George Bernard Shaw, his life and works; a critical biography (authorized) . mostrediscovered a lost art in writing those masterpieces of ego-tistical, combative, polemical, controversial criticism, the pref-aces, appendices and epilogues to his plays. A genuine con-tribution to dramaturgy is his innovation of ample stage-directions so-called: penetrating character sketches of placesas well as people, revelative hints to the actor, brief clarifyingessays to elucidate each dramatic situation. His effort tomake plays readable, to write literature instead of specifica-tions, is worthy of emulatio
George Bernard Shaw, his life and works; a critical biography (authorized) . mostrediscovered a lost art in writing those masterpieces of ego-tistical, combative, polemical, controversial criticism, the pref-aces, appendices and epilogues to his plays. A genuine con-tribution to dramaturgy is his innovation of ample stage-directions so-called: penetrating character sketches of placesas well as people, revelative hints to the actor, brief clarifyingessays to elucidate each dramatic situation. His effort tomake plays readable, to write literature instead of specifica-tions, is worthy of emulation, and eventually his method, incertain modified forms, will doubtless be generally practice of casting fantastic situations in rigidly realisticform strikes quite a novel note in dramaturgy despite Shawsoft-repeated assertion that, after all, he is a very old-fashionedplaywright. 427 THE DRAMATIST The function of comedy is nothing less than the destruction of old-established morals.—Meredith on Comedy, by G. B. Shaw, in the SaturdayReview, March 27th, From a photo by Exited .(? Co.] [42, Ba GEORGE BERNARD SHAW. [Facing p. 130 CHAPTER XIV THERE can be no new drama, as Mr. Stuart-Glennie haspointed out, without a new philosophy. Drama can neverbe the same again since Ibsen has lived. The drama of thefuture, in Shaws view, can never be anything more than theplay of ideas. Whether as yet accurately formulated in standard works ofdramatic criticism or not, the fact remains that a clear anddemarcative line of division runs across the drama of one side of this line falls that vast majority of plays—serious drama, comedy, melodrama, farce—which accord moreor less rigidly with the established canons and authorita-tive traditions of dramatic art. On the other side falls thepersistently crescent minority of plays which break away fromthe old conventions and set up new precedents for formulationby the Freytag of the future. In the first class are foundth
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