I. THE SHOW BUSINESS 1

II. THE LIMITATIONS OF THE STAGE 17

III. A MORAL FROM A TOY THEATER 37

IV. WHY FIVE ACTS? 55

V. DRAMATIC COLLABORATION 77

VI. THE DRAMATIZATION OF NOVELS AND THE NOVELIZATION
OF PLAYS 93

VII. WOMEN DRAMATISTS 111

VIII. THE EVOLUTION OF SCENE-PAINTING 127

IX. THE BOOK OF THE OPERA 153

X. THE POETRY OF THE DANCE 169

XI. THE PRINCIPLES OF PANTOMIME 185

XII. THE IDEAL OF THE ACROBAT 201

XIII. THE DECLINE AND FALL OF NEGRO-MINSTRELSY 217

XIV. THE UTILITY OF THE VARIETY-SHOW 235

XV. THE METHOD OF MODERN MAGIC 251

XVI. THE LAMENTABLE TRAGEDY OF PUNCH AND JUDY 271

XVII. THE PUPPET-PLAY, PAST AND PRESENT 287

XVIII. SHADOW-PANTOMIME, WITH ALL THE MODERN
IMPROVEMENTS 303

XIX. THE PROBLEM OF DRAMATIC CRITICISM 319

ILLUSTRATIONS

Le ballet de la reine _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

Upper half of Plate No. 1, the 'Miller and His Men' 40

A group of the principal characters from Pollock's juvenile
drama, the 'Miller and His Men' 42

Explosion of the mill. A back drop in the
'Miller and His Men' 46

Plate No. 7, the 'Miller and His Men' 48

Lower half of Plate No. 5, the 'Miller and His Men' 52

The Roman Theater at Orange 134

The multiple set of the French medieval stage 134

The set of the Italian comedy of masks 134

An outdoor entertainment in the gardens of the Pitti Palace
in Florence in the early sixteenth century 136

The set for the opera of 'Persée' (as performed at the Opéra
in Paris in the seventeenth century) 140

A prison (designed by Bibiena in Italy in the eighteenth
century) 140

The screen scene of the 'School for Scandal' at Drury Lane
in 1778 144

A landscape set 146

A set for the opera of 'Robert le Diable' 146

The set of the last act of the 'Garden of Allah' 148

A set for 'Medea' 148

The set of 'OEdipe-Roi' (at the Théâtre Français) 150

The set of the 'Return of Peter Grimm' 150

Scenes from Punch and Judy 274

Scenes from Punch and Judy (continued) 276

Roman puppets. Greek and Roman puppets. Puppet of Java 290

A Sicilian marionette show 292

A Belgian puppet. A Chinese puppet theater. Puppet figure
representing the younger Coquelin 294

Puppets in Burma 296

The puppet play of Master Peter (Italian) 296

A Neapolitan Punchinella 300

The broken bridge. Plan showing the construction of a
shadow-picture theater. A Hungarian dancer
(a shadow picture) 308

Shadow Pictures. The return from the Bois de Boulogne. The
ballet. A regiment of French soldiers 310

Shadow Picture. The Sphinx I: Pharaoh passing in triumph 312

Shadow Picture. The Sphinx II: Moses leading his people out
of Egypt 314

Shadow Picture. The Sphinx III: Roman warriors in Egypt 316