DAVID WARFIELD AS _PETER GRIMM_, IN “THE RETURN OF PETER GRIMM”] answerers of books, who take upon themselves to watch the republic of letters and distribute reputation by the sheet: they somewhat resemble the eunuchs in a seraglio, who are incapable of giving pleasure themselves and hinder those that would.” Such emasculated perverters of the function of criticism,--scribblers bloated with envy engendered by conscious intellectual impotence,--flourish more or less in all periods; they are peculiarly prosperous in this one, and their envious malice is employed with at least as much industry in the “answering” and defaming of dramatists and actors as in the “answering” of books. Before Belasco had produced “Peter Grimm” in New York and almost in the hour of his personal bereavement, a representative specimen of that wretched brotherhood, itching to detract from the achievement of an author whom he could not hope ever to approach, published the false statement that Belasco was only _part_ author of that play. Among the papers loaned to me by Belasco is a copy of the following letter, which I print here because the misrepresentation alluded to has been several times iterated and the refutation of it should be placed on record: (_Belasco to a Quidnunc._) “Belasco Theatre, New York, “July 22, 1911. “In your article in the current ‘--------’ there is a misstatement which I should be much obliged to you if you would rectify, as it places both Mr. Cecil De Mille and myself in a false light. “Your article states that Mr. Cecil De Mille is my ‘_collaborator_’ in Mr. Warfield’s new play, ‘The Return of Peter Grimm.’ I am not aware whether you saw the play when it was presented in Boston, Chicago and Pittsburg last season. If you did so, however, you must remember that on the play bill I gave full credit to Mr. De Mille _for an idea_--WHICH I PURCHASED FROM HIM AND PAID VERY HANDSOMELY FOR. As for the play--in its construction, its dialogue, its plot and its characterizations--the play is _mine_ and MINE ONLY. “Mr. De Mille, I know well, will be the first person to verify this statement of mine, and in view of the fact that my play has not yet been presented in New York--and may possibly prove a failure there--I think it is only fair that _I_ should be held exclusively responsible for _my own work_....” “THE WOMAN”--AND MR. ABRAHAM GOLDKNOPF.