Crucible, by A. Oakey Hall; Inflation, by Charles Gayler and D. R. Locke; A Crown of Thorns, by Anna Dickinson; Life; Becky Mix; The Crabbed Age; Laura, or True to Herself, by Anna Dickinson; Flirtation, by Mrs. Ames; Lemons; Our Idol; A Heroine in Rags; Three Days, by Franklin File; Smiles and Tears; Slander, or The Iron Cross, by John Brougham; Quits, by Jeannette L. Gilder; Our Politics; Paul Grandet, by John Parselle; The Flag of Honor; Ah Sin; Barncastle and Reform; Shaun Aboo; Bona; The Third Estate; Broken Vows; My Foolish Wife, by Bartley Campbell; The Crushed Tragedian; Our Bachelors; The Golden Calf; The Hornet's Nest; The Soldier of Fortune; The Exiles; etc., etc.

THE PRESENT PERIOD.

At the present period, the writers who appear to be most actively at work as American producers of plays for the stage-leaving out a few whose work is altogether too insignificant-are these: Bronson Howard, A. R. Cazauran, George H. Jessop, Joaquin Miller, William Young, David Belasco, Frederic Marsden, Bartley Campbell, R. G. Morris, Steele Mackaye, W. H. Gillette, Sydney Rosenfeld, Anna Dickinson, B. E. Woolf, Leonard Grover, Edgar Fawcett, Augustin Daly, W. D. Howells, G. F. Rowe, and Edward Harrigan. The Madison Square Theater is undertaking to push forward the American Drama. All the plays given at that theater are by American authors. Plays by well-known literary men are to be offered there in the course of the next few years. Among the works on hand at this theater are plays by Mr. DeMille, Mr. Belasco, Mr. Marsden, Mr. W. H. Bishop, Mr. P. M. Potter, Mr. H. H. Boyesen, Mr. Henry Guy Carleton, and others either known or unknown as dramatists. It should be remarked, in parenthesis, that Mr. Dion Boucicault is spoken of at times as an Irish-American dramatist. But it would be hardly correct to include the restless and versatile Mr. Boucicault among American play-makers. It is now proper to call the reader's attention to the most recent period of the American Drama-that is to say, from 1878 to the present time.

SEASON OF 1878-1879.

Mr. Bronson Howard's Hurricanes was the earliest American play brought forward in the season

of 1878-79. Hurricanes is a play in the manner of Pink Dominos-that is to say, a farce of an offensive kind. The American dramatist can not afford to imitate the vagaries of French farce writers, who carry the infidelity of husbands and the indecency of wives to an extreme degree of "humor." All this is not to be taken seriously, of course; but Hurricanes injured Mr. Howard's reputation. Fortunately, a little one-act comedy, called Old Love Letters, was produced on the night when Hurricanes was given. Old Love Letters is an exquisite trifle, even more delicate than A Morning Call. It shows what delightful work Mr. Howard can do.

A fairly interesting drama, called The False Title, by Mr. Frederic Clark, was represented at the Standard Theater. This is the only theatrical work put forward by Mr. Clark, who came and went rather suddenly. Olive Logan wrote an adaptation, for Lotta, of La Cigale, which was done at the Park Theater. Mr. Frederic Marsden has written several plays for Lotta, that charming imp of mischief-all of them ponderous melodramas, through which the brightness of the actress glows like a sun's shiny beam. Mr. Marsden's Otto was written, evidently enough, for a "variety" performer. It has no merit, though it serves its purpose. Mrs. William Henderson's drama Almost a Life, which was acted at the Standard Theater, is an excellent version of Gaboriau's novel Le Mystère d'Orcival. It is a difficult business to adapt Gaboriau's complicated romances to the stage; but Mrs. Henderson has accomplished the business deftly in this play. Mr. Julian Magnus's adaptation of Mrs. Burnett's vigorous story, That Lass o' Lowrie's, was presented at Booth's Theater, but was not successful.

