Page:Dr Stiggins, His Views and Principles.pdf/120

 that a specious and abandoned hypocrite can muster, on the other retorts which we are supposed to accept as wit, and so the scene proceeds to its most unpleasant termination. The worst, it is true, does not happen; but all but the worst happens; and this is the "classic" English Drama, this deliberate and elaborate representation of lust, debauchery, and the lowest and most degraded passions in poor human nature. You will scarcely believe me when I tell you the defence that has been made for this most disgusting piece of prurience and indecency. It is simply this: we are told, forsooth, that there is no harm in it because it is a "Comedy of Manners," because the whole thing is an elaborate jest! It is a comedy of very bad manners assuredly, and I suppose that you or I would not have much difficulty in stringing together disgusting phrases collected from the drunken revellers of the pot-house and the gutter. As for the theory that the actor is at liberty to depict the vicious and abandoned lives of wicked people, to utter