6 APRIL 1929, Page 19

In the preface to his antholOgY, Great British Modern Plays

(Harrap, 7s. 8d.), Mr. J. B. Marriot explains that his method has been "to select authors who are standard-bearers in the modern British draniatic movement, and, secondly, to isolate from the works of each selected author" the play exhibiting him at his most magnificent. The plays, which are, on the whole, well chosen, are arranged in chronological order, dating from Mr. T. W. Robertson's "Caste," which was first produced in 1867, tO.Mr; Mimi-Coward's " The Young Idea," 1923. The author deplores the fact that neither Mr. Bernard Shaw nor Sir James Barrie is represented, but he makes no comment on the exclusion of Mr. Milne or Mr. MileS Malleson and other typically representative dramatiStS, and one ' cannot help wishing that some of the earlier Plays, sticii as " TrelaWney of the Wells," "Pygmalion and Galatea," and Mr. St. John Hankin's "Return of the Prodigal," had been omitted to make room for some more recent -plays sueil'aS "The Constant Nymph." Nevertheless, this anthology is very valuable, containing as it does Some of the best work of Mr. Galsworthy, Miss Clemence Dane; Mr. C. K: Munro, Mr. Reginald Berkeley and many others, and playwaders'—a class which is not usually catered for--should be duly grateful.