in the criticism of the theatre and the opera house by making it
a pretext for a propaganda of our own views of life.  So you
cannot plead ignorance of the character of the force you set in
motion.  Yon meant me to epater le bourgeois; and if he protests,
I hereby refer him to you as the accountable party. 

I warn you that if you attempt to repudiate your responsibility,
I shall suspect you of finding the play too decorous for your
taste.  The fifteen years have made me older and graver.  In you I
can detect no such becoming change.  Your levities and audacities
are like the loves and comforts prayed for by Desdemona: they
increase, even as your days do grow.  No mere pioneering journal
dares meddle with them now: the stately Times itself is alone
sufficiently above suspicion to act as your chaperone; and even
the Times must sometimes thank its stars that new plays are not
produced every day, since after each such event its gravity is
compromised, its platitude turned to epigram, its portentousness
to wit, its propriety to elegance, and even its decorum into
naughtiness by criticisms which the traditions of the paper do
not allow you to sign at the end, but which you take care to sign