Note 9 — Front matter
Matthew Josephson translation
The theatre in France of the period immediately preceding the war is a sorry thing to relate. We will pass over Brieux, Hervieu, Battaille, Bernstein, to consider Donnay, Porto-Riche and their ilk. These worthies and their imitators achieved unparalleled financial and social triumphs by incorporating a certain intimate lewdness into their trivial drama. Their obvious theatrical machinery, which Apollinaire ridicules, has been as successfully adopted in this country and elsewhere in Europe, under the label of "modern drama."