Besides the parts we have named, Webster the elder played a Telemachus Hearty, who, further than skipping about the stage, talking very fast, and making himself not altogether disagreeable, had no more to do with the piece than his namesake, or Fenelon Archbishop of Cambray himself.

This attempt to discuss moot points upon the stage—­to turn as it were the theatre into a debating society—­will certainly not succeed.  Audiences—­especially Haymarket ones—­have a taste for being amused rather than reasoned with; besides, those on that side of the question which the author chooses shall be the weaker, do not like to see the stage-orators get the upper hand, without having a chance of answering them.  Even dancing is preferred by them to didactics, though it be

[Illustration:  A PAS SEUL TO A BARK-AROLE.]

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