CONTENTS Playwrights on Playmaking Undramatic Criticism Old Plays and New Playgoers Tragedies with Happy Endings On the Advantage of Having a Pattern Did Shakespeare Write Plays to Fit His Actors? Strange Shakespearian Performances Thackeray and the Theater Mark Twain and the Theater Henry James and the Theater Stage Humor The "Old Comedies" The Organization of the Theater Memories of Actors At the time of original publication in 1923, Brander Matthews was Professor of Dramatic Literature in Columbia University, and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.