TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book. _Books by Brander Matthews_ These Many Years, Recollections of a New Yorker BIOGRAPHIES Shakspere as a Playwright Molière, His Life and His Works ESSAYS AND CRITICISMS The Principles of Playmaking French Dramatists of the 19th Century Pen and Ink, Essays on subjects of more or less importance Aspects of Fiction, and other Essays The Historical Novel, and other Essays Parts of Speech, Essays on English The Development of the Drama Inquiries and Opinions The American of the Future, and other Essays Gateways to Literature, and other Essays On Acting A Book About the Theater The Principles of Playmaking, and other Discussions of the Drama Essays on English The Tocsin of Revolt and other Essays Playwrights on Playmaking, and other Studies of the Stage Vignettes of Manhattan; Outlines in Local Color PLAYWRIGHTS ON PLAYMAKING AND OTHER STUDIES OF THE STAGE PLAYWRIGHTS ON PLAYMAKING AND OTHER STUDIES OF THE STAGE BY BRANDER MATTHEWS MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PROFESSOR OF DRAMATIC LITERATURE IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS NEW YORK · LONDON 1923 Copyright, 1923, by CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS Printed in the United States of America Published September, 1923 [Illustration: (colophon)] TO THE MEMORY OF E. L. BURLINGAME My Friend for more than Forty Years PREFATORY NOTE As I have trod the long trail which leads slowly to the summit of three score years and ten, and as I am now swiftly descending into the dim valley beyond, this sheaf of essays is probably the last that I shall garner; and my septuagenarian vanity prompts me to set down here the theories of the theater that I have made my own after half a century of playgoing and of persistent effort to spy out the secrets of stage-craft. To me these theories appear so indisputable and, indeed, so obvious that I am ever surprized when I chance to see them challenged. They are not many, and they can be declared briefly. I. The drama is an art, the laws of which (like those of all the other arts) are unchanging through the ages, altho their application has varied from century to century and from country to country.