Abnormal natures, morbid motives! Yes!
These things, upon the stage, perhaps impress.
Monstrosities, not true men's hearts, nor women's.
Trolls, with a touch of the _delirium tremens_,
Neurotic neurospasts, puppets whose wires
Are pulled by morbid dreams and mad desires;
Not men and women 'midst our world's temptations,
But fevered phantasy's bizarre creations.
Despite _Solness_ and _Mrs. Tanqueray_,
"People don't do these things"--except _in play_!
* * * * *
AS IN A GLASS DARKLY.--Grubby and grovelling "Realists" boast that
they only "hold the mirror up to Nature." Perhaps! But when their
particular "mirror" happens to be--as it commonly is--dirty and
distorting, Nature, like the victim of a bad looking-glass at a
country inn, is taken at a disadvantage. There are mirrors which make
a man look a monster, but then the monstrosity is not in the man but
the mirror.
* * * * *