a matter of little moment. Our most popular
comedy, _The School for Scandal_, though it has a reconciliation
business, is quite independent of any sentimental matter of importance.
In several of the works of Mr Barrie, our most original popular
dramatist, the sentimental interest is slight where it exists at all.

It seems needless to multiply instances; enough has been said to show
that it is quite possible to make money with plays that are not at all
sentimental. What a pity, then, that the dramatists who aim at general
popularity should feel themselves constrained to be more or less
sentimental, and also that managers should fight shy of the works of
those dramatists, other than Mr Barrie, who have the courage to write
unsentimental plays! For it is to be noticed that in the last ten years
a great many unsentimental English plays have been written and produced
by non-commercial managements. It does not from this follow that all of
them ignore love and the relation of the sexes, or even avoid actual
love-stories; but as a class they eschew the sentimental treatment which
is and for a long time has been the distinguishing feature of British
Drama.

A particular instance of the effect of the modern tradition may be
mentioned. _The Beloved Vagabond_ had a great success as a novel; it
enjoyed a London run as a play of about two months only. In the book the
love-story is a minor matter, treated mainly with a sub-acid humour, and
the author wisely avoids an absurd happy-ever-after conclusion. The play
was supersaturated with sentiment, with a sentiment which drove out
nearly all the humour and, roughly speaking, all the plausibility. Is it
easy to doubt that it is the sentimental treatment which has caused the
history of the play to be so different from that of the novel?

There are signs that the public is growing rather tired of molasses,
which in fact is ceasing to be "golden" syrup. The main effect, apart
from purely technical matters, of the new drama, that practically
speaking began with the production of _The Doll's House_ at the Great
Queen Street Theatre, has been destructive; the outcome has included
some brilliant plays, the drawing power of which has never been fairly
and fully tested; but the most important result has been the
discontentment of the ordinary playgoer with the fare which once would
have delighted him. Many bubbles have been pricked; many conventions
killed; many plays ridiculed by houses that