The most popular American play performed during the season of 1878-79 was The Banker's Daughter, written by Bronson Howard and A. R. Cazauran, and finely acted at the Union Square Theater. The Banker's Daughter is undoubtedly a drame de convention; it lacks original purpose, it is full of hackneyed theatrical effect. But it is dexterously arranged, it has stirring situations, it contains some delightful touches of humor, and it presents some amusing characters. The Mrs. Brown in The Banker's Daughter is clearly the work of Mr. Howard. Mr. George Fawcett Rowe's New York and London, done at Niblo's Garden, is a

particularly bad play. Mr. Rowe is the author of several particularly bad plays, the worst of them being Fifth Avenue, which was performed at Booth's Theater a few years ago, and in which Mr. G. F. Knight depicted-with picturesque sincerity-a man in a fit.

Mr. Sydney Rosenfeld, who has arranged several German plays for our stage, adapted L'Arronge's Dr. Klaus, called in the English version Dr. Clyde, for the Fifth Avenue Theater. But Dr. Clyde will hardly be appreciated by American audiences. Mr. Steele Mackaye's Thro' the Dark, which was presented at the Fifth Avenue, is a barely respectable melodrama. Mr. Stanley McKenna's Whims, adapted from the German, is a piece that one is very glad to forget. Another feeble play is Mr. Cazauran's Lost Children, which was performed at the Union Square Theater.

The first Madison Square Theater was opened during this season by Mr. Steele Mackaye. The theater was then a simple hall, provided with a small stage. Mr. Mackaye's play, Won at Last, which had been previously acted at Wallack's Theater, was given by a good company. Won at Last is a piece with a purely domestic interest, tender and human in its motive, and written with considerable freshness and strength. Mr. Daly's version of Zola's L'Assommoir was performed without success at the Olympic Theater. The following plays were also produced during this season: Destiny; Bonnie Kate; Cousin Roxy, by Charles Gayler; Two Women, by Abby Sage Richardson; Woman's Loyalty, by Hart Jackson; Mexico, by Joaquin Miller; The Tower of Babel; Devoted, by David Lowry; Widow Bedott, by D. R. Locke; Yakie, by C. B. Lewis; and Revels, by John J. McNally and Dexter Smith.

SEASON OF 1879-1880.

is young and pretty. But it is not safe to examine any of Mr. Campbell's plays too closely. They are written for an unthinking and emotional audience, and to touch them is to knock them apart like paper structures. Like other Americans who write plays, Mr. Campbell does not reflect. He builds superficially. So long as he has a situation, he feels sure that he has a play. He fails to get at the bottom of the situation, to find whether his theatrical effect is possible or reasonable. Several years ago Mr. George Edgar Montgomery, the dramatic critic of the New York Times, wrote, apropos of another play by Mr. Campbell, called Matrimony, these words: "The American dramatist is, of course, obstreperous, and dislikes sound criticism; it is sound criticism, above all, that he stands in need of. The sort of work that he persists in placing upon the stage is precisely the sort that he brought forth with so much prolific stupidity during the half century before the late war. Hundreds of American dramas were written in those days, and dozens of genial critics collapsed after long and laborious attempts to encourage what should have been severely discouraged. We have had enough of imitation, brainless tinkering, plagiarism, slovenliness, and flat incompetency. When an American dramatist, with ideas in his head, and with a clear and honest purpose revealed in his labor, comes before the public and demands encouragement, the result is not doubtful-he may command both pathy and support. An American author who writes a third-rate book is speedily suppressed and forgotten; an American dramatist who gives birth to some dull combination of extravagant situations and unreal characters-politely termed a drama-has the vanity to look for both praise and profit. The expectation is rather unreasonable." Emphatic words like these were not written without stinging provocation, and Mr. Campbell, as much as any one, incited the provocation; for Mr. Campbell is a very successful dramatic author.

sym

To go back to our record: Miss Morris introduced

at a Brooklyn theater a play entitled The Royal Favorite, by Donn Piatt, the Washington journalist; but nothing can be said in favor of this play. Mr. Bronson Howard's inartistic dovetailing of two celebrated French comedies by Molière-the result being a play called Wives-was performed at Daly's Theater. Mr. Townsend Percy's Self-Conquest, a version of a romance by Wilkie Collins, produced at the Fifth Avenue Theater, is not an uninteresting drama, though its merit is not substantial. Mr. Bartley Campbell's melodrama The Galley Slave was produced at Haverly's Theater. It is a conventional piece, full of wind and ancient legend. Mr. Lancaster's Estelle, done at Wallack's Theater, is a less effective play than Conscience.

