706 THE DRAMA 



know it. One or two general remarks, however, may be hazarded. In 

 the present age there is no particular liking or room for tragedy. 

 The world is apt to shut its eyes to the deeper aspects of existence, 

 because any attempt to pierce below the surface is held to involve 

 unpleasantness. 



Comedy may or may not be a great success, but at all events it is 

 far more likely to win its triumphs in an epicurean age than its elder 

 sister, tragedy. People go to the theatre in order to be amused and 

 to laugh; they hardly care to be made to feel. Some of the most 

 earnest work of contemporary authors falls flat because it is held to 

 be out of tune with fashionable surroundings of leisure and wealth, 

 and artists themselves acquire a wilful petulance and an accent of 

 revolt owing to this atmosphere of carelessness or apathy. There is, 

 too, that phenomenon, the literary drama, which has a paralyzing 

 effect, the drama, never intended to be acted, which under present 

 circumstances comes to be recognized as the only form of dramatic 

 writing that the leaders of the literary world care to essay. 



Many of Browning's dramas belong to this class, all of Swinburne's 

 and, according to some critics, a good many of Tennyson's. Neverthe- 

 less, there are some signs of a return to serious dramatic writing. There 

 is the work of Mr. Laurence Irving and of Mr. Esmond, by no means 

 devoid of promise. Quite recently we have been reading Mr. Stephen 

 Phillip's " Paolo and Francesca," in which the beautiful legend of 

 Dante has received a worthy setting of literary beauty; and Mrs. 

 Craigie's " Osborn and Ursyne," vigorous, poetical, and rife with 

 sincere emotion. 



But, after all, the great reason for optimism with regard to the 

 future is the fact that Mr. Pinero has given us in our modern age 

 a play which is a masterpiece, " The Second Mrs. Tanqueray." Here- 

 after we shall know better, I think, than we do now how great an 

 achievement Mr. Pinero's " The Second Mrs. Tanqueray " really 

 is, how true a tragedy in form, management and style. "We stand 

 too close to it at present to see its true proportions, and the real issue 

 disappears because it is classed not only among other plays of his, but 

 superficially described as a study after the model of Ibsen. In form 

 it is much more like a play of the school of Dumas the younger, 

 although Dumas did not often write anything half so good. The 

 character of Paula Tanqueray is one of the most triumphant crea- 

 tions which has ever been composed for the stage, in the fearlessness 

 and truth of its portratiure and the artistic cunning of its present- 

 ment. 



Dumas wrote "La Dame aux Camelias" when he was a young man. 

 Mr. Pinero wrote " The Second Mrs. Tanqueray " in the maturity 

 of his powers. While the one gives a theatrical glorification of the 

 courtesan, the other dares to draw her as she really is, in all the 



