JOHN WEBSTER CHAPTER I THE THEATRE ANYONE who has read, with any alertness, more than a little of the mass of critical and editorial comments, whether of the last three or of the last three hundred years, upon Elizabethan plays, must often have felt a helpless and bewildered irritation at the absence of any standard or uniform grounds of judgment; both in the critics, and, on inspection, in himself. This is not the place to attempt to lay a deep æsthetic foundation; but, I think, it will be useful to try to fix the meanings of certain words and phrases, and to give a provisional answer to some of the more important questions. "What is Art?" is a question which most writers on subjects connected with literature, painting, plays, music, society, or life, are ready with an equal cheerfulness to ask or to answer. They may be right; but to me they seem to make |