STAGE EFFECT • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Stage effect

... several of the subjoined productions of the MUSAE LONDINENSES have failed of selection, may he discovered in their being penned in a metre unusual upon occasions of this sort, and in their not being written with that attention to stage effect, the want of which, like want of manners in the concerns of life, is more prejudicial than a deficiency of talent. There is an art of writing for the Theatre, technically called TOUCH and GO, which is indispensable when we consider the small quantum ...

— Rejected Addresses: or, The New Theatrum Poetarum • James and Horace Smith