The strollers' band is often of
uncertain strength. For when the travelling company meets with
misadventure, the orchestra are usually the first to prove unfaithful.
They are the Swiss of the troop. The receipts fail, and the musicians
desert. They carry their gifts elsewhere, and seek independent
markets. The fairs, the racecourses, the country inn-doors, attract
the fiddler, and he strolls on his own account, when the payment of
salaries is suspended. A veteran actor was wont to relate his
experiences of fifty years ago as a member of the Stratford-upon-Avon
company, when the orchestra consisted only of a fife and a tambourine,
the instrumentalists performing, as they avowed, "not from notes but
entirely by ear." Presently the company removed to Warwick for the
race week. But here the managerial difficulties increased--no band
whatever could be obtained! This was the more distressing in that the
performances were to be of an illegitimate character: a "famous
tight-rope dancer" had been engaged. The dancer at once declared that
his exhibition without music was not for a moment to be thought of.
Pages:
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214