T. Yes, I am the author of “Vanity Fair.”
V. C. I presume, a dissenter—has that anything to do with Jno. Bunyan’s book?
T. Not exactly: I have also written “Pendennis.”
V. C. Never heard of these works, but no doubt they are proper books.
T. I have also contributed to “Punch.”
V. C. “Punch.” I have heard of that. Is it not a ribald publication?
| [3] | Unquestionably Lady Jane pronounced it wīnds. |
RETROSPECTS AND PROSPECTS OF THE ENGLISH DRAMA[[4]]
THE English drama has been dead for nearly two hundred years. Mr. Gosse says that in 1700 the English had the most vivacious school of comedy in Europe. And, if their serious drama was greatly inferior, still the best tragedies of Dryden and Otway—and perhaps of Lee, Southerne, and Rowe—made not only a sounding success on the boards, but a fair bid for literary honors. Ten years later the drama was moribund, and in 1747 its epitaph was spoken by Garrick in the sonorous prologue written by Dr. Johnson for the opening of Drury Lane: