Leaving the Theatre After the Performance of a New Comedy

“I’ve burst out, like out of a pit! At last—cries and applause! The whole theater is roaring!.. And there’s glory!

God, how it would have pounded back those seven or eight years—how my heart would have stirred again, how everything in me would have leapt! But that was long ago. Back then I was young, bold-minded, like a youth. By Providence, that never let me taste those early delights and praise! Now…

But a reasonable coldness and age will manage to trick anyone. You’ll finally learn that applause means not so much, and it’s ready to serve as reward for everything: whether an actor manages to uncover the whole secret of a person’s soul and heart, whether a dancer achieves the skill of drawing flourishes with their feet, whether a magician—everyone of them gets applause roaring!..”