DIALOGUES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 419, 30 January 1909, Page 11

DIALOGUES OF THE DAY.

' JULIET AND THE SCHOPL GIRL. "What breaks me jip completely," said the fcicheflor girl,, "is to see the fond mother's jrho take their' little 'schoolgirl daughters \o look at the on-gdings and- carryings-6n »f young Juliet, > under the impassion that ihis must be edifying, because jt us Shakespeare. ,Yon remember one- time when the play was done here, one-teacher took all her boarders to the theatre, and thcie the infants eat with wide-open eyes watching the flirtations of the little Itaban girl, and remembering, doubtless, the sort ot things that had been said to them every time they were supposed to have tried their 'prentice hand m the same way , ." _ t "Don't I know it," said the/mother of five, "and did not I realise just how bad it was for them. The glorification of Juliet's young lovo may be right enough)'but as 1 watched her during that ballroom scone and »aw her making conspicuous eyes at an unknown young man, I was sincerely thankful that I had left ray young tnbe at home. Thank goodness tho colonial girl' does not ordinarily imagine she is fit for a tragic love affair at fourteen, and there may not be any ham in their fancied affections, but etiU h eeems jest a httlo absurd to lay down eommon-sense rules for their guidance, and then take them to see a wonderfully beautiful and admired girl breaking them at every pomt and immortalising herself in doing so. "I quite agree," said the teacher, "and at the risk of being thought censorious, I must eay it made my hair stand on ena to see that pretty little fourteen-year-old carrying on so, end so delighting the hearts of her young contemporaries in the stalls and dross circles. For myself, I love Juliet, and the love passages would, I suppose, stir the heart of a toothless nonagenarian. But—well I have in my class a girl of the Juliet type and temperament, and I do think 'As You Like It' is better fare for her tender years—poor child "' "The 01d,,01d nurse and the elderly Lady Capulet always fascinate me," said the mother of five. "I am not going to give myself away, hut I 'don't mind confessing that" it annoys me to see how decrepit an old woman of twenty-nine can be , made to look The authorities, you know, have figured it out that that was Lady Capulet's ago, and the nurse would probably be just abdut the same ege Now. can you tell me why she should be made to totter and creep about on' a itick? I tell> you'the sad sight 'made many a young and blooming matron in the audience feel rather queer. Talk about going back to the good old times! I wouldn't for worlds if women grow old like that!