PREFACE. ALL the Plays included in this volume have been acted; and all but one may fairly be said to form part of the 'stock' or acting plays of the time. 'Anne Boleyn' is the only play in the volume which has not, as yet, been performed in any other theatre than that in which it was produced. I have no wish to screen myself from literary criticism behind the plea that my plays were meant to be acted. It seems to me that every drama submitted to the judgment of audiences should be prepared to encounter that of readers. I have in all cases acknowledged in notes attached to the plays the sources to which I have been indebted for the suggestion of my subjects; not that I think Molière's rule, 'Je prends mon bien où je le trouve,' less pleadable by the dramatic author now than it was when he said it. But, as I have sometimes been spoken of by critics more confident than well-informed as one whose work has always been that of adapter rather than inventor, it may be worth while to say here, in the first edition of any of my plays likely to |