DRAMA

the period roro-25 was one of para- mount importance in the history of the drama and of the theatre, both in europe and in america. in those 15 years the theatre passed through several grave vicissitudes. it rose and fell and rose again. the revolution made by ibsen had become almost a convention, and a most diversified drama was everywhere being performed, except in france, where the theatre in every respect remained unaffected by the march of events. a general survey dramatists were tiring of old themes and were assiduously searching for new ones. they were not any longer content to re- peat worn stories in worn words, but were striving to extend the range of their interest and thought. old machinery was either being repaired or broken. the method of producing a play, whereby the actor was largely left to his own devices, was being replaced by a new method, whereby the actor was directed in every detail of his performance by a “ producer,” who professed to interpret the play in accordance with the intentions of the author. attempts were made, with success, to obtain balanced performances by moderating the transports of the “ star ” sys- tem, under which balance and nearly everything else were sacri- ficed to the vanity of the principal performer. new sorts of scen- ery were invented, some of which were effective and beautiful, many of which were neither one nor the other, and “ production ” became, for a time, more important than the play itself or the performance. reformers were often excessively zealous, and in their im- patience with obsolete machines were rash enough to destroy them before they had properly installed new ones or mastered their technicalities or, more important, perhaps, made the public accustomed to them. audiences which had been nourished on east lynne and the lights of london and “ actor-managered ” shakespeare suddenly found their diet changed to the tragedy of nan and the doctor’s dilemma and shakespeare done in his entirety before curtains of a dismal hue. lovers of musical come- dy and melodrama were invited to transfer their affections to sophocles and ibsen and strindberg and john galsworthy and bernard shaw. in the consequent confusion of mind, tempers and money were lost; the reformers became more scornfully di- dactic and educative and professorial; and the modest multi- tudes, obstinately resolved not to be improved by anybody, drama departed to the music-halls and the cinemas. nevertheless, im- provement was made. in england, the long and valuable do- minion oyer the theatre held by sir arthur pinero and henry arthur jones yielded to the different dominion of george bernard shaw and john galsworthy. conservative managers received original work with less hesitation and hostility than had formerly been their habit. there even were managers who encouraged the revolutionaries. the influence of moscow.—in russia, the theatre had been re- formed in a singular and successful manner. the activities of a band of amateur actors and actresses, performing at first in a barn on a country estate and afterwards in any available hall, culminated in the establishment of the moscow art theatre by constantin stanislavsky and vladimir nemirovich-danchenko, of which a most valuable account is given in stanislavsky’s book, my life in art. this theatre resembled many others that were widely influential—for example the abbey theatre in dublin and the theatre guild of new york—in this respect, that it was founded by lovers of the theatre who were technically entitled to be called amateurs. there was not a professional man of the theatre among them. none of them had any “ practical ” experi- ence of management or production, or acting. their chicf assets were enthusiasm and malleable minds. they had hardly any money and were often in danger of dissolution through debt. ‘““ practical ’’? men of the theatre openly derided them, but in the end it was the “ practical ’? men who either were ruined or had to surrender to the inexperienced amateurs. the ‘ practical ” men were found to be living on the experience of others, whereas the amateurs were busy making experience for themselves. the moscow art theatre has profoundly influenced the theatre throughout the world. it changed the theatre in russia. the old, rhetorical style of acting quickly gave place to the new and vera- cious style, called naturalistic acting. there was even a tendency to be over-natural: actors forgot that acting is not an exhibition of ordinary behaviour, but an intensified representation of ordi- nary behaviour—life, as it were, shown uader a magnifying-glass. the old sin was excess: the new sin was insufficiency. formerly the actor ranted and roared; now he mumbled and whispered. over-emphasis was replaced by under-statement, and mechani- cally neat performances gave way to slovenly ones. these were faults which endangered the new theatre, but they were de- tected in time to be corrected. producers still try to treat the actor as a puppet to be directed in every detail of his performance, but that, too, is a fault which is less common than it was in the first days of the revolution. the moscow art theatre had an indirect influence on the english theatre. it was in its turn brought under english in- fluence. acting in england became steadily more natural and easy until it was made into a nearly perfect instrument for the performance of polished comedy. testimony everywhere was unanimous that english actors had an assurance in comedy far beyond that of any other actors. this ease, however, made them less capable of acting in tragic or poctic plays, and a result of it was that a demand for light and pleasant pieces dealing with the customs and manners of the upper classes was made by managers, and the note of the english theatre became in time predominantly that of agreeable and accomplished comedy. that was not the effect of naturalistic acting in russia where the comedy, when there was any at all, became introspective and perturbed. the influence of chekhov.—out of the storm made by the mos- cow art theatre came the figure of anton chekhov (q.2.) to be the master that others should follow; but his laughter was so acrid and his satire so terribly and uncompromisingly true that he is still considered to be pessimistic and gloomy. if naturalistic acting in england resolved itself more and more into a drawing- room entertainment in which expensively dressed people lived and ate and idled in an expensive manner, it resolved itself in russia into a painful foreboding about the future until every real- ist seemed to be a prophet of woe and disaster. this bitter satire was, oddly enough, observable in ireland where the dramatists became more and more acutely critical of their countrymen as their countrymen became more secure and prosperous until at 867 last, after the establishment of the irish free state, a dramatist, mr. sean o'casey, arose from the ranks of dublin working-men and poured out the common feeling in profuse strains of pre- meditated bitterness and disillusionment. one could make a comparison between the irish and the russian people which would show them to be remarkably alike in many respects, and mr. o’casev’s plays, the shadow of a gunman and juno and the payeock, would support the comparison. the manner of mr. o’casey, making allowance for differences of habit and local circumstances, resembles the manner of chekhov. each is a humorist who surveys the human scene with such fidelity to fact that he seems to be in irredecmable despair. there is laughter in their work, but it is laughter that is full of pain. reinhardt and gordon craig —in america, the theatre was a cauldron wherein was boiled the drama of europe in the hope that something american might emerge. in germany, the drama was mainly a matter of grouping and lighting and experimental act- ing. people talked less of gerhardt hauptmann and hermann sudermann than they did of max reinhardt. reinhardt, of whom there is an excellent account in reinhardt und seine biihne, by ernst stern and heinz herald (berlin), derives, as indeed do nearly all the revolutionary producers and scenic artists, from edward gordon craig, the sen of ellen terry. craig has been less fortunate in finding opportunities to work in the theatre than his followers, but he has profoundly affected the work of the theatre everywhere. reinhardt is his greatest and best-known disciple. one of the most impressive productions made by the moscow art theatre was craig’s production of hanlet in tort. it was full of the faults that seem to be associated with all mr. craig’s work, due mainly to a wilful disregard of the limitations of material things, but it undoubtedly impressed all who saw it by its beauty. in england, craig’s influence is widely felt and acknowledged. decorative artists, such as norman wilkinson, claude lovat fraser (d. june 18 1921), hugo rumbold, charles ricketts, albert rutherston, george sheringham, derive from him, as do producers such as harley granville-barker, nigel playfair, james bernard fagan and basil dean, his authority is freely acknowledged in america, among others by lee simon- son, robert edmond jones and rollo peters, although in that country a later school of producers, infected by the opinions of the german expressionists who rose to authority after the end of the world war has arisen. these may be called neo-craigians. the work of these artists and producers will be considered later. it is now mentioned only because of the importance attached to it during the period under review in germany. great britain and [reland in great britain, the period under survey was perhaps one of greater change than in any other country. apart from the temporary, but substantial effect of the world war, other causes of wide influence profoundly affected both the drama as a part of literature and the theatre as a commercial organisation during that period. in the united kingdom great changes in the con- stitution of theatrical enterprises were brought about abruptly and almost catastrophically. the government of the theatre by actor-managers ceased with dramatic suddenness and was replaced by the government of syndicates concerned primarily, if not exclusively, with the production of large profits quickly returned. in those theatres where the actor-manager was not replaced by a commercially minded syndicate, his place was taken by what may be called the producer-manager. the three great actor-managers of the english theatre, sir herbert beerbohm tree, sir george alexander and sir charles wyndham, did not outlive their reign; the era of the actor- manager ended simultaneously with their deccase. tree died july 2 1917; alexander march 16 1918 and wyndham jan. 12 1919. in 18 months the actor-managerial system, which had been immensely powerful, was in ruins, and its chief protagonists, men of ability and taste, were dead, spared from the humiliation of neglect and supersession. it was a system undeniably dis- advantageous to the drama as an art, since it tended to make the play subordinate to the player and restricted many dramatists 868 to the production of plays with good parts for particular persons, but there is no doubt that the actor-managers, especially the three named, were possessed of ambition and much taste and that they worked successfully to restore dignity to the theatre. they were directly associated with many of the most interesting plays that were written during their reign, and tree, alexander and wyndham could claim exemption from the charge so fre- quently and justly brought against irving, of doing nothing whatever to encourage the work of meritable modern english dramatists. sir herbert trcee’s annual shakespearean festival held often at grave financial disadvantage to himself, was a real tribute to taste and culture, despite the serious complaints fairly made about his methods of production. sir george alexander, more than anyone else, made the way to the stage easy for the writer of distinguished comedy and was chiefly responsible for the career as a dramatist of oscar wilde. sir charles wyndham, less consistently ambitious than his colleagues, followed an honourable tradition and was responsible for the redemption of farce from buffoonery. the decline and fall of the actor-managerial system coincided with the disappearance from the centre of london of the older type of music-hall and with the great growth in popularity of the cinema, or picture-palace, or “‘ movies.” almost all of the london suburban theatres and many of the provincial theatres, especially in small towns, became picture-palaces. a variety of reasons caused this change to take place, some of which were financial and others connected with altered taste. the cinemas were at once cheaper and more comfortable than the theatres and they offered a more consistently attractive programme. the inhabitants of a london suburb or a small provincial town were able to sec as good a film at the local cinema as could be seen in a cinema in the centre of london, but they could not hope to see a play performed at the local theatre by a company as capable as that acting in the same play in the west end. adverse effect of the war-—tthe situation, then, at the out- break of the world war was one of extraordinary interest in the english theatre. the theatrical season 1913-4 had closed with considerable brilliance. plays of merit had been extensively per- formed in london and in the provinces, and the repertory theatres were in a fairly healthy condition. a rich level of acting had been discovered. production was on a genuinely artistic scale. the season of 1914-5 seemed likely to open still more brilliantly than the season just concluded. there was even talk of a national theatre at which the plays of shakespeare would be permanently performed. on aug. 4 1914 great britain declared war against germany and immediately the great revival of the english theatre languished and seemed at first in danger of total collapse. many of the repertory theatres soon ceased to exist. in 1921 the gaiety theatre, manchester, passed