ness of situation; and there is in some ways even stronger work in The Importance of Being Earnest, "a trivial comedy for serious people." Salomé, a one-act play built on the story of the dancing before Herod, is in the style of the decadents. The work proved to possess tremendous theatrical appeal, however, and created something of a vogue. In Wilde's wit and artifice there is much of the spirit of Restoration comedy at its best, and while the period of his greatest popularity is now past, one is still forced to reckon with the art and intellect that could give life to so much that otherwise would be trivial and superficial.

89. Arthur Wing Pinero.-Sir Arthur Wing Pinero (1855-) has won the very high place that he holds among living English dramatists primarily by his excelling craftsmanship. Beginning his professional life as an actor, he soon turned to the composition of plays, and it was not long before his gifts were recognized. In 1877 his first play, £200 a Year, was produced, and since that time he has adapted or written for the stage not less than forty pieces. Among the early and very successful farces were The Magistrate (1885), The Schoolmistress (1886), and Dandy Dick (1887). Sweet Lavender (1888) by its tender sentiment made the author famous. Beginning with The Profligate (1889), however, Pinero entered the realm of social study and the problem play. In this drama a young man, Dunstan Renshaw, on the night before his wedding is brought face to face with the young woman he has wronged. The play was originally designed to end either with a tragedy or with the hero's being forgiven. The Second Mrs. Tanqueray attracted an extraordinary amount of attention and gave its author a place among

English playwrights that he has never since lost. The drama, which was unusually well constructed, showed some influence not only from Ibsen but also from such French writers as Scribe and Augier. Aubrey Tanqueray would marry Paula, a woman he loves and about whose past he knows. Can such a marriage, asks the play, be a success? Much is represented in the attitude of Tanqueray's own daughter Ellean; and in spite of the good will of a loyal friend, Cayley Drummle, the forces to be met are too strong for Aubrey and still more so for Paula. In even more decadent tone was The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith (1895). Among Pinero's strong later dramas in different vein are The Princess and the Butterfly (1897), a play of fine fantasy and sentiment, The Gay Lord Quex (1899), one of strong characterization and keen wit, The Thunderbolt (1908), a searchingly realistic and satirical study of a group of provincial characters interested in the will of a deceased relative, and Mid-Channel (1909), largely a study in neurasthenia. Whatever may be this distinguished artist's final place in the history of the drama, there can be no question as to his mastery of technique or his high conception of his calling.

90. Henry Arthur Jones.-Along with Sir Arthur Pinero, Henry Arthur Jones (1851-) has worked within the last generation for a general broadening of the scope of the drama and for giving this a closer relation to life. While not surpassing Pinero in technique, by the books and essays he has written and the lectures he has delivered he has made himself outstanding in work for the general improvement of the English stage. In fact it is hardly too much to speak of him as a propagandist for the theatre. He has interested himself not only in such things as copy

right, censorship, and national support for the theatre, but perhaps even more in the attitude of ordinary men and women toward the drama. In 1895 appeared The Renascence of the English Drama; in 1912 Foundations of a National Theatre; and more recently (1919) Patriotism and Popular Education. Jones's own plays, while including tragedy and melodrama, are most distinctive as carrying on the tradition of the fine satire and the high comedy. of Congreve and Sheridan. He owes little to foreign \ influence. Beginning with several short plays, written largely in collaboration with others, in 1882 he achieved his first great success with the melodrama, The Silver King, which deserved attention by reason of its welldirected dialogue and its swift succession of startling situations. Encouraged and made more free by this success, with Saints and Sinners (1884) Jones struck the real keynote of his later work, giving a criticism of society which showed more than usual foreign influence upon his work. Outstanding in the long list of plays since this strong drama are Judah (1890), a characteristic production with figures good and bad, The Masqueraders (1894), a searching study of social types marked by unflinching realism, The Liars (1897), a comedy of manners with much clever construction and dialogue, Mrs. Dane's Defence (1900), the story of a sinning woman who in a new community endeavors to live down her past, and The Hypocrites (1906). To these must be added the tragic and baffling play, Michael and his Lost Angel (1896), a favorite of the author among his works but hardly a stage success. With such worthy productions has Henry Arthur Jones made his contribution to the dramatic renascence that he ever longed to see and of which he has been so large a part.

91. George Bernard Shaw.-Quite as representative as Pinero and Jones of the age in which he lives (though frequently representing that age on the negative side) is George Bernard Shaw (1856-), one of those remarkable individuals whose personalities somehow take precedence over their work, however brilliant or clever their work may be. At the age of twenty Shaw went from his native Dublin to London, and for fully twenty years thereafter labored as journalist, lecturer, novelist, playwright, and critic of art, music and the drama, before any real success came to him. Meanwhile he identified himself with various unpopular causes; he became a champion of Ibsen, and his general sympathy for socialism tempered much of his later work. Even as a member of the Fabian Society, however, there was something intensely practical-something common sense-about his attack on capitalism that distinguished him from the emotional revolutionist and that made the common crowd instinctively draw away from him. Afterwards in life, as in this case, he generally was not where people thought he was. Any attempt at the interpretation of George Bernard Shaw, however, is dangerous, and he would probably be the first to say it is all wrong. For him the theatre has been largely simply a means to an end, an instrument through which he might speak his message to the world. The world, however, was slow to hear him. His plays won no real success before they were formally published-as Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant (two volumes, 1898) and Plays for Puritans (1900). The stage directions, the descriptions, and the personal touch given in this form attracted the public and eventually built up an audience. Said Shaw in closing the preface to the first of these publications: "A word as

to why I have labeled the three plays in this first volume Unpleasant. The reason is pretty obvious: their dramatic power is used to force the spectator to face unpleasant facts. No doubt all plays which deal sincerely with humanity must wound the monstrous conceit which it is the business of romance to flatter." The plays thus brought together and those that came afterwards were generally in keeping with the principle here laid down. Widowers' Houses (1892) arraigns a society that permits property owners to support their luxuries by the high rents imposed on poor people; The Philanderer (1892) is a satire directed against those who fear the full logic of Ibsen; Mrs. Warren's Profession (1902, printed 1898) thrust before the public some of the causes of prostitution; Arms and the Man (1894) satirizes the extravagant and romantic admiration with which the soldier is invested; Candida (1897), probably the dramatist's strongest acting play, is largely concerned with social reform and questions of sex; The Man of Destiny (1897) makes an attack on heroworship by belittling Napoleon; The Devil's Disciple (1897), a shrewd study of the good and bad in humanity, is essentially a criticism of melodrama; Man and Superman (1903), which really marks a new stage in the work of the dramatist-one of emphasis on mental states—is a pitiless dissection of love and home; John Bull's Other Island (1903) is a detached treatment of the author's native Ireland that adds to the viewpoint of a British citizen something of the Irishman's humor; The Doctor's Dilemma (1906) through many episodes makes an attack on the professional man; Fanny's First Play 1911), one of the dramatist's most popular and characteristic productions, shows a play in progress and gives much oppor