SOURCE: "Poets and Historians: John Drinkwater," in The Youngest Drama: Studies of Fifty Dramatists, Ernest Benn, Limited, 1923, pp. 150-56.

Dukes was an important English playwright and drama critic during the first half of the twentieth century. He is most noted for his works on modern European theater, particularly poetic drama, and introduced English audiences to the work of several French and German dramatists. In the following essay, he discusses Drinkwater's historical dramas.

Abraham Lincoln owed as much to President Wilson as to its own titular hero. It was a play of the hour, and in every line an allusion to the momentous issues of the hour could be heard. For large audiences (including returned soldiers among their number) it was the first drama to break the spiritual silence of five years. After the manner of plays with a message, it was open to more than one interpretation. Its...