from the hands of miss horniman to a cinema syndicate. a gallant effort to maintain a decent standard of plays was made by some managers; sir herbert tree revived l. n. parker’s pageant piece, drake, and mr. (now sir) frank r. benson revived henry the fifth in the laudable desire to satisfy patriotic cravings with something of value. granville-barker produced a number of scenes from thomas hardy’s the dynasts at the kingsway. but these at- tempts to keep the theatre on a high level were not successful, and very soon began the process of degencration which was maintained for the whole period of the war. some of the managers gave up their efforts to save the tradition they had established: sir her- bert tree and cyril maude went to america. others such as gerald du maurier remained in london and, with great courage, made a fight for decent drama. among the plays produced by ‘gerald du maurier during the war was a strange piece, very popular, entitled dear bruins by sir james barrie, and a revival of the same author’s a kiss for cinderella. du maurier, more than anyone else during the war, kept faith with fine things finely done. for the first two years of the war, the form of entertainment ‘-inaptly described as ‘‘ revue’”’ was very popular. farces of a ‘bold and even indecent character were next to the revues in ‘popular esteem. oddly enough, certain plays commonly called drama “highbrow ” became popular during the war for reasons which were not concerned with literature. brieux’ banned play, les slvaries, known in england as damaged goods, was licensed by the censor for public performance on the representations mainly of medical men and sociologists, and it was widely patronised in london and the provinces. the artistic value of damaged goods is slight, but its sociological value is indisputably great, and it brought a degree of publicity to the discussion of evils which would have been impossible in england prior to 1914. the suc- cess of this play led to the public performance of brieux’ play. the three daughters of al. dupont, and of ibsen’s ghosts, from which also the ban was removed by the censor. the latter play, however, is not, like damaged goods, a propaganda play and it received little support in spite of its being labelled ‘‘ a play for adults only.” the rule of the censor was considerably relaxed during the war and his ban was removed from shaw’s one-act play, the shewing-up of blanco posnet, but attempts to obtain a licence for mfrs. warren’s profession were unsuccessful. since the conclusion of the war the censor’s rule has been tightened again, but, as a result of the changes made on the recommendations of the joint select committee on stage plays (censorship) 1909, the rule bears rather less arbitrarily on meritable work than it formerly did. the end of the war found the stage in a chaotic condition. the demand for entertainment during the hostilities had been so great that theatre rents rose rapidly to absurd figures: a common rent at any lime between 1915 and 1921 fora theatre in the centre of london was £400 to £500 per week. all other expenses, owing to the high cost of living, increased proportionately, but the price of admission, apart from the entertainment tax imposed during the war (which did not benefit, but rather harmed, the theatre manager) remained at the pre-war figure. slight in- creases, after the armistice, were made in one or two cases, but in 1921 the economic situation in the theatre was that the revenue remained at the pre-war figure while the expenditure was on the post-war scale. such a situation as that is only endurable when the theatre is filled with an audience, each member of which has pail for his seat. the financial burden was too heavy to be borne; and for this reason many meritable pieces which might have been “ nursed ” into popularity were withdrawn almost im- mediately after production because they had not at once taken hold of popular fancy. the plays which suffer from this economic situation are undoubtedly the better kind of plays. those which profit from it are the plays without merit other than that of a spectacular character. the best illustration of the effect of this situation on the drama is to be found in the remarkable popular- ity of chu chin chow, an eastern spectacle written by oscar asche. this piece, a variant of the theme of ali baba and the forty thieves, was produced at his majesty’s theatre, london— a theatre with a serious tradition—on aug. 31 1916. it ran for nearly five years, creating a record of over 2,200 consecutive representations. every device of colour and light and costume was used in this production. the appeal made was almost ex- clusively to the eye, very little to the ear and not at all to the mind. chw chin chow broke all record for consecutive per- formances at one theatre and earned large fortunes for those who were concerned in its production. | in spite, however, of the dificult economic situation, of the change in tradition and government of the theatre, there was a remarkable recovery of quality on the english stage after the signing of the armistice, and plays of quality began to appear, not timidly, but almost arrogantly. a play by galsworthy, the skin game, dealing with the conilict between aristocracy and plu- tocracy (in which both sides are badly besmirched) and suscepti- ble of allegorical application to the war and the treaty of peace, was performed with great success at the st. martin’s; and a political comedy, entitled tie grain of mustard seed, by h. m. harwood, produced at the ambassadors’ had a singularly suc- cessful “‘ run,” singular because of the fact that political plays are rarely acceptable to english audiences. sir james barrie’s afary rose was performed at the haymarket with enormous success. in this play he treated the problem of life after death in drama a fashion which divided playgoers sharply into complete devotees or complete sceptics. the skin gume was successfully produced in america, but ifuryv rese hardly won the favour in new york that it had won in london. the most interesting post-war suc- cess was the popularity with which gay’s the beggar’s opera was revived at the lyric opera house, hammersmith. it was not, however, a success in america. rostand’s cyrano de bergerac was revived with notable success by robert loraine, and bernard shaw’s arms and the amfan, also revived by loraine, had aston- ishing success with ex-soldiers on account of its anti-romantic treatment of war. shakespeare’s plays were extensively produced. a working- class theatre in the waterloo road, london (popularly known as the “ old vic.”), had maintained the standard, of good drama throughout the war, and this theatre, handicapped by lack of funds and rather amateurish acting, steadily built up an audience for good plays. after the armistice its work was amply rewarded. the audiences steadily increased in size until at last the theatre was well occupied at every performance and, on many occasions, was full. the king and queen made a formal visit to the theatre which draws its audience not only from the surrounding slums, but from every part of london. the whole of shakespeare’s plays, in their entirety, have been produced at the “ old vic.” before large audiences, in addition to a variety of classical plays, ranging from greek tragedies to goldsmith’s she stoops te con- quer. the activities of the theatre are not confined to the pro- duction of plays. opera alternates with drama, so that its patrons are able to see not only the best plays, but to hear the best music. the production of shakespearean plays in their entirety was begun soon after the outbreak of the world war in ro14 by the manager of the theatre, miss lilian baylis, in face of the utmost discouragement from every person whom she consulted. her courage was signally rewarded. in 1923, the london county council which had treated the theatre with great for- bearance announced that it could no longer consent to let the “old vic.” remain open unless certain necessary structural alterations and repairs were made. an appeal for £30,000 was made to the public by an influential committee, and about six or seven thousand pounds were soon raised, chiefly in small sums. then the appeal was repeated in the london sunday newspaper, the observer, andasa result of it, mr. george dance, a well-known and successful theatre-manager, made a gift of £30,000 to the theatre, which was relieved of iis structural troubles. mr. dance was knighted. in 1926, an attempt was made to establish another ‘€ old vic.”’ on the north side of london in the theatre popularly known as sadlers’ wells. the building was acquired, and a con- siderable sum of money raised. progress since 1921—the recovery of the theatre from the depres- sion caused by the war did not continue without interruption, a relapse took place, for which profiteering in rent was mainly re- sponsible. the cost of production was so high that only the most popular pieces had any hope of making money for their producers, none of whom was now in a position to ‘‘ nurse ” a play into success. plays which were not profitable from the beginning of their “ run ”’ were almost immediately withdrawn. this state of indecision and uncertainty and bewilderment helped to intensify the misfortunes of the theatrical situation. actors demanded larger salaries than they were formerly accustomed to receive, not because the cost of living had increased, but because the conditions of their employ- ment were intolerably insccure. a player might rehearse without salary for as many as six weeks, only to find that the piece in which he was acting was withdrawn at the end of two or three weeks. there were a number of instances in which withdrawal took place after two or three performances. dramatists, too, were discouraged from writing plays when they found that pieces drawing, perhaps, £1,000 per week to the box office had to be withdrawn because they were not making any profit for their producers. they turned their abilitics to other ways of writing or abandoned all efforts to experi- ment in new forms. this set-back, however, was temporary so far as the quality of the plays and the playgoers were concerned, and a second time the process of recovery was begun, this time with more lasting effects. the profiteering in rent continued, making produc- tion of meritable plays difficult, but even the profiteers were obliged to consider the quality of their productions more carefully than they had done between 1914 and 1920. in 1921 there was a perceptible improvement in the quality of the plays publicly performed. mr. john drinkwater’s -ldraham 869 lincoln, mr. c. k. munro's ai mrs. beamt's, macterlinck’s the betrothal (produced at the home of musical comedy, the gaiety), clemence dane's a bill of divercement, bernard shaw's [euribreak tlouse, lord dunsany’s if, a. a. milne’s the truth about blayds, clemence dane’s hii shakespeare were all produced in this year, and most of them were very popular. : in 1922 the improvement was not so marked, but it continued. in that year, shelley’s the cenci was released from the censor’s ban and performed by sybil thorndike for a fortnight at the new theatre. the following meritable plays were also performed: a. a. milne’s the dover road, somerset maugham's must of sues, sir arthur pinero’s the enchanted cottage, gilda varesit and dolly byrne’s enter madame, alfred sutro’s the great well and the laughing lady, edward percy’s if four walls told, roland pert- wee’s i serve, st. john ervine’s jane clegg, john galsworthy’s loyalties, john drinkwater’s afary stuart, john galsworthy’s windows, and a number of uncommonly good musical plays, of which lilac time was the most notable. in 1923 eugene o'neill, some of whose plays had been performed at the everyman and in the provinces, reached the west end with anna christie. the play had much popularity at the beginning of its run, chiefly because of the admirable acting of pauline lord and george marion, but its popularity did not last long. frederick lonsdale, who was previously known only as the author of musical comedies, began what proved to be a successful career as a writer of social comedies with aren’t we an. the play called back to methuselah by george bernard shaw, which had been done in new york by the theatre guild, was produced for the first time in eeng- land by the birmingham repertory company in birmingham and subsequently at the court, london. flecker’s poctic play, hassan, was a great success in london, but an immediate failure in new york. aplay called 7zavoc, by harry wall was produced by the rep- ertory players and transferred to the haymarket. it was notable for the fact that it was the first play to d2al seriously with thewar, but it was marred by its story. the insect play and r.u.r. by the brothers capek, the green goddess by william archer, the lie, by henry arthur jones, the likes of fer by charles m'evoy, the lilies of the field by j. hastings turner, melloney holtspur by john masefield, oliver cromwell by pjoan drinkwater, our betters by somerset maugham, 7he outsider by dorothy brandon, outward bound by sutton vane, robert e. lee by john drinkwater, taffy by caradoc evans, and the young idea by nocl coward were out- standing plays of this year. the shaw revival—in 1924 miss sybil thorndike produced bernard shaw's five-act play, saint joan, at the new theatre in london. the play, which had been successfully performed for the first time on any stage by the theatre guild of new york some months before this, was immediately successful and ran for a very long time. it was acclaimed as the greatest play shaw had written and was said to be one of the masterpieces of english dramatic literature. saint joan has been translated into many languages and has been performed with great success in almost every european country. the very remarkable success of satnf joan was followed by a “boom ” in shaw plays both in england and amcrica, as well as in various forcign countries. a london theatre, the regent, was devoted to the revival of them, one