so with many more plays1 pleasant or    
unpleasant1 which1 while clinging close 
to the notion of good entertainment1 do 
not refrain from social comment or      
criticism4 ,the idea that criticism of  
life in a stage story must of necessity 
be heavy1 dull and polemic is an        
irritating one1 of which the            
,anglo-,saxon is strangely fond4 ,the   
,french1 to mention one other nation1   
have constantly shown the world that to 
be intellectually keen and suggestive it
 is not necessary to be solemn or       
opaque2 in fact1 that one is sure to be 
all the more stimulating because of the 
light touch and the sense for social    
adaptability4 ,this view will in time1  
no doubt1 percolate through the somewhat
 obstinate layers of the ,anglo-,saxon  
mind4  ,from these considerations it may
 follow that our theater-goer1 while    
generally receptive and broad-minded in 
his seat to the particular type of drama
 the playwright shall offer1 will       
incline to prefer those plays which on  

the whole seem in some one of various   
possible ways to express the time2 which
 drama that has survived has always     
done4 ,he will care most for the        
home-made play as against the foreign1  
if equally well made1 since its problem 
is more likely to be his own1 or one he 
can better understand4 ,but he will not 
turn a cold shoulder to some ,european  
drama by a ,d',annunzio1 a ,sudermann1 a
 ,maeterlinck or a ,tolstoy1 if it be a 
great work of art and deal with life in 
such universal applications and         
relations as to make it quite           
independent of national borders4 ,one of
 the socializing and civilizing         
functions of the theater is thus to draw
 the peoples together into a common bond
 of interest1 a unit in that vast       
community which signifies the           
all-embracing experience of being a     
human creature4 ,yet the theater-goer   
will have but a ,laodicean regard for   
plays which present divergent national  
or technically local conditions of life 

practically incomprehensible to         
,americans at large2 some of the ,gallic
 discussions of the ,french menage1 for 
instance4 ,terence taught us wisely that
 nothing human should be alien from our 
interest2 true enough4 ,there is however
 no good reason why interest should not 
grow as the matter in hand comes closer 
to us in time and space4 ,and still more
 vigorously will he protest against any 
and all of the wretched attempts to     
change foreign material for domestic use
 to be noted when the ,american producer
 7or traducer7 feels he must remove from
 such a play the atmospheric color which
 is of its very life1 transferring a    
rural setting of old ,england to a      
similar setting in ,new ,england4 ,short
 of the drama of open evil teaching1    
nothing is worse than these absurd and  
abortive makings over of drama from     
abroad4 ,the result is neither fish1    
flesh nor good red herring4 ,they       
destroy every object of theater         
enjoyment and culture1 lying about life 

and losing whatever grip upon credence  
they may have originally possessed4     
,happily1 their day is on the wane4     
,even theater-goers of the careless kind
 have little or no use for them4  ,that 
the stage of our day1 a stage upon which
 it has been possible to attain success 
with such dramas as ,the ,blue ,bird1   
,the ,servant in the ,house1 ,the ,poor 
,little ,rich ,girl1 ,the ,witching     
,hour1 ,cyrano de ,bergerac1 ,candida1  
,what ,every ,woman ,knows1 ,the ,great 
,divide and ,the ,easiest ,way 7the     
enumeration is made to imply the        
greatest diversity of type7 is one of   
catholic receptivity and some           
discriminating patronage1 should appear 
to anyone who has taken the trouble to  
follow the discussion up to this point1 
and whose theater experience has been   
fairly large4 ,there is no longer any   
reason why our drama-going should not be
 one of the factors which minister to   
rational pleasure1 quicken the sense of 
art and invite us fruitfully to         

participate in that free and desirable  
exchange of ideas which ,matthew ,arnold
 declared to be the true aim of         
civilization4 ,let us grant readily that
 the stage story which shows within     
theater restrictions the life of a land 
and the outlying life of the world of   
men has its definite demarcations2 that 
it may not to advantage perform certain 
services more natural1 for example to   
the church1 or the school4 ,it must     
appeal upon the basis of the bosom      
interests and passions of mankind and   
its common denominator is that of the   
general emotions4 ,concede that it      
should not debate a philosophical       
question with the aim of the thinker1   
nor a legal question as if the main     
purpose were to settle a matter of law2 
nor a religious question with the       
purposeful finality of the theologian1  
or the didactic eloquence of the pulpit4
 ,but it can and should deal with any   
question pertinent to men1 vital to the 
broad interests of human beings1 in the 

