VI

MISCELLANEA




I

_THE "HUMOROUS STAGE"_

I am not adventuring on the dangerous paths of dramatic criticism.
When I write of the "humorous stage," I am using the phrase as
Wordsworth used it, to signify a scene where new characters are
suddenly assumed, and the old as suddenly discarded.

Long ago, Matthew Arnold, poking fun at the clamours of Secularism,
asked in mockery, "Why is not Mr. Bradlaugh a Dean?" To-day I read,
in a perfectly serious manifesto forwarded to me by a friendly
correspondant, this searching question: "Why is not the Archbishop
of Canterbury Censor of Plays?" It really is a great conception;
and, if adopted in practice, might facilitate the solution of some
perplexing problems. If any lover of the ancient ways should demur
on the ground of incongruity, I reply that this objection might
hold good in normal times, but that just now the "humorous stage"
of public life so abounds in incongruities that one more or less
would make no perceptible difference. Everyone is playing a part for