s been published), in Clyde Fitch's "The Moth and the
Flame," and in Langdon Mitchell's "The New York Idea," we are given
a very significant and sharply defined panoramic view of the
variations in moral and social attitudes.

The plays included in this series have very largely been selected
because of their distinct American flavour. The majority of the
dramas deal directly with American subjects. But it seemed unwise
and unrepresentative to frame one's policy of selection too rigidly
on that score. Had such a method been adhered to, many of the plays
written for Edwin Forrest would have to be omitted from
consideration. It would have been difficult, because of this
stricture, to include representative examples of dramas by the
Philadelphia and Knickerbocker schools of playwrights. Robert T.
Conrad's "Jack Cade," John Howard Payne's "Brutus," George Henry
Boker's "Francesca da Rimini," and Nathaniel P. Willis's "Tortesa,
the Usurer," would thus have been ruled from the collection.
Nevertheless are they representative plays by American dramatists.
Another departure from the American atmosphere is in the case of
Steele Mackaye; here in preference to "Hazel Kirke," I have selected
"Paul Kauvar," farthest away from American life, inasmuch as it
deals with Nihilism, but written at a time when there was a
Nihilistic fever in New York City.

No editor, attempting such a comprehensive collection as this, can
be entirely successful in including everything which will enrich his
original plan. There are always limitations placed upon him by the
owners of copyrights, and by gaps in the development, due to loss of
manuscripts. It was naturally my desire to have all the distinctive
American playwrights represented in the present collection.
Therefore, in justice, the omissions have to be indicated here,
because they leave gaps in a development which it would have been
well to offer unbroken and complete.

When the collection was first conceived, there was every indication
that permission would be granted me to reproduce at least one of the
Robert Montgomery Bird manuscripts, now owned by the University of
Pennsylvania. Naturally, a collection of representative plays should
include either Bird's "The Gladiator," or one of his other more or
less oratorical and poetical pieces, written under the inspiration
of Edwin Forrest. The intention to include John Augustus Stone's
"Metamora" brought to light, after correspondence with the For