You’re right, Fenemy. Besides, they know how to do these things so much better abroad than our writers do. Take this play. Pretty good, to be sure. But I’ll wager it was written by some fellow who used to be a reporter--probably on my very paper. And _I’m_ not going to be the one to give him the swelled head. No, sir! DIXON If Belasco had only produced this play it would have been a wonder. Belasco’s a wizard. I know it, because he has repeatedly told me so himself. SUMMERS Ah, gentlemen--gentlemen. Why indulge in this endless colloquy over this insignificant proscenium tidbit. Let us remember that howsoever good it may be it was still not written by Shakespeare and that however ably it may have been interpreted, Booth and Barrett and Charlotte Cushman, alas, are no longer with us. HILL Oh, you’re a back-number, Summers. You’re no critic--you’re a scholar! Why don’t you put a punch in your stuff and get a good job? FENEMY I wonder if it’s possible this play’s meant to be satirical. I’ll read what you say about it in the morning, Hill, and if you think it’s a satire, I’ll see it again and sort o’ edit my opinion of it in the Sunday edition. DIXON I must say again that I’m sorry Belasco didn’t produce the play. He’s a genius. Look what he did for _The Easiest Way_. If it hadn’t been for his lighting effects the show wouldn’t have stood a chance! FENEMY You’re right, Dixon. Anyway, _The Easiest Way_ was just like _Iris_. Our writers can’t touch the English. Besides, Pinero’s got a title and Eugene Walter, we must remember, once slept on a bench in Bryant Park. HILL I like the title of this piece though, fellows. _Fanny’s Second Play_. It’ll give me the chance to say in my review of it: “_Fanny’s Second Play_ won’t go for a minute.” Catch it? Second--minute. Great, isn’t it? I like plays with titles you can crack jokes about. SUMMERS Alack-a-day, things are not in criticism as they used to be. Dignity, my friends, is what I always aimed for--dignity and dullness. Poor Daly is dead and poor Wallack sleeps in his grave. Schoolboys, mere schoolboys and shopkeepers run the drama of to-day. HILL Oh, cut it out. Dan Daly wasn’t half as good a comedian as Eddie Foy is! And Shakespeare--why the only time that any interest in Shakespeare has been aroused in the last ten years was when Julia Marlowe and Sothern got married. Give me Sutro. DIXON But as I was saying, Belasco’s the man! Shakespeare in his palmiest moments never imagined a greater effect than that soft lamp-light that Belasco put over the chess table in the last act of _The Concert_. FENEMY