Wilkinson Evans's adaptation of the
lovely old poem "Aucassin and Nicolette", was given for the
second time.

In 1889, the Art Society--known since 1894 as Tau Zeta Epsilon--was
founded; and, alternating with the Shakespeare play, it gives
in the spring a "Studio Reception", at which pictures from the
old masters, with living models, are presented. The effects of
lighting and color are so carefully studied, and the compositions
of the originals are so closely followed that the illusion is
sometimes startling; it is as if real Titians, Rembrandts, and
Carpaccios hung on the wails of the Wellesley Barn. In 1889,
also, the Glee and Banjo clubs were formed.

In 1891, the Agora, the political society, came into existence.
The serious intellectual quality of its work does honor to the
college, and its open debates, at which it has sometimes represented
the House of Commons, sometimes one or the other of the American
Chambers of Congress, are marked events in the college calendar.

In 1892, Alpha Kappa Chi, the Classical Society, was organized,
and of late years its Greek play, presented during Commencement
week, has surpassed both the senior play and the Shakespeare play
in dramatic rendering and careful study of the lines. Gilbert
Murray's translation of the "Medea", presented in 1914, was a
performance of which Wellesley was justly proud. Usually the
Wellesley plays are better as pageants than as dramatic productions,
but the Classical Society is setting a standard for the careful
literary interpretation and rendering of dramatic texts, which
should prove stimulating to all the societies and class organizations.

The senior play is one of the chief events of Commencement week,
but the students have not always been fully awake to their dramatic
opportunity. If college theatricals have any excuse for being, it
is not found in attempts to compete with the commercial stage and
imitate the professional actor, but rather in dramatic revivals
such as the Harvard Delta Upsilon has so spiritedly presented,
or in the interpretation of the poetic drama, whether early or late,
which modern theaters with their mixed audiences cannot afford
to present. The college audience is always a selected audience,
and has a right to expect from the college players dramatic caviare.
That Wellesley is moving in the right direction may be seen by
reading a list of her senior plays, among which are the "Countess
Cathleen", by Yeats, Alfred