he clearly unpermissible, one might take a
book like "Frankenstein." Certainly any presentation on the stage of the
man-monster as described by the talented authoress would fall under the
censure of being disgusting. This term may be used concerning several
needless exhibitions of blood on the stage, and of such a matter as
_Nana_, once presented in Paris. When the hapless heroine appeared in
the last act with wax spots to indicate the pustules of smallpox, she
very nearly "took a lot out of us," if one may borrow a phrase from "Mr
Hopkinson." Obviously anything that reminds one of the ghastly horrors
at the Royal College of Surgeons or the Polyclinic Institute is quite
unforgivable.

This brings us not unnaturally to a matter in which there has been some
change of taste. A fearful exhibition of a man in a fit, given with
horrible power by that admirable actor Mr Pateman in a melodrama called
_Master and Man_, would perhaps not be condemned in our days, but
probably we would not endure, and certainly there would be little praise
for, some of the death scenes once famous in drama. The critics nowadays
would apply to the actress the phrase of the auctioneer to his wife, and
implore her to "get on with her dying."

There was the famous Mlle. Croizette in _Le Sphinx_, by that detestable
dramatist Octave Feuillet; she squirmed horribly after taking poison
from a ring; and it was alleged that she had studied the death of
patients in hospitals--a brutal, horrible thing to do. There is a good
deal too much dying in _Frou-Frou_, _La Dame aux Camellias_ and
_Adrienne Lecouvrer_. Without going back to the traditions of the Greek
theatre, one may say confidently that, if death on the stage is
permissible, dying is almost illegitimate, and trick falls, exhibitions
of agony, and the like are mere pandering to a very vulgar taste.
Occasionally the dying is so handled that, though somewhat prolonged,
such a vigorous phrase ought not to be applied to it. For instance, one
may refer to _In the Hospital_, once presented at the Court, where Mr
Beveridge, in an admirable performance, gave a very tactful, restrained
exhibition of approaching death and actual decease. Another objection
exists to any exhibition upon the stage of dying as compared with
death. The symptoms often call up terrible memories to some members of
the audience which are not evoked by the simple fact of death itself. It
cannot be pretended that these references to insta