We should like to take notice here of a dramatist who, though assuredly a very unpretentious writer, has furnished the stage with some humorous and novel work, and whose theater has long had much popularity in New York. Edward Harrigan, of the Theater Comique, is this dramatist. Mr. Harrigan is the author of many crude and boisterous farces, which have this merit: they depict features of low life in New York with comic fidelity. Mr. Harrigan conceived, a few years ago, the project of placing upon his stage a series of plays illustrating local life, interspersed with original melodies. The "Mulligan" plays were the result of his project, and, as every one is now familiar with the amusing pieces, it is useless to describe them. A play like Squatter Sovereignty shows Mr. Harrigan's method of making local farces with particular success. Of plot there is little or none. In one of the pieces, Dan Mulligan goes hunting, during three acts, for an office. In another, à trunk is stolen and pursued. In a third, a mudcontract is the pivot of interest. It should be said here that the popular songs of David Braham, which are invariably introduced in these plays, have contributed no small measure of success. Mr. Harrigan began by writing his own sketches and songs, when an actor on the variety stage. His success with short sketches encouraged him to produce Christmas Joys and Sorrows, and other dramas. The Mulligan Guards was his first great hit as a playwright. It "took off" the target companies that were formed by young fellows anxious to identify themselves with politics. The plays of the Mulligan series are: The Mulligan Guard Surprise, The Mulligan Guard Ball, The Mulligan Guard Picnic, The Mulligan Guard's

Christmas, The Mulligan Guard's Nominee, Mulligan's Silver Wedding, Squatter Sovereignty, McSorley's Inflation, The Muddy Day. He has also produced The Major, and Mordecai Lyons.

Mr. Campbell's play Fairfax, which was given at the Park Theater, has an insubstantial basis, and is not, therefore, a satisfactory drama; but some of the most intelligent labor accomplished by Mr. Campbell will be found in it. Mr. Edgar Fawcett made his first stage success with A False Friend, at the Union Square Theater. Mr. Fawcett is a poet, novelist, and dramatist. Perhaps he is a better poet and novelist than dramatist; nevertheless, there are conspicuous merits, as well as conspicuous faults, in A False Friend. That this drama is interesting will be readily admitted. The charm and the power of A False Friend are somewhat thickly imbedded in commonplace elements. Mr. George Hoey's Child of the State, which was performed at Wallack's Theater, is merely an adaptation of a French melodrama, Les Orphelines de la Charité.

The record of the season of 1879-80 would be singularly incomplete if no mention were made of the most popular play yet written-Hazel Kirke, by Steele Mackaye. It is with this play that the new and prosperous Madison Square Theater opened its career. The success of Hazel Kirke was, from the beginning, remarkable, and this is, on the whole, a pleasant and genuine domestic drama. It is unfortunate that certain blemishes of construction weaken it. Among the plays produced during this season were: Rescued, by Dion Boucicault; Star, or Paste and Diamonds, by Charles Gayler; Kentuck, by J. J. McCloskey and E. T. Stetson; Our Daughters; The Spark; Bric-a-Brac; Zola the Circusrider; Home, Sweet Home, by Joaquin Miller; Two Flats and a Sharp; Contempt of Court, by Dion Boucicault; An Iron Will; Lucifer Matches; Ruth, or The Curse of Rum, by George Fawcett Rowe; Trix; An Arabian Night; The Strategists; Fairfax, or Life in the Sunny South; Boarding-School; A Million; Fritz in Ireland; One Word, by Philip Gordon Miner; Carte Blanche; A Rogue's Luck; Midsummer Madness; Bumps; Bound to Succeed; The Soul of an Actress; The Love of Two Sailors; Ourselves; Mardo the Hunter; The Left Hand; Bankruptcy; The Way We Live; A Gentleman from Nevada; Among the Mormons; Extremes Meet, by Kate Field; Lightning Joe, the Telegraph Messenger; Tit for Tat; Rusti