after the other, and here in 1925 mrs. warren's profession was publicly performed for the first time in england. the play had lain under the censor’s ban for more than a generation. it was found to be entirely innocuous and even old- fashioned. the years 1924 and 1925 were undeniably bernard shaw's, but they were shared by noel coward, a young actor-dramatist who at the age of 25 had made himself an international fgure by his power of portraying the shallow cleverness of neurotic socicty people. most of coward’s plays are short, slight pieces, so flimsily construct- ed that they seem almost to be charades. fallex angels, which caused some scandal on account of its main situation in which two women are shown drinking themselves into a state of intoxication, and jiay fever, an immensely amusing play, brilliantly acted by marie tempest, are so slight that some critics saw in them no niore than revue sketches hastily lengthened into three-acts. coward has remarkable facility in dialogue and a genuine sense of the theatre, but he seemed at first to lack depth and sincerity. these defects of his work, however, were no more than the immaturity of a young writer, for when the vortex was performed his sternest critics were compelled to acknowledge that he could write sincerely and feelingly. this play was successful in london and new york. frederick lonsdale was responsible for a very successful comedy, spring cleaning and, in 1925, for a still more successful one, entitled the last of mfrs. cheney. his plays are notable for the skill with which they are made and for the easiness of their dialogue. they sound no depths, nor are they intended to be more than they are, diverting pieces of the theatre. other plays of quality done in 1924 were the comedy of good and evil by richard hughes, the con- quering iiero by allan monkhouse (another war play), the fake by frederick lonsdale, the farmer's wife by eden phillpots (which ran for more than two years), fula morgana by ernest vajda, the forest by john galsworthy, judas iscariot by i. temple thurston, zhe amfan with a load of mischief by ashley dukes 870 (originally produced by the stage society and afterwards trans- ferred to the haymarket, where it ran for seven months), zhe afask and the face by luigi chiarelli, no man's land by francois de curel, old english by john galsworthy, the pelican by h. m. harwood and f. tennyson jesse, the show-off by george kelly (an american play which unaccountably failed in london), storm by c. k. munro, tiger cais by karen bramson, te [lave the honour by a, a. milne, the way things happen by clemence dane, white cargo by leon gordon, and young imeson by j. r. gregson. there was also a remarkable production of a midsummer night's dream at drury lane, done by basil dean who, for a short while, succeeded arthur collins at that theatre as director. the birming- ham repertory theatre, whose director, barry jackson, was knight- ed in 1925, transferred some of its activities to london where, among other pieces, an interesting production of romeo and juliet was done. this organisation was also responsible for the production in london of rutland boughton’s opera, the immertal hour. nigel playfair at the lyric opera efouse, hammersmith, revived con- greve’s the way of the world in which edith evans gave a dis- tinguished performance, and developed his policy of reviving 18th century operettas, the duenna and lionel and clarissa winning much of the popularity with which the beggar's opera and polly had been received. repertory theatres.—in addition to these productions, there was an immense amount of activity among private play-producing socie- ties, which had increased in number to such an extent that there was almost a performance on every sunday in the theatrical season. the repertory theatres, which had suffered severely in the war, began to revive, and “little theatres ’ of which the most successful was at bristol, under the management of rupert harvey, were started all over the country. the liverpool repertory theatre, which had courageously carried on its work throughout the war and the depressing period which followed it, entered into compara- tive prosperity under the management of william armstrong. in 1910 there were three repertory theatres in the british isles, one in england (the gaiety theatre, manchester, owned by miss a. e. f. horniman), one in scotland (the royalty, directed by alfred warcing) and one in ireland (the abbey, directed by lady gregory and w. lb. yeats). the last was the oldest as it has proved to be the most durable of the three. in addition to these three repertory theatres, there was a most ambitious attempt to establish one in london, at the duke of york’s theatre, where the late charles frohman (who was drowned in the “ lusitania ’’ when it was tor- pedoed by the germans may 7 1915) enlisted the services of harley granville-barker and dion boucicault. the scheme was to estab- lish a repertory theatre more nearly corresponding to the strict definition of one than any of those operating in the provinces, which were identical with what used to be called “ stock '’ companies. mr. frohman's gallant enterprise failed. it lasted for 17 wecks, from feb. 21 to june 17 1910, and during that period eight new plays and two old ones were produced. the names of the plays and their authors are as follows: justice by john galsworthy; afisalli- ance by bernard shaw; old friends by j. m. barrie; the senti- mentalists by george meredith; the 7welve-pound look by j. m. barrie; the afadras house by i. granville-barker; zzeleza’s path by anthony hlope and cosmo gordon-lennox; chains by elizabeth baker; trelawney of the wells by a. w. pinero and prunella by h. granville-barker and laurence housman. three of these plays were in one act (the third, fourth and fifth in the list). the original scheme, of a strictly repertory theatre similar to the comedie francaise, was not maintained, nor does the history of the repertory theatres in great britain and ireland indicate that such a scheme is ever likely to succeed in a country where the people are disinclined to make the research through newspaper advertisements which a programme of irregular performances involves. for good or ill, the system of continuous performances has obtained a hold on the british theatre which will not easily be shaken off and may never be shaken off. trelawney of ihe wells, the most popular of the plays produced during the season, was performed 42 times in a season of 17 weeks, which clearly significs that the promoters of the scheme had to revise their plan, partly to satisfy the public demand and partly to recoup themselves for the losses sustained on the unpopular pieces. a similar history has attended the establishment of other repertory theatres on comedie francaise lines in england, for example, the everyman theatre at hampstead, established in 1920 by norman macdermott and carried on by him until 1926. the repertory theatres steadily increased in number until, at the outbreak of the world war, there were seven of them operating regularly and a number of others operating for short periods during each year. none of these theatres earned large sums of money, some of them, indeed, were constantly embarrassed by insufficient funds. but they performed a most valuable service to young actors and young dramatists: to the first, by giving them continuous and varied employment which, although not highly remunerated, enabled them to become accomplished in their craft; to the second, by giving them the greatest of all instruction to a dramatist, the public per- formance of his work, and by bringing before them the work of established dramatists, british and foreign, which otherwise they would not have known except in book form. ibsen, strindberg, drama hauptmann, schnitzler, maeterlinck, rostand, verhaeren, suder- mann, tolstoi, chekhov, shaw, galsworthy, st. john hankin, gran- ville- barker, arnold bennett and john masefield among the moderns; and isuripides, shakespeare, ben jonson, congreve, beaumont and fletcher, goldsmith and sheridan among the classics—the work, in quantity, of all these writers was brought to the knowledge and even to the intimacy of provincial playgocrs who, but for the rep- ertory theatres, would have had to subsist in the theatre on the more popular of the pieces produced in london and sent on tour. a similar service is performed in america by what are called “ little ”’ or “‘ community ” theatres. | synge and the abbey theatre——out of these repertory theatres came a number of young dramatists, many of them resident in the city in which their plays were first performed, of whom at least one man was a genius, john millington synge (d. 1909} and three men of distinction, stanley houghton (d. 1913), john drinkwater (b. 1882) and lennox robinson (b. oct. 4 1886). synge has been the subject of several biographies of which the principal and most authoritative one is john afillington synge and the irish theatre by maurice bourgeois. he wrote six plays, a hook of poems and trans- lations and some impressionist articles of a newspaper character. two of the plays are in one act, jn the shadow of the glen and riders to the sea. the latter is commonly regarded as the best of his work. once of the plays, deirdre of ihe sorrows, is unfinished. of the remain- ing three, the tinker's wedding (in 2 acts), the well of the saints (in 3 acts) and the playboy of the western world (in 3 acts), the last- named is the most widely known, partly because of its merits, but chictly because of the anger which it aroused among the more sentimental of the irish people who, accustomed to the romantic delusions in which subject or oppressed peoples live, could not endure the romantic realism of this play. a long succession of poets had insisted on one aspect of the celtic character, its idealism and gener- osity and romance, with the result that people disbelieved in the other aspect of it, the cruelty and greed and treacherous materialism. synge, a man without prepossessions or creed, set down what he saw in words of acrid beauty, and the irish people, horribly shocked, pronounced him to be a liar, a degenerate and even a traitor. the violence of their anger against the playboy of the western world died down in time, especially as the play was performed as a farcical comedy, but synge is a man of genius of whom his countrymen, when they take pride in him at all, remain reluctantly proud. he and lennox robinson are the principal products of the abbey theatre, dublin, which includes among its minor dramatists lady gregory, the late william boyle, t. c. murray, padraic colum, the late seumas o'kelly and st. john ervine. w. b. yeats has written plays for the abbey, but dramatic form is intractable in his hands. the world war affected the abbey, but not to as great an extent as it was affected by the internecine war in ireland itself. out of that welter of misery came a new dramatist, a working plasterer, sean ©’casey, who wrote two plays, the shadow of agunman and juno and the paycock, which despite their topical quality, have something of the universal in them. the second of the two plays was produced in london at the royalty theatre in 1925, and had a long run. a third play by o’casey, called the plough and the stars was done at the albeo in 1926, and resulted in a riot in the theatre caused b irish republicans who asserted that o’casey had insulted their dead. the establishment of the irish free state considerably altered the status of the abbey which began to be regarded, unofficially, as a national theatre; and in 1925 the irish govt. made an unconditional grant of £850 to the abbey and of £600 to the gaelic players (an comhar dramufochta). these grants are not annual, but will be considered each year. the grant to the gaclic players is officially described as a © grant in aid ... towards the publication and production of plays in irish.”” these grants are notable becuase they are the first governmental subsidies given to theatres in modern english-speaking communities the intellectual drama.