mposition
of Robert Browning, whose place in the living inheritance of the English
drama has in one instance at least been not unsuccessfully vindicated by
a later age, and some of whose greatest gifts are beyond a doubt
displayed in his dramatic work;[270] and the sustained endeavours of A.
C. Swinburne, after adding a flower of exquisite beauty to the wreath
which the lovers of the Attic muse have laid at her feet, to enrich the
national historic drama by a trilogy instinct with the ardent eloquence
of passion.[271] Until a date too near the times in which we live to
admit of its being fixed with precision, most of the English writers who
sought to preserve a connexion between their dramatic productions and
the demands of the stage addressed themselves to the theatrical rather
than the literary public--for the distinction, in those times at all
events, was by no means without a difference. The modestly simple and
judiciously concentrated efforts of Joanna Baillie deserve a respectful
remembrance in the records of literature as well as of the stage, though
the day has passed when the theory which suggested her _Plays on the
Passions_ could find acceptance among critics, or her exemplifications
of it satisfy the demands of playgoers. Sheridan Knowles, on the other
hand, composed his conventional semblances of genuine tragedy and comedy
with a thorough knowledge of stage effect, and some of them can hardly
yet be said to have vanished from the stage.[272] The first Lord Lytton,
though his plays were for the most part of a lighter texture, showed
even more artificiality of sentiment in their conception and execution;
but the romantic touch which he imparted to at least one of them
accounts for its long-lived popularity. Among later Victorian
playwrights T. W. Robertson brought back a breath of naturalness into
the acted comic drama; Tom Taylor, rivalling Lope in fertility, made
little pretence to original invention, but adapted with an instinct that
rarely failed him, and materially helped to keep the theatrical
diversions of his age sound and pure; an endeavour in which he had the
co-operation of Charles Reade and that of most of those who competed
with them for the favour of generations of playgoers more easily
contented than their successors. The one deplorable aspect of this age
of the English drama was to be found neither in the sphere of tragedy
nor in that of comedy--nor even in that of farce. It was presented in
th