Decline Of The Drama
What a number of ingenious reasons have been latterly given for the decline of the Drama, and the decrease of interest now felt for the stage. Some aver that people are nowadays too cultivated, too highly educated, to take pleasure in a play； others opine that the novel has supplanted the drama； others again declare that it is the prevalence of a religious sentiment on the subject that has damaged theatrical representation. For my own part, I take a totally different view of the subject. My notion is this: the world will never pay a high price for an inferior article, if it can obtain a first-rate one for nothing； in other words, people are come to the conclusion that the best actors are not to be found on the boards of the Haymarket or the Adelphi, but in the world at large--at the Exchange, in the parks, on railroads or river-steamers, at the soirees of learned societies, in Parliament, at Civic dinners or Episcopal visitations.
Why has the masquerade ceas

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