Writing For The Stage

PEOPLE would be astonished if they were aware of the cart-loads of trash

which are annually offered to the director of a London theatre. The very

first manuscript (says George Colman) which was proposed to me for

representation, on my undertaking theatrical management, was from a

nautical gentleman, on a nautical subject; the piece was of a tragic

description, and in five acts; during the principal scenes of which the

hero of the drama declaimed from the main-mast of a man-of-war,

without once descending from his position!



A tragedy was offered to Mr. Macready, or Mr. Webster, in thirty acts.

The subject was the history of Poland, and the author proposed to have

five acts played a night, so that the whole could be gone through in a

week.