“The Admirable Bashville” is a product of the British law of copyright. As that law stands at present, the first person who patches up a stage version of a novel, however worthless and absurd that ver...

“The Admirable Bashville” is a product of the British law of copyright. As that law stands at present, the first person who patches up a stage version of a novel, however worthless and absurd that ver...

Lydia Carew Cashel Byron Bob Mellish Lucian Webber Bashville Lord Worthington Cetewayo Paradise The Master of the Revels A Policeman Adelaide Gisborne Voice of a Newsboy Spectators; Persions of Fashio...

A glade in Wiltstoken Park. Lydia: Enter Lydia. Lydia: Ye leafy breasts and warm protecting wings Of mother trees that hatch our tender souls, And from the well of Nature in our hearts Thaw the intole...

London. A room in Lydia’s house. Lydia: Enter Lydia and Lucian. Lydia: Welcome, dear cousin, to my London house. Of late you have been chary of your visits. Lucian: I have been greatly occupied of lat...

London. A room in Lydia’s house. Lydia: Enter Lydia and Lucian. Lydia: Welcome, dear cousin, to my London house. Of late you have been chary of your visits. Lucian: I have been greatly occupied of lat...

The Agricultural Hall in Islington, crowded with spectators. In the arena a throne, with a boxing ring before it. A balcony above on the right, occupied by persons of fashion: among others, Lydia and ...

Wiltstoken. A room in the Warren Lodge. Lydia: Lydia at her writing table. Lydia: O Past and Present, how ye do conflict As here I sit writing my father’s life! The autumn woodland woos me from withou...

In 1882, when this book was written, prizefighting seemed to be dying out. Sparring matches with boxing gloves, under the Queensberry rules, kept pugilism faintly alive; but it was not popular, becaus...

Like many other works of mine, this playlet is a piêce d’occasion. In 1905 it happened that Mr. Arnold Daly, who was then playing the part of Napoleon in The Man of Destiny in New York, found that whi...

Like many other works of mine, this playlet is a piêce d’occasion. In 1905 it happened that Mr. Arnold Daly, who was then playing the part of Napoleon in The Man of Destiny in New York, found that whi...

He (Henry Apjohn) She (Aurora Bompas) Her Husband (Teddy Bompas)...

It is eight o’clock in the evening. The curtains are drawn and the lamps lighted in the drawing room of Her flat in Cromwell Road. Her lover, a beautiful youth of eighteen, in evening dress and cape, ...

This tragedy was written at the request of Mr. Cyril Maude, under whose direction it was performed repeatedly, with colossal success, in a booth in Regent’s Park, for the benefit of The Actors’ Orphan...

This tragedy was written at the request of Mr. Cyril Maude, under whose direction it was performed repeatedly, with colossal success, in a booth in Regent’s Park, for the benefit of The Actors’ Orphan...

Lady Magnesia Fitztollemache George Fitztollemache Phyllis, her maid Adolphus Bastable A Landlord A Policeman A Doctor Attendants...

In a bed-sitting room in a fashionable quarter of London a Lady sits at her dressing table, with her maid combing her hair. It is late; and the electric lamps are glowing. Apparently the room is bedle...

The Manager’s Wife The Manager The Conductor A Carpenter The Stage Manager Opening night. Brilliant first-night audience assembled. Conclusion of overture. In each programme a slip has been distribute...

The Manager’s Wife The Manager The Conductor A Carpenter The Stage Manager...

Opening night. Brilliant first-night audience assembled. Conclusion of overture. In each programme a slip has been distributed stating that before the play begins the Manager will address a few words ...

Horace Brabazon Mercer, an elderly clerk Cardonius Boshington, the Lord Chancellor Anastasia Vulliamy Morning. Office of the Lord Chancellor. Door on the right leading to his private room, near the fi...

Horace Brabazon Mercer, an elderly clerk Cardonius Boshington, the Lord Chancellor Anastasia Vulliamy...

Morning. Office of the Lord Chancellor. Door on the right leading to his private room, near the fireplace. Door on the left leading to the public staircase. Mercer: Mercer, an elderly clerk, seated at...

