Introduction

Abstract

A farmer’s son from Buckinghamshire, Henry Arthur Jones, and an Islington solicitor’s son, Arthur Wing Pinero, both of whom were born in the 1850s, dedicated themselves to the reclamation of English drama from the doldrums into which it had sunk. They both saw as their aim not only to raise standards of acting and production in the theatre, but also the exploration on stage of issues which were of social and moral importance. They joined in a lifelong battle with the censor, and, owing to their early efforts, the climate of English opinion as to what was acceptable in a theatre changed. Perhaps, above all, they sought to establish an English drama which should be respected by other countries. In this they succeeded. Their plays were acted and read all over the British Empire, on the Continent, in the United States, in Russia. Both of them published their plays concurrently with stage productions, once new copyright laws enabled them to do so. Jones, particularly, was insistent on the necessity for English drama to be regarded as of worth by literary people: a good play must be fit to read as well as act.