—the record of the english repertory theatres up to the time the world war began was roncit bie and promising. we have now to consider the record of the ordinary com- mercial theatre, and here we discover that the standard of plays produced had been greatly raised. the authority of sir arthur pinero and henry arthur jones, already diminished by the work of oscar wilde, was now yielding to that of shaw and sir james matthew barrie and john galsworthy. a number of young drama- tists of varying quality were appearing, whose allegiance was more definitely given to the school led by shaw than to the school led by sir arthur pinero, and these included granville-barker, the late st. john hankin (d. 1909), charles mcevoy, arnold bennett, john masefickl, cicely tlamilton, githa sowerby and elizabeth baker. what was called the “ intellectual ’’ drama seemed to be established not on a broad basis, but on a basis sufficiently wide to make it steady. shaw and bennett were even able to obtain long “‘ runs" for their plays, and cicely hamilton made a popular success with diana of dobson's. it is true that the * intellectual ’’ drama did not make fortunes for its producers, but it is true also that it did not cause any bankruptcies, and probably, if an accurate statement of accounts could be prepared, the “ intellectual’ drama would be found to have caused less loss of money, relatively and absolutely, than the commercial drama. it might even be found to have paid drama its way. following on the heels of the “ intellectual ’? dramatists cited above came still younger dramatists, also of the schoo} led by shaw, whose intellectuality was perhaps less arid or severe, and these young dramatists contrived to write plays definitely of the “ in- tellectual ” school which made much profit for those who produced them. they have already been named in connection with the rep- ertory theatres. their lack of aridity is due, possibly, to the fact that the stage is their first concern, whereas most of the generation between them and shaw came to the theatre from the novel and the sociological survey. outside the “intellectual ’’ or “ highbrow ” school, in what is called the commercial theatre, there was observable a great in- crease in the quality of the plays produced. the younger dramatists who were without any intellectual pretensions were indirectly alfected by the work of shaw, even when it was repudiated by them. plays by hubert henry davies, rudolf besier, alfred sutro, bernard fagan, somerset maugham and j. e. harold terry were notably better in quality than plays written by their predecessors at any time during the century immediatcly preceding their appearance in the theatre. the work of besier in don and ludy patricia had a flavour of letters and a technical excellence which made it appear almost equal to the best work of sir arthur pinero and henry arthur jones and superior to the best work of sydney grundy. somerset maugham, who began his career with a sombre play, the man of honour, changed his metier completely and very soon reached a high and profitable position as a writer of light comedy. he is the most skilful writer of the comedy of manners now working for the english theatre and his plays, /jome and beauty (re-named teo many iuusbands in america) and the circle, put him in direct line of succession to congreve. j. j¢. harold terry may be said to have been produced by the war. his plays are notably chiefly for their topical quality, but they are well done and are not without universal appeal. his first play, written in collaboration with lechmere worrall, was entitled zhe afan who stayed at home, \t was pro- duced at the royalty theatre dec. 10 1914, when the condition of theatrical enterprise was still sore from the cffects of the war’s beginning, and it was an immediate success. terry wrote a second play with a war motive, entitled general post, produced at the hay- market theatre march 14 1917. this play, slightly similar in theme to meredith’s evan itarringion, was also a great popular success. in 1921 he produced a play entitled the fulfilling of the law, in which special appeal was less direct. a young american dramatist, harold chapin, who had settled in england, was killed in france while serving in the british army. he was the author of a number of charming comedies and was expected to take a high place in the english theatre. tuhe united states the new york theatre guild.—in america, the theatre, after the end of the war, was in a healthier state than in england. this is more true of new york perhaps, than of the rest of the country. playgoers in that city seem more willing to patronise good things and to support new enterprises than playgoers any- where else. a remarkable organisation entitled the theatre guild of new york has, in three years, raised itself from an ob- scure, impoverished and unknown position into that of the only first-class theatrical enterprise in the world which is a great finan- cial success. the theatre guild grew out of the activities of a small group of enthusiasts who were known as the provincetown players and the washington square players. these players gave performances, usually of one-act plays, in small theatres near washington square. they were akin to the movement, very widespread in america, known as the little theatre or com- munity theatre movement—socicties of amateurs producing plays primarily for their own entertainment rather than for profit. the theatre guild, when established, secured a long lease on an old theatre, the garrick, in west 35th st., and began operations with the production of bonds of intcrest, translated from the spanish of jacinto benavente. this play (los inicreses creados) has been done in england both under the american title and under that of the bias of the world. it was not a financial suc- cess, and the capital of the guild, about $500, was almost ex- hausted when the directors decided to produce john icrguson, a four-act tragic irish play by st. john ervine. this play was not expected to be financially successful, but it falsified anticipa- tion. it was performed in new york for nine months, and en- abled the guild to establish itself more securely. subsequent productions, including masefield’s the faithful, were not quite so profitable, but the season ended with greater hope than it had begun. in the following scason tolstoy’s the power of darkness, st. john ervine’s jane clegg, strindberg’s s71 the dance of death, and other plays were performed, of which jane clegg, which ran for five months, was the most financially successful. the third season included the first production in english of bernard shaw's heartbreak house, as well as of a. a. milne’s afr. pim passes by. both these plays made much profit for the guild, the first-named running for 150 performances. eugene o’neill—vthe success of the theatre guild and of john ferguson caused an immediate effect on theatrical enter- tainments in new york, and one interesting result of it was that a young american dramatist of irish descent, eugene g. o’ neill, was given an opportunity of producing his plays at a first-class theatre. he had already become known as the author of one-act plays when his six-act tragedy, bevond the horizon, was pro- duced at the morosco theatre in new york. this play, most skil- fully acted, had a great success, and those who are desirous of seeing a fine native drama grow up in america felt encouraged to main- tain their hope when they contemplated o’neill’s work. in 1920 he produced a strange play in cight scenes, entitled the emperor j ones, whichis what may be called a one-part play, dealing with the journey of a negro into a west indian forest where he lapses into primal terror. this play was produced by the provincetown players and the principal part was acted by a remarkable negro actor, charles gilpin. o'neill has now written a great many plays, of which one, anna christie, was performed with some success in london. a number of his short sea-pieces have been acted in england, in addition to the emperor jones which was produced, but not with much success, at the ambassadors in london in 1925. his most sensational play, desire under the elms, was forbidden to be performed in england by the censor. it is less lyrical and more animal than the rest of his work. a play, entitled ali god’s chilluns got wings, deals, not very deeply, with miscegenation. a better play, the hairy ape, showed o'neill in the environment where he is at his best, among sailors in whom physical powers far exceed those of the spirit. o'neill, who is almost commonplace when he steps out of this atmosphere, as for example in welded and the first fan, has a deep, but unrestrained, lyrical sense which generally redeems the coarseness of his characters. but violence seems to increase in him, rather than to subside, and his development is being watched by his friends with anxiety. another american dramatist of quality, susan glaspell, suffers as o'neill does from excess of nerves. she is less lyrical, but more intellectual, than o’neill. she is also more prolix. one of her plays, the verge, was performed for a special occasion in london by miss sybil thorndike. another and better one, inhcritors, was first acted in england by the liverpool repertory company in 1925. iler work increases in strength, and it is possible that she may exceed o'neill in quality. neither of these dramatists have ever had a play performed by the theatre guild, but they may be said to owe their opportu- nities to the fact that that organisation was so swiftly successful. what that success is may be gauged by the fact that in seven years from the date on which the guild was founded, it had not only established itself as a first-class theatrical body, but had built itself a new and very handsome theatre. it now controls two theatres in new york in which first performances of plays by english authors are often given. quality of american drama.—amcerican dramatists display great technical excellence in their work, together with a tendency towards sentimentalism of a curiously crude character. there is probably more mechanical ability among american dramatists to-day than among any other dramatists in the world, but this ability is seldom related to artistic power and it is frequently used to falsify life. there are signs, however, of discontent with slick sentimentality, and young writers throughout the country are endeavouring to relate technical excellence to plays in which life is truly treated. dramatic craftsmanship is more closely studied in america than in england, and in many of the colleges and universities students take a course in dramaturgy. the most interesting experiment of this kind is that conducted by prof, george p. baker, formerly professor of dramatic literature at harvard, who, in what is popularly known as “ the 47 workshop,”’ instructs his pupils in the writing and production of plays from the point of view of author, producer, actor and critic. many of his pupils have written competent one-act plays and several of them have successfully produced more ambitious pieces, 372 one of the ablest of american dramatists and, at the same time, the least prolific, is james forbes, the author, among other plays, of the chorus lady, the show shop and the famous mrs. fair. forbes produces mainly satirical comedies of stage-life, but the last- named piece deals with ordinary life and 1s a very able bit of work. other notable dramatists are edward sheldon whose romance, with doris. keane in the principal part, was extraordinarily successful in england; george broadhurst—whose bought and paid for was described by arnold bennett as one of the best commercial plays he had ever seen; david belasco; the late clyde fitch; langdon mitchell, the author of a brilliant comedy, the new york idea; augustus thomas, whose the witching hour, the larvest afoon, asa man thinks and the other girl are plays of uncommon quality; the late charles kicin; eugene walter, author of two particularly able realistic plays, paid in full and the easiest way; channing pollock; a. e. thomas; booth tarkington who, more popularly known, as a novelist achieved remarkable success in 1920 with a light comedy called clarence; zoe akins; sidney howard, whose play they knew what they wanted had great success; george s. kaufman and mare connelly, whose very interesting play, beggar on horse- back, singularly failed to repeat in london the success it had in new york; and maxwell anderson and laurence stallings the authors of what price glory? the condition of the theatre in amer- ica at the end of 1920 was more hopeful than that in england because of the greater gencral interest in meritable plays and of the notice- able desire, especially in new york, to support original enterprises, the standard of acting in amcrica, so far as actresses are con- cerned, is higher than in england, but there is more all-around efficiency among english actors than there is among american actors. the latter excel in character-parts—a very admirable instance of this was the case of frank bacon in his own play lightnin’ but are less capable in what are known as “ straight” parts. with the exception of john drew there are few american actors who can interpret characters such as were acted by sir george alexander. it is very difficult to discover cither actors or actresses in america who can speak verse. these flaws in technique are re- mediable, however, and are slowly being rectified. one result of the war was to cause a distinct decline in the quality of acting among young players in england, and it is probably true to say that there was less acting ability among the younger members of the english theatrical profession at the end of f920 than at any other period in the history of the english theatre. in america, on the contrary, there was a marked growth in technical skill among young actors and actresses. tue drama in france conservatism of the french stage-—in 1910, the theatre in france gave less occasion for satisfaction than the theatre either in england or in germany. the traditions of decent drama were, of course, maintained at the comedie francaise, the antoine and the odeon, but, broadly speaking, plays of quality were few in number and “ revues ” of a very vulgar character were grow- ing in popularity. that bad state of affairs could not last, and after 1910 until the outbreak of the world war, when the french theatre for obvious reasons completely collapsed, there was a revival of quality in french drama. the french theatre, too, which had not previously offered much hospitality to foreign plays, began to open its doors, not widely, indeed, but slightly to plays written by foreigners. shakespeare suddenly came into fashion. amlef was produced at the comedie frangaise, azizg leary at the antoine, julius caesar at the orange fetes, and romeo and julict at the odeon. camille de saint-croix organised single performances of many shakespearean plays which were highly praised. one of shaw’s plays was performed in paris, but without much favour. english musical comedy, produced on a more extravagant scale than is customary in france, became popular, and george grossmith sect the parisians to singing “* tp-i-addy-i-av-1-ay.” the most interesting play produced in paris during the first five years of the decade was undoubtedly edmond rostand’s chantecler, which had been anticipated for seven years before it was performed for the first time at the porte-saint-martin in toto. it had not the great success of cyrano de bergerac, but it caused much discussion. lucien guitry played the part originally intended for the late constant coquelin, which part was played in new york by maude adams. rostand, who was born in 1868, died in 1918. another death of great importance to the french theatre was that of jules claretie, who, after controlling the comedie francaise for 28 years, died in r913. claretie conducted the difficult affairs of the national theatre with very great skill and diplomacy, and showed clearly that while a national theatre drama is not a