710 THE DRAMA 



" I never tell lies about the drama." I am sure you would wish 

 me to deal with this subject with the utmost candor and courage, to 

 speak out of the fullness of my heart. And if I tell you some hard 

 truths and ask some harsh, rude questions, you must not think that I 

 am exceeding the liberty and courtesy of a guest; for the same hard 

 truths must be told, and the same rude harsh questions must be 

 asked about the drama in England. Indeed, I hope you will allow 

 me for the moment to class England and America as twin nations 

 in the affairs of the drama. So much interchange of plays and 

 actors has taken place between the two countries; the means of 

 communication have been so constantly quickened and increased, that 

 now, for many years past, large currents of the two main streams of 

 national drama have filtered through to each other, and have com- 

 mingled, and are now flowing together. 



In the higher reaches both of the modern and of the poetic 

 drama, England and America may be largely reckoned as one coun- 

 try. Therefore, I am not speaking simply to and for American play- 

 goers. I still remain your debtor, and at the outset I must own that 

 if you had a National American Drama such as I desire for you, 

 such as I see many signs of your compassing in generations to come 

 I say, if that National American Drama were already an accom- 

 plished fact, I fear you would not so readily have welcomed my plays 

 for the last twenty-four years, and I fear you would not care to listen 

 to me now. 



If we throw one sweeping glance over the whole past history of 

 the drama, we are deeply impressed by two main, commanding fea- 

 tures. The first of these is the perennial and universal existence of 

 the dramatic instinct, always and everywhere seeking expression, 

 always and everywhere pushing up its shoots into the national life. 

 Often repressed, often debased, often childish, often vulgar, often 

 obscene, often the emptiest, silliest bauble, formless, ribald, violent, 

 grotesque, a feast of indecencies, or a feast of horrors, there has yet 

 rarely been a time, or a country, where some kind of a drama has 

 not been fitfully and precariously struggling into existence. That is 

 the first main feature in the world's dramatic history. 



The second main feature is inverse and complimentary. Twice in 

 the past the Drama has splendidly emerged, has seized, possessed, 

 inflamed and interpreted the whole spirit of the nation, has become 

 the supreme artistic achievement of the age and people. Twice it 

 has thus emerged once in Greece, and once in Elizabethan Eng- 

 land. But a Frenchman would say that three times, and a Spaniard 

 would claim that four times in the world's history have there been 

 great creative outbursts of drama. Well, we who possess Shakes- 

 peare will generously allow that there have been four such great cre- 

 ative outbursts which have left standing these lowering mountain 



