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A DRAMATIC CRITIC
rable from the work of his vocation, that,
within recognized limits, he should be
like a French falconer, whose agents were
trained to fly at any kind of game, from
the noblest to the very mean. It is not
to be doubted that Mr. Warren's refined
taste was frequently and for long periods
of time offended by the stuff of his
text. But no contempt which he felt ever
tainted his work; he was always faithful
in every particular to play, playwright, and
public, making the best of every character
by doing his best in and for it. He
would work — the reader must permit the
use of many metaphors — with a palette
knife in distemper, if he could not get a
brush and oil paints; in clay and granite,
when marble was not to be had; with a
graver's finest tool upon an emerald, or a
shipwright's broad axe upon a timber;
now play merrily upon the tambourine or
bones, and anon draw soul-stirring music
from " the gradual violin " or the many-
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