forcing-house for genius, it 1s certainly a place in which the level of honourable drama is highly maintained. he was succeeded by albert carre, who remained in charge of the theatre until he was called up for military service during the war, when he was succeceded by emile fabre, a dramatist. paul hervieu, the dramatist, died oct. 25 r915, and mme. rejane, the famous actress, june 14 1920. much useful, if not particularly significant, work was done by french dramatists from 1910 to 1915, but none of the disintegrat- ing and insurgent influences detectable both in the english and the german theatres appeared to affect the french theatre. stage decor, for example, is singularly poor in france, where, on the other hand, the standard of acting is very high. in addition to rostand’s play, notable pieces were produced by henry ba- taille (le songe d'un soir d amour and la vierge folle—the first of which, done at the comedie francaise, was hardly so successful as the second, done at the gymnase), by pierre wolff (ruisseau and marionettes), henri bernstein (l’assaut and le secret), george duhamel (la lumiere), brieux (la femme seule, done in england under the title of woman on her own), maurice donnay (les eclairenses), sacha guitry (le beau afuriage and la prise de berg-op-zoont), de flers and de caillavet (habit vert) and tristran bernard (jeanne dore—with bernhardt in the cast). after the outbreak of war, the french theatre for a consider- able period practically ceased to exist. there were only two new plays produced in paris in 1913—les deux vestales, a farce of an old-fashioned broad character, done at the gymnase and a trans- lation, made by w. b. perier, of the english play, the man who stayed at home by j. fe. harold terry and lechmere worrall, which was done at the theatre des bouffes parisiennes under the title of kit, with max dearly in the cast. several war plays, not particularly good, were done in paris towards the end of the war or immediately after the signing of the armistice, and sacha guitry’s play deburau was also produced. a translation of this play, done into rhymed couplets, has been made by h. granville barker and was produced in new york in rg21 with great success. edmond’s saison ad’ amour was produced in to1g, and sacha guitry, rapidly acquiring a high place in france as a dramatist and an actor, was responsible for pusteur, a farce entitled le mari, la femme et l’ amant (a title which sufficiently indicates the character of the piece) and a comedy called mon pere avait raison. the guitrys, father, son and daughter-in-law, gave a season of their plays in london in 1920 which was exceedingly successful. indications of changing taste—but even the french theatre, the most conservative of all, began to feel the need for change as the effects of the war wore off. the theatre in parts is largely dependent upon the patronage of foreigners. this dependence was increased by the fact that the permanent population of paris now includes a very high proportion of immigrants from other countries, among whom italians, poles, swiss and russians pre- dominate. the conventional french play of husband, wife and lover does not attract the foreigner now as it once did, and the french managers suddenly realised that their best customers were abstaining from the theatre altogether. a grave shock was sustained when the opera house in paris was let to the producers of a moving picture in 1924. the french mind does not easily adjust itself to change, and the managers, having recovered a little from their first fears, are contentedly waiting for the fruits of other men's labours to drop into their laps. their audiences, however, continue to decline. the older playwriters, still pulling the same old, worn wires, find that a new generation of playgoers has grown up which is not content with stale repetitions of one dull story, and managers of enterprise are now casting about for new authors and new ideas. such managers as georges pitoeff, a russian, and husband of ludmilla pitoeff, who played the title part in the french version of bernard shaw’s saint joan, gemier, lugue-poe, jacques copeau and dullin have given opportunities for production to young dramatists, in addition to producing the work of foreigners. the new authors include h. r. lenormand, jean sarment, jacques natanson, j. j. bernard, jules romain, marcel achard, drama paul vialar, paul raynal, jacques deval, adolphe orna and zimmer. most of these authors found production in small way theatres such as le vieux colombier and l’atelier, but some of them speedily found their way to more important and better- known theatres. the comedie francaise, slower to move in step with the times than the boulevard theatres, managed to secure paul raynal’s war-play le tombeau sous ? are de triomphe, a piece which sharply divided playgoers into two classes, the young- er generation which stoutly approved it, and the older generation which attempted to hiss it off the stage. it contained three characters and made unpleasant references to old men who lived in comfort while young men died in the trenches. jules romain, a doctor and a novelist, made reputation for himself with a piece called doctor knock at the comedie des champs- elysees. this play has been translated into english by harley granville barker, and was produced at the royalty in april 1926 by denis eadie. zimmer’s play, le veau gras, an amusing, but ill-balanced piece, with a first act that has little relevance to the rest of it, was much liked because of its caricatures of provincial french life. henri bernstein had great success with his play, la galerie des glaces, which was produced at the gymnase in oct. 1924, and lenormand, a dramatist of singular quality, wrote a play about don juan, entitled l’ homme et ses fantemes, which gemicr produced at the odeon in june 1924. lenormand was also re- sponsible for a play entitled a l’ombre du mal, a morbid play about colonial life, done at the studio des champs-elysees. his striking piece, les rates was done, but not with popularity, by the theatre guild in new york. french plays seem little to the american taste. gemier gave performances of bernard shaw’s arms and the afan and shakespeare's the merchant of venice, a midsummer night's dream and the taming of the shrew. an attempt was made to hold a season of english plays at an out- of-the-way theatre, the albert i., with an english cast. the play chosen to begin the’season was a. a. milne’s the dover road, but it was a failure, and the attempt to perform english plays in english at that theatre collapsed. success, however, attended the effort made by the macdona company to popularise the plays of bernard shaw in paris, although the audience cannot be said to have included many french persons. the french theatre sustained heavy losses towards the end of the period in the deaths of sarah bernhardt, de max (who was a rumanian) and lucien guitry. , the drama in germany conditions before the war.—the condition of the drama in germany in rg1o was very odd—declining in berlin, flourishing in the provinces. metropolitan taste was fickle qgnd vulgar; provincial taste was steadfast and of high quality. the result of this odd reversal of customary positions was that the german provinces absorbed almost the whole of the interest of dramatic students. more experiments were made outside berlin than were mace inside it, not only in the quality of the plays performed, but also in the methods of production and in the interior economy of the theatre. volksbiihnen (people’s theatres) were organised in many places, at which performances of classical and modern pieces were given at very moderate prices. the two freien volks- biihnen of berlin, which were typical in most respects of all the other people’s theatres, had between them a membership of 60,000 persons, of whom a considerable number were working- men. these freien volksbiihnen contracted with various theatre- managers for the performance of specified plays for their mem- bers, and the larger of the two, die neue freie volksbiihne, was spending {25,c00 per annum in 1910 on plays produced at 11 different theatres. this society even started a building fund, which in that year had reached £5,000, for the purpose of estab- lishing a theatre of its own, to hold 2,000 persons. the members of this society paid one shilling for each performance witnesscd, and seats were allotted by ballot. a similar society, with a membership of g,coo persons, existed in vienna, under the direction of stefan grossmann, a dramatist. the cologne stadttheater organised performances on lines 873 similar to those of the volksbiihnen, on sunday afternoons before audiences drawn from workmen’s societies which were allowed to nominate the play to be produced. in 1909 the trade unions of cologne chose galsworthy’s strife for performance, and this play was received with enormous enthusiasm. a deutsches volkstheater was in process of erection in 1919. each subscriber to this society was to be admitted to one performance per week in a season of 40 weeks and to receive a theatrical paper, delivered free of charge, together with free admission to a number of lec- tures, for an annual subscription of 20 shillings! the number of stadtbund theatres was increasing remarkably, and certain towns either subsidised or completely owned the local theatre. the following is a record of sums paid by german cities and towns for their own theatres: cologne, £25,000; frankfort, £13,000; barmen, £6,000; dortmund, £6,000; essen, £4,000; elberfeld, £4,000; aachen, £3,500; breslau, £3,000; diisseldorf, £2,500; magdeburg, £2,500; kattowitz, £1,000; thorn, f1,000. the two great german dramatists, gerhart hauptmann and hermann sudermann, had reached the apex of their powers in rgto and were beginning to yield place to new men, of whom the chief were frank wedekind, arthur schnitzler (an austrian and, like somerset maugham and h. m. harwood in england, a doctor of medicine) and hermann bahr. problem and “ ten- dency’ plays were prolifically produced, and the drama of intel- lectual concepts rather than the drama of human emotions seemed to predominate. just before the outbreak of the world war, a number of allegorical plays were being performed, such as haus am meer by stefan zweig and afutter and gelebtes leben by w. von molo. but, apart from the extraordinary experimental character of much of german drama and stage production during this time, the general range of theatrical entertainment was very catholic, extending from harshly realistic plays of the soil, such as sudermann’s strandkinder, to purely poctic plays, such as medusa, by a young dramatist of promise, hans kyser. in addi- tion to the very <liverse quality of native drama, the german theatre produced many foreign plays, equally diverse in char- acter, ranging from shaw’s plays to plays by jerome k. jerome. ibsen, bjernson and strindberg (who died in tg12) had much popularity in germany, and so had many french dramatists, but none of them had greater popularity than shaw, oscar wilde and galsworthy. other english writers, maugham, sir james barrie, sutro, arnold bennett and edward knoblock, monckton hoffe, h. h. davies, sir arthur pinero, w. j. locke and l. n. parker, were freely and extensively admitted to the german theatre. shakespeare, of course, had long been a popular author in germany and this popularity did not decline during the war. hauptmann, who received the nobel prize on his soth birth- day in 1912, was fairly prolific during the five years preceding the war. griselda, founded on boccaccio’s legend, was produced in 1909, and was followed in 1911 by die ratten (the rats). gabriel schillings flucht (the escape of gabriel schilling) was produced in r9r2, and in 1913 came the famous festival play commissioned by the city of breslau to celebrate the war against napoleon for freedom. this play was produced by reinhardt in the new ro- tunda of the breslau centenary exhibition, and its democratic sentiments were so displeasing to the junkers that it provoked a great uproar. the then crown prince threatened to cancel his patronage of the exhibition unless the play were withdrawn— which was done. another play, entitled der bogenspanner odysseus (odysseus the archer), was written in 1913. hermann sudermann was less prolific than hauptmann. his strandkinder, a play about people living on the shores of the baltic sea, was produced in 1909. this play had considerable affinity with the work of a dramatist who died in 1909, ernst von wil- denbruch, two of whose plays, lieder des euripides and der deutsche kenig, were performed, after his death, in that year. strandkindcry was followed by an historical piece, entitled der blinde von syracus, in 1911 and der gute ruf in 1913. | bahr, wedekind and schnitzler the ascending dramatists, bahr, wedekind and schnitzler, produced many plays jn the first half of the decade, as did another well-known, but peculiar and unsuccessful dramatist, herbert eulenberg. bahr, whose gift is 874 for human comedy, is known abroad by das konzert (the con- cert), which was not notably successful in london, but was very popular in america as well asin germany. another play, kinder, was produced simultaneously in 20 different german theatres in tgto. it was followed by das prinztp and das tdnachen in 1912 and by phantom in 1913. frank wedekind, a dramatist of queer, undisciplined genius, was by far the mast prolific of all the dramatists in germany during the period under review and prob- ably of all the dramatists in europe. he produced nine plays in five years, four of which, indeed, were in one act. the plays were die junge welt, die zensur (one act), der liebestrank, die biichse der pandora and three one-act plays, 7a allen satteln gerecht, mit allen hunden gehetzt and in allen wassern ge- waschen, which were combined in rg11 under the general title of schloss wetterstein and issued with the statement that they con- tained his views “ on the inner necessity on which marriage and the family rest.”” these plays were followed by der stein der weisen and