On the Art of the Theatre 14+

📕 This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912 edition. Excerpt: ... THE SECOND DIALOGUE A PLAYGOER AND A STAGE DIRECTOR SPEAK. Playgoer I Am glad to see you again after so long an absence. Where have you been? Stage-director Abroad. Playgoer What have you been doing all this time? Stage-director Hunting. Playgoer Have you turned sportsman, then? Stage-director I have; it keeps one in good health. It exercises all the muscles. I shall do better work when I recommence. Playgoer Tell me about it all, where you have been hunting and what you have bagged. Stage-director I have bagged nothing, for the beast that has occupied me is not caught like a rabbit or a hare, and is far more wary than a fox. Besides, the sport is not in the kill; the sport lies in the difficulties which must be surmounted to get at the beast, and there is no danger at all after you have found him; I have been hunting the monster of a Fable. Playgoer Which one? The Chimaera, the Hydra or the Hippogriff? Stage-director All of them in one. They are the composite parts of an absurd monster called The Theatrical,1 and I have tracked this terrible creature into its thousand-and-one caverns and conquered him. Playgoer You have destroyed him? Stage-director Yes--I have made friends with him. Playgoer Was there any need for you to have gone abroad to do this si...