"Will it be long before arrangements can be made for its appearance at Drury Lane?" I inquired, in the midst of our gratulations.
"Well, that is a sensible question," replied Montalban. "I must consult his Lordship on the point. I have certainly made an offer for it; but as the trustees are hard-hearted people, with no love for the modern drama, they insist on a deposit towards the rent; and as I am deficient to the amount of fifty pounds——"
"Is that the whole deficiency?" I said; "for if such a sum——"
"Forty-eight pound fifteen is the exact amount that would enable me to table their demand; but with such enormous expenses as I am at here, where could a man look for assistance, even to that paltry extent? The Lord Chamberlain, I have no doubt, would forego his fee——"
"What!" I inquired, "is there a fee on the production of a new play?"
"Isn't there?" answered Montalban. "The advantage of a censorship of the press or of the stage, which is the same thing, is not to be had for nothing. No, no: we pay his Lordship—per self or deputy—a very handsome acknowledgment for the trouble he takes in correcting, altering, and improving the tragedies that are submitted to his approval."
"Has his Lordship condescended to amend any of the lines in Hengist?" I asked with gratified interest.
"He has only blotted out all the Heavens, and put in a number of skies. He has also done away with all the fiends and devils; for our improver is a very devout man, and seems to have an awful veneration for Beelzebub. O! it's well worth the money, I assure you, to have the certificate that all's right from such high literary and religious authority."
"And fifty pounds would do it," I said half to myself.
"Forty-eight pound fifteen," said Mr Montalban, altogether to the same individual.