technical terms and formulae which has gathered round
the practice of the most living and the most Protean of arts has at no
time seriously interfered with the operation of creative power. On the
other hand, no dramaturgic theory has (though the attempt has been often
enough made) ever succeeded in giving rise to a single dramatic work of
enduring value, unless the creative force was there to animate the form.

Choice of subject.

It is therefore the operation of this creative force which we are
chiefly interested in noting; and its task begins with the beginning of
the dramatist's labours. He must of course start with the choice of a
subject; yet it is obvious that the subject is merely the dead material
out of which is formed that living something, the action of a play; and
it is only in rare instances--far rarer than might at first sight
appear--that the subject is as it were self-moulded as a dramatic
action. The less experienced a playwright, the more readily will he, as
the phrase is, rush at his subject, more especially if it seems to him
to possess prima facie dramatic capabilities; and the consequence will
be that which usually attends upon a precipitate start. On the other
hand, while the quickness of a great dramatist's apprehension is apt to
suggest to him an infinite number of subjects, and insight and
experience may lead him half instinctively in the direction of suitable
themes, it will often be long before in his mind the subject converts
itself into the initial conception of the action of a play. To mould a
subject--be it a Greek legend, or a portion of a Tudor chronicle, or one
out of a hundred Italian tales, or a true story of modern life--into the
action or fable of a play, is the primary task of the dramatist, and
with this all-important process the creative part of his work really
begins. Although his conception may expand or modify itself as he
executes it, yet upon the conception the execution must largely depend.
The range of subjects open to a dramatist may be as wide as the world
itself, or it may be restricted by an endless variety of causes,
conventions and considerations; and it is quite true that even the
greatest dramatists have not always found time for contemplating each
subject that occurs to them till the ray is caught which proclaims it a
dramatic diamond. What they had time for, and what only the playwright
who entirely misunderstands his art ignores the necessity of finding
t