Any one," proceeds the author of "Pendennis," "who has ever seen one of our great light comedians X., in a chintz dressing-gown, such as nobody ever wore, and representing himself as a young nobleman in his apartments, and whiling away the time with light literature, until his friend Sir Harry shall arrive, or his father shall come down to breakfast--anybody, I say, who has seen the great X.over a sham book, has indeed had a great pleasure, and an abiding matter for thought." The Stranger reads from morning to night, as his servant Francis reports of him.

When he bestows a purse upon the aged Tobias, that he may be enabled to purchase his only son's discharge from the army, he first sends away Francis with the stage-book, that there may be no witness of the benevolent deed.

"Here, take this book, and lay it on my desk," says the Stranger; and the stage direction runs: "Francis goes into the lodge with the book." Bingley, it is stated, marked the page carefully, so that he might continue the perusal of the volume off the stage if he liked.

Two acts later, and the Stranger is again to be beheld, "on a seat, reading." But after that he has to put from him his precious book, for the incidents of the drama demand his very serious attention.
Dismissed from the Stranger, however, the stage-book probably reappears in the afterpiece.

In how many dramatic works figures this useful property--the "book of the play"?
Shakespeare has by no means disdained its use.