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Excerpt from Principles of Comedy: And Dramatic Effect
When merely talent was in demand, the fact of having money to build and Open a theatre would be as nothing: money could not create the article that the public would care to see. But when it came merely to shows and dioramas and spectacles on the stage, where the chief labour of the evening was to feast the eye with decorations, dresses, and beautiful scenes, it was plain that any one with capital might compete with the rest. And this, as in the recent re-opening of the wine trade and banking business, every one might rush in and try to draw custom to himself. \but it may be pre dicted, it will be with the theatres as with these great joint stock banking houses and Wine com panics, depending on mere ocular support, as it may be called. Frail and fickle as it is, that organ will soon feel ennui or fatigue, and when the revival of a better taste sets in, there will be neither actors nor plays in sufficient abundance, nor of sufficient merit, to draw the public.
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