1889. On the latter occasion two other dramatic authors were requested
to debate the points made by the speaker; and as a result he added a few
supplementary remarks:

The Nineteenth Century Club looks for a discussion, I believe, on
the subject brought forward in the paper of this evening. If the
word "discussion" implies "argument," I fear there is nothing in
the mere struggles of a dramatist in his workshop to justify that
difference of opinion which is necessary to an argument. My
American colleague, Mr. Brander Matthews, must feel like a man
whose wife persists from day to day in saying nothing that he can
object to, thereby making his home a desert and driving him to the
club. As for the great Irish dramatist, this paper leaves him still
wishing that some one would tread on the tail of his coat. But,
with all true Irishmen, the second party in a quarrel is merely a
convenience, not a necessity. Whenever Mr. Boucicault feels that a
public discussion is desirable for any reason, he can always tread
on the tail of his own coat, and make quite as good a fight of it
all by himself as if some one was assisting him.

And he ended with this reference to the constructive skill of Ibsen:

Another thing strikes me in connection with this subject: the
praise of Ibsen, the Scandinavian dramatist, is abroad in England;
and again, as so often before, mine eyes have seen the glory of the
coming of the Lord in the direction of Boston. But some of the
loudest worshippers of this truly great man in both countries
either wilfully ignore, or else they know nothing about, his real
greatness.