Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v3.djvu/294

 276 The Drama, 1860-1918 Mrs. Logan's Surf, while these point the way to Langdon Mitchell's The New York Idea, written when dialogue for the theatre had grown in literary form and feeling, when a sense of atmosphere created an ironic response to fashionable manners and customs. It is because of this isolated, accidental character of Ameri- can drama that Bronson Howard's position was all the more remarkable in 1870, and thereafter. Yet his plays are dated. It may be that some day Saratoga can be made over into a cos- tume play, though it was written as an up-to-date "society" comedy. But the difference between it and Mitchell's The New York Idea (19 November, 1906) is that the latter contains some of the universal depth that mere change in time and con- dition will not alter. The theatre of the sixties and seventies was surfeited with the strong melodrama and romantic violences which suited a special robust acting. When David Belasco ttimed East, as stock dramatist for The Madison Square Theatre, a house to compete with the traditions of the Union Square and Daly's, there came into vogue a form of drama which allowed of a quiet, domestic atmosphere — in imitation of what Robertson, Byron, and their British contemporaries were striving for in London. The "milk and water" acting which was here introduced was what made of The Young Mrs. Winthrop (Madison Square Theatre, 9 October, 1882) such a phenomenal success. It was this tradition, not new but novel, which evolved into the present naturalistic method of acting. But the Madison Square Thea- tre gave impetus to something more than a school of acting. In its intimate management it furthered the dramatic writing of Steele MacKaye, whose Hazel Kirke (4 February, 1880) was written expressly .for the stock company gathered there, and it brought Belasco and De Mille together in preparation for their later collaboration when, with Daniel Frohman, they went over to the Lyceum Theatre and in rapid succession wrote The Wife (i November, 1887), Lord Chumley (21 August, 1888), The Charity Ball (19 November, 1889), Men and Women (21 October, 1890). Steele MacKaye (1844- 1894) while with the Madison Square management won popularity as a playwright, but none of his pieces is widely known to the theatre now, except by