doesn’t want to _wait_! But it would be foolish at present: to-day ’Dave’ Warfield is one of the most prosperous of actors: he can play ’The Music Master,’ and ’The Auctioneer,’ and make a fortune--just as Jefferson did with ’Rip’ and ’The Rivals.’ But what will happen if I bring him out as _Shylock_, at once, in New York, or close to it? A lot of the paltry scribblers who don’t know anything about ’The Merchant’ will have their knives into him up to the hilt--and the next morning, whether he’s good, bad, or indifferent, he’ll be the best ’roasted’ actor on the stage--the venture will be no good, and when he goes back to ’The Music Master’ his standing will have been hurt. _Nobody_ can give a great performance of _Shylock_ the first time. When we are ready, I’ll take a modest little company out into the backwoods somewhere, so far away from New York that nobody here knows there are such places, and let Warfield play _Shylock_ for three months or so. Then, when he’s found himself and can show what he can really do, if it’s no good we’ll drop it, and if (as I expect) it turns out great, I’ll bring him into New York and give them such a production as they haven’t seen since Irving played the piece.” That is the clear, right, prescient insight of an authentic theatrical manager, who understands that a vital part of the management of the Theatre consists in management of the People. BELASCO’S REPERTORY AS AN ACTOR. A complete list of the characters that Belasco assumed, while he remained an actor, is not obtainable, but the subjoined partial list, which I have carefully made by consulting newspaper advertisements and other sources of authentic information, is sufficiently suggestive of his ample experience in the vocation of acting. The student of his career should needfully bear in mind, moreover, that he has, first and last, set on the stage every one of the plays here named (and many others), besides acting in them: [Illustration: Photograph by Falk. The Albert Davis Collection. BELASCO, ABOUT 1880] PART. PLAY. (A) _Alfred Evelyn_ “Money.” _Antonio_ “The Merchant of Venice.” _Apothecary_ “Romeo and Juliet.” _Archibald Carlyle_ “East Lynne.” _Armand Duval_ “Camille.” _Avica, the Spirit of Avarice_ “A Storm of Thoughts.” (B)