Excerpt from Players and Plays of the Last Quarter Century, Vol. 2: An Historical Summary of Causes and a Critical Review of Conditions as Existing in the American Theatre at the Close of the Nineteenth Century, The Theatre of to-Day

At the present time it can be rightfully Claimed that the English theatre has a drama of its own, and that Mr. Simpson's modest prophecy has been to an appreciable extent fulfilled. Whether the modern English drama is equal to the modern French or the modern German drama, is another proposition, and one that would carry the argument into lines too digressing at present to follow. The asser tion may be made, however, that, while there is a finer appreciation Of technique and a nicer sense of construction evidenced by the average French dramatist, it is an open question whether the general run of modern French drama outranks perceptibly the general run of modern English drama. There is more high Class French drama, and it is treated more seriously as a literary product, it is criticised, theorised over, and fostered more intelligently and to better purpose, but even with all that, its quality, underneath the highly finished veneering, is by no means startling.

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