I should be sorry to
see any professional Manager making himself pecuniarily responsible
for the success of such an undertaking, a word which, in its funereal
sense, is of ill omen to the attempt. Let the Ibsenites club
together, lease a theatre, and see how the public likes their show.
There's nothing doing at the Royalty just now; let them pay rent
in advance, and become Miss KATE SANTLEY's tenants; then, if the
IBSEN-worshippers, with their Arch-priest, or ARCHER-priest, at their
head, come to a temporary understanding with the Gosse-Ibsenites,
they could craftily contrive to be invited as guests to a dinner at
the Playwreckers' Club. The _dilettanti_ members of this association
the United Ibsenites could flatter by deferring to the opinions of
their hosts, while inculcating their own, thus securing the goodwill
and patronage of the Playwreckers, a plan nowadays adopted with
considerable success by some of our wiliest dramatists, eager to
secure a free course and be glorified; and so, by making each one of
these mighty amateurs feel that the success of IBSEN in this country
depended on him personally, that is, on his verdict or "_Ibsen
dixit_," a run of, say, perhaps three nights might possibly be
secured, when they could play to fairly-filled houses.
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