Ahem! only _dead_ classics--especially when they are
employed to protect romanticism. Dead classics are the protective
tariffs put on all realism and truth by bloated idealism. In a country
of plutocrats, idealism keeps out truth: idealism is more expensive, and
therefore more in demand. In America, there are more plutocrats, and
therefore more idealists . . . as Mr. Pember Reeves has pointed out in
New Zealand . . .
THE DEVIL. But I say, is this drama?
THE STATUE. Certainly not. It is a discussion taking place at a
theatre. It is no more drama than a music-hall entertainment, or a comic
opera, or a cinematograph, or a hospital operation, all of which things
take place in theatres. But surely it is more entertaining to come to a
discussion charmingly mounted by Ricketts--discussion too, in which every
one knows what he is going to say--than to flaccid plays in which the
audience always knows what the actors _are_ going to say better often
than the actors. The sort of balderdash which Mr. --- serves up to us
for plays.
THE DEVIL (_peevish and old-fashioned_). I wish you would define drama.
HANKIN (_advancing_). Won't you have tea, Commander? It's not bad tea.
THE STATUE. I was afraid you were going to talk idealism.
HANKIN (_aside_). Excuse my interrupting, but I want you to be
particularly nice to the Princess Salome. You know she was jilted by the
Censor. She has brought her music.
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