It was most kind of you to ask me to go to the St. James's Theatre, the
other evening, to see Mrs. LANGTRY, after I had told you that since my
recovery from the influenza, I had unfortunately lost my memory. "Don't
you know anything about _As You Like It_?" you asked. I pondered deeply,
and then replied, that I half fancied it was a GERMAN REED'S
Entertainment, that would have gone better had it included a part for
Mr. CORNEY GRAIN. You told me I was wrong, but intimated that my
ignorance on the subject would make my notice the more impartial. So I
went.
As to the play--was I pleased with _As You Like It_? Well, I have known
worse, but I have seen better. It seemed a mixture of prose and verse,
with several topical allusions that appeared, somehow or other, to have
lost their point. For instance, a dull dog of a jester (played in a
funereal fashion by Mr. SUGDEN) stopped the action of the piece, for
what seemed to me (no doubt the time was actually less) some
three-quarters of an hour, while he explained the difference between the
"retort courteous" and "the reproof valiant." The plot was as thin as a
wafer, but as it is, no doubt, generally known, I need not further refer
to it. Mrs. LANGTRY was a most graceful and pleasing _Rosalind_. She
acted with an earnestness worthy of a better cause, and afforded not a
trace of the amateur. Of Miss VIOLET ARMBRUSTER as _Hymen_, I might say,
with a friend who spent several hours in knocking off the impromptu--