THE CORNERSTONES OF MODERN DRAMA 717 



and a National Drama, while we are left fumbling about among the 

 grotesque futilities of French adaptations, and the imbecilities of 

 musical farce. 



Now, if I have struck my finger on the place in pointing to the 

 religious dread of the theatre, and the consequent abstention from 

 it of the best and soundest elements of our nations if I have 

 traced our difficulties and shortcomings to their true source, it is 

 clear that before we can hope for any signal advance in dramatic 

 art, we must win over a large body of public opinion to our views. 

 In their attitude toward the Theatre and the Drama, we may, I think, 

 make a rough division of the Anglo-American public into three 

 classes. Both in England and in America we have large masses, who 

 may be counted by millions, of mere amusement seekers, newly en- 

 franchised from the prison house of Puritanism, eager to enjoy them- 

 selves- at the theatre in the easiest way, without traditions, without 

 any real judgment of plays or acting; mere children, with no care or 

 thought beyond the delight of the moment in finding themselves in 

 a wonder-house where impossibly heroic and self-sacrificing persons 

 make love and do prodigious deeds, and marry and live happy ever 

 afterward; or in a funny house where funny people do all sorts of 

 funny things. These form a great bulk, I think, of American and 

 English playgoers. Then we have a very large class of moderate, 

 reasonable, respectable people, who go to the theatre occasionally, 

 but with some feeling of discomfort at having done a frivolous, if 

 not wicked thing; who are not actively hostile to the Drama, per- 

 haps, but who are quite indifferent to its higher development and to 

 its elevation into a fine art. This class contains many refined, culti- 

 vated people, that is, they seem to be cultivated and refined in all 

 subjects except the Drama. It is a constant puzzle to me why men 

 and women who are thoroughly educated and developed in every 

 other respect should suddenly drop to the mental range of children 

 of five the moment they think and speak about the Drama. 



Again we have a third class, a very large class, which contains 

 some of the soundest and best elements of the Anglo-American race 

 very influential, very respectable, very much to be regarded, and 

 consulted, and feared. And this large, influential, religious class is in 

 more or less active hostility to the Theatre, and to the Drama, and 

 to everything and everybody connected therewith. We may call these 

 three classes, respectively, the amusement-seeking class; the moderate, 

 reasonable, indifferent class; the hostile, religious class. This is the 

 very roughest and loosest division, and, of course, all these classes 

 blend and shade into each other without any rigid line of distinc- 

 tion. 



I do not know how actively hostile to the Drama are the religious 

 elements in American society. I am told that while the religious 



