The Black Cat

The new play was received with inarticulate cries of horror by the critics. The Telegraph and the World, which had presided in auspicious opposition over the birth of THE BLACK CAT, now hung terrific in unnatural conjunction in the horoscope of A Comedy of Sighs. Here was Ibsenism again--nay, worse than Ibsenism, Dodoism, Sarah-Grandism, Keynotism, rampant on the English stage! For had I not most impudently exhibited The Modern Woman upon it? And although there was no tragedy this time, but beautiful reconciliation, and return to her Duty at the fall of the curtain, was she not there, the Abomination of Desolation?Now we know that the Modern Woman ought not to exist anywhere, therefore she does not exist, therefore she must be stamped out. Mrs. Grundy and others have already begun the good work, and have been diligently stamping her out ever since; with such success that we may hope she will disappear, with infidelity, Ibsenism, the struggle for existence, and other such objectionable things. Meanwhile she has made her _début_, and may cry: _J'y suis, j'y reste!_