PLAYWRIGHT (falls down before him).
Then prove it to me by yielding to my request; if the disapproval of the audience breaks out so loudly again, then at a motion from me let all the machines play; as it is, the second act has already closed quite differently from the way it reads in my manuscript.
MACHIN.
What's this now? Why, who raised the curtain?
PLAYWR.
It never rains but it pours! I am lost! (He rushes in embarrassment behind the scenes.)
MACHIN.
There never has been such a confusion on any evening.
[Exit. A pause.]