an interesting glimpse into the undergraduate life of twenty-one
years ago. "The Proving of Slipsy Fogarty," by Guy Wetmore
Carryl, and "College Education of the Future," by Hj almar H.
Boyesen, 2d, are interesting and well written, but the crowning
feature of the number is "The' Poetic Drama and the Drama in
Prose," by Brander' Mathews.. Prof. Mathews predicts that the
drama of the future will have its full share of poetry, and although
there may seem to be less of it, what there is will belong' absolutely
to the theme.
Passing from the poetic drama to the drama in prose, the pro
fessor declares that prose has established itself firmly as a medium
for such plays as are not avowedly poetic in theme. The dramatic
poets of the present time are not ready to abandon prose, and it
has also been the medium chosen by M. Maeterlinck for his
dramatic poems, which are at times "rich in mystic beauty and in
symbolic suggestion." Ibsen, whose constructive methods are
closely akin to those of Sophocles, has used prose in all his later
social dramas.
In conclusion Prof. Mathews writes :
"Only the future can decide whether or not the drama is suc
cessfully to contest the present supremacy of prose-fiction. Years
may elapse before the play shall evict the novel from its apparent
primacy ; or it may never he able to resume its former superiority.
The two most obvious characteristics of the century that has gone
are the spread of democracy and the growth of the scientific spirit ;
and in the century that has just begun we may discover that the
drama, which has always been democratic of necessity, shall prove
also to be more satisfying than prose-fiction to a people bred to
science. Even now we can see that not only plays of Ibsen but
also of Bjornson and Sudermann, of Verga and Echegaray, of
Herviett and Pinero, stand forward to show that the drama can
deal adequately and suggestively with some of the problems of
existence as these present themselves tumultuously to-day in our
seething society."
The Smith College Monthly, which is a new visitor to our ex
change, is rich in fiction and poetry, and its one serious article,