The art of the dramatist is not yet at its richest; but it bristles with obstacles such as a strong man joys in overcoming.  In this sharper difficulty is its most obvious advantage over the art of the novelist; and here is its chief attraction for the story-teller, weary of a method almost too easy to be worth while.  Here is a reason why one may venture a doubt whether the novel, which has been dominant, not to say domineering, in the second half of the nineteenth century, may not have to face a more acute rivalry of the drama in the first half of the twentieth century.  The vogue of the novel is not likely to wane speedily; but its supremacy may be challenged by the drama more swiftly than now seems likely.

     (1904.)

THE LITERARY MERIT OF OUR LATTER-DAY DRAMA

In trying to present our own opinions upon a question at issue, we can often find an advantage in getting first of all a clear statement of the other side.  This must serve as an excuse for here quoting a paragraph (from a British magazine) which chanced to get itself copied in an American newspaper: 

The truth is, our dramatists have long since forgotten that the English language is still the medium of the English drama, and that no branch of literary art is worth a word of praise that wantonly divorces itself from literature.  The foolish dramatist who was once loquacious concerning what he was pleased to call “the literary drama” condemned his own craft in a single phrase.  No doubt, prosperity being essential, the audience of our theaters must share the blame with their favorites.  Too idle to listen to exquisite prose or splendid verse, they prefer the quick antics of comedians, and in their ear, as in Mr. Pinero’s, “theatrical,” has a far more splendid sound than “dramatic.”  To sum the matter up, that poets have failed upon the stage is no compliment to the professional playwrights, who believe themselves the vessels of an esoteric inspiration.  It merely means that literature and the drama travel by different roads, and they will continue to travel by those roads so long as the actor is master of the dramatist, so

long as the merits of a drama are judged by the standard of material prosperity.  After all, to get your puppets on and off the stage is not the sole end of drama, and modesty might suggest that it is better to fail with Tennyson than to succeed with the gifted author who is at this moment engaged in whitewashing Julia.

Inexpensive in wit as this paragraph is, it serves the purpose of showing us that there are still those who believe the drama of our own time to be a thing of naught.  Brief as this quotation is, it is long enough to reveal that the writer of it had the arrogance of ignorance, and that he was expressing what he conceived to be opinions, without taking the trouble to learn anything about the history of the theater or about the principles of the dramatic art.