is the individual who points to the necessary changes. Schools and
these special individuals are interdependent.

As to the present comedies in America: in the first place, it is
impossible as a rule to decide fully what are the tendencies of a
school when one is living in the midst of its activities. There is no
marked tendency now; and as far as I can see it is only the occasional
man who discovers the tendency of the times. Pinero undoubtedly saw
that the public was tired of the "tea-cup and saucer." Probably had he
not thought so, he would have gone on in that school.

Undoubtedly more plays are written to order than are written on the
mere impulse of authors, independently of popular demand. The "order"
play simply represents the popular demand as understood by managers,
and the meeting of that demand in each age produces the great mass
of any nation's drama. So far from lowering the standard of dramatic
writing, it is a necessary impulse in the development of any drama. It
is only when the school goes on blindly without seeing a change in the
popular taste that the occasional man I have spoken of comes on. When
the work of the school is legitimately in line with the public taste,
the merely eccentric dramatist is like _Lord Dundreary's_ bird with a
single feather that goes in a corner and flocks all by itself. He may
be a strong enough man to attract attention to his individuality, and
his plays may be really great in themselves, but his work has
little influence on the development of the art. In fact, there is
no development of the art except in the line of popular taste. The
specially great men mentioned have simply discovered the changes in
the popular taste, and to a certain extent perhaps guided it.[A]