توضیحات
An Introduction to Drama by George Whitfield includes in one volume plays which gain much from comparison, but which are set so widely apart in chronology that they are usually found only in several. As the aim of “An Introduction to Drama” is to become an instrument of teaching rather than a definitive statement, it has been possible to cover this wide range without making the treatment superficial.
Topics which call for a fuller examination than is possible in a volume of this size have been put as questions among the Points for Discussion at the end of the extracts, where they may form the beginning of a comprehensive survey by teacher and students. The rest of these questions lead towards a fuller appreciation of the dramatic significance of the passages to which they refer. No attempt is made in the brief introductions to the chapters to give an exhaustive study of the plays which follow; the aim is rather to draw attention to the conditions which made such plays possible.
A beginning is made with Classical drama. It has exercised an immense influence on English plays without, for the most part, determining their form; and it is possible to understand English plays much more fully when they are studied together with others which were at once so great and so different. In making the selection from English drama, emphasis has been placed throughout on plays which have marked some new development in the relations of audience, theatre, and dramatist. This explains the notable omission of Sheridan and Goldsmith in favour of George Lillo and the authors of melodrama.
The School for Scandal and She Stoops to Conquer, though they were comedies of manners did not represent some-which have achieved lasting fame, thing new in the theatre like George Barnwell and The Murder in the Red Barn. Drama is a social art. No one can produce a play by himself. The words of the text are not the play, nor is the theatre in which it will eventually be produced. Even a dress rehearsal can hardly be called a performance. A play is the cumulative product of many relationships, and it is these relationships which have been made the basis of the study of drama in this survey.’ The preface could hardly be concluded without a tribute to those whose enthusiasm for drama has been the origin of some of the most fruitful suggestions made in the book. Particular thanks are due to Mr. J. S. Gittins and Mr. Hugh H. Walker, who will find many an interesting conversation shadowed in the following pages.
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