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 284 The Drama, 1860-1918 ber, 1902). That is the superficial classification of Fitch. But there was a deeper sensitiveness and feeling in what he wrote. His appreciation of small details was a constant source of enter- tainment in his dramas; they rushed upon us with brilliant and rapid succession. To see a Fitch play was to become impressed with his facility in dialogue and ease of invention. But the fact is, Fitch's pen moved rapidly merely because he had pon- dered the plot, incident, and actual dialogue long before the transcribing began. And when he did write, it was a process of setting down from memory. For three years he studied over the psychology and situation of what he called his "jealousy" play, before he began The Girl with the Green Eyes. Fitch, like Thomas, could do work for the commercial manager; and soon they both gained positions of confidence which allowed them to lead rather than be led. The mere fact that their dramas are readable measures something of their literary value. Thomas has always shown the limitation of not too clear thinking ; Fitch often obtruded his smartness in places where sound characterization was needed. One noted this in a favourite piece of his, A Happy Marriage (12 April, 1909). But those who regarded Fitch's contribution to American drama as largely picturesque sentimentality, as in Lovers' Lane (6 February, 1901), The Stubbornness of Geraldine (3 Novem- ber, 1902), and Granny (24 October, 1904); those who depre- ciate him by saying he spent his time flippantly in converting German farce to American taste, as in The Blue Mouse (30 November, 1908), should recall two of his dramas which com- pare favourably with the best of modem psychological pieces — The Truth and The Girl with the Green Eyes. He tried every form of comedy and farce; and while many of his stories, as plots, were slight and unworthy of him, he brought to the task always a radiant spirit which gave his dramas a distinctive tone. He could write melodrama too; The Woman in the Case (30 January, 1905) won recognition on the Continent. He could, through sheer strength of situation and fearlessness of attack, create something of the tragic, as in The City (22 Decem- ber, 1909), written largely to refute the charge that he was solely a dramatist of the feminine. There was some of the bric-^-brac quality about Fitch. He caught the volatile in American life, — more especially in New York life, — and it is