This resolute refusal to be interested in or to take account of current modes of thought has been considered by some to detract from his eminence.

Certainly if by "ideas" we mean current views on society or morality, he is deficient in them; only his very deficiency brings him nearer to the great masters of drama--to Ben Johnson, to Cervantes, to Moliere--even to Shakespeare himself.

Probably in no single case amongst our contemporaries could a high and permanent place in literature be prophesied with more confidence than in his.
In the past it has seemed impossible for fiction and the drama, i.e.
serious drama of high literary quality, to flourish, side by side.

It seems as though the best creative minds in any age could find strength for any one of these two great outlets for the activity of the creative imagination.

In the reign of Elizabeth the drama outshone fiction; in the reign of Victoria the novel crowded out the drama.