comprehensive generalization--that includes and explains them all. The
commander from his eminence saw all the combatants: he knew what the
fight was about, and it always was about something worth while. Bronson
Howard never dramatized piffle.

He was an observer of human nature and events, a traveler, a thinker, a
student of the drama of all ages. He had been a reporter and an
editorial writer. His plays were written by a watchful, sympathetic, and
artistic military general turned philosopher.

AUGUSTUS THOMAS.

(June 1914).




The Autobiography of a Play

As read before the Shakspere Club _of_ Harvard University


I have not come to Newcastle with a load of coals; and I shall not try
to tell the faculty and students of Harvard University anything about
the Greek drama or the classical unities. I will remind you of only one
thing in that direction; and say even this merely because it has a
direct bearing upon some of the practical questions connected with
play-writing which I purpose to discuss. Aeschylus, Sophocles, and
Euripides--perhaps we should give the entire credit, as some authorities
do, to Aeschylus--taught the future world the art of writing a play. But