The contents of this book were originally brought together from notes for the classroom as eight lectures delivered be fore the Lowell Institute, Boston, in the winter of 1913. They were carefully reworked for later lectures before audiences in Brooklyn and Philadelphia. Indeed, both in and out of the classroom they have been slowly revised in the intervening five years. Detailed consideration Of the one-act play has been reserved for later Special treatment. Otherwise the book attempts to treat helpfully the many problems which the would-be dramatist must face in learning the funda mentals of a very difficult but fascinating art.