Eighteenth Century Drama.—Some of these dramatists bring us into the eighteenth century, which was not on the whole prolific in good plays. Fielding wrote many amusing farces, but all were more or less hack-work. At a later period Foote, Cumberland, and the two Colmans wrote good acting plays, which have not lived. The two plays of Goldsmith and several of the plays of Sheridan still hold the stage. Sheridan owed much to the Restoration dramatists, especially Vanbrugh, but as he improved his originals in many respects, and made them much more presentable in decent society, he is entitled to most of the reputation he long enjoyed.
In France, Marivaux (1678-1763) wrote sentimental comedies, while Beaumarchais, whose own life was more exciting and varied than most plays, wrote comedies with brilliant plots. In Italy, Maffei, Goldoni, and Alfieri are notable dramatists; the last named wrote propaganda in the disguise of tragedy. In Germany, Lessing by precept and example inaugurated the 'romantic movement'; Schiller and Goethe are the two greatest names associated with the stage. Wallenstein in particular is a good chronicle-play, while Faust is considered one of the greatest of all German plays.
Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Drama.—Victor Hugo led the Romantic movement in France, and wrote many great plays, such as Hernani and Ruy Blas. De Musset wrote his plays, which he called proverbes, under the same influence, and later followers of this school are Rostand and the Belgian M. Maurice Maeterlinck. The French dramatists Augier, Scribe, and Sardou had an overwhelming influence on the English stage, not altogether for its good. English drama was at a low ebb in the middle of the nineteenth century. Lytton's plays, though sometimes performed still, are extremely theatrical. Boucicault, who made a great success by dramatizing 'the pathos of Paddy', is not a great writer. H. J. Byron was an inveterate punster and writer of burlesques of no value. One of his plays, Our Boys, was acted for many years. Robertson is the most outstanding author of what is known as 'the cup and saucer' school of comedy. His plays are very much acting plays; they are not literature, and are quite removed from real life. Gilbert was a man of great gifts, but though some of his farces and comedies are good, he was not a master of drama as he was of libretti writing. He did little to improve the drama of his day. Sir A. W. Pinero began his career as a dramatist under the ægis of Robertson, but continued it under that of Ibsen. Ibsen (1828-1906) exercised a not altogether wholesome influence upon English drama for a considerable time. His plays are extremely well-constructed, and he refused to tolerate many conventions, such as asides and soliloquies. In many of his plays he adopted the retrospective method, where the plot consists not so much in anything being done as in the gradual discovery of what has been done long before the rise of the curtain. Sophocles had done this most skilfully in Œdipus Tyrannus, but Ibsen carried the method to perfection in The Wild Duck and Rosmersholm. All Ibsen's plays are more or less unpleasant, and he did not make many of his characters sympathetic. Pinero, after writing several farces, wrote The Second Mrs. Tanqueray (1893), a masterpiece after the style of Ibsen. His House in Order is a cleverly constructed example of the retrospective method. H. A. Jones (born 1851) has written many excellent and extremely powerful plays, of which the best known are The Liars and The Case of Rebellious Susan. G. Bernard Shaw (born 1856), who combines some of the qualities of a Greek sophist with some of the foibles of a modern Irishman, has written some amusing plays, though others have been spoilt by his tendency to turn them into propaganda. Galsworthy has written plays of great earnestness; in some he has neglected the Aristotelian maxim that every play must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Sir James Barrie has accumulated a large fortune by means of his plays, and in one at least, Peter Pan, he has made a bid for immortality.
Bibliography.—S. H. Butcher, Aristotle's
Theory of Poetry and Fine Art; A. E. Haigh, The Attic Theatre; E. K. Chambers, The Mediæval Stage; A. W. Pollard, English Miracle Plays; F. S. Boas, Shakespeare and his Predecessors; A. C. Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy; Sir W. Raleigh, Shakespeare (English Men of Letters Series); Sir A. W. Ward, History of English Dramatic Literature; K. Mantzius, History of Theatrical Art; A. S. Rappoport, The English Drama (Temple Primers); T. H. Dickinson, The Contemporary Drama of England; F. Brunetière, Les Époques du théâtre français 1636-1850; A. Filon, The Modern French Drama; A. d'Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano; G. H. Lewes, The Spanish Drama.
Drammen, or Dram, a seaport of Norway, in a valley on both sides of the Drammen, at its mouth in the Drammenfiord, 25 miles S.S.W. of Christiania. It has manufactures of leather, soap, ropes, sail-cloth, earthenware, and tobacco; and is the second port in the kingdom for the export of timber.
Draper, John William, American chemist and physiologist, born at Liverpool 1811, died 1882. He went to America in 1833, and was successively professor of physical science in Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia, and of natural history, chemistry, and physiology in the University of New York. He made many contributions to scientific literature, and devoted much attention to the chemical action of light, in connection with which he effected some discoveries. Among his chief works is his History of the Intellectual Development of Europe (2 vols., 1863). His son, Henry Draper (born 1837, died 1882), chemist and astronomer, made some valuable researches on the spectra of the heavenly bodies.
Draughts, a game resembling chess played on a board divided into sixty-four checkered squares. Each of the two players is provided with twelve pieces or 'men' placed on every alternate square at each end of the board. The men are moved forward diagonally to the right or left one square at a time, the object of each player being to capture all his opponent's men, or to hem them in so that they cannot move. A piece can be captured only when the square on the diagonal line behind it is unoccupied. When a player succeeds in moving a piece to the farther end of the board (the crown-head), that piece becomes a king, and has the power of moving or capturing diagonally backwards or forwards. When it so happens that neither of the players has sufficient advantage in force or position to enable him to win, the game is drawn. Checkers is the common American name of the game.
The game does not offer the same scope for brilliance and originality as the sister game of chess, but still is much more profound than is generally supposed. It has been cultivated in Britain, and especially in Scotland, certainly for over two hundred years, and has served as a field of exercise for some extremely able intellects, which but for it might hardly have been exercised at all. Among famous players are: Andrew Anderson, of Carluke, who published a celebrated work on the game in 1852; James Wyllie, the 'Herd Laddie', who travelled over the world playing exhibition matches, and was for many years world's champion; Robert Martins, English champion about 1870, who played several matches with Wyllie; R. D. Yates, a young American player, who defeated Wyllie for the championship, but shortly afterwards gave up the game; James Ferrie, of Coatbridge, who in 1894 defeated Wyllie and became champion, to be defeated in turn by Richard Jordan of Edinburgh in 1896; Robert Stewart, of Fifeshire, many times Scottish champion, and probably the strongest player now living.
The Scottish tourney, held annually in Glasgow since 1893, except for a few years on account of the War, has done much to stimulate interest in the game. The English Draughts Association also holds a biennial tourney. Several international matches have taken place between Scotland and England, the first in 1884. This, like nearly all the other matches, was won by Scotland. In 1905 a very strong British team visited America and decisively defeated a side representing the United States.—Bibliography: James Lees, A Guide to the Game of Draughts. Early works by Payne, Sturges, Drummond, Hay, Anderson, and Bowen are now very scarce. There are several periodicals devoted to the game; and some newspapers, notably The Glasgow Weekly Herald, give it a column weekly.