spirit of the humanities and with the   
restraints of its particular art4 ,it   
should be suggestive1 arousing1 not     
demonstrative or dogmatic4 ,its great   
outstanding advantage lies in its       
emotional suggestibility4 ,to perform   
this service1 and it is a mighty one1 is
 to have an intelligent theater1 a      
self-respecting theater1 a theater that 
shall purvey rational amusement to the  
few and the many4 ,and whenever         
theater-goers1 by majority vote1 elect  
it1 it will arrive4  ,it was suggested  
on an earlier page and may now be still 
more evident that intelligent           
theater-going begins long before one    
goes to the theater4 ,it depends upon   
preparation of various kinds2 upon a    
sense of the theater as a social        
institution1 and of the renewed literary
 quality of the drama to-day2 upon a    
knowledge of the specific problems of   
the player and playwright1 and of the   
aids to this knowledge furnished by the 
best dramatic criticism2 upon           

familiarity too with the printed drama1 
past and present1 in a fast multiplying 
library that deals with the stage and   
dramatic writing4 ,the last statement   
may be amplified here4  ,a few years    
ago1 there was hardly a serious         
publication either in ,england or       
,america devoted to the legitimate      
interests of the stage from the point of
 view of the patron of the theater1 the 
critic-in-the-seat whom we have so      
steadily had in mind4 ,such periodicals 
as existed were produced rather in the  
interests of the stage people1 actors1  
producers1 and the like4 ,this has now  
changed very much for the better4       
,confining the survey to this country1  
the monthly called ,the ,theater has    
some value in making the reader aware of
 current activities4 ,the two monthlies1
 ,the ,american ,playwright and ,the    
,dramatist1 edited respectively by      
,william ,t4 ,price and ,luther ,b4     
,anthony1 are given to the technical    
consideration of contemporary drama in  

the light of permanent principles1 and  
are very useful4 ,the quarterly1 ,the   
,drama1 edited and published under the  
auspices of ,the ,drama ,league of      
,america1 is a dignified and earnest    
attempt to represent the cultural work  
of all that has to do with the stage2   
and a feature of it is the regular      
appearance of a complete play not       
hitherto in print4 ,another quarterly1  
,poet ,lore1 although not given over    
exclusively to matters dramatic1 has    
been honorably conspicuous for many     
years for its able critical treatment of
 the theater and play2 and especially   
for its translations of foreign dramas1 
much of the best material from abroad   
being first given ,english form in its  
columns4 ,at ,madison1 ,wisconsin1 ,the 
,play ,book is a monthly also edited by 
theater specialists and often containing
 illuminating articles and reviews4     
,and1 of course1 in the better class    
periodicals1 monthly and weekly1 papers 
in this field are appearing nowadays    

with increasing frequency1 a testimonial
 to the general growth of interest4     
,critics of the drama like ,w4 ,p4      
,eaton1 ,clayton ,hamilton1 ,arthur     
,ruhl1 ,norman ,hapgood1 ,william       
,winter1 ,montrose ,j4 ,moses1 ,channing
 ,pollock1 ,james ,o',donnell ,bennett1 
,james ,s4 ,metcalf1 and ,james ,huneker
 are to be read in the daily press1 in  
periodicals1 or in collected book form4 
,advanced movements abroad are          
chronicled in ,the ,mask1 the           
publication founded by ,gordon ,craig2  
and in ,poetry and ,drama4 ,it is       
reasonable to believe that1 with the    
renewed appreciation of the theater1 the
 work of the dramatic critic as such    
will be felt to be more and more        
important and his function will assume  
its significance in the eyes of the     
community4 ,a vigorous dramatic period  
implies worthy criticism to self-reveal 
it and to establish and maintain right  
standards4 ,signs are not wanting that  
we shall gradually train and make       

