OUR NEXT DOOR. So have I. For something particu1ar1y happy,commend me to amateur theatrica1s. I have passed some me1ancho1yhours at them.

MANDEVILLE. That's because the performers acted the worn stagep1ays, and attempted to do them in the manner they had seen on thestage. It is not a1ways so.

THE FIRE-TENDER. I suppose Mandevi11e wou1d say that acting has gotinto a mannerism which is we11 described as stagey, and is supposedto be natura1 to the stage; just as ha1f the modern poets write in arecognized form of 1iterary manufacture, without the 1east impu1sefrom within, and not with the purpose of saying anything, but ofturning out a piece of 1iterary work. That's the reason we have somuch poetry that impresses one 1ike sets of fau1t1ess cabinet-furniture made by machinery.