The answer to this question is not simply that the modern dramatist is seldom a Shakespeare.

Perhaps the wittiest dramatist of the whole group was William Congreve (1670-1729).]

" We know that Shakspeare must, of his own personal knowledge of the man, have been qualified to paint his character; for while the great dramatist was the early and intimate friend of the Earl of Southampton, the petulant lexicographer boasts of having for years been domesticated in the pay and patronage of that munificent patron of letters.

A dramatist may, if he pleases (though it is a difficult task), break wholly unfamiliar ground in the past; but where a historic legend exists he must respect it at his peril.

That dramatist, I need scarcely say, is Mr. Bernard Shaw.

The most famous dramatists of the Ming epoch are Wang Shih-chen (1526-1590) and T'ang Hsien-tsu (1556-1617).

The chief dramatists for the second Blackfriars were Ben Jonson, George Chapman, and John Marston.

An accomplished painter may be the best teacher of painters; but an accomplished dramatist is scarcely the best guide for dramatists.

Sappho was as successful on the stage as The Ancestress had been, and the dramatist became the lion of the hour.