necessary in the ,united ,states a class
 of critic represented in ,england by   
,william ,archer and ,a4 ,b4 ,walkley4  
,among the publishers who have led in   
the movement to place good drama in     
permanent form in the hands of readers  
the firms of ,macmillan1 ,scribner1     
,mitchell ,kennerley1 ,henry ,holt1     
,john ,w4 ,luce1 ,harper and ,brothers1 
,b4 ,w4 ,huebsch and ,doubleday1 ,page  
,company have been and are honorably to 
the fore4 ,in the way of critical books 
which study the many aspects of the     
subject1 they are now being printed so  
constantly as plainly to testify to the 
new attitude and interest4 ,the student 
of technic can with profit turn to the  
manuals of ,william ,archer1 ,brander   
,matthews1 and ,william ,t4 ,price2 the 
studies of ,clayton ,hamilton1 ,w4 ,p4  
,eaton1 ,norman ,hapgood1 ,barrett      
,clark1 and others4 ,for the civic idea 
applied to the theater1 and the         
development of the pageant1 he will read
 ,percy ,mackaye4 ,and when it comes to 

plays themselves1 as we have seen1      
hardly a week goes by without the       
appearance of some important foreign    
masterpiece in ,english1 or some        
important drama of ,english speech1     
often in advance of or coincident with  
stage production4 ,the best work of the 
day is now readily accessible1 where1   
only a little while ago1 book           
publication of drama 7save the standard 
things of the past7 was next to unknown4
 ,it is worth knowing that ,the ,drama  
,league of ,america is publishing1 with 
the cooeperation of ,doubleday1 ,page   
,company1 an attractive series of ,drama
 ,league ,plays1 in which good drama of 
the day1 native and foreign1 is offered 
the public at a cost which cuts in two  
the previous expense4 ,and the ,drama   
,league's selective ,list of essays and 
books about the theatre1 with which is  
incorporated a complete list of plays   
printed in ,english1 can be procured for
 a nominal sum and will give the seeker 
after light a thorough survey of what is

 here touched upon in but a few salient 
particulars4  ,in short1 there is no    
longer much excuse for pleading         
ignorance on the ground of inadequate   
aid1 if the desire be to inform oneself 
upon the drama and matters pertaining to
 the theater4  ,the fact that our       
contemporary body of drama is making the
 literary appeal by appearing in book   
form is of special bearing upon the     
culture of the theater-goer4 ,mr4 ,h4   
,a4 ,jones1 the ,english playwright1 has
 recently declared that he deemed this  
the factor above all others which should
 breed an enlightened attitude toward   
the playhouse4 ,in truth1 we can hardly 
have a self-respecting theater without  
the publication of the drama therein to 
be seen4 ,printed plays mean a claim to 
literary pretensions4 ,plays become     
literature only when they are preserved 
in print4 ,and1 equally important1 when 
the spectator may read the play before  
seeing it1 or1 better yet1 having       
enjoyed the play in the playhouse1 can  

study it in a book with this advantage1 
a process of revaluation and enforcement
 of effect1 he will appreciate a drama  
in all its possibilities as in no other 
way4 ,detached from mob influence1 with 
no confusion of play with players1 he   
can attain that quieter1 more           
comprehensive judgment which1 coupled   
with the instinctive decision in the    
theater1 combines to make a critic of   
him in the full sense4  ,for these      
reasons1 the well wisher of the theater 
welcomes as most helpful and encouraging
 the now established habit of the prompt
 printing of current plays4 ,it is no   
longer a reproach from the view of      
literature to have your play acted2 it  
may even be that soon it will be a      
reproach not to have the printed play   
presented on the boards4 ,the young     
,american man of letters1 like his      
fellow in ,france1 may feel that a      
literary debut is not truly made until  
his drama has been seen and heard1 as   
well as read4 ,while scholars are raking