franziska, the latter, prohibited by the censor in vienna, being produced in munich. arthur schnitzler, a vien- nese, known in england through the azafol plays, translated by granville barker, and der griine kakadu (the green cockatoo), had four plays performed in the first five years of the decade, komtesse miszi, der junge medardus (which took five hours to perform), das weite land and professor bernhardi, the latter of which was forbidden in vienna. herbert eulenberg was responsi- ble for six plays, der natiirliche vater, anna wolewska, samson (his most popular piece), alles um geld, alles um liebe, belinde (which won the volksschiller prize), zeifwinde and a one-act play, paul und paula. hans kyser, in addition to the play already named, produced titus und die jiidin and erziehung zur licbe. the list of meritable german dramatists is a very long one. it includes men such as paul ernst, hans franck, otto harnack, carl schenherr, whose volksstiick (‘‘ people’s play ’’) glaube und heimat was performed in more than 1,000 theatres in six months, edward stucken, max halbe, ludwig fulda, ludwig thoma, franz dulberg, leo birinski, reinhard sorge and arno holz. the records of the german theatre during the war indli- cate that a better standard of play was maintained there than elsewhere. the ex pressionists—since the end of the war, a new group of dramatists, known by the generic title of expressionists, had grown up in germany, of whom george kaiser and ernst toller are the best known in the english-speaking world. kaiser’s play, von morgens bis mitternachts (from morn to midnight) was acted in london before the stage society in 1919, and has been played elsewhere in england since then. his play, gas, was produced by sir barry jackson at the birmingham repertory theatre in 1924. he, like all the expressionists, experiments with new dramatic forms, but the principal characteristics of his work, which hardly merits the extravagant claims made for it, are violence and neurosis. in addition to the two plays named, he has written others, of which the more meritable are die biirger von calats (the burghers of calais) and die koraile (the coral). toller’s work, though it, too, has a neurotic note in it, which is not un- natural, considering that some of the plays were actually written in prison where he was confined after the war for his communistic principles, is of more merit than that of kaiser. his develop- ment is likely to be greater than kaiser’s. two of his plays have been produced in london by the stage society, die maschinen- stiirmer (the machine-wreckers) and masse-mensch (the man and the masses), as well as in new york by the theatre guild. the latter play was revived at the regent in london in 1926, but was not successful. kaiser had considerable success with a play en- titled nebenecinander (parallel paths), but toller was less fortu- nate with die wandlung (transformation) which was a complete failure, and iwinkemann (the cripple) which caused a riot in the theatre. max mohr, another modernist, wrote improvisaiton 1m juni (summer charades) which had much success. a violence of sex interest has been manifested in much of the post-war german drama, and this was most plainly to be de- tected in schnitzler’s reigen (the chain). the temper of the german theatre, however, is calmer now than it was immediately drama after the armistice, and there has been a notable increase in the number of english plays performed. the demand for spectacular pieces has abated. in germany as it has in england, and herr reinhardt, who, before the war, produced the afiracle, oedipus rex (with sir john martin harvey and lillah mccarthy in the principal parts) and sumuria2 in london, found that his new theatre, das grosse schauspielhaus (the great arena theatre) built in 1919, with sealing capacity for 3,000, was a failure. the drama in austria the theatre in austria, which had existed in a prosperous, if unimpressive, manner up to the outbreak of the world war, suffered terribly after the armistice. this was not due to any de- ficiency in the theatre itself, but to the break-up of the austrian empire. the depreciation of credit and currency and the de- crease in population instantly brought the vienna theatres to a state of ruin; and four of the most important of them, the volks- oper, the carl, the modernes and the renaissance biihne, were obliged to shut their doors and submit to drastic reorganisation. actors’ salaries steadily fell. authors seemed to lose heart, and hardly any plays by austrian authors were produced. those that were done were chiefly of a biblical character, such as richard beer-hoffman’s jaakob’s traum (jacob’s dream) and anton wildgans’ kain (cain). arthur schnitzler wrote one exotic piece, komedie der verfithrung (the comedy of seduction) but her- mann bahr remained silent. most of the plays done in vienna, after the armistice, were of foreign origin, german, russian, english and hungarian. franz molnar, the hungarian dramatist, achieved remarkable popu- larity in america with various of his plays, as did another hun- garian dramatist, ernest vadja with fafa aforgana, though he was not so successful with any other play. fata morgana was very successfully produced in london. the czechoslovakian dramatists, the brothers capek, were also made popular in america by two plays, r.u.r. and the insect play, the first of which was fairly successful in london, the second being a failure. neither of these plays was of the first importance. a third play by these authors entitled the amakropulous affair, dealing with the elixir of life, was not a success in vienna. the most popular dramatist in austria after the war was bernard shaw, whose plays were almost perpetually performed. the drama in italy in italy, the theatre developed along quite humdrum lines, except that the fastidious indelicacy of gabriele d’annunzio vielded place to the dubious metaphysics of luigi pirandello. the reformers appeared in italy, too, but their reforms were chicily concerned with details of acting. in italy, the voice of the prompter incessantly is heard hissing throughout the perform- ance. italian actors, unlike all others, do not memorise their words. they are content to give impressions of them, a habit which reduces them to a state of hopeless dependence upon the prompter who steadily whispers the play, word by word, to them. this habit is said to stimulate the actor’s spontancity, but it also stimulates the anger of the audience in foreign countries when italian actors play outside italy, as duse’s company did in france, england and the united states in 1923, and pirandello’s company did in london in 1925. pirandello’s most notable play, sci personaggt in cerco d’ autore (six characters in search of an author) has been performed in english in london by the stage society, but has been forbidden public performance by the censor. brpriogrrapny.—g. p. baker, dramatic technique (1919); r. f. johnston, the chinese drama (1921); a. b. walkley, pastiche and prejudice (1921); b. g. brawley, a short history of the english drama (1922); l. lewisohn, the drame and the stage (1922); g. j. nathan, zhe critic and the drama (1922); r. ix. goldschmidt, das drama (1923); c. lehmann, junge deutsche dramatiker (1923); a. tilgher, studi sui teatro contemporaneo (1923); 5s. bernhardt, the art of the theatre (1924); e. g, craig, on the art of the theatre (1924); h. hettner, das moderne drama (1924); g. j. nathan, materia critica (1924); b. 11. clark, a study of the modern drama (1925): a. nichole, british drama (1925); a. b. walkley, sti more prejudice (1925); t. h. dickinson, playwrights of the new american theatre (1925). (st. 13 ey) dreadnought dreadnought.—the design of the original dreadnought proved so satisfactory that from the date of her completion onwards the designs of british capital ships continued on the same lines without any essential departure from the principle of the dreadnought type, namely, a ship carrying an all-big-gun armament, adequately protected, and of a speed equal to that of contemporary forcign capital ships. the other big naval powers followed the fashion thus set and so the mixed armament vessel was definitely relegated to the past. armament.—the dreadnought type itself, however, was very soon improved upon, the first break with the 12-in. gun arma- ment being made in 1910 when the british ‘* orion” class of four vessels was laid down. the guns mounted were of 13-5-in. calibre, all mounted on the centre line in five turrets, the two turrets forward and aft being superposed so that one could fire over the other, giving a broadside fire of 10 guns and a for- ward and astern fire of four guns. this system, which had al- ready been adopted in the united states capital ships, became the standard for future ships. although forcign powers followed the dreadnought type they did not increase the calibre of their main armament for some little time after the british adoption of the heavier gun. the foreign contemporaries of the “ orion ” class were the “ arkansas,” “courbet,” ‘conte di cavour,” “ helgoland,” “ viribus unitis,” “‘ settsu’’ and “ gangut ”’ classes of the united states, french, italian, german, austrian, japanese and russian navies respectively, all of which carried 12-in. guns. the british ships following the “‘ orion ’’ class continued to be armed with the 13-5-in. weapon, but in the meantime the united states laid down the “ new york ” and “‘ texas,” mounting 10 14-in. weapons, and japan the “ fuso” with 12. the british navy again took the lead, however, in calibre of guns mounted, the ‘ queen elizabeth ” class of five vessels with eight 15-1n. guns being laid down in 1912, followed the next year by the five vessels of the “ royal sovereign ” class, mounting the same main armament. france had also gone to a higher calibre weapon for the main armament of the vessels “‘ bretagne,” “‘ lorraine ” and “ pro- vence,”’ but italy, germany and austria remained faithful to the 12-in. weapon, and when the world war had been in progress for about two years, germany completed the “ baden ”’ class of two vessels, mounting eight 15-in. guns in four turrets, as in the british “ queen elizabeth.” in all the british battleships the main armament was mounted in twin mountings, but the foreign navics in this respect were somewhat less conservative. triple gun mountings were adopted by france, italy, austria, russia and united states, and the french began the construc- tion of quadruple mountings, but neither these nor the ships for which they were intended were ever completed. machinery—from the dreadnought to the “ royal sov- ereign ’’ class the main machinery fitted was of the turbine type the only essential change made being that from the direct drive turbine to the geared turbine. geared cruising turbines were first introduced into the british battleships in the “ queen elizabeth ” and the fitting of gearing was continued in all later vessels. the british example in regard to the complete adoption of turbines was not followed at once by other nations. a certain distrust for this new type of machinery seems to have been felt, since japan and the united states, for example, built sister ships, one havirg turbine engines and the other having recipro- cating engines. the japanese ships were the “ aki” and ‘ satsuma,” com- pleted in 1911 and roto respectively. the “ aki” had curtis turbines, and the ‘‘ satsuma” triple expansion reciprocating engines, and although differing slightly in dimensions they were really vessels of a class. on trials the “ aki’s”’ machinery developed 28,740 s.h.p., giving a speed of 20} knots and the ‘“ satsuma’s ” devcloped 18,510 s.h.p., giving a speed of nearly 19 knots. all the later japanese capital ships were fitted with turbine machinery as a result of experience with these two vessels. the american vessels with which a similar experiment was conducted were the sister ships ‘ delaware’? and “ north 3 875 dakota,” completed in 1910. the latter was the turbine vessel with machinery of curtis type but this was afterwards replaced by parsons type turbines. the next two classes of ships built for the united states, the ‘* utah” and “ florida’ and the “ arkansas”? and ‘“‘ wyoming,” completed in ro91t and 1912 respectively, had parsons turbines, but the american experience with this type of machinery seems to have been inconclusive, for in the following class laid down, ‘‘new york ” and ‘‘ texas,” triple expansion reciprocating machinery was reintroduced. the same cycle of changes commenced with the next class of vessel, the ‘‘ oklahoma” and “ nevada,” the former having reciprocating machinery and the latter turbines, but ultimately turbines were once again adopted with gearing and a further change made in the ‘‘ new mexico,” completed in 1918, of substituting electrical for mechanical gearing. this type of electric drive had become the standard for american capital ships. the other big naval powers adopted the turbine in turn, germany completing the battle-cruiser “‘ von der tann”’ in 1910, france the “‘ danton ”’ class of battleship in 1911, austria the “‘ viribus unitis ’’ class in 1912, italy the ‘‘ dante alighieri ”’ in 1913, and russia the “ gangut ” class in 1914, all with turbine installation, and these countries continued to install this type of machinery in their‘later vessels. fuel.