I. THE SHOW BUSINESS 1 II. THE LIMITATIONS OF THE STAGE 17 III. A MORAL FROM A TOY THEATER 37 IV. WHY FIVE ACTS? 55 V. DRAMATIC COLLABORATION 77 VI. THE DRAMATIZATION OF NOVELS AND THE NOVELIZATION OF PLAYS 93 VII. WOMEN DRAMATISTS 111 VIII. THE EVOLUTION OF SCENE-PAINTING 127 IX. THE BOOK OF THE OPERA 153 X. THE POETRY OF THE DANCE 169 XI. THE PRINCIPLES OF PANTOMIME 185 XII. THE IDEAL OF THE ACROBAT 201 XIII. THE DECLINE AND FALL OF NEGRO-MINSTRELSY 217 XIV. THE UTILITY OF THE VARIETY-SHOW 235 XV. THE METHOD OF MODERN MAGIC 251 XVI. THE LAMENTABLE TRAGEDY OF PUNCH AND JUDY 271 XVII. THE PUPPET-PLAY, PAST AND PRESENT 287 XVIII. SHADOW-PANTOMIME, WITH ALL THE MODERN IMPROVEMENTS 303 XIX. THE PROBLEM OF DRAMATIC CRITICISM 319 ILLUSTRATIONS Le ballet de la reine _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE Upper half of Plate No. 1, the 'Miller and His Men' 40 A group of the principal characters from Pollock's juvenile drama, the 'Miller and His Men' 42 Explosion of the mill. A back drop in the 'Miller and His Men' 46 Plate No. 7, the 'Miller and His Men' 48 Lower half of Plate No. 5, the 'Miller and His Men' 52 The Roman Theater at Orange 134 The multiple set of the French medieval stage 134 The set of the Italian comedy of masks 134 An outdoor entertainment in the gardens of the Pitti Palace in Florence in the early sixteenth century 136 The set for the opera of 'Persée' (as performed at the Opéra in Paris in the seventeenth century) 140 A prison (designed by Bibiena in Italy in the eighteenth century) 140 The screen scene of the 'School for Scandal' at Drury Lane in 1778 144 A landscape set 146 A set for the opera of 'Robert le Diable' 146