The atmosphere of Tchekov’s plays is laden with gloom, but it is a darkness of the last hour before the dawn begins. His note is not in the least a note of despair: it is a note of invincible trust in the coming day. The burden of his work is this--life is difficult, there is nothing to be done but to work and to continue to work as cheerfully as one can; and his triumph as a playwright is that for the first time he has shown in prose,--for the great poets have done little else,--behind the footlights, what it is that makes life difficult. Life is too tremendous, too cheerful, and too sad a thing to be condensed into an abstract problem of lines and alphabetical symbols; and those who in writing for the stage attempt to do this, achieve a result which is both artificial and tedious. Tchekov disregarded all theories and all rules which people have hitherto laid down as the indispensable qualities of stage writing; he put on the stage the things which interested him because they were human and true; things great or infinitesimally small; as great as love and as small as a discussion as to what are the best _hors d’œuvres_; and they interest us for the same reason. FOOTNOTES: [24] Two volumes of selections from his stories have been admirably translated by Mr. Long. [25] It proved a success. [26] The dramatic critics of these newspapers are not the Mr. William Archers, the Mr. Walkleys, not the Faguets or the Lemaîtres of Russia, if any such exist. I have never come across anything of interest in their articles; on the other hand, they are perhaps more representative of public opinion. [27] Since this was written Mr. Shaw’s genius has had greater justice done to it in Russia. His _Cæsar and Cleopatra_ has proved highly successful. It was produced at the State Theatre of Moscow in the autumn of 1909 and is still running as I write. Several intelligent articles were written on it in the Moscow press. [28] Not to mention many modern French comedies, such as those of Lemaître, Capus, etc. _Printed by_ MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED _Edinburgh_ Transcriber’s Notes A few minor omissions and inconsistencies in punctuation have been fixed. The chapter on Dostoievky was properly renumbered to VI instead of IV.