—the other great departure made in power production concerned the fuel. all the british battleships from the dread- nought to the “ iron duke” class had coal-fired boilers with oil as a subsiliary fuel. the oil was sprayed into the furnaces on top of the coal to maintain a burst of speed for a longer period than was possible when firing with coal only. in the “ queen elizabeth ” class, however, as a result of experience in the light cruisers of the “‘ arethusa ”’ type, oil was adopted as the fuel, coal being entirely dispensed with. this was a most important step to take in view of the supply of oil being comparatively insecure when compared with that of welsh coal, but the advantages of oil as a fuel were so great that subsequent to this no british capital ship was built to use coal. the “ royal sovereign ” class following the ‘ queen eliz- abeths ’ was originally designed to be coal-fired, owing to a fecling that oil supplies would be insufficient, but during the design stage the advantages of oil fuel became so apparent in other vessels that all oil was ultimately adopted. all the battle- ships previous to the “queen elizabeth” had a speed of approx- imately 21 knots. this was increased in the “ queen ehzabeth ” class to 25 and although the “ royal sovereigns’ were origi- nally designed for 21 knots as coal-fired vessels, the great advan- tage of oil as fucl was shown by the fact that 23 knots would be obtained with the vessels oil-fired. the british lead in this respect was not followed by any other power with the exception of the united states who first introduced all oil fuel in the “nevada ” and “f oklahoma ”’ completed in 1916. armour and protection.—the general arrangement of main belt armour, deck protection and underwater protection bulk- heads continued on the same plan from the dreadnought on- wards, and the “ orion ” class of the 1tgeg-10 programme, com- pleted in 1912, had a main belt varying from 12 in. to 8 in. in thickness, with protective decks varying from 1} in. to 2 in. and underwater protection to magazines by isolated bulkheads varying from 14 in. to 2 in. according to their distance from the ship’s side. | in the ‘‘ royal sovereign ” class of the 1913-4 programme, completed in 1916, the main belt was 13 in. with protective decks varying from 1 in. to 3 in., and a continuous longitudinal bulkhead of 13 in. in thickness to protect the vessel from under- water attack. this fore and aft protection had undergone various changes in the intermediate vessels, varying from isolated por- tions near the magazines to a continuous bulkhead, but the increasing power of torpedoes made it necessary finally to adopt the continuous protection. the efficiency of this system of protection was demonstrated at jutland (torpedoing of ‘ marl- borough ”’), but it was finally improved upon by the later forms of bulged protection, devised by sir e. h. t. d’eyncourt, whilst director of naval construction, and the ‘‘ ramillies,’”’ the last 876 vessel of the “‘ royal sovereign ” class to be completed, was built with a bulge, the other ships of the class being bulged later. the foreign contemporaries of the ‘royal sovereign” class were very similarly protected except perhaps the german battleships which, with their generally greater beam and a sacrifice of such qualities as habitability and endurance, were able to carry somewhat thicker belt armour. it is a rather striking point that the foreign vessels completed about the time of the ‘“ royal sovereign ” all had from 5 to 10 ft. more beam. the british designers were very seriously handicapped in this respect by the restricted width of the existing graving docks. batile cruisers—concomitant with the design and construc- tion of battleships the faster and more lightly protected type of capital ship called the battle-cruiser, was developed for the british navy, and this lead was followed by germany, japan, russia and america, but only the first three named completed any of these vessels. previous to tg10 three vessels of the “ invincible ” class were completed for the british navy, followed by three of the “ in- defatigable ” class completed in r911~3, three of the “ lion ” class in 1912-3, the ‘‘ tiger ” in 1914 and the “ repulse ”’ and “ renown ” in 1916. the main armament of the first of these battle-cruisers con- sisted of cight 12-in. guns, and the speed of the vessels was 253 knots. the advance in armament followed a similar course to that in the battleships, increasing in calibre to 135 in. in the “lion” class and in the “ tiger,” the speeds of the vesscls being 28 and 30 knots respectively. the number of guns carried was still eight, but in the “ repulse” and ‘ renown,” with a further advance in the calibre of the guns to 15 in. and an increase in speed to 32 knots, the number of guns carricd was reduced to six in three twin turrets, two being mounted forward with one firing over the other and the third being mounted alt. the essential differences between the battleship and the battle-cruiser are clearly shown in the comparison between the battleship of the ‘‘ royal sovereign” class and the battle-cruisers of the “ renown ” class and the “ tiger ”’ in table i. table. i. “royal sov- ercign”’ 6 re- “tiger ‘ nown 794 ft. |] 704 ft. 25,750 | 26,500] 28,500 40,000 {120,000 | 108,000 23 knots/32 knots) 30knots 8 15 in.| 6 15 1n./8 13-5 in. length extreme et o245 ft, load displacement in tons . shaft horsepower speed at load draft nain armament distribution of weights as percentages of load displacement represented by symbols: armament machinery. armour and protection the foreign battle-cruisers developed on very similar lines, but of those completed only the japanese “‘ kongo ”’ class mounted a heavier weapon than the 12-in., these vessels having a main armament of cight r4-in. guns and a speed of 27} knots. the british battle-cruiser type in action was a great success in the battle of falkland is., in which the ‘ invincible ” and “ inflex- ible,” in company with smaller vessels, destroyed von spee’s flect, but later the losses of this type in the battle of jutland brought out their weaknesses when in line of battle against battleships. : the “ hood” design.—the experience thus gained led to additional horizontal protection being added over the magazines and other vital points of all capital ships and at the same time modified the design of the battle-cruiser “‘ hood.” this vessel was designed by sir e. h. t. d’eyncourt early in 1916 and had only just been ordered when the battle of jutland took place. additional protection was incorporated without materially alter- ing the essential features of the design, and the resulting vessel was a combination of the characteristic features of both the battleship and the battle-cruiser, since she carried a main armament of eight 15-in. guns, had a main belt of 12-in. armour dreadnought and had a speed equal to that of any battle-cruiser, namely, 32 knots. complete bulge protection was fitted in this vessel, and the section of the vessel shown in fig. 1 (a) in comparison with a section of the “royal sovereign ” (4) as originally built without a bulge, shows what a great departure she was from the conven- tional ship form. the “ hood, ” completed in 1920, is 860 ft. in length overall, 104 ft. in breadth, displaces at her load draught 41,200 tons and shelter deck fic. 1.—a. section of h.m.s. “ hood.” “* royal sovereign.”’ b. section of h.m.s. with a s.h.p. of 144,000 can be driven at 32 knots. she has the distinction of being the largest and at the same time the fastest capital ship in the world at present, and will probably hold that distinction for many years to come. | at the end of the world war and whilst the construction of the “ hood ”’ was proceeding, warship design practically came to a standstill whilst the lessons of the war were being absorbed. germany and austria had practically ceased to exist as naval powers, russia was in a similar state, france and italy had abandoned construction of capital ships some time previous in order to husband their resources and so it was left to the british, american and japanese designers to continue the study of the design of capital ships. naval construction, 1919-22 if we now consider the warship building programmes of these three nations during the year 1919 and up to the signing of the washington treaty on feb. 6 1922, we shall obtain an idea of the trend of capital ship design before it was affected by the treaty. the vessels built, building and projected, with the salient particulars, are shown in table ii., p. 878. once again the calibre of the main armament had increased, this time to 16 in. for both the foreign battleships and battle- cruisers, and the tendency was for both the displacement and speed to increase also. there is no doubt also that the british admiralty were considering the design of vessels of still greater dimensions than the ‘“‘ hood,” and it was at the commence- ment of this new era of the building of colossal ships of war that the washington conference (g¢.v.) was convened, followed by the signing of the treaty early in the year 1922. under this dreadnought plate | | fic. 1. british battle cruiser “ hood,” completed 1920. fie. 2. japanese battleship “ mutsu,” completed 1920. fic. 3. u.s. battleship * west virginia,” completed 1923. fiz. 1, photo. abrahams, devonpor!. fiz. 2. from ‘‘jane's fiazhting ships, 1925.’ fig. 3. courtesy of u. s. navy dept. dreadnought ; hai 2-16 in. 2- at ‘2 — se tr ere ea hguhhgahugoatuuoaeuouiuigngtiigrofsuggugevsuatgnighvgtuiassga¢qse/snorertoc ay 5‘sin. 5-5in treaty japan retained the battleships ‘‘ nagato ”’ and “ mutsu,” mentioned in the previous table, and was given the power to convert two of the remaining battle-cruisers or battleships then building to aircraft carriers; the rest were scrapped. united states —the united states retained the ‘‘ colorado,” “maryland”? and “west virginia” and retained also the power to convert two of the battle-cruisers to aircraft carriers. these retained vessels are of special importance, as to a certain extent they set the limits to the design of capital ships which were fixed by the washington treaty. they are in the region of 33,000 to 34,000 tons displacement and their main armament consists of 16-in. guns, and the specific terms laid down by the treaty limit the displacement to a maximum of 35,000 tons, the calibre of the main armament to be not greater than 16-inch. great britain.—by the treaty the british empire was allowed 877 see . til ss is =: _.00 sieliii => amahy yon the gin r? 2-i6in. _ nrgsnshnr ee 2716in. tpes sst eg ttt il sad hast] bate suh; it gurrors persocharargcarsrogoauiaueaedeiterdoteaionoerergregadedsradteos shosus fsfseosuseleesesslgegusseuilisllelelsligileaiegenses soceegrsscbgse es ore eo 5-sin. fic. 2.—plan and elevation of the japanese battleship ‘‘ nagato.” brassey’s naval and shipping annual to lay down in 1922, for completion by about the end of 1925, two such capital ships to complete the necessary tonnage allowed and these, the “‘ nelson ” and ‘‘ rodney,” the first two post- war capital ships to be laid down for the british navy, were designed by sir e. h. t. d’eyncourt previous to his retirement from the admiralty. these are the only capital ships designed entirely since the washington treaty and therefore the only two vessels in which it has been possible to incorporate the lessons learned at jutland. it is obvious, from a study of the previous table, that as long as the washington limit prevails, the battle- cruiser type is dead, if it is desired to mount the maximum possible armament of 16-in. calibre and to give adequate armour protection to the vitals. the dimensions of the ‘‘ nelson ”’ and “rodney ” have been published and are shown in table iiti., p. 878, in comparison with the japanese ‘‘ mutsu ”’ class and the united states “‘ colorado ” type. bt ies —= a — . —— sr fe “ abd) ear 51n. £ q - ° 18; sc j al s| {i l6in7, (op niu th} | il tu teens o10. 18; tul pg «9p il ld = wu ltt si ah tt a ___ sa | in ipa 7 es ne a re eae ima bogart rrmrigr a == see eeoc i == i {8in. i8in. sin. sin. 3in. fic, 3.—plan and elevation of u.s. battleship “ colorado.” brassey's naval and shipping annual 878 table. i; laid | com- | displ. | main | speed down | pleted | tons | armt. |/iknots united states battleshtps:— ‘ sede , i9i9 ee 32,600 maryland”. . iqi7 ig2i) . . ‘west virginia” . i9ig | (1923) foun) 20 ‘‘ washington " 1919 |scrapped ‘* indiana ’”’ class, 6 vessels rae scrapped|43,200 |1216in.| 23 e battle-cruisers:— two ‘‘ constellation ” being class, 6 vessels 1919-20} convert- ea 43,500 lsarean: 33} carricrs. others japan scrapped j batileships:— ““ mutsu ” iqi7 1920 | ‘* nagato 1918 192t | 33,800 |!816in.) 23 “ kaga " 1918 | being co|nverte d] {to airc|raft “ tosa ” project-| carrier ed scrapped battle-cruisers:— ‘‘amagi” class, 4 vessels . . |i919-20 40,000 |8 16 in.| 30 one bein|z¢conver,ted to ailrcraft carrier; olthers sc| rapped great britain battle-cruiser:— ‘* hood ” 1916 1920 | 41,200 |8 r§ in. a2 table. il. main speed armt. water- | extr. knots great britain ‘‘ nelson ” “ rodney ” and 9 16 in. report- ed united states | ‘“ colorado ” class 600 8 16 in, japan ‘‘ mutsu’ class . 695 95 83 16 in, approx. ’ ] other particulars of the “ nelson” and “ rodney ” are still withheld by the british admiralty but they are credited with a main armament of nine 16-in. guns and very heavy armour and complete underwater protection. both these vessels were launched towards the end of 1925, the ‘‘ nelson ” from the works of messrs. armstrong whitworth & co., newcastle-on-tyne, and the “ rodney ” from messrs. cammell laird & co.’s works at birkenhead. these will be the last two capital ships added to the british navy for several years to come, as it will be 1931 before two further ships can be laid down for completion in 1934. united states and japan.