Emendations

Mrs, Priestley, then, is not strictly accurate when she says, "the evidence for their authenticity is good." Her real attitude is summed up in the words "they feel right." In other words, she is exercising a personal preference, as Pope and later editors of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries did where a word offended their aesthetic sense. It is perfectly logical from an acting point of view to use Collier's emendations, provided that it is realised that these are not Shakespeare's. Shakespearean scholars would strongly object if these were presented as what Shakespeare wrote. It is purely a personal matter whether such emendations are "clearing up the meaning, filling out the limping lines, and lighting up the poetry." It is also a personal matter whether "beside them the solemn guesses of other editors look like pompous nonsense."

Mr. Wadman's decor was very suitable for a farce. It did not try to convey any illusion of reality as he intended, and maintained the general spirit of the play by suggestion. His costumes, however, showed the imagination let loose a little too much, though in this particular play they were not of very great importance.