enth century and proved an
impetus to a new dramatic movement, seen in the work of men like Shaw.

The great literary school of dramatists passed away soon after the
death of Shakespeare. While it is true that the writing of plays has
been practically continuous since the time of the Restoration, yet for
more than two hundred years after that event, the history of the drama
has had little memorable work to record. There were two brief
interesting comic periods: (1) the period of Congreve at the close of
the seventeenth century, and (2) of Goldsmith and Sheridan nearly a
hundred years later. The literary plays of the Victorians,--Browning,
Tennyson, and Swinburne,--were lacking in dramatic essentials.

The modern drama has accomplished certain definite results. Pinero's
work is typical of vast improvement in technique. Shaw is noted for
his power of "investing modern conversation with vivacity and point."
J.M. Synge has won distinction for presenting the great elemental
forces that underlie the actions of primitive human beings. The
playwrights are making the drama perform some of the functions that
have been filled by the novel. The modern drama is also wrestling with
the problem of combining literary form, poetic spirit, and good
dramatic action. Some of the modern plays deal with unpleasant
subjects, and some of the least worthy are immoral in their
tendencies. Such plays will be forgotten, for the Anglo-Saxon race has
never yet immortalized an unwholesome drama. Fortunately, however, the
influence of a large proportion of the plays is pure and wholesome. In
this class may be included the dramas of the Irish school and of
Barrie, the majority by Galsworthy, and a number by Phillips and Shaw.

Jones and Pinero.--The work of Henry Arthur Jones and Sir Arthur
Wing Pinero marks the advance of the English drama from artificiality
and narrowness of scope toward a wider, closer relation to life. Henry
Arthur Jones, both a playwright and a critic, was born in
Grandborough, Buckinghamshire, in 1851. Contemporary English life is
the subject of his numerous plays. _The Manoeuvers of Jane_ (1898) and
_Mrs. Dane's Defence (1900), are among his best works.

[Illustration: HENRY ARTHUR JONES.]

Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, born in 1855 in London, began his career as an
actor.

[Illustration: ARTHUR WING PINERO.]

His real ambition, however, was to write for the stage. More than
forty works, including farces, comedies of sentimen