href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@13408@[email protected]#VII.2" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">Double Entente—Moral Effect on Audience—An Advantage of French Dramatists

CHAPTER VIII

CASUAL NOTES ON ACTING

Mr H.B. Irving on his Art—Mr Bourchier and "Max" on English Acting—The Sicilian Players—Alleged Dearth of Great Actresses—Character Actresses—Stage Misfits—Stars

CHAPTER IX

STAGE DANCING

The Skirts of the Drama—Isadora Duncan

CHAPTER X

THINGS IN THE THEATRE

A Defence of the Matinée Hat—A Justification of certain Deadheads—Theatrical Advertisements—Music

CHAPTER XI

IN THE PLAYHOUSE

Laughter—Smoking in the Auditorium—Conduct of the Audience—Concerning the Pit—Why do we go to the Theatre?

CHAPTER XII

MISCELLANEOUS

Signor Borsa on the English Theatre—G.B.S. and the Amateurs—Cant about Shakespeare—Yvette Guilbert on Dramatists

CHAPTER XIII

MISCELLANEOUS

Finance in Plays—Some Unsuccessful Dramatists—The Ending of the Play—Preposterous Stage Types—The Professions of the Dramatis Personae 

PREFACE

Whilst reading the proof-sheets of these articles I have been oppressed by the thought that they give a gloomy idea about the state of our Stage. Yet I am naturally sanguine. Indeed, no one taking a deep interest in our drama could have written for a score or so of years about it unless of a naturally sanguine temperament. There has been great progress during my time, yet we still are far from possessing a modern national drama creditable to us. Some imagine that the British have no inborn genius for writing drama, or acting it, and look upon those dramatists and players whose greatness cannot be denied as mere exceptions to a rule. Without alleging that at the moment we have a Shakespeare, a Garrick or a Siddons, I assert confidently that we own dramatists and players able, if rightly used, to make our theatre worthy of our country and also that the misuse of them is appalling. For very many years the history of the English stage has been chiefly a record of waste, of gross commercialism and of honest efforts ruined by adherence to mischievous traditions: the Scottish and Irish stage have been mere reflections of our own.

At the moment Ireland is making a brave and remarkably successful effort at emancipation, and during the last few years has laid the foundations of a National Theatre and built a good deal upon them. Scotland lags a little, yet the energy and enthusiasm of Mr