JONES

jones, henry arthur (1851- ), english dramatist, was born at grandborough, buckinghamshire, on the 28th of september 1851 the son of silvanus jones, a farmer. he began to earn his living early, his spare time being given to literary pursuits. he was twenty-seven before his first piece, _only round the corner_, was produced at the exeter theatre, but within four years of his debut as a dramatist he scored a great success by _the silver king_ (november 1882), written with henry herman, a melodrama produced by wilson barrett at the princess's theatre. its financial success enabled the author to write a play "to please himself." _saints and sinners_ (1884), which ran for two hundred nights, placed on the stage a picture of middle-class life and religion in a country town, and the introduction of the religious element raised considerable outcry. the author defended himself in an article published in the _nineteenth century_ (january 1885), taking for his starting-point a quotation from the preface to moliere's _tartuffe_. his next serious piece was _the middleman_ (1889), followed by _judah_ (1890), both powerful plays, which established his reputation. later plays were _the dancing girl_ (1891), _the crusaders_ (1891), _the bauble shop_ (1893), _the tempter_ (1893), _the masqueraders_ (1894), _the case of rebellious susan_ (1894), _the triumph of the philistines_ (1895), _michael and his lost angel_ (1896), _the rogue's comedy_ (1896), _the physician_ (1897), _the liars_ (1897), _carnac sahib_ (1899), _the manoeuvres of jane_ (1899), _the lackeys' carnival_ (1900), _mrs dane's defence_ (1900), _the princess's nose_ (1902), _chance the idol_ (1902), _whitewashing julia_ (1903), _joseph entangled_ (1904), _the chevalier_ (1904), &c. a uniform edition of his plays began to be issued in 1891; and his own views of dramatic art have been expressed from time to time in lectures and essays, collected in 1895 as _the renascence of the english drama_.