TRAVELLER'S JOY
... YOU shall not know by what strange accident I chancèd on this letter, says Portia, at the end of The Merchant of Venice, when Shakespeare is bluffing shamelessly in order to get the play ended. Similarly, you need not know by what strange accident I was obliged to see most of Traveller's Joy on my feet, standing at the back of the Criterion stalls. I had not stood through a play since ...