son deserves well of those who
have faith in the power of Shakespeare's words to widen the horizon of
men's intellects and emotions. The seed he has sown should not be
suffered to decay.

VI

THE MUNICIPAL THEATRE[23]

[Footnote 23: This paper was first printed in the _New Liberal
Review_, May 1902.]

I

Many actors, dramatic critics, and men in public life advocate the
municipal manner of theatrical enterprise. Their aim, as I understand
it, is to procure the erection, and the due working, of a playhouse
that shall serve in permanence the best interests of the literary or
artistic drama. The municipal theatre is not worth fighting for,
unless there is a reasonable probability that its establishment will
benefit dramatic art, promote the knowledge of dramatic literature,
and draw from the literary drama and confer on the public the largest
beneficial influence which the literary drama is capable of
distributing.

None of Shakespeare's countrymen or countrywomen can deny with a good
grace the importance of the drama as a branch of art. None will
seriously dispute that our dramatic literature, at any rate in its
loftiest manifestation, has contributed as much as our armies or our
navies or our mechanical inventions to our reputation through the
world.

There is substantial agreement among enlightened leaders of public
opinion in all civilised countries that great drama, when fitly
represented in the theatre, offers the rank and file of a nation
recreation which brings with it moral, intellectual, and spiritual
advantage.

II

The first question to consider is whether in England the existing
theatrical agencies promote for the general good the genuine interests
of dramatic art. Do existing theatrical agencies secure for the nation
all the beneficial influence that is derivable from the truly
competent form of drama? If they do this sufficiently, it is otiose
and impertinent to entertain the notion of creating any new theatrical
agency.

Theatrical agencies of the existing type have never ignored the
literary drama altogether. Among actor-managers of the past
generation, Sir Henry Irving devoted his high ability to the
interpretation of many species of literary drama--from that by
Shakespeare to that by Tennyson. At leading theatres in London there
have been produced in the last few years poetic dramas written in
blank verse on themes drawn from such supreme examples of the world's
literature as