RULES OF THE GAME.
An Introduction to Dramatic Theory. By Allardyce Nicoll. (London : Harrap. 5s. net.) The Mummers Play. By the late R. J. E. Tiddy. With a Memoir. (Oxford : At the Clarendon Press. 14s. net.) IT is a dangerous thing to indicate a limit of error. Mr. Nicoll professes to "have treated the dramaticproductivity of Greece, Rome, France, Italy, Germany, and England as one," and since he has mentioned Calderon, we must include Spain.
Yet we find nothing of the theories of Molithe, Corneille, Lope de Vega, Cong,reve, Goldoni, Lessing, and Abercrombie, to name but a few who have written on their own art ; no mention of Nietzsche, Beaumarchais, Freytag or Shaw ; no discussion of Hegel or Brunetiere ; no examination of Hauptmann, of Pirandello, of Benavente ; nothing of the commedia dell'arte, or the " well-made play " of Sardou ; nothing of the revolutions of Tchehov and Evreinov. We find an attitude that includes no enthusiasm for Marlowe, that cites Webster and Ford only to condemn them as sensational, that considers Shadwell dull, that seeks in vain for " situation of a truly amusing kind " in The Importance of Being Earnest. A strange equipment for an Introduction to Dramatic Theory ! Mr. Nicoll concludes that " There is an aim proper to tragedy, an aim proper to comedy, an aim proper to the serious drame." Surely this is to make the drama the plaything of academic groupings. Shakespeare assuredly had no aims directed to this end ; Shaw denies any- thing but hallucination in the growth of his own drama. Why cannot we have books on comedy where a sense of humour decides the sanity of an argument ; on drama where the theatre is treated as a joy ? Surely it is a curiosity of orientation to find in Maeterlinck " the most important piece of creative criticism on the drama that has appeared for the last century."
This condemnation is made because the book is one that can so easily be labelled " competent," and by its very existence prevent a better work appearing. We hope a revised edition may appear if only to supplant this first edition and to give Mr. Nicoll an opportunity of enlarging his book with more of the quality of his studied account of the comedy of manners, obviously a field he has made his own.
The late Mr. R. J. E. Tiddy's stimulating notes on popular taste as reflected in the Miracle Plays, the Elizabethan drama, and the widespread Mummers Play, together with his letters contained in the prefatory memoir, remind us of the loss to Oxford of a witty, fresh-minded and well-loved teacher.
J. ISAACS.
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