Their aim, as I understand
it, is to procure the erection, and the due working, of a playhouse
that shall serve in permanence the best interests of the literary or
artistic drama. The municipal theatre is not worth fighting for,
unless there is a reasonable probability that its establishment will
benefit dramatic art, promote the knowledge of dramatic literature,
and draw from the literary drama and confer on the public the largest
beneficial influence which the literary drama is capable of
distributing.
None of Shakespeare's countrymen or countrywomen can deny with a good
grace the importance of the drama as a branch of art. None will
seriously dispute that our dramatic literature, at any rate in its
loftiest manifestation, has contributed as much as our armies or our
navies or our mechanical inventions to our reputation through the
world.
There is substantial agreement among enlightened leaders of public
opinion in all civilised countries that great drama, when fitly
represented in the theatre, offers the rank and file of a nation
recreation which brings with it moral, intellectual, and spiritual
advantage.
II
The first question to consider is whether in England the existing
theatrical agencies promote for the general good the genuine interests
of dramatic art.
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