Ensuite ils furent mis au
fond des troisieme loges, puis aux secondes, enfin entre le theatre et
la parterre, ou ils sont restes."
Theatres differ little save in regard to their dimensions. The minor
house is governed by the same laws, is conducted upon the same system,
as the major one. It is as a humbler and cheaper edition, but it
repeats down to minute particulars the example of its costly original.
The orchestra, or some form of orchestra, is always indispensable.
Even that street-corner tragedy which sets forth the story of Punch
and Judy, could not be presented without its pandean-pipe
accompaniment. The lowest vagrant theatre must, like the lady in the
nursery ballad, have music wherever it goes. No doubt this is often of
most inferior quality, suggestive of a return to very early musical
methods. But poverty constrains to primitiveness. Mr. Pepys,
comparing the state of the stage under Killigrew to what it had been
in earlier years, notes: "Then, two or three fiddlers; now, nine or
ten of the best," &c. The orchestra of a strolling theatre has been
known to consist of one fiddler only, and he has been required to
combine with his musical exertions the discharge of secretarial
duties, enlivened by occasional appearances on the stage to strengthen
casts, or help fill up the scene.
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