s does comparatively little service
for drama. Its taste seems to be for showy, artificial plays, and its
tendency to seek out works that do not act themselves because of their
truth of characterisation but afford unlimited scope for originality on
the part of performers--generally half-baked performers.

This does not apply to all amateur societies; at least we know that
there are a number of associations not for the purposes of gain, such as
the Elizabethan Stage Society, now, alas! dead, which showed a very
stern enthusiasm for the higher forms of art. They appear to be the
exception. There was a time when it was difficult to find a man in the
street who had not acted in _Ici on Parle Francais_ or played in _Money_
or appeared in _Our Boys_, and nowadays it seems that though there has
been some progress, the austere drama is still unpopular, and that when
funds are sufficient artificial costume plays are in vogue.

Mr Shaw apparently believes that vanity is the fundamental motive of
amateur performances. It may be that this is not wholly true, and that
the real impulse is the elementary instinct for dressing-up. Savages, we
know, have a craving for strange costumes which enable them to disguise
and even disfigure their persons. Children delight in dressing up.
Possibly one of the great joys of the amateur lies in the fact that he
has an opportunity of wearing clothes pertinent to somebody else, and,
if he be a male, is curious to see how he looks and is looked upon with
the whiskers of the mid-Victorian beau or the imperial of the Third
Empire, and so on.

The amiable philosopher would find a pleasanter explanation, would
suggest that the desire to "dress up" is based upon a modest doubt
concerning the charms of one's own individuality--how agreeable to
believe this! At the bottom of the matter lies this ugly contention on
the part of the cynic--he alleges that the amateur wants to act not for
the benefit of the charity, the name of which is invoked hypocritically,
but for the gratification of his vanity, and the authors are unable to
see why the clubs should gratify the conceit of their members at the
expense of those who write the plays.

After all, the matter is one of domestic economy, and the wisest thing
seems to be to leave people to make their own bargains; and if the
result is that the best plays are the dearest and the least performed,
the result may be somewhat advantageous. It is always uncertain wheth