Why not an Exhibition of Gentlemen?

It seems a pity that comedy should disappear from among us.  If it depend entirely on swords and snuff-boxes, would it not be worth the while of the Society of Authors to keep a few gentlemen specially trained?  Maybe some sympathetic theatrical manager would lend us costumes of the eighteenth century.  We might provide them with swords and snuff-boxes.  They might meet, say, once a week, in a Queen Anne drawing-room, especially prepared by Gillow, and go through their tricks.  Authors seeking high-class comedy might be admitted to a gallery.

Perhaps this explains why old-fashioned readers complain that we do not give them human nature.  How can we?  Ladies and gentlemen nowadays don’t wear the proper clothes.  Evidently it all depends upon the clothes.