Advertisements by themselves are not very
attractive reading, and a mixed audience cannot safely be credited
with a ruling appetite merely for dramatic intelligence.
CHAPTER VI.
STROLLING PLAYERS.
It is rather the public than the player that strolls nowadays. The
theatre is stationary--the audience peripatetic. The wheels have been
taken off the cart of Thespis. Hamlet's line, "Then came each actor on
his ass," or the stage direction in the old "Taming of the Shrew"
(1594), "Enter two players with packs on their backs," no longer
describes accurately the travelling habits of the histrionic
profession. But of old the country folk had the drama brought as it
were to their doors, and just as they purchased their lawn and
cambric, ribbons and gloves, and other raiment and bravery of the
wandering pedlar--the Autolycus of the period--so all their playhouse
learning and experience they acquired from the itinerant actors. These
were rarely the leading performers of the established London
companies, however, unless it so happened that the capital was
suffering from a visitation of the plague.
Pages:
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127