The present volume of "Representative Plays by American Dramatists"
includes many hitherto unpublished manuscripts. These are for the first
time made available in authoritative form to the student of the American
theatre. The Editor has tried consistently to adhere to his original
basis of selection: to offer only those texts not generally in
circulation and not used elsewhere in other anthologies. Exactions of
copyright have sometimes compelled him to depart from this rule. He has
been somewhat embarrassed, editorially, by the ungenerous haste with
which a few others have followed closely in his path, even to the point
of reproducing plays which were known to be scheduled for this
collection. For that reason there have been omitted Mr. William
Gillette's "Secret Service," available to readers in so many forms, and
Mr. Percy Mackaye's "The Scarecrow." No anthology of the present
historical scope, however, can disregard George Henry Boker's "Francesca
da Rimini" or Bronson Howard's "Shenandoah." In the instance of Mr.
Langdon Mitchell's "The New York Idea," it is possible to supersede all
previous issues of this refreshing comedy by offering a text which, as
to stage directions, has been completely revised by the author. Mr.
Mitchell wishes to have this regarded as the correct version, and has
himself prepared the "copy" of same. Because of the easy accessibility
of Dion Boucicault's "The Octoroon; or, Life in Louisiana," it was
thought best to omit this Irish-American playwright, whose jovial
prolixity enriched the American stage of the '60's and '70's. His
"London Assurance" is included in the present Editor's collection of
"Representative British Dramas: Victorian and Modern."
Of more historical significance than Joseph Jefferson's final version of
"Rip Van Winkle," are the two texts upon which Boucicault and Jefferson
based their play. It has been possible to offer the reader a comparative
arrangement of the John Kerr and Charles Burke dramatizations.
In the choice of Steele Mackaye's "Paul Kauvar; or, Anarchy" a period is
illustrated which might be described as transitional. Executors of the
Augustin Daly estate are not ready to allow any of Daly's original plays
or adaptations to be published. The consequence is "Paul Kauvar" must
stand representative of the eighteen-eighty fervour of Lester Wallack,
A.M. Palmer, and Daly, who were in the Mackaye tradition.
Oliver Bunce's "Love in '76" has been selected for the same reason that
one might select Clyde Fitch's Revolutionary or Civil War
pieces--because of its bloodless character; because it is one of the
rare parlour comedies of the period.
Of the new pieces, Fitch's "The Moth and the Flame" has remained
unpublished until now. It exemplifies many of his most sprightly
observational qualities. "The Truth" and "The Girl with the Green Eyes"
are more mature, but are no less Fitchean than this. Mr. David Belasco's
"The Return of Peter Grimm" is as effective in the reading as it was on
the stage under his triumphant management. Mr. Eugene Walter's "The
Easiest Way," at the last moment, was released from publication in the
_Drama League Series of Plays_; it still stands as America's most
cruelly realistic treatment of certain city conditions. In the choice of
Mr. Augustus Thomas's "In Mizzoura"--"The Witching Hour" having so often
been used in dramatic collections--the Editor believes he has
represented this playwright at a time when his dramas were most racy and
native.
This third volume, therefore, brings examples of the present American
stagecraft to date. Had his policy of selection not been exclusive, but
rather inclusive of plays easily accessible to the student, the Editor
might have reached out for Mr. George C. Hazelton's and Mr. Benrimo's
"The Yellow Jacket," Mr. Charles Kenyon's "Kindling," and Mr. A.E.
Thomas's "Her Husband's Wife." He might likewise have included William
Vaughn Moody's "The Great Divide." These are all representative plays by
American dramatists for some future anthologist, when present editions
become rare.
But here are offered plays that will enrich the American dramatic
library because of their rarity, and for that reason others have been
excluded, which are easily procurable in print.
Through the courteous co-operation of Dr. Fred W. Atkinson, Professor
Brander Matthews, officials of the New York Public Library, The Library
Society of Philadelphia, Mr. Robert Gould Shaw, Custodian of the
Dramatic Collection of Harvard College Library, and through the generous
response of the owners of copyrights and manuscripts, the present volume
is made possible. The Editor, through every phase of his work, has had
the unswerving encouragement and assistance of his wife.