Do existing theatrical agencies secure for the nation
all the beneficial influence that is derivable from the truly
competent form of drama? If they do this sufficiently, it is otiose
and impertinent to entertain the notion of creating any new theatrical
agency.
Theatrical agencies of the existing type have never ignored the
literary drama altogether. Among actor-managers of the past
generation, Sir Henry Irving devoted his high ability to the
interpretation of many species of literary drama--from that by
Shakespeare to that by Tennyson. At leading theatres in London there
have been produced in the last few years poetic dramas written in
blank verse on themes drawn from such supreme examples of the world's
literature as Homer's _Odyssey_ and Dante's _Inferno_. Signs have not
been wanting of public anxiety to acknowledge with generosity these
and other serious endeavours in poetic drama, whatever their precise
degree of excellence. But such premisses warrant no very large
conclusion. Two or three swallows do not make a summer. The literary
drama is only welcomed to the London stage at uncertain intervals;
most of its life is passed in the wilderness.
The recognition that is given in England to literary or poetic drama,
alike of the past and present, is chiefly notable for its
irregularity.
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