"
Dick played the "Dragon without a Tail." We had to make him without
a tail owing to the smallness of the stage. He had once had a tail.
But that was a long story: added to which there was not time to tell
it. Little Sally St. Leonard played his wife, and Robina was his
mother-in-law. So much depends upon one's mood. What an ocean of
boredom might be saved if science could but give us a barometer
foretelling us our changes of temperament! How much more to our
comfort we could plan our lives, knowing that on Monday, say, we
should be feeling frivolous; on Saturday "dull to bad-tempered."
I took a man once to see The Private Secretary. I began by enjoying
myself, and ended by feeling ashamed of myself and vexed with the
scheme of creation. That authors should write such plays, that
actors should be willing to degrade our common nature by appearing in
them was explainable, he supposed, by the law of supply and demand.
What he could not understand was how the public could contrive to
extract amusement from them. What was there funny in seeing a poor
gentleman shut up in a box? Why should everybody roar with laughter
when he asked for a bun? People asked for buns every day--people in
railway refreshment rooms, in aerated bread shops. Where was the
joke? A month later I found myself by chance occupying the seat just
behind him at the pantomime. The low comedian was bathing a baby,
and tears of merriment were rolling down his cheeks.
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