eal drama, in fact, passes behind the screen. It lies in the terror,
humiliation, and disillusionment which we know to be coursing each other
through Lady Teazle's soul. And all this Mrs. Oliphant would have
sacrificed for a single moment of crude surprise!

Now let us hear Professor Matthews's analysis of the effect of the
scene. He says:

"The playgoer's interest is really not so much as to what is to happen
as the way in which this event is going to affect the characters
involved. He thinks it likely enough that Sir Peter will discover that
Lady Teazle is paying a visit to Joseph Surface; but what he is really
anxious to learn is the way the husband will take it. What will Lady
Teazle have to say when she is discovered where she has no business to
be? How will Sir Peter receive her excuses? What will the effect be on
the future conduct of both husband and wife? These are the questions
which the spectators are eager to have answered."

This is an admirable exposition of the frame of mind of the Drury Lane
audience of May 8, 1777. who first saw the screen overturned. But in the
thousands of audiences who have since witnessed the play, how many
individuals, on an average, had any doubt as to what Lady Teazle would
have to say, and how Sir Peter would receive her excuses? It would
probably be safe to guess that, for a century past, two-thirds of every
audience have clearly foreknown the outcome of the situation. Professor
Matthews himself has edited Sheridan's plays, and probably knows _The
School for Scandal_ almost by heart; yet we may be pretty sure that any
reasonably good performance of the Screen Scene will to-day give him
pleasure not so very much inferior to that which he felt the first time
he saw it. In this pleasure, it is manifest that mere curiosity as to
the immediate and subsequent conduct of Sir Peter and Lady Teazle can
have no part. There is absolutely no question which Professor Matthews,
or any playgoer who shares his point of view, is "eager to have
answered."

Assuming, then, that we are all familiar with the Screen Scene, and
assuming that we, nevertheless, take pleasure in seeing it reasonably
well acted,[6] let us try to discover of what elements that pleasure is
composed. It is, no doubt, somewhat complex. For one thing, we have
pleasure in meeting old friends. Sir Peter, Lady Teazle, Charles, even
Joseph, are agreeable creatures who have all sorts of pleasant
associations for us. Again, we