716 THE DRAMA 



III. The divorce of the English Drama from its sister Arts; its 

 deposition from any assured place in the intellectual and artistic life 

 of the nation. 



IV. The absorption of the English Drama into popular amuse- 

 ment; the absence of any high standard whereby to judge acting or 

 plays; the absence of all great traditions, the absence of all pride in 

 the Drama as a fine and humane and dignified art. 



V. The want of a training school for actors the want of any 

 means for giving promising novices a constant practice in varied roles, 

 that they may gradually acquire a sure grip of their art, and make 

 the best of their natural gifts; and that the author may have a 

 Bufficient supply of competent actors to interpret his characters in such 

 a way that his play may be seen to good advantage. 



VI. The elevation of incompetent actors and actresses into false 

 positions as stars, whereby, in the dearth of any general level of 

 experienced and competent all-round acting, the possessor of a pretty 

 face or a fine physique is able to dominate the situation, and to rula 

 what plays should be produced, and how they shall be cast and 

 mounted. The general lack of all interest in the play, or in the 

 author's study of life and character, apart from their being the 

 vehicle for some star actor to put or keep himself in a leading posi- 

 tion, with his actor brothers and sisters as his satellites. 



VII. A widely spread dependence upon translations and adapta- 

 tions of foreign plays, inasmuch as they can be bought at a cheap 

 rate, and as owing to the absence of any general care or knowledge as 

 to what a National Drama should be, they are just as likely to pro- 

 vide the actor with a personal and pecuniary success, while they also 

 largely set him free from all obligations to that objectionable and 

 interfering person, the author. 



Now all these discouraging symptoms and conditions of our Modem 

 Drama which I have glanced at are inextricably related to each 

 other; many of them are, indeed, only different aspects of the same 

 facts; they are woven all of a piece with each other, and with that 

 Puritan horror of the theatre which I believe to be the cardinal rea- 

 son that neither America nor England has to-day an art of the 

 Drama at all worthy the dignity, the resources, and the self-respect of 

 a great nation. Many of these discouraging symptoms and condi- 

 tions are perhaps more widely prevalent, and more pronounced in 

 England than in America. But I hope you will not think I have 

 given an ill-natured or exaggerated sketch of the present condition 

 of the Anglo-American Drama. If I have wounded your susceptibili- 

 ties, I have done it with the good intention of rendering you some 

 small help in your noble design of building up a great national school 

 of American Drama. And, as an Englishman, I must regretfully 

 own that I see a great chance of your having a National Theatre 



