Few books of the year 1909 can have been cheaper and more entertaining
than the report of this Committee. Its full title is REPORT FROM THE
JOINT SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS AND THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
ON THE STAGE PLAYS (CENSORSHIP) TOGETHER WITH THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE
COMMITTEE, MINUTES OF EVIDENCE, AND APPENDICES. What the phrase "the
Stage Plays" means in this title I do not know; nor does anyone else.
The number of the Bluebook is 214.
How interesting it is may be judged from the fact that it contains
verbatim reports of long and animated interviews between the Committee
and such witnesses as W. William Archer, Mr. Granville Barker, Mr. J.
M. Barrie, Mr. Forbes Robertson, Mr. Cecil Raleigh, Mr. John Galsworthy,
Mr. Laurence Housman, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Mr. W. L. Courtney, Sir
William Gilbert, Mr. A. B. Walkley, Miss Lena Ashwell, Professor Gilbert
Murray, Mr. George Alexander, Mr. George Edwardes, Mr. Comyns Carr,
the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Bishop of Southwark, Mr. Hall
Caine, Mr. Israel Zangwill, Sir Squire Bancroft, Sir Arthur Pinero, and
Mr. Gilbert Chesterton, not to mention myself and a number of gentlemen
less well known to the general public, but important in the world of the
theatre. The publication of a book by so many famous contributors would
be beyond the means of any commercial publishing firm. His Majesty's
Stationery Office sells it to all comers by weight at the very
reasonable price of three-and-threepence a copy.