Produced by K Nordquist, Branko Collin, Louise Pattison and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) _The Cabinet Minister_ [Illustration] _Arthur W. Pinero_ _THE CABINET MINISTER_ _THE PLAYS OF ARTHUR W. PINERO._ IN MONTHLY VOLUMES. Price _1s. 6d._, paper; _2s. 6 d._, cloth. 1. _+The Times.+ A Comedy in Four Acts._ 2. _+The Profligate.+ A Play in Four Acts. With a Portrait, and a Preface by Malcolm C. Salaman._ 3. _+The Cabinet Minister.+ A Farce in Four Acts. With an Introductory Note by Malcolm C. Salaman._ 4. _+The Hobby Horse.+ [Ready February._ _To be followed by "Lady Bountiful," "Dandy Dick," "The Magistrate," "The Schoolmistress," "The Weaker Sex," "Lords and Commons," "The Squire," and "Sweet Lavender."_ THE CABINET MINISTER A FARCE In Four Acts By ARTHUR W. PINERO LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN MDCCCXCII COPYRIGHT, JANUARY 1892. _All rights reserved._ _Entered at Stationers' Hall._ _Entered at the Library of Congress, Washington, U.S.A._ INTRODUCTORY NOTE It is well known that Mr. Pinero holds decided views of his own as to the nature and function of farce; indeed, he claims for it a wider scope and a more comprehensive purpose than have ever been associated with farce of the old Adelphi type, or the more modern genus of the Palais Royal. He has openly expressed his opinion that farce must gradually become the modern equivalent of comedy, since the present being an age of sentiment rather than of manners, the comic playwright must of necessity seek his humour in the exaggeration of sentiment. Thus Mr. Pinero holds that farce should treat of probable people placed in possible circumstances, but regarded from a point of view which exaggerates their sentiments and magnifies their foibles. In this light it is permitted to this class of play, not only to deal with ridiculous incongruities of incident and character, but to satirise society, and to wring laughter from those possible distresses of life which might trace their origin to fallacies of feeling and extravagances of motive. "The Cabinet Minister" is the latest of Mr. Pinero's series of farces, and it may be regarded as the direct development of ideas which he began to put into practice when he wrote "The Magistrate." Since then these ideas have undergone a process of gradual evolution, which may be clearly traced through the successive productions of "The Schoolmistress," "Dandy Dick," and "The Cabinet Minister," in each of which it will be seen that the author has aimed less at the exposition of a plot than at the satirising of particular types of character in a possible social atmosphere. "The Cabinet Minister" was written early in 1889, and produced by Mrs. John Wood and Mr. Arthur Chudleigh at the Court Theatre, on April 23, 1890. * * * * *