Henry James' View of London Theatre

"But by 1877 the writer Henry James could write of the London audience: 'It is well dressed, tranquil, motionless; it suggests domestic virtue and comfortable homes; it looks as if it had come to the play in its own carriage, after a dinner of beef and pudding.'

Andrew Davies, (1987) Other Theatres: the Development of Alternative and Experimental Theatre in Britain.  Macmillan, Basingstoke. p.27