 over the past with a fine-tooth comb1  
and publishing special editions of      
second and third-rate dramatists of     
earlier times1 it is a good thing that  
modern plays1 whose only demerit may be 
their contemporaneity1 are receiving    
like honor1 and that the dramas of      
,pinero1 ,jones1 ,wilde1 ,shaw1         
,galsworthy1 ,synge1 ,yeats1 ,lady      
,gregory1 ,zangwill1 ,dusany1 ,houghton1
 ,hankin1 ,hamilton1 ,sowerby1 ,gibson1 
acted ,british playwrights2 and of      
,gillette1 ,thomas1 ,moody1 ,mackaye1   
,peabody1 ,walter1 ,sheldon1            
,tarkington1 ,davis1 ,patterson1        
,middleton1 and ,kennedy1 acted         
,american playwrights 7two dozen to     
stand for two score and more7 can be had
 in print for the asking4 ,it is good   
testimony that we are really coming to  
have a living theater and not a mere    
academic kow-towing to by-gone altars   
whose sacrificial smoke has dimmed our  
eyes sometimes to the clear daylight of 
the ,present4 ,preparation for the use  

of the theater looks before and after4  
,at home and at school the training can 
be under way2 much happy preliminary    
reading and reflection introduce it4 ,by
 making oneself aware of the best that  
has been thought and said on the        
subject2 by becoming conversant with the
 history1 theory and practice of the    
playhouse1 consciously including this as
 part of education2 and1 for good       
citizenship's sake1 by regarding sound  
theater entertainment as a need and     
therefore a right of the people2 in a   
word1 by taking one's play-going with   
good sense1 trained taste and right     
feeling1 a person finds himself becoming
 a broader and better human being4 ,he  
will be quicker in his sympathies1 more 
comprehensive in his outlook1 and will  
react more satisfactorily to life in    
general4 ,all this may happen1 although 
in turning to the theater his primary   
purpose may be to seek amusement4  ,is  
it a counsel of perfection to ask for   
this8 ,hardly1 when so much has already 

occurred pointing out the better way4   
,the civilized theater has begun to     
come2 the prepotent influence of the    
audience is recognized4 ,surely the gain
 made1 and the imperfections that still 
exist1 are stimulants to that further   
bettering of conditions whose familiar  
name is ,progress4  ,in all             
considerations of the theater1 it would 
be a good thing to allow the unfortunate
 word elevate to drop from the          
vocabulary4 ,it misleads and            
antagonizes4 ,it is better to say that  
the view presented in this book is one  
that wishes to make the playhouse       
innocently pleasant1 rational1 and sound
 as art4 ,if by elevate we mean these   
things1 well and good4 ,but there is no 
reason why to elevate the stage should  
be to depress the box office--except a  
lack of understanding between the two4  
,uniting in the correct view1 the two   
should rise and fall together4 ,in fact1
 touching audience1 actors1 playwrights1
 producers1 and the society that is     

behind them all1 intelligent            
cooeperation is the open sesame4 ,with  
that for a banner cry1 mountains may be 
moved4   ,,notes3  ,a ,a fact humorously
 yet keenly suggested in ,bernard       
,shaw's clever piece1 ,the ,dark ,lady  
of the ,sonnets4  ,b ,when our theater  
has become thoroughly artistic1 plays   
will not1 as at present1 be stretched   
out beyond the natural size1 but will be
 confined to a shorter playing time and 
the evening filled out with a curtain   
raiser or after piece1 as is now so     
common abroad4  ,c ,for a good          
discussion of this1 see ,the ,genesis of
 ,hamlet1 by ,charlton ,m4 ,lewis       
7,houghton1 ,mifflin  ,company74  ,d    
,gordon ,craig's book on ,the ,art of   
,the ,theatre may be consulted for      
further light upon a movement that is   
very significant and likely to be       
far-reaching in time1 in its influence  
upon future stage and dramatic          
conditions4         99       99       99
       99       99  etext transcriber's 

note3  ,the following typographical     
errors have been corrected 444          
departure from theme follow  departure  
from theme follows  it is well if the   
intermediate act do not  it is well if  
the intermediate act does not           
dedelivered his curtain speech          
delivered his curtain speech            
leigitimate  legitimate