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E. A. SOTHERN, SR
effective for mirth, the event would have
deserved only a mere mention. But he
proceeded, with processes and results like
those of creative genius, to broaden and
deepen his conception, until his Lord Dun-
dreary, without any loss, or rather with an
increase, of his comicality, came to have
a definite individuality, and to exemplify
certain common weaknesses and limita-
tions, which cause the brightest of us acute
misery at times, but in him were chronic
and the source of continual discomfort.
The nobleman's text and business were
enlarged fourfold, and the rest of the play
was proportionally reduced. The devel-
oped Dundreary was occasionally asinine,
but he was by no means the idiot that the
crowd had at first imagined him to be. In
truth, it now became evident that the noble
lord had a mind of his own, — peculiar, but
real, capable of clearness, capable even of
penetration and astuteness, but cursed with
a tendency to err in dealing with the sur-
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