—the same applies in the case of the united states and japan, which can lay down two and one capital ships respectively also in 1931. both italy and france are allowed to lay down capital ship tonnage in 1927, but it seems very improbable at present that such a course will be taken owing to financial consilerations. political factors-——another great factor in addition to the washington treaty affecting warship design is the change in the general tactical and strategical situation brought about by the almost complete eclipse of germany as a naval power. the centre of gravity as far as the naval situation is concerned has moved from the north sea, and to a great extent also from the mediterranean, to a much larger field of operations, namely, the pacific. this means that british ships will have to traverse much wider areas than heretofore and the design of cruisers with a large endurance, not only to protect the ocean routes, but to dreiser—druses operate in the larger oceans, has assumed a relatively greater importance compared with capital ships than has been the case hitherto. (e..t2 dey) dreiser, theodore (1871- ), american author, was born at terre haute, ind., aug. 27 1871 and received his educa- tion in the public schools at warsaw, ind., and at indiana uni- versity. from 1892 to 1894 he was engaged in newspaper work in chicago and st. louis. in 1895 he became editor of every month, a literary and musical magazine. in 1905 he was editor of smith’s magazine, becoming managing editor of broadway magazine in the following year. from 1907 to 1910 he was editor- in-chief of the butterick publications, including the delineator. he published his first novel sister carrie in 1900, followed by jennie gerhardt (t91t) and the financier (1912), the last of which established his reputation as a powerful writer of realistic fiction. his other novels include the titan (1914) and the genius (1915). healso wrote plays of the natural and the supernatural (1916); a hoosier holiday (1916) and the hand of the poiter, a tragedy (1918). his latest works were a book about myself (19022); the color of a great city (1923) and an american tragedy (1925). dresden, germany (sce 8.574), had in 1919 a population of 587,748. in this figure are included tolkewitz and reich, incor- porated in ror2, but not 23 suburban communes incorporated in 1921. a later estimate was 613,000. the newer industrial areas of the city lie to the south and southwest. the diet of saxony meets in the modern town hall, a renaissance structure. new buildings include a theatre, a branch of the technical acad- emy, an impressive crematorium and the haus der kaufmann- schaft. during the world war the loss of foreign visitors and subsequently the dissolution of the court of the king of saxony bore very hardly on the city. the revolution was followed in dresden by disturbances and strikes; in 1919 sanguinary street fighting took place. dress: see costume. drink traffic: see liquor laws. drinkwater, john (1882- __+), british poet, playwright and critic, was born at leytonstone, essex, june 1 1882, and educated at the oxford high school. after 12 years’ work as an insurance clerk, he began to devote himself to theatrical enter- prise, and became manager and producer to the lilgrim players, who -developed into the birmingham repertory theatre co. his first volume of poems appeared in 1906 and his first play, cophetua (in verse), in 1911. he subsequently published several volumes of verse, critical studies on walliam morris (1912), swinburne (1913) amd others, and several plays, of which abraham lincoln (1918) was produced with great success both in london and in the united states. among his later plays were cliver cromwell (1921), afary stuart (1922) and fobert £. lee (1923), each of which was performed in london. these plays fall under the category of ‘‘ chronicle dramas.’’ in 1923 his col- lected poems (2 vol.) were published, and in 1925 zhe muse in council, a collection of essays, and his collected i'lays (2 vol.). in 1925 the pilgrim of eternity: pyren—a confict, his most important prose work, made its appearance. driver, samuel rolles (1846-1914), british scholar (see 8.585), died at oxford feb. 26 1914. driving: sce coaching. droysen, gustav (1838-1908), german historian (see 8.596), died at ilalle nov. 10 1908. druses (sce 8.603).—driiz or daraziyah, so-called from the missionary darazi, who founded the sect in the first quarter of the rith christian century. the driiz community consists of arabic-speaking mountaineers, estimated to number about 150,000 in the aggregate, who are scattered through different parts of syria, principally in four districts: (a) the southern lebanon; (6) hasbeiya and rashciya on the western slopes of mount hermon; (c) jebel haurdn, an isolated block of moun- tains southeast of damascus on the edge of the syrian desert; (d) the northern part of the hama district. the settlement in the jebel haurdn is the most important, owing to the virtual independence which the druses maintained here against the dry cleaning—dublin ottoman govt. and which they sought to assert against the french mandate; but it is also the most recent. the migra- tion of the druses to the hauran does not seem to have begun before the 18th century, and took place for the most part during the middle decades of the roth century. the autonomous vilayet of the lebanon was constituted in 1864 under the guarantee of the powers. in the lebanon con- stitution the different religious sects into which the population of the vilayet was divided were represented proportionately in the government. the system worked well until the constitution was suppressed by the turks during the world war, and in that period trouble between the druses and the maronites in the lebanon was rare. meanwhile the druse community had shifted its centre of gravity to the haurain, where it was practically out of reach of the ottoman govt. and of the powers. in the peace settlement after the world war the hauran was included in the french mandated territory of syria. after the french had conquered the interior of syria in the cam- paign of aug. 1920, they attached additional territory, including the druse settlements in the hiasbeiya and rasheiya districts, to the lebanon province, and induced the druses of the hauran to receive a french resident political officer. discontent with this territorial change and with the conduct of the french resi- dent in the hauran led to the syrian rising of 1925, in which the druses took the lead. (see damascus; syria.) bibliography.—t. p. hughes’ article ‘‘ druses,”’ dictionary of isiam; british admiralty, mfandbook of syria (h.m. stationery office, 1920); silvestre de sacy, expose de la religion des druzes 2 vol. (1838); c. f. seybold, die drusenschrift kitab al-noget wal- dawe'tr (tiibingen, 1902). dry cleaning.—dry cleaning is the removal of dirt and stains from materials by means of solvents, and of especially prepared soap. the process is known variously as dry, french and chemical cleaning. it is based on the fact that a considerable amount of the dirt and dust on wearing apparel, draperies, etc., is held in position by greasy substances. when the grease is removed by a suitable solvent, the dirt may be removed mechan- ically. the process was first employed in france about the middle of the roth century. at first all the work was done by hand and the operations were very simple. later machinery was introduced, thus providing the basis for a large industry that requires skill, a thorough knowledge of textiles, leather, etc., and elaborate equipment. the term dry cleaning is used in contradistinction to cleaning with soap and water. the process involves immersion of articles in liquids other than water, which do not affect the physical properties of the materials treated. in a strict sense, the proc- ess is not “ dry,” but articles immersed in the liquids employed in dry cleaning are not wetted as they would be in water. water causes textile fibres to become limp, and, in many cases, to alter in shape and size. petroleum naphtha and other liquids em- ployed in dry cleaning are inert as regards alterations of the fibre. the classes of materials which may best be dry cleaned include many kinds of clothing, millinery and house furnishings. the two cleaning agents used in largest quantities are dry- cleaner’s soap and petroleum naphtha. these agents are sup- plemented by ethyl alcohol, acetone, carbon tetrachloride, acetic acid, etc., which are used in small quantities mostly for removing spots that do not respond to the ordinary treatment described below. dry-cleaning soap is a superfatted soap, in which about one-half of the fatty acid has been saponified with caustic potash or caustic soda or ammonia. a soap of this nature is soluble in gasolene or naphtha and in similar‘solvents. articles made of strong materials are washed in mechanically driven revolving cvlinder-type washers with petroleum naphtha and dry-cleaning soap, followed by rinses in fresh naphtha. the articles are removed from the washer and freed from as much solvent as possible in a centrifugal extractor, and finally trans- ferred to a drying tumbler, where the last traces of the cleaning fluid are removed. the drying tumblers are of metal and are designed along somewhat the same lines as the washer. the drying is hastened by a current of heated air which is blown 879 through the tumbler. the garments when dry go to the spotting table for attention to any spots that may not have been removed in the process just described. articles made of delicate materials are cleaned by hand on specially constructed tables, and for some of this cleaning con- siderable skill is required. the more delicate classes of work can- not be dried in drying tumblers, but must be hung in ventilated, heated, drying rooms. in all cases the used cleaning fluid is drained into reclaiming tanks. after proper renovation it is used over and over again, new solvent being added to make up evaporation and mechanical losses. most dry-cleaning fluids are inflammable and precautions must be observed to prevent fires when using them. for this reason, dry cleaning can be practised with safety only in plants designed for the purpose. there are approximately 3,000 power-cleaning establishments in the united states. the total number of persons engaged in the industry exceeds 35,000. salaries and wages paid annually total approximately $48,c00,000. the larger establishments em- ploy from 200 to 600 people. the average number of employees is approximately 12 per plant. european dry-cleaning practice is similar to that of the united states but less machinery is used, particularly for finishing materials cleaned. there are fewer plants per unit of population, but the average size is larger. some of them have several thousand employees. (d. j.) dublin (see 8.617) had in 1923 an estimated population of 431,000. the census figure for 1911 was 304,800. its finest thoroughfare, sackville (or o’connell) street, witnessed the fierc- est fighting of the easter rising of 1916 and the irregular revolt of 1922. the general post office was the revolutionary head- quarters in 1916, and in the military operations the greater por- tion of the southern section of the street from nelson pillar to the liffey was burned to the ground. over 200 buildings were destroyed, including the general post office, of which only the shell remained, the royal hibernian academy, the offices of the freeman’s journal, several leading hotels and a large num- ber of the principal shops and warehouses. destruction in 1922.—rebuilding operations had not been completed when, in june 1922, forces opposed to the treaty with great britain seized the block of buildings in the northern section of sackville street between cathedral street and the parnell statue. this position was subjected to an artillery bombard- ment at close range and, as in the easter rebellion, the buildings were destroyed by fire. thus, with the exception of the block between henry street and parnell street, which suffered only partial damage, the whole of sackville street was reduced to rubble. while the southern portion of the thoroughfare has been reconstructed on modern lines, in 1926 little had been done, be- yond clearing the sites, to make good the havoc wrought by the 1922 fighting. the heaviest architectural loss sustained was the destruction of the custom house, and the four courts. in may 1922 the custom house, which under british rule was the headquarters of the inland revenue and the local govern- ment board, was seized and set on fire by armed bands of the irish republican army. later, clearing operations were under- taken and itis the intention of the free state govt. to reconstruct the building. in the assault of june 1922 on the four courts, the guns of the provisional govt. battered a breach in the walls, but the destruc- tion of the building was due to the explosion of land mines by the irregular garrison. rebuilding operations had made good prog- ress in 1926. the pierced dome had been repaired and it is expected that by 1928 the law courts will again be housed in their former home. meanwhile they are housed in dublin castle, which is no longer, as under the british regime, the headquarters of the executive. though the castle was handed over after the acceptance of the treaty by dail eireann, the provisional govt. decided to es- tablish themselves tin the college of science, merrion street, which is now known as government buildings. this transferred the centre of administrative activity to a new quarter of the city, but the abnormal conditions created by the armed resistance of those opposed to the treaty, which kept ministers practically 880 prisoners in government buildings, made it necessary to select a meeting place for the first parliament of the free state with an eye to the exigencies of the military situation. leinster house, adjoining the college of science, and the national museum, ~which forms a connecting link with the college of science, were commandeered for the use of the dail and the senate. little is heard now of the demand that the old parliament hlouse in college green should be restored to its former dignity. though architecturally more imposing than leinster house, the building could not be converted to the needs of a modern repre- sentative assembly save by a heavy outlay for the purchase of adjoining property, while, under present conditions of free state finance, the cost of providing alternative accommodation for the bank of ireland, now in occupation, would be prohibitive. a few miniature building schemes have been carried out, but nothing has yet been done to deal with dublin’s terrible slum problem. at present in the city 20,c00 families are herded into single rooms. the stoppage of building during the war has been relieved in a slight degree for the middle classes by the trans- formation into flats of the capacious georgian houses which in former days were occupied by single families. (j. w. go.)