IT IS A matter of some curiosity that the screen has developed so few virtuosi. There are great numbers of highly skilled technicians, many talented performers, many directors of artistic intent and, indeed, accomplishment, but few with that exuberance of skill, that delight in the play of adeptness which marks those who work under rigorous disciplines. Virtuosity is not confined, of course, to artists, musicians, or performers in public. It appears wherever mastery of technical difficulties is so complete that its possessor can perform feats beyond those demanded by the tasks or problems to which his skill is ordinarily applied. Virtuosity in sports leads to all sorts of tricks; in science, it may lead to discovery and invention; in the arts, it yields a special kind of pleasure quite apart from the content of the work in hand. Considered in this sense, it may be regarded as the abstraction of skill. I am inclined to look upon it as a mark of youth and vitality in the practice of the arts rather than as a sign of maturity and decadence. It is one of the early fruits of mastery, and so it is to be distinguished from a weary, sterile technical competence. It is the swagger of the child, delighted with the skill with which he walks. In the man, it is not merely walking, it is walking on a high wire. It is the juggler not merely juggling five plates but juggling ten, blindfolded. It is the superabundance of craft. Wherever great skill develops, there is a strong temptation to make a show of it. The term virtuoso is usually applied only to pianists or violinists of uncommon prestidigital skill, since these performers in public have every opportunity to exhibit technical facility in excess of that needed to draw music from their instru-