Q. Give an example?
A. Two men tossing up for a lady. In Box and Cox the transaction was conducted with the assistance of a sixpence in the politest fashion imaginable; in a later version the affair could not be arranged without a pack of cards and much forcible language.
Q. Was the scene the same in both, like the situation?
A. No, in Box and Cox the spot was a second-floor back; in the other, the interior of an observatory on the summit of a mountain.
Q. Can you mention any other characteristic of the Problem Play?
A. The dramatist should be daring. People should say of his work that it would have surprised their parents and startled their grandmothers into fits.
Q. How can this desirable end be attained?
A. By the playwright causing his heroine to throw a pocket-bible into the fire, or perform some other act of parallel eccentricity.
Q. Should the heroine have any peculiarity?
A. As a rule she should be a woman with a past.