The production on the London stage of a piece called 'The
Schoolmistress' no doubt caused many lovers and students of the drama to
consider for a moment whether--and, if so, to what extent--the general
subject of school-life had been dealt with by preceding playwrights.
Mr. Pinero was fortunate, to begin with, in the fact that he had hit
upon a title for his piece hitherto unused--so far as I am aware--by any
dramatist of whom history bears record. And this piece of originality is
in itself remarkable, seeing that novelty in title is nowadays
sufficiently rare. There is no official registry of such things, and,
where so many active pens have been at work, a playwright must be
self-confident indeed who can be sure that he has alighted upon a name
which has never been used by any other native dramatist. To give only a
few instances out of dozens:--Mr. Albery's play of 'The Spendthrift' had
been anticipated, so far as title was concerned, by 'The Spendthrift' of
Matthew Draper, acted in 1731, and by 'The Spendthrift' of Dr. Kenrick,
performed in 1758, to say nothing of two anonymous plays, each called
'The Spendthrift,' dating from 1680 and 1762 respectively. And to come
down to quite recent days, the 'Loyal Lovers' played lately at the
London Vaudeville had had a predecessor, in the matter of name, in the
'Loyal Lovers,' by Major Manuche, which saw the light so long ago as
1652. Similarly, the 'Woman of the World,' performed at the Haymarket in
1886, had had its prototype, so far as the title was concerned, in the
'Woman of the World' of Nelson Lee and Stirling Coyne.
Exceptionally lucky, indeed, is the dramatic writer who can now discover
a wholly new name for his production. A wholly fresh subject is, of
course, even more difficult to achieve. Take what phase of life you
will--make what use of it you please--you cannot secure absolute
novelty. You cannot find a piece of ground which has not been trodden,
however slightly, however differently, by a predecessor. The author of
'The Schoolmistress' introduces his audiences to a very charming lady
pupil-teacher, and to three scarcely less charming lady pupils. But one
thinks at once of the still more delightful bevy of tutors and scholars
presented to us just nineteen years ago, by T. W. Robertson, who,
inspired by a German original, gave us not only Bella and Naomi Tighe,
but a 'rosebud garden of girls,' of which the attraction has by no means
yet departed. Mr. Ruskin has sneered at Bella as 'an amiable governess
who, for the general encouragement of virtue in governesses, is rewarded
by marrying a lord.' But for all that, she is a pleasant figure, and
Naomi is a piquant one, and the English stage has witnessed few more
agreeable scenes than those in which Dr. and Mrs. Sutcliffe's young
ladies take part in the course of 'School.'
As everybody knows, there is an 'angry schoolboy' in 'The Alchemist,'
who is likely to survive not only in literature, but in history, by
reason of the effective use which Sheridan once made of him when
retorting upon Pitt in the House of Commons. Is there not, too, a comedy
of Brome's--'The Antipodes'--in which the fathers go to school instead
of their sons, and are made to ape the habits of the youthful scholar?
Richard Lovelace, we read, wrote a comedy called 'The Scholar,' but it
was never printed, and probably had reference to the adult rather than
the juvenile student. In the early years of last century, 'The
Schoolboy' was the title given to a farce played at Drury Lane, a piece
of which one Johnny was the hero--a Johnny who had the honour of being
impersonated by the great Roscius himself, and by actors, too, of the
calibre of Woodward, Shuter, and J. W. Dodd. Early, again, in the
present century, 'The Scholar' was the name of a play adapted from the
French by Buckstone; but in this case, as, no doubt, there was in
Lovelace's, there is more of the scholastic than of the school. The
subject and title of 'Schoolfellows' was taken by Douglas Jerrold, the
schoolfellows in it being, however, no longer under the tutelage of
their old master. A 'Schoolboy's Masque' was printed in 1742; a 'School
Moderator' was included in Garrick's collection; a 'School Play,' it is
recorded, was performed at a private grammar school in Middlesex, in
1663; and of recent years an extravaganza has been endowed with the
suggestive title of 'School Bored.'
There is, of course, a sense in which the word 'school' can be used for
the larger opportunities of education given by contact with the world.
And in this sense the word has been used by English dramatists with
remarkable and characteristic frequency. In the second quarter of the
seventeenth century Shirley printed, as 'the firstfruits of his Muses,'
his comedy called 'The School of Compliment,' which had been played at
Drury Lane; and in the list of comedies of the nineteenth century will
be found 'The School of Reform,' by Thomas Morton, and the 'School of
Intrigue,' by Mr. Mortimer; the former devoted to instructing ladies
'how to rule a husband,' and the latter to a fresh treatment of the
world-famous story of the Count and Countess Almaviva. But the dramatic
pieces whose titles begin with 'The School of' are few indeed in
comparison with those whose names begin with 'The School for.' Of the
latter the most famous is, of course, 'The School for Scandal,' now just
111 years old. But Sheridan's work had been preceded, in the following
order, by 'The School for Lovers,' 'The School for Guardians,' 'The
School for Rakes,' 'The School for Fathers,' and 'The School for Wives.'
Nor is it surprising that, the fashion having once been set, Sheridan's
comedy should be followed successively by 'The School for Eloquence,'
'The School for Ladies,' 'The School for Vanity,' 'The School for
Greybeards,' 'The School for Widows,' 'The School for Arrogance,' 'The
School for Prejudice,' 'The School for Friends,' 'The School for
Authors,' 'The School for Grown Children,' 'The School for Grown
Gentlemen,' and 'The School for Scheming'--this last being one of the
numerous performances of Mr. Boucicault.
Nor is this all. History relates that Steele began a comedy named 'The
School for Action,' and there are records of pieces called 'The School
for Husbands,' 'The School for Women,' 'The School for Coquettes,' 'The
School for Daughters,' and 'The School for Tigers.' Probably no word has
been so often utilized by the dramatists as 'School,' and probably, too,
no modern playwright would be disposed to add lightly to the number of
those who have 'annexed' it.