nderstand that you have produced a play called _Othello_
on more than one occasion; perhaps you will inform us whether the
following passages are in your opinion suitable for public declamation?
(Mr. FUSSLER _then proceeded to read several extracts to which he
objected on account of their offensive signification_.)

MR. IRVING protested that SHAKSPEARE, and not himself, was responsible
for such passages.

MR. FUSSLER. Unfortunately, SHAKSPEARE is not before us--and you are.
You admit that you have produced a play containing lines such as
I have just read? That is enough for Us.

MR. MEDLAM. Unless I am mistaken, the hero in _Othello_ is not only a
murderer but a suicide?

MR. IRVING. Undoubtedly. (_Sensation._)

MR. MEDLAM. We have heard something of a piece called _The Bells_. I
seldom attend theatres myself, except in the exercise of my public
functions, but I do happen to have seen that particular play on one
occasion. Does my memory mislead me in saying, that you committed a
brutal and savage murder in the course of the drama?

MR. IRVING said that, as a matter of fact, the murder took place many
years before the curtain rose--otherwise, the Member's memory was
entirely accurate.

MR. MEDLAM. Whenever the murder was committed, it remains undetected,
and the criminal escapes all penalty--is not that the case?

MR. IRVING urged that the Nemesis was worked out by the murderer's own
conscience.

MR. MEDLAM said that was all nonsense; a person's conscience could not
be made visible on the stage, and here a murderer was represented as
dying several years after his crime, in his own bedroom, respected by
all who knew him. Did MR. IRVING intend to tell them that such a
spectacle was calculated to deter an intending murderer, or did he not?
That was the plain question.

MR. IRVING thought that intending murderers formed so inappreciable an
element in his usual audiences, that they might safely be left out of
the calculation.

MR. MEDLAM. But you might have an intending murderer among your
audience, I suppose?

MR. IRVING'S reply was not audible in the reporters' gallery.

MR. PARSEEKER. I should like to hear what you have to say about
duelling, MR. IRVING--I mean, is it, or is it not, a practice sanctioned
by the laws of this country?

MR. IRVING said that he did not quite understand the drift of such a
question; but, since they asked him, he should say that duelling was
distinctly illegal.

MR. PARSEEKE