SOURCE: "History and Drinkwater," in Contemporary Review, Vol. CXXIX, May, 1926, pp. 613-20.

In the following essay, Ropes analyzes representations of historical figures and events in Drinkwater's plays.

Not very long ago the remarkable success of Mr. John Drinkwater's Abraham Lincoln made us wonder if we were to see a revival of historical drama. There seems no reason why the great Elizabethan tradition should remain merely a tradition. Here was a play presenting great political issues, summed up in the character and career of a great statesman—and one who, by a happy chance, was fitted to call forth laughter and tears together, to move in a mingled halo of reverence and ridicule. Uncouth and almost grotesque in some aspects, Lincoln was saved from vanity by his homely humour, and raised into dignity by the might of his unwavering yet never fanatical patriotism. This was the theme of the...