be doubted, however, whether his copious and
ebullient style could ever really subject itself to the trammels of
dramatic form. Of other dramas on the Elizabethan model, the most
notable, perhaps, were the works of two ladies who adopt the pseudonym
of "Michael Field"; _Callirrhoe_ (1884), _Brutus Ultor_ (1887), and many
other dramas, show considerable power of imagination and expression, but
are burdened by a deliberate artificiality both of technique and style.
Alfred Austin put forth several volumes in dramatic form, such as
_Savonarola_ (1881), _Prince Lucifer_ (1887), _England's Darling_
(1896), _Flodden Field_ (1905). They are laudable in intention and
fluent in utterance. Notable additions to the purely literary drama were
made by Robert Bridges in his _Prometheus_ (1883), _Nero_ (1885), _The
Feast of Bacchus_ (1889), and other solid plays in verse, full of
science and skill, but less charming than his lyrical poems. Sir Lewis
Morris made a dramatic experiment in _Gycia_, but was not encouraged to
repeat it.

From the outset of his career, John Davidson (1857-1909) was haunted by
the conviction that he was a born dramatist; but his earlier plays, such
as _Smith: a Tragedy_ (1886), _Bruce: a Chronicle Play_ (1884) and
_Scaramouch in Naxos_ (1888), contained more poetry than drama; and his
later pieces, such as _Self's the Man_ (1901), _The Theatrocrat_ (1905)
and the _Triumph of Mammon_ (1907), showed a species of turbulent
imagination, but became more and more fantastic and impracticable.
Stephen Phillips (b. 1867), on the other hand, having had some
experience as an actor, wrote always with the stage in view. In his
first play, _Paolo and Francesca_ (1899; produced in 1902), he succeeded
in combining great beauty of diction with intense dramatic power and
vitality. The same may be said of _Herod_ (1900); but in _Ulysses_
(1902) and _Nero_ (1906) a great falling-off in constructive power was
only partially redeemed by the fine inspiration of individual passages.

The collaboration of Robert Louis Stevenson with William Ernest Henley
produced a short series of interesting experiments in drama, two of
which, _Beau Austin_ (1883) and _Admiral Guinea_ (1884), had more than a
merely experimental value. The former was an emotional comedy, treating
with rare distinction of touch a difficult, almost an impossible,
subject; the latter was a nautical melodrama, raised by force of
imagination and diction into the region of