HENRY JAMES AND THE THEATRE
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Henry James wrote at least eleven plays. These are : Daisy Miller, Tenants, The American, Disengaged, The Album, The Reprobate, Guy Doraville, The High Bid, The Other House, The Saloon (a one-act play), and The Outcry.
Six of these have been seen, at one time or another, on the London stage, namely : The American (Opera Comique) ; Guy Manville (St. James's) ; The High Bid (His Majesty's- matinhes only) ; The Saloon (Little) ; The Outcry (Savoy) ; The Reprobate (Court). The last two were given under the auspices of the Stage Society, and after the author's death.
The text of Daisy Miller was published in America ; that of Tenants, Disengaged, The Album and The Reprobate in the two volumes of Theatricals issued in this country in 1894 and 1895. The other plays have not been published, but The Other House and The Outcry were made into novels by the author, The High Bid appeared as the nouvelle " Cover- ing End " in The Two Magics, and The Saloon was founded on the already published short story Owen Wingrove.
As none of these fictions, however, except Owen 11:ingrove, was included in the Collected Novels and Tales, it is to be hoped that the complete Dramatic Works may some day be issued. It may then be possible to estimate the loss sustained by the refusal of the nineteenth century theatre to encourage Henry James's attempts to write for it.—I am, Sir, &c., Lower Stretton, South Petherton. ALLAN WADE.
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