, and do not care to waste their tears over the sorrows of people in
a play, though perhaps a really roaring farce would entertain them, if
it included a good deal of knockabout business. The uncivilized people
who consider that practical joking is permissible are as a rule bitterly
hostile to serious drama.

It is hard to discover any clear theory in relation to these facts.
Attempts to establish a proposition are met by the fact that the
sensation-monger who delights in the horrors of real life, who gets joy
from a thrillingly dangerous performance at a music-hall, when he goes
to the theatre sometimes seems pleased by a piece almost in a direct
ratio to its unreality. A finely observed comedy, such as _The Silver
Box_ of Mr Galsworthy, irritates the sensation-monger; it is so absurdly
true that he does not think it clever of the author to have written it.
_Tom Jones_ contains useful matter for thought on the subject. Something
prodigious out of the lumber-room of the theatres impresses him far
more. In England the explanation of this may be a strangely twisted
feeling of utilitarianism, which causes us to object to thinking without
being paid for thinking; wherefore it seems an act almost of impudence
to ask us to pay money to see a play which cannot be understood or
appreciated without serious thought.

CHAPTER XII

MISCELLANEOUS

Signor Borsa on the English Theatres

Those mere casual playgoers who may think that the articles on drama in
_The Westminster Gazette_ have been needlessly pessimistic ought to read
"The English Stage of To-Day," by Mario Borsa, translated by Mr Selwyn
Brinton, and published by Mr John Lane; a lively, interesting book, in
which are expressed vigourously the ideas of a very acute, intelligent
writer upon our modern theatre. "Hence it is no wonder that all that is
artificial, absurd, commonplace, spectacular, and puerile is rampant
upon the English stage; that theatrical wares are standardized, like all
other articles of trade...." "Still, in spite of all this booming and
histriomania, one of the greatest intellectual privations from which the
foreigner suffers in London is, I repeat, the lack of good comedy and
good prose drama." Such sentences are specimens of his views about the
current drama of London, and he endorses the sad phrase of Auguste
Filon, "_Le drame Anglais, a peine ne, se meurt_."

In some respects the book is surprising. The author exhibits an intimacy
of kn