Manners and customs are different. Theatrical conventions and theatrical equipment have made tremendous strides since the first London theater was built in 1576. Audiences that laughed at the robust satire of Aristophanes' The Frogs were hardly the same type of audiences that to-day crowd to see Galsworthy's Loyalties, Barrie's What Every Woman Knows, or Vane's Outward Bound. But these same audiences also crowd to see Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and The Merchant of Venice; and our best actors and actresses like to appear in these. There must be some reason for the longevity of these perennial favorites. What is it? Reasons for permanent popularity continue to A play may be of permanent tainment To begin with, the permanent worth of a play depends in no small measure on the purpose for which it was written. Broadly speaking, of course, all plays are written for entertainment; there is no reason why they should not be produced as long as they entertain the public. In the hands of spirited actors, She Stoops to Conquer, The School for value as enter- Scandal, and The Rivals still remain good entertainment; as such they will probably continue to be revived. Probably many contemporary light comedies like Tarkington's Clarence, Kaufman's Dulcy, or Craven's The First Year will be revived years from now for the same reason. But most plays that live have deeper qualities than that of amusement. Many of them live for the story they tell because it is a story which is as likely to appeal to one age as to another. Romeo and Juliet will value as a story live because it is the story of young love; until another play manages to develop the same theme with the same lyrical intensity, it will be preeminent. The Merchant of Venice has an improbable story, but it is so rich in characterization and so filled with suspense that it will always be a good acting play; audiences seem never to tire of it. Any contemporary play that thus tells a good story well A play may be of permanent . A play may be of permanent value as a study of character has an equal chance of longevity, unless, of course, another dramatist offers a better version of the same general theme. Other plays live for the characters they create. The Merchant of Venice will live so long as there are actors because Shylock is a powerful character that can be made impressive by an actor of even average ability. Hamlet will always fascinate actors and audiences because the more one studies the melancholy Dane, the more interesting he becomes. Cyrano de Bergerac has a most compelling central figure in addition to splendor of style. Julius Cæsar has at least three acting parts of almost equal importance. Any actress with brains and ability is likely to wish to portray Nora Helmer in A Doll's House, Rebecca West in Rosmersholm, or Hedda Gabler in the play of that name; the very complexities and difficulties of these rôles attract them. In like manner Beau Brummell, Dulcy, Merton Gill, and The Emperor Jones offer opportunities for which any actor would be grateful. And parts like Portia, Rosalind, Beatrice, Viola, Juliet, Ophelia, Cordelia, Cleopatra, and Lady Macbeth will make up an almost inexhaustible store of opportunities for actresses for centuries to come. A play may be of permanent value as an exposition of an idea Some plays live purely because of their theme. The weaknesses at which Molière aimed his shafts of satire were not wholly weaknesses of his time; they are weaknesses inherent in human nature; and so long as human nature remains fundamentally unchanged, Tartuffe, L'Avare, and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme will be of permanent value. The theme of the Edipus Rex of Sophocles is an eternal one, for, like Edipus, no man can wholly escape the common heritage of his kind. Like Hamlet, men will always find something in their natures too weak for the perfect accomplishment of the tasks set before them. Unbridled ambition, lust, jealousy, revenge, Examples of themes of temporary interest versus themes of permanent interest patriotism, love, and self-sacrifice will always be themes that humanity can understand; when they are set forth as powerfully as they are in Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Cæsar, Romeo and Juliet, and Measure for Measure, there is little likelihood that the play which embodies them will ever die. On the other hand, should the problem of labor and capital be satisfactorily solved, Galsworthy's Strije would cease be of permanent interest. Should the evils he attacks in Justice and The Silver Box disappear, these plays would lose their present significance. Already the aggressive feminism of some of Ibsen's heroines is becoming a bit old-fashioned; the theme of A Doll's House, which once caused a furore, does not now attract a passing comment. But What Every Woman Knows about men in the play she will probably always know; and the theme of that play will consequently be eternally interesting. The attitude toward aristocracy and democracy illustrated by The Admirable Crichton is a fundamental attitude, not likely to be changed by time; hence the play is likely to endure. That little masterpiece Riders to the Sea will be as fundamentally true a thousand years from now as it is to-day; its tragedy of simple men who are victims of the great forces of nature is likely to be an eternal one. Depth and truth To sum up, the real reason for permanent value in the drama, as in all literature, is the depth and truth with which it portrays thoughts and feelings and problems that are of universal significance. It is because he can thus reveal the human heart superlatively well that Shakespeare is called the greatest writer of all ages. He is unique in his power to reveal the secret places of our souls in phrase after phrase of almost miraculous insight. That is why we go back to his plays again long after their machine-made plots, their stretches of tedious foolery, and their passages of undeniable bombast have ceased to interest us. It is unlikely that any human being would ever be placed in the somewhat unbelievable situations in which the characters of Hamlet, for example, find themselves. But far too many human beings have felt "the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely That patient merit of the unworthy takes," and all have felt that "dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country from whose bourne and have regarded with wonder "this most excellent canopy the air, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire." We have all speculated with fascination on the subject of death; we have known "what 'tis to love;" we have felt the insidious grasp on our souls of that monster, habit, "who doth all sense eat"; and we, too, have felt "how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem all the uses of the world." Indeed it has become a commonplace to say that the play of Hamlet covers the gamut of all the emotions, save one, that man has felt. Every man, in truth, is Hamlet; and every man sees himself in Hamlet. The conflicting emotions, the perplexities of the character are universal, hence its universal fascination. The same universal, permanent appeal is found in most of Shakespeare's plays, whether it be the rapture of young love in Romeo and Juliet, the irresponsible gaiety of As You Like It, the boisterous good fellowship of Sir Toby and his companions "rousing the night owl with a catch" in Twelfth Night, the unbridled, savage outbursts of human passions and the pitiless pelting of the storm in King Lear, or the peaceful acquiescence of Prospero in The Tempest: we are such stuff As dreams are made on; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.” In the last analysis, if a drama has depth and truth it will live. EXERCISES Exercise 1 Compare the stage directions in a contemporary play with those in a play by Shakespeare. In what respects do the stage directions in the contemporary play help the reader? Exercise 2 Rewrite a scene from one of Shakespeare's plays adding stage directions and comments in the manner of Sir James Barrie or George Bernard Shaw. Try to make these comments an aid to the reader in visualizing scenes and characters, in understanding motives, and in catching the spirit of the play. Exercise 3 What practical difficulties necessarily face the producer of any one of the following plays: If you were the stage-manager, what practical suggestions should you make for the arrangement of the stage, for properties, for |