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Literary Lapses
·
Stephen Leacock
133
Meanwhile
I
had
been
searching
among
the
leaves
of
the
play.
"Look
here,"
I
said,
"here's
the
list
of
the
Dramatis
Personae.
There's
no
Saloonio
there."
But
this
didn't
dismay
the
Colonel
one
atom.
"Why,
of
course
there
isn't,"
he
said.
"You
don't
suppose
you'd
find
Saloonio
there!
That's
the
whole
art
of
it!
That's
Shakespeare!
That's
the
whole
gist
of
it!
He's
kept
clean
out
of
the
Personae--gives
him
scope,
gives
him
a
free
hand,
makes
him
more
of
a
type
than
ever.
Oh,
it's
a
subtle
thing,
sir,
the
dramatic
art!"
continued
the
Colonel,
subsiding
into
quiet
reflection;
"it
takes
a
feller
quite
a
time
to
get
right
into
Shakespeare's
mind
and
see
what
he's
at
all
the
time."
I
began
to
see
that
there
was
no
use
in
arguing
any
further
with
the
old
man.
I
left
him
with
the
idea
that
the
lapse
of
a
little
time
would
soften
his
views
on
Saloonio.
But
I
had
not
reckoned
on
the
way
in
which
old
men
hang
on
to
a
thing.
Colonel
Hogshead
quite
took
up
Saloonio.
From
that
time
on
Saloonio
became
the
theme
of
his
constant
conversation.
He
was
never
tired
of
discussing
the
character
of
Saloonio,
the
wonderful
art
of
the
dramatist
in
creating
him,
Saloonio's
relation
to
modern
life,
Saloonio's
attitude
toward
women,
the
ethical
significance
of
Saloonio,
Saloonio
as
compared
with
Hamlet,
Hamlet
as
compared
with
Saloonio--and
so
on,
endlessly.
And
the
more
he
looked
into
Saloonio,
the
more
he
saw
in
him.
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