Until fairly recent times the acting class was recruited mainly from those who were either born to it or who drifted into it more or less as a matter of chance. Here, too, the nineteenth century saw a change. Partly as a cause and partly as a result of the improved social standing of the actor, ambitious men and women of good family in increasing numbers adopted the stage as a profession. Again, the latter-day recognition of the stage found a significant expression, in England, in the knighting of a succession of distinguished actors and dramatists: Henry Irving, Squire Bancroft, Arthur Wing Pinero, John Hare, Charles Wyndham, George Alexander, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Johnston Forbes-Robertson. In their own country, and, as one may as well admit, in America too, the knighting of actors could not fail further to dignify the calling. All of these causes have acted and interacted, through the years, to help bring the actor and the actress to a point of public interest and esteem that is reached by few of the world’s “authentic benefactors.” Most important of all, however, as a cause of their progress to something very like adulation has been the increasingly strong position of the theatre as the artistic meeting ground of all the people. The drama of 1660 was the amusement of a restricted class; now it is the universal art. Its skilled exponents, affected by a strong general interest, cannot fail to receive,--unless they willfully reject it--the respect and admiration of their contemporaries. BIBLIOGRAPHY Of the large number of books that deal, exclusively or incidentally, with theatrical biography, the following may be named as especially readable, and as offering further reading in the field covered by the present volume: Anderson, Mary, _A Few Memories_, New York, 1896. Archer, William, _The Theatrical World_, 5 vols. London, 1893–97. Baker, Henry Barton, _Our Old Actors_, 2 vols. London, 1878. Bernhardt, Sarah, _Memories of My Life_, New York, 1907. Clapp, Henry Austin, _Reminiscences of a Dramatic Critic_, Boston, 1902. Clapp, John Bouvé, and Edwin Francis Edgett, _Players of the Present_, 3 parts. (In Dunlap Society Publications.) New York, 1899–1901. Cook, Dutton, _Hours with the Players_, 2 vols. London, 1881. Doran, John, _Annals of the English Stage_, London, 1888. 3 vols. (Edited and revised by Robert W. Lowe.) Eaton, Walter Prichard, _At the New Theatre and Others_, Boston, 1910. Faxon, Frederick W. (Editor), _The Dramatic Index_; (An Annual Index of Books and Magazine Articles.) Boston, 1908– Fyvie, John, _Comedy Queens of the Georgian Era_, New York, 1907. Fyvie, John, _Tragedy Queens of the Georgian Era_, New York, 1909. Huret, Jules, _Sarah Bernhardt_ (Translated by G. A. Raper), London, 1899. Huret, Jules, _Loges et Coulisses_, Paris, 1901. Mapes, Victor, _Duse and the French_, New York, 1899. (In Dunlap Society Publications.)