The Project Gutenberg EBook of Touch and Go, by D. H. Lawrence

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Title: Touch and Go

Author: D. H. Lawrence

Release Date: July, 2003 [Etext# 4216]
Posting Dafe: January 30, 2010

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOUCH AND GO ***

Produced by Douglas Levy

TOUCH AND GO

A Play in Three Acts

By D. H. Lawrence

PREFACE

A nice phrase: "A People's Theatre." But what about it? There's no
such thing in existence as a People's Theatre: or even on the way to
existence, as far as we can tell. The name is chosen, the baby isn't
even begotten: nay, the would-be parents aren't married, nor yet
courting.

A People's Theatre. Note the indefinite article. It isn't The People's
Theatre, but A People's Theatre. Not the theatre of Plebs, the
proletariat, but the theatre of A People. What people? Quel peuple
donc?--A People's Theatre. Translate it into French for yourself.

A People's Theatre. Since we can't produce it, let us deduce it.
Major premise: the seats are cheap. Minor premiss: the plays are
good. Conclusion: A People's Theatre. How much will you give me for my
syllogism? Not a slap in the eye, I hope.

We stick to our guns. The seats are cheap. That has a nasty proletarian
look about it. But appearances are deceptive. The proletariat isn't
poor. Everybody is poor except Capital and Labour. Between these upper
and nether millstones great numbers of decent people are squeezed.

The seats are cheap: in decency's name. Nobody wants to swank, to sit
in the front of a box like a geranium on a window-sill--"the cynosure
of many eyes." Nobody wants to profiteer. We all feel that it is as
humiliating to pay high prices as to charge them. No man consents in
his heart to pay high prices unless he feels that what he pays with his
right hand he will get back with his left, either out of the pocket of
a man who isn't looking, or out of the envy of the poor neighbour who IS
looking, but can't afford the figure. The seats are cheap. Why should A
People, fabulous and lofty giraffe, want to charge or pay high
prices? If it were THE PEOPLE now.--But it isn't. It isn't Plebs, the
proletariat.