of dramatic technique
unknown to the present player. In reading these dramas, one must be
able to bear in mind the differences which exist between the theatre
of to-day and the theatre of yesterday, between the tradition of the
actor of to-day and of the actor of yesterday. The technique, for
example, in the characterization of _Jonathan_, and in the
characterization of _Solon Shingle_, is different from the technique
which characterizes the work of Clyde Fitch or which is to be found
in David Belasco's "Peter Grimm." In other words, in such a
collection, one asks, not the judgment of the highest literary
standards, but the judgment of an historical appreciation of the
changes in dramatic taste.

* * * * *

This, the first volume of "Representative Plays by American
Dramatists," contains dramas which measure the tastes and
inclinations of Colonial and Revolutionary life. In the proper
understanding of their atmosphere, it is necessary to know something
of the general spirit of the theatre of the period; to measure the
conditions, customs, and social peculiarities of the provincial
actors and audiences. For that reason, it would be well for the
general reader beforehand to obtain a bird's-eye view of the history
of the American theatre--a view which will comprise some
consideration of the first playhouse in this country, of the
conditions which confronted Hallam, Henry, and Douglass, the first
actors to be at the head of what, in Williamsburg, Virginia, was
known as the Virginia Comedians, and in New York and Philadelphia,
as the American Company.

No more fascinating study could be imagined than following the
trials and tribulations of the actors in America at this early day,
who, as soon as they reached Philadelphia, or as soon as they
attempted to invade Boston, were confronted by the Puritanical and
sectarian prejudices, against which the early history of the
American theatre had to struggle. The personalities of the Hallams,
of Douglass and Hodgkinson, are picturesque and worth while tracing
in all aspects of their Thespian careers in the Colonies. So, too,
the persons of Thomas Wignell, the Comedian, and of Mrs. Merry, are
of especial interest. Wignell, at the John Street Theatre, in New
York, and at the Southwark Theatre, in Philadelphia, was wont to
amuse George Washington, who, on careful examination of his Journals
and expense accounts, looms up as the one big theatre-goer o