Twenty-one plays from the drama of Greece, Rome, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Denmark, and Norway from 500 B.C. to 1879 A.D., selected and edited with notes, biographies, and bibliographies, by Brander Matthews.In the Introduction he states: "A collection of masterpieces of the drama extending over a score of centuries serves to make plain something which ought never to be overlooked. The principles of dramatic art are unchanging though the ages, the same today in Paris or in New York that they were in Athens twenty-four hundred years ago."At the time of original publication in 1916, Brander Matthews was Professor of Dramatic Literature in Columbia University, and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.