THE COKNEKSTONES OP MODEKX DRAMA 723 



shorthand, which, faithfully taken down, reads much like a sport- 

 ing-man's telegram. If we were to put into the mouths of our char- 

 acters a dignified, resounding prose, with nicely balanced cadences, 

 we should be told we were stilted and unnatural. So we put into the 

 mouths of our characters the actual phrases of the market place 

 and the drawing-room, and we are scorned for not being men of 

 letters and writing literature." 



" But are you men of letters ? Do you write Literature ? " Oxford 

 would solemnly demand. 



" Well, scarcely at present," we could only stammer. 



" Then, why should Oxford lose her hoary dignity and condescend 

 to such as you ? " 



" W, ell, we trusted that Oxford as the center of English learning 

 and education, might aid us in rescuing the English Drama from 

 chaos and imbecility; and, incidentally, in helping to set a standard 

 of manners and conversation all over the English-speaking world." 



" This smacks to me of elevating the masses, and never will I 

 unbend my reverend energy to such revolting drudgery. The masses ! 

 The masses ! Let them darken in labor and pain without my gates ! 

 I am the home of lost causes and decaying superstitions ! What con- 

 cern have I, Oxford, with the masses ? " 



" But it isn't merely the masses. You must have noticed how 

 all classes of society regard our modern Drama " 



" Modern Drama ! " Oxford would thunder. " All things modern 

 I abhor. Has not my old age been vexed and shaken enough by 

 modern Science ? Modern Drama ! Forsooth ! There is no modern 

 Drama ! Away ! You are raw ! You are crude ! You are vulgar ! 

 I suspect you are improper ! And I allow none but classic improprie- 

 ties within my hallowed cloisters ! Away, you plebeians ! You moun- 

 tebanks ! You interlopers ! Profane not my gray serenity with 

 your uncouth diction. Avaunt and quit my sight ! Your blood is 

 warm ! Your bones are full of the marrow of youth ! Your eyes 

 flash back the sunlight ! You are alive ! And I suffer none but 

 the dead to enter here ! " 



Thus would Oxford answer, I fear, and let fall the massive port- 

 cullis of her learning, shutting us out forever, while she goes dream- 

 ing on among her dreaming spires. 



But Harvard has \velcomed us. Harvard has welcomed us, and the 

 other American universities have also opened their doors. I have 

 said that Prof. Baker did a notable and courageous thing in recog- 

 nizing the modern English Drama at Harvard. I believe he also did 

 a wise and far-seeing thing, a deed that may return in future days, 

 like a happy harvestman bringing sheaves of ripe and benign con- 

 sequences to American Art and Civilization. 



When I was in America last autumn after an absence of twenty 



