PREFATORY NOTE



  CLYDE FITCH was one of the very few American
dramatists to enjoy an international reputation.
He was often criticized by the Press for a certain
foreign tone which sometimes crept into his ori'r -
nal plays; and undoubtedly, he was influencedl
b)y the technique of the French school in his (dC-
lineation of feminine psychology. Perlhaps none
of his plays enjoyed a more wide-spread recogni-
tion than "The Truth." The stage history of this
drama was precarious at the outset of its American
career, for, though in many ways it was an artistic
success, heightened by the deftness of Mrs. ClanL
Bloodgood's acting, it was accounted a financial
failure; and Mr. Fitch reached what might 1w
described as his lowest ebb of discouragement.
The play opened in New York on January 7, I907,
and, in a letter of January i i, Mr. Fitch wrote that,
though some of the criticisms proclaimed this play
his very best, the praise had arrived too late. The
whole situation he described as being heart-break-
                      V