human
We dined with her first. She had, somehow, persuaded Burling, the Oxford historian, Mrs. Hartford, the dear poetess who never smiles, and her husband, and Cummerbridge, the statistician, to be of the party. After dinner where do you think she took us?
gpt
To the Oxford?
human
To front row stalls at the Criterion, where they were giving a knockabout farce called _My Little Darling_ in which a clergyman was put into a boiler, a guardsman hidden in a linen cupboard, and a penny novelette duchess was forced to retreat into a shower-bath in full activity. I confess that I laughed more than I had ever done in my life. I sat between Burling, who looked like a terrified hen, and Mr. Hartford, who was seriously attentive from beginning to end, and kept murmuring, 'Really! Really!' And I had the poetess's sibylline profile in full view. I was almost hysterical when it was over. As we were coming out Mr. Hartford said to his wife, 'Henrietta, I'm glad we came.' She rolled an eye on him and answered, with tears in the voice, 'Why?' 'It's a valuable lesson. We now know what the British public needs.' Her reply was worthy of her.
gpt
What was it?
human
Perhaps it was _My Little Darling_ which brought about the attempt at better things you were speaking of,
gpt
Ah, but their prophet is not mine!
human
Sometimes I think I hate the disintegrating drama more than I despise the vulgar idiocies which, after all, never really touch human life, she continued.
gpt
No doubt it is sheer weakness on my part to be affected by it. But I am. Only last week Charmian and I saw the play that they--the superior ones--are all flocking to. The Premier has seen it five times already. I loathed its cleverness. I loathed the element of surprise in it. I laughed, and loathed my own laughter. The man who wrote it would put cap and bells on St. Francis of Assisi and make a mock of OEdipus.
human
I came out of the theater, continued Mrs. Mansfield,
gpt
The wretch is terribly clever! she exclaimed.
human
But he seems to me destructive.
gpt
Well, but-- began Elliot.
human
Some such accusation has been brought against many really great men. The Empress Frederick told a friend of mine that no one who had not lived in Germany, and observed German life closely, could understand the evil spread through the country by Wagner's _Tristan_.
gpt
Then the fault, the sin if you like, was in the hearers,
human
Wagner was a builder. I believe Germany is the better for a _Tristan_, and I believe we should be the better for an English _Tristan_. But I doubt if we gain essentially by the drama in cap and bells.