Excerpt from The Theatre, Vol. 2: A Monthly Review and Magazine; February to July, 1879 But apart from the difficulties obviously suffered by many of the dramatic critics when they strive to accomplish a task beyond their usual line, first-night criticism of this order is to be deprecated because the struggle to accomplish it, made by any except the readiest and most practised writers, generally ends in an approach towards the baneful old system of dramatic reporting. The writer who cannot at the moment steady himself for analysis of the motive of the new play, or for cool appreciation of the acting, naturally betakes himself to picturesque gushing over the inten tions of the management, over the dresses, the scenery, and even over the audience. Something like a column is to be filled some how; if it cannot be filled with criticism, it is filled with descriptive reporting. Descriptive reporting has its value as a journalistic art, and when it is good of its kind it may doubtless be applied usefully to theatrical as well as to other subjects. But surely the proper time for it to appear in important columns, even when at its best, is emphatically not the morning after the first night. When at anything but its best, this kind of criticism is so bad that it is always unreadable. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.