Mr. Punch's Dramatic Sequels

by St. John Hankin

[Continuing.] “‘Lasciate ogni speranza’ the audience murmurs with Dante, as three mortal hours pass and Mr. Puff is still prosing. Nor has he any dramatic novelty to offer us. The scène à faire is on conventional lines. The boards are hoar with the neiges d’antan. There is the anagnorisis desiderated by Aristotle, and the unhappy ending required by the Elizabethans. The inevitable peripeteia——”

Mrs. Dangle.

You know, Mr. Dangle, I don’t understand a single word you’re reading.

Sneer.

Nor I, upon my soul.

Sir Fretful Plagiary.

It is certainly somewhat difficult.

Dangle.

Shall I omit a few sentences, and go on again, where the allusions are less obscure? [Reads half aloud to himself, knitting his brows in the effort to understand what it is all about.] “No trace of Heine’s Weltschmerz ... capo e espada ... Nietschze’s Uebermensch ... ne coram pueros ... Petrarch’s immortal Io t’amo ... le canif du jardinier et celui de mon père——”