[Eric Shorter on Nora Swinburne] 'Nearly all of Swinburne's plays were set amid the middle or upper-middle classes, with her caressing voice to smooth many a troubled male brow, or her beguiling femininity to bestow consolation on an anxious husband. If she did not dominate all the stage drawing-rooms of the period, her gracious presence brought dignity and a dry wit to scores of forgotten farces.'