the Butterfly_, _Trelawny of the "Wells_," _The Gay Lord
Quex_, _Iris_, _Letty_, _His House in Order_ and _The Thunderbolt_--all
of which show marked originality of conception and intellectual force.
In January 1893 Charles Wyndham initiated a new policy at the Criterion
theatre, and produced an original play, _The Bauble-Shop_, by Henry
Arthur Jones. It belonged very distinctly to the pre-Tanqueray order of
things; but the same author's _The Case of Rebellious Susan_, in the
following year, showed an almost startlingly sudden access of talent,
which was well maintained in such later works as _Michael and his Lost
Angel_ (1896), that admirable comedy _The Liars_ (1897), and _Mrs Dane's
Defence_ (1900). Sydney Grundy produced after 1893 by far his most
important original works, _The Greatest of These_ (1896) and _The Debt
of Honour_ (1900). R. C. Carton, breaking away from the somewhat
laboured sentimentalism of his earlier manner, produced several light
comedies of thoroughly original humour and of excellent literary
workmanship--_Lord and Lady Algy_, _Wheels within Wheels_, _Lady
Huntworth's Experiment_, _Mr Hopkinson_ and _Mr Preedy and the
Countess_. Haddon Chambers, in _The Tyranny of Tears_ (1899) and _The
Awakening_ (1901), produced two plays of a merit scarcely foreshadowed
in his earlier efforts.

What was of more importance, a new generation of playwrights came to the
front. Its most notable representatives were J. M. Barrie, who displayed
his inexhaustible gift of humorous observation and invention in _Quality
Street_ (1902), _The Admirable Crichton_ (1903), _Little Mary_ (1903),
_Peter Pan_ (1904), _Alice Sit-by-the-Fire_ (1905) and _What Every Woman
Knows_ (1908); Mrs Craigie ("John Oliver Hobbes"), who produced in _The
Ambassador_ (1898) a comedy of fine accomplishment; and H. V. Esmond,
Alfred Sutro, Hubert Henry Davies, W. S. Maugham, Rudolf Besier, Roy
Horniman and J. B. Fagan.

Meanwhile, the efforts to relieve the drama from the pressure of the
long-run system had not been confined to the Independent theatre.
Several other enterprises of a like nature had proved more or less
short-lived; but the Stage Society, founded in 1900, was conducted with
more energy and perseverance, and became a real force in the dramatic
world. After two seasons devoted mainly to Bernard Shaw, Ibsen,
Maeterlinck and Hauptmann, it produced in its third season _The Marrying
of Ann Leete_, by Granville Barker (b. 1877), who had