Certainly, with regard to a censor, a censor upon plays seems
to me as idle and unnecessary as a censor upon books.... The public
taste, backed by the vigilant admonition of the public press, may,
perhaps, be more safely trusted for the preservation of theatrical
decorum, than any ignorant and bungling censor who (however well the
office may be now fulfilled) might be appointed hereafter; who, while
he might strain at gnats and cavil at straws, would be without any
other real power than that of preventing men of genius from submitting
to the caprice of his opinions."
CHAPTER V.
A BILL OF THE PLAY.
Are there, nowadays, any collectors of playbills? In the catalogues of
secondhand booksellers are occasionally to be found such entries as:
"Playbills of the Theatre Royal, Bath, 1807 to 1812;" or "Hull Theatre
Royal--various bills of performances between 1815 and 1850;" or
"Covent Garden Theatre--variety of old bills of the last century
pasted in a volume;" yet these evidences of the care and diligence of
past collectors would not seem to obtain much appreciation in the
present.
Pages:
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110