Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Drama of Yesterday to-Day, Vol. 1 of 2
Of my ability, to avoid anything that might be described as acrimonious controversy.
But, be it history or reminiscence, it was impossible to discard strong reference to what I venture to call the politics of the drama. The story of the stage and its brilliantly successful career, step by step, could not be told without insisting on the proved value of free trade in dramatic art, and a wholesome independence in dramatic criticism.
I shall be content, however, if it be acknowledged that no animosity has soiled the record of the past, and that I at least have remembered and tried to recall old scenes, old associations, Old friendships, and celebrated players, with all the delightful and happy memories connected with them.
The drama of the Victorian era is without a doubt a most interesting, varied, and most exhaustive study.
In it we travel from the time Of the patent theatres, special monopolies and protectionist privileges, all sup posed to have been instituted in the interests of art, but which unquestionably retarded its progress, to the heroic and heart-breaking struggle for better things at Covent Garden, Drury Lane, and elsewhere with which must be ever connected the honoured name of William Charles Macready.
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