The Project Gutenberg EBook of Representative Plays by American
Dramatists: 1856-1911: The Moth and the Flame, by Clyde Fitch

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Title: Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: The Moth and the Flame

Author: Clyde Fitch

Editor: Montrose J. Moses

Release Date: June 2, 2008 [EBook #25531]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE MOTH AND THE FLAME

[Illustration: CLYDE FITCH]

CLYDE FITCH

(1865-1909)

Clyde Fitch brought a vivacity to the American stage that no other
American playwright has thus far succeeded in emulating. The total
impression of his work leads one to believe that he also brought to
the American stage a style which was at the same time literary and
distinctly his own. His personality was interesting and lovable,
quickly responsive to a variety of human nature. No play of his was
ever wholly worthless, because of that personal equation which lent
youth and spontaneity to much of his dialogue. When he attained
popular fame, he threw off his dramas--whether original or adapted
from the French and German--with a rapidity and ease that did much to
create a false impression as to his haste and casualness. But Fitch,
though a nervously quick worker, was never careless. He pondered his
dramas long, he carried his characters in mind for years, he almost
memorized his dialogue before he set it down on paper. And if he wrote
in his little note-books with the same staccato speed that an artist
sketches, it was merely because he saw the picture vividly, and
because the preliminaries had been done beforehand.

The present Editor was privileged to know Fitch as a friend. And to be
taken into the magic circle was to be given freely of that personal
equation which made his plays so personal. This association was begun
over a negative criticism of a play. An invitation followed to come
and talk it over in his Fortieth Street study, the same room
which--decorations, furniture, books and all--was bequeathed to
Amherst C