1856), David Belasco (b. 1859) and Charles Klein (b. 1867) have done notable work. William Vaughn Moody (b. 1869) produced in _The Great Divide_ (1907) a play of somewhat higher artistic pretensions; Eugene Walter in _Paid in Full_ (1908) and _The Easiest Way_ (1909) dealt vigorously with characteristic themes of modern life; and Edward Sheldon produced in _Salvation Nell_ a slum drama of very striking realism. The poetic side of drama was mainly represented by Percy Mackaye (b. 1875), whose _Jeanne d'Arc_ (1906) and _Sappho and Phaon_ showed a high ambition and no small literary power. On the whole it may be said that, though the financial conditions of the American stage are even more unfortunate than those which prevail in England, they have failed to check a very strong movement towards nationalism in drama. Season by season, America writes more of her own plays, good or bad, and becomes less dependent on imported work, whether French or English. (W. A.) (g) _German Drama._ The history of the German drama differs widely from that of the English, though a close contact is observable between them at an early point, and again at relatively recent points, in their annals. The dramatic literature of Germany, though in its beginnings intimately connected with the great national movement of the Reformation, soon devoted its efforts to a sterile imitation of foreign models; while the popular stage, persistently suiting itself to a robust but gross taste, likewise largely due to the influence of foreign examples, seemed destined to a hopeless decay. The literary and the acted drama were thus estranged from one another during a period of extraordinary length; nor was it till the middle of the 18th century that, with the opening of a more hopeful era for the life and literature of the nation, the reunion of dramatic literature and the stage began to accomplish itself. Before the end of the same century the progress of the German drama in its turn began to influence that of other nations, and by the widely comprehensive character of its literature, as well as by the activity of its stage, to invite a steadily increasing interest. The Latin drama in Germany. The Jesuit drama.