l.yi Mr. Edward F. Benson [May i, 



I daresay that is a very good <!ame, and hope to taste the 

 exquisite fascination of it some day ; in the interval I suggest 

 another uame for art-critics which I think should also prove ex- 

 quisitely fascinating. I propose that when they next- fashion their 

 annual thunderbolts out of the Royal Academy, they should not be 

 given catalogues, and that wads should be placed over their mouths 

 so that they cannot confer. They would thus write their notices 

 without knowing the names of the artists Avhose pictures they 

 criticized. Probably they would recognize the work of Mr. Sargent 

 and one or two other- : but I think it would be an exquisitely 

 fascinating moment, when, having delivered their criticisms to the 

 printer, they were giveu the catalogues, and found out what they had 

 said about whom. For as in tl)e case of literary critics, it is im- 

 possible that they should really look with care at all the works which 

 they lightheartedly condemn or approve, and by this plan they would 

 sincerely, and without guidance of eminent names, be helped to tell 

 us what to their trained tastes was really admirable, and why. I 

 think this game should be tried. 



Now, the case of dramatic critics is harder yet, and their authority 

 even more forlorn. They have to attend a first performance one 

 niL'"ht and to make ready their oracles in time for the first edition of 

 the papers next morning. Of course, they have their conferences in 

 the foyer between the acts, which help them, and must do so much 

 to encourage independent opinion. But can we attach much value 

 to work done in such haste ? I do not imagine that most of them 

 attach much value to it themselves, and with a wise modesty they 

 frankly accept the role of Moliere's housemaid, and confine them- 

 selves to saying just the things that a housemaid would have said, 

 such as " Lor," or "Well, I was astonished to find that Mr. Bourchier 

 had come back from Queensland," or " Poor thing ! but she should 

 never have allowed the other gentleman to have come to hei- bed- 

 room." They then proceed to tell us about Sir George Alexander's 

 trousers, and the ladies in the stalls. The anonymous critic of 

 the Times, however, whose anonymity Mr. Bernard ShaAV has so 

 ruthlessly revealed in the preface to " Man and Superman," which 

 he prudently dedicates to him, refuses this role, and recklessly 

 assumes all the responsibility which his colleagues, or, as he would 

 say, his confreres, waive. But even if we include "Uramaticus" 

 (for I refuse to follow Mr. Shaw's craving for the publicity of others), 

 the whole collective power of dramatic criticism nowadays is what 

 scientists would call absolute zero, and there is not a dramatist living 

 who cares one jot for the disapproval of the morning press, if only 

 his audience have signified their enjoyment of his play ; nor is he, 

 from the point of view of its success, the least consoled by the 

 panegyrics of the press, if the audience go yawning away. For 

 Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones and Moliere's housemaid know quite well 

 if they have passed a pleasant and an interesting evening, and do 



