. Dramatists of to-day:. or do. So the disappointed playwrightto his admiring wife. I have never been quite surewhether that were Mr. Howells own view or merelythe result of his observation of literary men whowrite for the stage. I presume it may be the lat-ter. I have a considerable interest in stage tech-nique and would enjoy of all things having its finepoints exhibited to me by one who knew. But theprofessors of that science whom I have known havealways seemed rather too general and glitteringfor my academic mind to follow them. I notice ofstagecraft, however, that it is esteemed of greati
. Dramatists of to-day:. or do. So the disappointed playwrightto his admiring wife. I have never been quite surewhether that were Mr. Howells own view or merelythe result of his observation of literary men whowrite for the stage. I presume it may be the lat-ter. I have a considerable interest in stage tech-nique and would enjoy of all things having its finepoints exhibited to me by one who knew. But theprofessors of that science whom I have known havealways seemed rather too general and glitteringfor my academic mind to follow them. I notice ofstagecraft, however, that it is esteemed of greatimportance on one side of the footlights and ofnone at all on the other. In this respect it some-what resembles the technique of painting, as Arthur Jones pointed out some time agoin the Nineteenth Century, although he groundshis opinion on ve«ry different reasons. I know of no good treatise on the subject, andit is, in fact, rather hard to find out just what play-wrights and actors consider the really important. ARTHUR WING PINERO PINERO 93 things in the plays they present. I have noticedone or two little things that may serve to givesomething of a notion. In Miss Clara Morrissvery interesting Life on the Stage are one ortwo bits of mention of the actors art, of whichthe following is the most suggestive: Mr. Daly wanted me to get across the stage,so that I should be out of hearing distance of twoof the gentlemen . . [There were many ex-pedients for crossing, but none pleased , until Miss Morris suggested a smelling-bottle] ... He brightened quickly—cloudedover even more quickly: Y-e-e-s! N-o-o! at leastif it had never appeared before. But let me see—Miss Morris, you must carry that smelling-bottlein the preceding scene—and, yes, Ill just put ina line in your part, making you ask some one tohand it to you—that will nail attention to it, yousee! Then in this scene, when you leave thesepeople and cross the room to get your smelling-bottle from the mantel,
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