l, my chief concern.

In all my critical and theoretical writing I wish to be as little
abstract as possible, and to study first principles, not so much as they
exist in the brain of the theorist, but as they may be discovered, alive
and in effective action, in every achieved form of art. I do not
understand the limitation by which so many writers on aesthetics choose
to confine themselves to the study of artistic principles as they are
seen in this or that separate form of art. Each art has its own laws,
its own capacities, its own limits; these it is the business of the
critic jealously to distinguish. Yet in the study of art as art, it
should be his endeavour to master the universal science of beauty.

1903, 1907.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

An Apology for Puppets 3

PLAYS AND ACTING

Nietzsche on Tragedy 11

Sarah Bernhardt 17

Coquelin and Moliere 29

Rejane 37

Yvette Guilbert 42

Sir Henry Irving 52

Duse in Some of Her Parts 60

Annotations 77

M. Capus in England 93

A Double Enigma 100

DRAMA

Professional and Unprofessional 109

Tolstoi and Others 115

Some Problem Plays 124

"Monna Vanna" 137

The Question of Censorship 143

A Play and the Public 148

The Test of the Actor 152

The Price of Realism 162

On Crossing Stage to Right 167

The Speaking of Verse 173

Great Acting in English 182

A Theory of the Stage 198

The Sicilian Actors 213

MUSIC

On Writing about Music 229

Technique and the Artist 232

Pachmann and the Piano 237

Paderewski 258

A Reflection at a Dolmetsch Concert 268

The Dramatisation of Song 277

The Meiningen Orchestra 284

Mozart in the Mirabell-Garten 290

Notes on Wagner at Bayreuth 297

Conclusion: A Paradox on Art 315

INTRODUCTION

AN APOLOGY FOR PUPPETS

After seeing a ballet