For the ambitious concentrator in English there is probably no more lamentable departmental weakness than that long inherent in the treatment of dramatic literature. Emphasis is placed on private silent reading of plays, even though, except for closet drama, such a method of study can hardly do full justice to the works or give the student a complete appreciation of the playwright's art. Unfortunately, the more satisfactory systems of dramatic study, reading plays aloud or acting them simply in groups, cannot be officially included in a technique of instruction based on written examinations. The initiative must obviously lie with undergraduates and professors who are sufficiently interested to inaugurate small reading groups outside of class hours. Under the leadership of Professor Matthiessen, a small club of men in Eliot House is already engaged in following such a plan.

The conditions provided by the House Plan are peculiarly favorable for the development of such groups. In each of the Houses there are certain to be a number of students who would enjoy such weekly or fortnightly occasions for "crying at the top of the question." The field need not be limited to the English theater; if desired, excursions might profitably be made into the literatures of other lands. Such study might even be narrowed down to the works under consideration in courses which the students happen to be taking. As a climax to the season, the group might present a play informally, without costuming or elaborate properties, which any interested House member might attend.

These clubs would not be House "dramatic societies." Some such institutions as the latter are, indeed, not really beyond reason, but the organizations now proposed would be bona fide study groups. They would not only enhance student appreciation of the dramatic art but would effect a rediscovery of one of the most pleasant, and most neglected, ways to pass an evening.