el at the run his last one must have had.

However, I assume that you who read this are actually in need of the
dibs. Your play must be not merely a good play but a successful one. How
shall this success be achieved?

Frankly I cannot always say. If you came to me and said, "I am on the
Stock Exchange, and bulls are going down," or up, or sideways, or
whatever it might be; "there's no money to be made in the City nowadays,
and I want to write a play instead. How shall I do it?"--well, I
couldn't help you. But suppose you said, "I'm fond of writing; my people
always say my letters home are good enough for _Punch_. I've got a
little idea for a play about a man and a woman and another woman,
and--but perhaps I'd better keep the plot a secret for the moment.
Anyhow it's jolly exciting, and I can do the dialogue all right. The
only thing is, I don't know anything about technique and stage-craft and
the three unities and that sort of rot. Can you give me a few hints?"
Suppose you spoke to me like this, then I could do something for you.
"My dear Sir," I should reply (or Madam), "you have come to the right
shop. Lend me your ear for a few weeks, and you shall learn just what
stage-craft is." And I should begin with a short homily on

I.--SOLILOQUY.

If you ever read your _Shakspeare_--and no dramatist should despise the
works of another dramatist; he may always pick up something in them
which may be useful for his next play--if you ever read your
_Shakspeare_, it is possible that you have come across this passage:--

"_Enter_ Hamlet.

_Ham._ To be, or not to be----"

And so on in the same vein for some thirty lines.

These few remarks are called a soliloquy, being addressed rather to the
world in general than to any particular person on the stage. Now the
object of this soliloquy is plain. The dramatist wished us to know the
thoughts which were passing through _Hamlet's_ mind, and it was the only
way he could think of in which to do it. Of course a really good actor
can often give a clue to the feelings of a character simply by facial
expression. There are ways of shifting the eyebrows, distending the
nostrils, and exploring the lower molars with the tongue by which it is
possible to denote respectively Surprise, Defiance and Doubt. Indeed,
irresolution being the keynote of _Hamlet's_ soliloquy, a clever player
could to some extent indicate the whole thirty lines by a silent working
of the jaw. But at the same time it