STILL WILDER IDEAS.
(Possibilities for the next O. Wilde Play.)
Puppet Number One. Let's come into the garden, Maudle. I adore the garden. Don't you know that the book of at least one good play begins with some epigrams in the garden, and ends with——
Puppet Number Two. Recitations—strictly puritanical. Well, let's go into the garden: there's nothing but Nature to look at there, so we will discuss——
Puppet Number One. The picture shows. It seems to me there are two principles in modern art. The first is—give a picture a good name, and they'll hang it.
Puppet Number Two. What's—ahem!—what is in a name?
Puppet Number One. Usually a good deal more than is in the picture.
Puppet Number Two. And the second principle?
Puppet Number One. Art is short, and the life (of the average Academician) is long.
Puppet Number Two. Ah, well. I suppose I shall have to ask you sooner or later to define Art.
Puppet Number One. Certainly. Art is that which invariably goes one better than Nature.
Puppet Number Two (with a sigh). And what is Nature?
Puppet Number One. Nature is that which is not so natural as it is painted.
Puppet Number Two (with a groan). What about truth in Art then?
Puppet Number One. Ah! Truth is that one infirmity of a noble mind.
Puppet Number Two. Truth is nothing if not respectable.
Puppet Number One. Remember, respectability is an affectation, of cynics, dramatic authors—and other people of no importance generally. [Exeunt severally. Curtain.
Mrs. R. observes, "it is only too true that Summer pleasures, as the poet says, are nearly always effervescent."