722 THE DKAMA 



build, if we are ever to raise, in England and America, an art of the 

 Drama with any real influence and import and dignity in Anglo- 

 American civilization. But each of these four divisions of the Drama 

 demands consideration and examination by itself. 



Especially I should have liked to speak in this place upon the 

 Modern Drama and Literature. But I felt that clearing of the 

 ground was of primary importance. And now that I have given so 

 much time to that troublesome operation, I fear you have been think- 

 ing that in Harvard at least the ground has been already cleared, and 

 the first cornerstone, the cornerstone that is to bind together Litera- 

 ture and the Modern Drama, has been already laid by Professor 

 Baker, Well, that is a most encouraging fact which I gladly recog- 

 nize and acclaim. 



After years of unsuccessful endeavor to get our English playgoers 

 to read and examine in the study the plays that had delighted them 

 on the stage, I one day received from Prof. Baker a letter to the 

 effect that, as Professor of English Literature, he had given his 

 Harvard students a course of modern English plays. Of all the 

 many encouragements and rewards that I have received in England 

 and America, I value most of all the recognition that was conveyed 

 in that letter. It was a bold and original action on Prof. Baker's 

 part. He must have met with considerable opposition, and perhaps 

 some derision. I wonder what Oxford would say if it was suggested 

 to her that modern English plays should form a part of her teaching. 

 Oxford might rouse herself for a moment if some bold messenger 

 dare knock at her gates on such an errand, and her reply would be: 

 "Aeschylus I know, and Sophocles and Euripides I know, but who 

 are ye ? " 



" Representatives of the modern Drama ! " 



"Modern Drama? The parvenus, Shakespeare and Moliere, have 

 pushed their way into my precincts. They represent the modern 

 Drama here." 



" No ! No ! Not the Drama of three centuries ago and of a van- 

 ished civilization, but the Drama of to-day, the modern Drama." 



" There is no modern Drama," Oxford would sternly reply. 



" Yes ! Yes ! Our plays run for hundreds of nights and take up 

 a vast quantity of the winter leisure of our city millions, and help 

 to fill the empty spaces in their skulls where their brains ought to 

 be." 



" Blank verse ? " 



" No plain prose." 



" Polished English prose ? " Oxford would ask. 



" No unfortunately the English and American public have 

 abandoned for the present the habit of speaking -in blank verse, or 

 even in polished prose, and for the most part talk a slovenly, slangy 



