_United States._--American dramatists have shown on their own account a progressive tendency, quite as marked as that which we have been tracing in England. Down to about 1890 the influence of France had been even more predominant in America than in England. The only American dramatist of eminence, Bronson Howard (1842-1908), was a disciple, though a very able one, of the French school. A certain stirring of native originality manifested itself during the 'eighties, when a series of semi-improvised farces, associated with the names of two actor-managers, Harrigan and Hart, depicted low life in New York with real observation, though in a crude and formless manner. About the same time a native style of popular melodrama began to make its appearance--a play of conventional and negligible plot, which attracted by reason of one or more faithfully observed character-types, generally taken from country life. _The Old Homestead_, written by Denman Thompson, who himself acted in it, was the most popular play of this class. Rude as it was, it distinctly foreshadowed that faithfulness to the external aspects, at any rate, of everyday life, in which lies the strength of the native American drama. It was at a sort of free theatre in Boston that James A. Herne (1840-1901) produced in 1891 his realistic drama of modern life, _Margaret Fleming_, which did a great deal to awaken the interest of literary America in the theatrical movement. Herne, an actor and a most accomplished stage-manager, next produced a drama of rural life in New England, _Shore Acres_ (1892), which made an immense popular success. It was a play of the _Old Homestead_ type, but very much more coherent and artistic. His next play, _Griffith Davenport_ (1898), founded on a novel, was a drama of life in Virginia during the Civil War, admirable in its strength and quiet sincerity; while in his last work, _Sag Harbour_ (1900), Herne returned to the study of rustic character, this time in Long Island. Herne showed human nature in its more obvious and straightforward aspects, making no attempt at psychological subtlety; but within his own limits he was an admirable craftsman. The same preoccupation with local colour is manifest in the plays of Augustus M. Thomas, a writer of genuine humour and originality. His localism announces itself in the very titles of his most popular plays--_Alabama_, _In Mizzoura_, _Arizona_. He also made a striking success in _The Witching Hour_, a play dealing with the phenomena of hypnotism and suggestion. Clyde Fitch (1865-1909), an immensely prolific playwright of indubitable ability, after becoming known by some experiments in quasi-historic drama (notably _Nathan Hale_, 1898; _Barbara Frietchie_, 1899), devoted himself mainly to social drama on the French model, in which his most notable efforts have been _The Climbers_ (1900), _The Truth_ (1906), and _The Girl with the Green Eyes_ (1902). In popular drama, with elaborate scenic illustration, William Gillette (b.