Count Ferruccio Giulia Squarcio Sandro In the fifteenth century AD. Gloaming. An inn on the edge of an Italian lake. A stone cross with a pedestal of steps. A very old Friar sitting on the steps. Fria...

Count Ferruccio Giulia Squarcio Sandro...

In the fifteenth century AD. Gloaming. An inn on the edge of an Italian lake. A stone cross with a pedestal of steps. A very old Friar sitting on the steps. Friar: The Angelus rings. The Friar prays a...

This little play is really a religious tract in dramatic form. If our silly censorship would permit its performance, it might possibly help to set right-side-up the perverted conscience and reinvigora...

This little play is really a religious tract in dramatic form. If our silly censorship would permit its performance, it might possibly help to set right-side-up the perverted conscience and reinvigora...

I am by profession a playwright. I have been in practice since 1892. I am a member of the Managing Committee of the Society of Authors and of the Dramatic Subcommittee of that body. I have written nin...

It must not be concluded that the uncompromising abolition of all censorship involves the abandonment of all control and regulation of theatres. Factories are regulated in the public interest; but the...

The general case against censorship as a principle, and the particular case against the existing English censorship and against its replacement by a more enlightened one, is now complete. The followin...

On the facts mentioned in the foregoing statement, and in my evidence before the Joint Select Committee, no controversy arose except on one point. Mr. George Alexander protested vigorously and indigna...

Babsy Lottie Hannah Jessie Emma Elder Daniels Blanco Posnet Strapper Kemp Squinty Feemy Evans Sheriff Kemp The Foreman of the Jury Nestor Wagoner Jo The Woman Women; Men; Jurymen; Boys...

A number of women are sitting working together in a big room not unlike an old English tithe barn in its timbered construction, but with windows high up next the roof. It is furnished as a courthouse,...

By direction of the Lord Chamberlain the General and the Prime Minister in this play must in all public performances of it be addressed and described as General Bones and Mr. Johnson, and by no means ...

General Mitchener Balsquith, the Prime Minister An Orderly Mrs. Farrell, an Irish charwoman Lady Corinthia Fanshawe Mrs. Rosa Carmina Banger Offstage voices...

The forenoon of the first of April, 1911. General Mitchener is at his writing table in the War Office, opening letters. On his left is the fireplace, with a fire burning. On his right, against the opp...

I had better explain why, in this little piece d’occasion, written for a performance in aid of the funds of the project for establishing a National Theatre as a memorial to Shakespeare, I have identif...

I had better explain why, in this little piece d’occasion, written for a performance in aid of the funds of the project for establishing a National Theatre as a memorial to Shakespeare, I have identif...

A Beefeater William Shakespeare Queen Elizabeth The Dark Lady...

Fin de siècle 15⁠–⁠1600. Midsummer night on the terrace of the Palace at Whitehall, overlooking the Thames. The Palace clock chimes four quarters and strikes eleven. Beefeater: A Beefeater on guard. A...

This piece is not an argument for or against polygamy. It is a clinical study of how the thing actually occurs among quite ordinary people, innocent of all unconventional views concerning it. The enor...

This piece is not an argument for or against polygamy. It is a clinical study of how the thing actually occurs among quite ordinary people, innocent of all unconventional views concerning it. The enor...

Mrs. Juno Mr. Gregory Lunn Mr. Sibthorpe Juno Mrs. Seraphita Lunn...

A Lady and Gentleman are sitting together on a chesterfield in a retired corner of the lounge of a seaside hotel. It is a summer night: the French window behind them stands open. The terrace without o...

Exception has been taken to the title of this seeming tomfoolery on the ground that the Catherine it represents is not Great Catherine, but the Catherine whose gallantries provide some of the lightest...

Exception has been taken to the title of this seeming tomfoolery on the ground that the Catherine it represents is not Great Catherine, but the Catherine whose gallantries provide some of the lightest...

Patiomkin A Cossack Sergeant Varinka Captain Edstaston of the Light Dragoons Catherine II, Empress of Russia The Princess Dashkoff Naryshkin, the Chamberlain Claire Guards and courtiers...

