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1The Honourable John Yates, this new friend, had not much to recommend him beyond habits of fashion and expense, and
2being the younger son of a lord with a tolerable independence; and Sir Thomas would probably have thought his
3introduction at Mansfield by no means desirable. Mr. Bertram's acquaintance with him had begun at Weymouth, where they
4had spent ten days together in the same society, and the friendship, if friendship it might be called, had been proved
5and perfected by Mr. Yates's being invited to take Mansfield in his way, whenever he could, and by his promising to
6come; and he did come rather earlier than had been expected, in consequence of the sudden breaking-up of a large party
7assembled for gaiety at the house of another friend, which he had left Weymouth to join. He came on the wings of
8disappointment, and with his head full of acting, for it had been a theatrical party; and the play in which he had borne
9a part was within two days of representation, when the sudden death of one of the nearest connexions of the family had
10destroyed the scheme and dispersed the performers. To be so near happiness, so near fame, so near the long paragraph in
11praise of the private theatricals at Ecclesford, the seat of the Right Hon. Lord Ravenshaw, in Cornwall, which would of
12course have immortalised the whole party for at least a twelvemonth! and being so near, to lose it all, was an injury to
13be keenly felt, and Mr. Yates could talk of nothing else. Ecclesford and its theatre, with its arrangements and dresses,
14rehearsals and jokes, was his never-failing subject, and to boast of the past his only consolation. Happily for him, a
15love of the theatre is so general, an itch for acting so strong among young people, that he could hardly out-talk the
16interest of his hearers. From the first casting of the parts to the epilogue it was all bewitching, and there were few
17who did not wish to have been a party concerned, or would have hesitated to try their skill. The play had been Lovers'
18Vows, and Mr. Yates was to have been Count Cassel. "A trifling part," said he, "and not at all to my taste, and such a
19one as I certainly would not accept again; but I was determined to make no difficulties. Lord Ravenshaw and the duke had
20appropriated the only two characters worth playing before I reached Ecclesford; and though Lord Ravenshaw offered to
21resign his to me, it was impossible to take it, you know. I was sorry for him that he should have so mistaken his
22powers, for he was no more equal to the Baron--a little man with a weak voice, always hoarse after the first ten
23minutes. It must have injured the piece materially; but I was resolved to make no difficulties. Sir Henry thought the
24duke not equal to Frederick, but that was because Sir Henry wanted the part himself; whereas it was certainly in the
25best hands of the two. I was surprised to see Sir Henry such a stick. Luckily the strength of the piece did not depend
26upon him. Our Agatha was inimitable, and the duke was thought very great by many. And upon the whole, it would certainly
27have gone off wonderfully." "It was a hard case, upon my word"; and, "I do think you were very much to be pitied," were
28the kind responses of listening sympathy. "It is not worth complaining about; but to be sure the poor old dowager could
29not have died at a worse time; and it is impossible to help wishing that the news could have been suppressed for just
30the three days we wanted. It was but three days; and being only a grandmother, and all happening two hundred miles off,
31I think there would have been no great harm, and it was suggested, I know; but Lord Ravenshaw, who I suppose is one of
32the most correct men in England, would not hear of it." "An afterpiece instead of a comedy," said Mr. Bertram. "Lovers'
33Vows were at an end, and Lord and Lady Ravenshaw left to act My Grandmother by themselves. Well, the jointure may
34comfort him; and perhaps, between friends, he began to tremble for his credit and his lungs in the Baron, and was not
35sorry to withdraw; and to make you amends, Yates, I think we must raise a little theatre at Mansfield, and ask you to be
36our manager." This, though the thought of the moment, did not end with the moment; for the inclination to act was
37awakened, and in no one more strongly than in him who was now master of the house; and who, having so much leisure as to
38make almost any novelty a certain good, had likewise such a degree of lively talents and comic taste, as were exactly
39adapted to the novelty of acting. The thought returned again and again. "Oh for the Ecclesford theatre and scenery to
40try something with." Each sister could echo the wish; and Henry Crawford, to whom, in all the riot of his gratifications
41it was yet an untasted pleasure, was quite alive at the idea. "I really believe," said he, "I could be fool enough at
42this moment to undertake any character that ever was written, from Shylock or Richard III down to the singing hero of a
43farce in his scarlet coat and cocked hat. I feel as if I could be anything or everything; as if I could rant and storm,
44or sigh or cut capers, in any tragedy or comedy in the English language. Let us be doing something. Be it only half a
45play, an act, a scene; what should prevent us? Not these countenances, I am sure," looking towards the Miss Bertrams;
46"and for a theatre, what signifies a theatre? We shall be only amusing ourselves. Any room in this house might suffice."
47"We must have a curtain," said Tom Bertram; "a few yards of green baize for a curtain, and perhaps that may be enough."
48"Oh, quite enough," cried Mr. Yates, "with only just a side wing or two run up, doors in flat, and three or four scenes
49to be let down; nothing more would be necessary on such a plan as this. For mere amusement among ourselves we should
50want nothing more." "I believe we must be satisfied with less," said Maria. "There would not be time, and other
51difficulties would arise. We must rather adopt Mr. Crawford's views, and make the performance, not the theatre, our
52object. Many parts of our best plays are independent of scenery." "Nay," said Edmund, who began to listen with alarm.
53"Let us do nothing by halves. If we are to act, let it be in a theatre completely fitted up with pit, boxes, and
54gallery, and let us have a play entire from beginning to end; so as it be a German play, no matter what, with a good
55tricking, shifting afterpiece, and a figure-dance, and a hornpipe, and a song between the acts. If we do not outdo
56Ecclesford, we do nothing." "Now, Edmund, do not be disagreeable," said Julia. "Nobody loves a play better than you do,
57or can have gone much farther to see one." "True, to see real acting, good hardened real acting; but I would hardly walk
58from this room to the next to look at the raw efforts of those who have not been bred to the trade: a set of gentlemen
59and ladies, who have all the disadvantages of education and decorum to struggle through." After a short pause, however,
60the subject still continued, and was discussed with unabated eagerness, every one's inclination increasing by the
61discussion, and a knowledge of the inclination of the rest; and though nothing was settled but that Tom Bertram would
62prefer a comedy, and his sisters and Henry Crawford a tragedy, and that nothing in the world could be easier than to
63find a piece which would please them all, the resolution to act something or other seemed so decided as to make Edmund
64quite uncomfortable. He was determined to prevent it, if possible, though his mother, who equally heard the conversation
65which passed at table, did not evince the least disapprobation.
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