The modern drama had no inde pendent development in Germany until the sec ond half of the 18th century, when Lessing took the lead in the attack on the prevailing French conventions. His own plays gave support to his preaching and Goethe and Schiller in their early plays followed him in turning to England and Shakespeare for inspiration. Their later dramas take high rank as literature, Schiller's (Wilhelm Tell' and (Maria Stuart' being perhaps the best of the romantic dramas. Most of the drama of the storm and stress period was intended for readers rather than for spectators, but the plays of Kotzebue, though with little pretensions as literature, were skilful in their adaptation to the temper of the time and to requirements of the theatre, and carried everything before them in the theatres of Europe and America The literary drama had a host of more worthy followers through the 19th century, the career of the Austrian Grillparzer (1791-1871) being the most notable. Recently romanticism has given way to the realism of Ibsen, and perhaps the most brilliant accomplishments of the pres ent have come from the renewed activity in the German drama, especially in the plays of Suder mann and. Hauptmann.
Scandinavian drama first becomes of European importance in the work of Ibsen. Beginning with historical dramas follow ing the prevailing romantic fashion, he ad vanced to the amazingly fantastic and original 'Peer Gynt,> and then, in self-imposed exile from Norway, produced the series of social dramas that are influencing so pervasively the theatre of the modern world. Both by their profound criticism of modern life and by their technical reforms, they seem likely to mark the beginning of a new era in the history of the drama. Written in concise, unadorned prose, free from the soliloquies and lyrics and em bellishments that romanticism confirmed, they return to the simplicity and directness of the Greeks; and at the same time are as modern in technic as in the problems and the psychology that they present.
America has long had a theatre of importance but not a drama. The first theatre in 1766 was followed after the Revolution by the first important acted play by an American — the
This last influence has been perhaps stifling rather than stimulating and has led recently to a great popularity of dramatized .novels, of which (Uncle Tom's Cabin) at least has had an international vogue. More promising for the future of a national drama has been the tend ency to present various phases of American life illustrated by the success of the 'Old
and by the more worthy plays of Mr. Bronson Howard and Mr. Augustus Thomas.
The Twentieth Century.—The 20th century has witnessed a remarkable development in the drama of Europe •and America, and this has been accompanied by changes in the stage pres entation which may be described as revolu tionary. The revolution of the theatre is still in process, and no one can say with certainty what will be its outcome. But the artistic pro ductions of Reinhardt in Germany, Barker and others in England, have been accompanied by great popular interest in the drama and many efforts to suit the theatre to the proletariat. In the United States, the changes in the stage have lagged somewhat behind the European experi ments, but they are manifest in two quite oppo site directions. First, the number of °little theatres* with stage and auditorium suited to literary or intellectual drama have multiplied rapidly. Second, the giving of great spectacles or outdoor pageants indicates a step in bringing the theatre to the people. Manifestly, the old theatre of the nineties no longer suffices for the many dramatic enterprises of our day; and there is in the process of creation a new theatre far more varied and flexible, and more con sonant with dramatic originality.
It is indeed a vast development of dramatic originality which has caused the theatre to change its forms and manners. Everywhere young men of imagination have been turning their talents to the drama and finding in it potentialities of popular appeal not possessed even by the novel and the short story. Undoubt edly a great influence in this modern dramatic revival has been the work of Ibsen. The stage of every country has felt the force of his inspi ration and has welcomed realistic studies of cur rent manners, intellectual discussions of social problems and symbolic interpretations of life, all of which owe something to the great Scandi navian. But the dramatic revival • has not been distinguished merely by the realism, social dis cussion and symbolism which Ibsen initiated. Poetry has reasserted its place, and Romance has never yielded its hold on the stage. More over, the drama of the 20th century has by no means had a uniform international develop ment. One of its most striking characteristics has been the reappearance of strong national peculiarities. These have been most marked in Ireland and Russia; but there is no nation in Europe where playwrights are not striving to express national peculiarities and aspirations upon the stage; and in the United States the chief merits of the new drama are its obser vation and interpretation of American life.