1776. Patiomkin in his bureau in the Winter Palace, St. Petersburg. Huge palatial apartment: style, Russia in the eighteenth century imitating the Versailles du Roi Soleil. Extravagant luxury. Also di...

The Empress’s petit lever. The central doors are closed. Those who enter through them find on their left, on a dais of two broad steps, a magnificent curtained bed. Beyond it a door in the panelling l...

In a terrace garden overlooking the Neva. Claire: Claire, a robust young English lady, is leaning on the river wall. She turns expectantly on hearing the garden gate opened and closed. Edstaston hurri...

A triangular recess communicating by a heavily curtained arch with the huge ballroom of the palace. The light is subdued by red shades on the candles. In the wall adjoining that pierced by the arch is...

This is not a serious play: it is what is called a Variety Turn for two musicians. It is written for two pianists, but can be adapted to any instruments on which the performers happen to be proficient...

Lord Reginald Fitzambry The Doctor Strega Thundridge...

Lord Reginald Fitzambry, a fashionably dressed, rather pretty young man of 22, is prostrate on a sofa in a large hotel drawing room, crying convulsively. His doctor is trying to soothe him. The doctor...

I must remind the reader that this playlet was written when its principal character, far from being a fallen foe and virtually a prisoner in our victorious hands, was still the Caesar whose legions we...

I must remind the reader that this playlet was written when its principal character, far from being a fallen foe and virtually a prisoner in our victorious hands, was still the Caesar whose legions we...

The Archdeacon Ermyntrude The Princess The Hotel Manager A Waiter The Inca of Perusalem...

The tableau curtains are closed. An English Archdeacon comes through them in a condition of extreme irritation. He speaks through the curtains to someone behind them. The Archdeacon: Once for all, Erm...

A hotel sitting room. A table in the centre. On it a telephone. Two chairs at it, opposite one another. Behind it, the door. The fireplace has a mirror in the mantelpiece. Princess: A spinster Princes...

I wish to express my gratitude for certain good offices which “Augustus” secured for me in January, 1917. I had been invited to visit the theatre of war in Flanders by the Commander-in-Chief: an invit...

I wish to express my gratitude for certain good offices which “Augustus” secured for me in January, 1917. I had been invited to visit the theatre of war in Flanders by the Commander-in-Chief: an invit...

Lord Augustus Highcastle Horatio Floyd Beamish The Lady...

The Mayor’s parlor in the Town Hall of Little Pifflington. Lord Augustus Highcastle, a distinguished member of the governing class, in the uniform of a colonel, and very well preserved at forty-five, ...

It may surprise some people to learn that in 1915 this little play was a recruiting poster in disguise. The British officer seldom likes Irish soldiers; but he always tries to have a certain proportio...

It may surprise some people to learn that in 1915 this little play was a recruiting poster in disguise. The British officer seldom likes Irish soldiers; but he always tries to have a certain proportio...

Private Dennis O’Flaherty V.C. Sir Pearce Madigan Mrs. O’Flaherty Teresa Driscoll, a parlor maid A laborer’s voice (offstage)...

At the door of an Irish country house in a park. Fine summer weather: the summer of 1915. The porch, painted white, projects into the drive; but the door is at the side and the front has a window. The...

“Annajanska” is frankly a bravura piece. The modern variety theatre demands for its “turns” little plays called sketches, to last twenty minutes or so, and to enable some favorite performer to make a ...

“Annajanska” is frankly a bravura piece. The modern variety theatre demands for its “turns” little plays called sketches, to last twenty minutes or so, and to enable some favorite performer to make a ...

General Strammfest Lieutenant Schneidekind The Grand Duchess Two soldiers...

The General’s office in a military station on the east front in Beotia. An office table with a telephone, writing materials, official papers, etc., is set across the room. At the end of the table, a c...

In a treatise on boxing by Captain Edgeworth Johnstone, just published, I read, “In the days of the prize-ring, fights lasted for hours; and the knockout blow was unknown.” This statement is a little ...