And Mr.Middleton answered very well by not trying to be comic.

The main source of doubt and retardation had been Gwendolen's desire to appear in her Greek dress.

No word for a charade would occur to her either waking or dreaming that suited her purpose of getting a statuesque pose in this favorite costume.

To choose a motive from Racine was of no use, since Rex and the others could not declaim French verse, and improvised speeches would turn the scene into burlesque.

Besides, Mr.Gascoigne prohibited the acting of scenes from plays: he usually protested against the notion that an amusement which was fitting for every one else was unfitting for a clergyman; but he would not in this matter overstep the line of decorum as drawn in that part of Wessex, which did not exclude his sanction of the young people's acting charades in his sister-in-law's house--a very different affair from private theatricals in the full sense of the word.
Everybody of course was concerned to satisfy this wish of Gwendolen's, and Rex proposed that they should wind up with a tableau in which the effect of her majesty would not be marred by any one's speech.