Trotter forgave me beforehand, and assisted the make-up by which Mr
Claude King so successfully simulated his personal appearance. The
critics whom I did not introduce were somewhat hurt, as I should have
been myself under the same circumstances; but I had not room for them
all; so I can only apologize and assure them that I meant no
disrespect.

The concealment of the authorship, if a _secret de Polichinelle_ can
be said to involve concealment, was a necessary part of the play. In
so far as it was effectual, it operated as a measure of relief to
those critics and playgoers who are so obsessed by my strained
legendary reputation that they approach my plays in a condition which
is really one of derangement, and are quite unable to conceive a play
of mine as anything but a trap baited with paradoxes, and designed to
compass their ethical perversion and intellectual confusion. If it
were possible, I should put forward all my plays anonymously, or hire
some less disturbing person, as Bacon is said to have hired
Shakespear, to father my plays for me.

Fanny's First Play was performed for the first time at the Little
Theatre in the Adelphi, London, on the afternoon of Wednesday, April
19th 1911.




FANNY'S FIRST PLAY