But worse, far
worse....
Along came the Man of the World again. He calls himself the Man of Business
now. "Do the Public really want this sort of stuff?" he said. "Well, let
'em have it. But as a Business Proposition, if you please."
So he bought up all the theatres, and he said he'd make them pay. And his
cousin, the Man in the Street, took shares. And they organised the Theatre.
And they made it efficient. And they conducted it on sound commercial
lines. And the magic vanished and people wondered where and why. Now what
we're going to show you, you won't believe could ever happen at all. It
does seem like the cheapest of cheap jokes. But really if we will think
magic's to be bought and sold, and if we leave our gods to starve because
there isn't any money in their laughter or their tears ... well, it's more
than the Theatre that may suffer. But the poor pampered Theatre is our
business now, and here's our cheap, cheap joke about it. You aren't
expected to laugh ... in fact, perhaps you shouldn't. It's one of those
jokes you smile at, crookedly you know, this joke of the Theatre as it well
may be the day after to-morrow if some of us don't look out.
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