_Uniform with This Volume_ Studies in Stagecraft _By_ CLAYTON HAMILTON _Second Printing_ CONTENT: The New Art of Making Plays. The Pictorial Stage. The Decorative Drama. The Drama of Illusion. The Modern Art of Stage Direction. A Plea for a New Type of Play. The Period of Pragmatism. The Undramatic Drama. The Value of Stage Conventions. The Supernatural Drama. The Irish National Theatre. The Personality of the Playwright. Themes and Stories of the Stage. Plausibility in Plays. Infirmity of Purpose. Where to Begin a Play. Continuity of Structure. Rhythm and Tempo. The Plays of Yesteryear. A New Defense of Melodrama. The Art of the Moving-Picture Play. The One-Act Play in America. Organizing an Audience. The Function of Dramatic Criticism. _$1.50 net_ HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY NEW YORK THE THEORY OF THE THEATRE AND OTHER PRINCIPLES OF DRAMATIC CRITICISM BY CLAYTON HAMILTON AUTHOR OF "MATERIALS AND METHODS OF FICTION" NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY _Published April, 1910_ TO BRANDER MATTHEWS MENTOR AND FRIEND WHO FIRST AWAKENED MY CRITICAL INTEREST IN THE THEORY OF THE THEATRE PREFACE Most of the chapters which make up the present volume have already appeared, in earlier versions, in certain magazines; and to the editors of _The Forum_, _The North American Review_, _The Smart Set_, and _The Bookman_, I am indebted for permission to republish such materials as I have culled from my contributions to their pages. Though these papers were written at different times and for different immediate circles of subscribers, they were all designed from the outset to illustrate certain steady central principles of dramatic criticism; and, thus collected, they afford, I think, a consistent exposition of the most important points in the theory of the theatre. The introductory chapter, entitled _What is a Play?_, has not, in any form, appeared in print before; and all the other papers have been diligently revised, and in many passages entirely rewritten. C.H. NEW YORK CITY: 1910. CONTENTS THE THEORY OF THE THEATRE CHAPTER PAGE I. WHAT IS A PLAY? 3 II. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THEATRE AUDIENCES 30 III. THE ACTOR AND THE DRAMATIST 59 IV. STAGE CONVENTIONS IN MODERN TIMES 73 V. ECONOMY OF ATTENTION IN THEATRICAL PERFORMANCES 95 VI. EMPHASIS IN THE DRAMA 112 VII. THE FOUR LEADING TYPES OF DRAMA 127 VIII. THE MODERN SOCIAL DRAMA 133 OTHER PRINCIPLES OF DRAMATIC CRITICISM