Jenkins had disappeared, and that Mr.
Mathews stood in his place!" Students of "Cloudesly" may discover
therein the result of Godwin's interview with Mathews, and their
discussion concerning the art of making-up and disguise.
Some fifty years ago Mr. Leman Thomas Rede published "The Road to the
Stage, a Player's Vade-Mecum." setting forth, among other matters,
various details of the dressing-rooms behind the curtain. Complaint
was made at the time that the work destroyed "the romance of the
profession," and laid bare the mysteries of the actor's life, such as
the world in general had small concern with. But Mr. Rede's
revelations do not tell very much; at any rate, the secrets he deals
with have come to be things of common knowledge. Nor are his
instructions upon the art of making-up to be accounted highly in these
times. "Light-comedy calves," he tells us, "are made of ragged silken
hose;" and what may be called "Othello's blacking," is to be composed
of "burnt cork, pulverised and mixed with porter." Legs coming before
the foot-lights must of course be improved by mechanical means, when
nature has been unkind, or time has destroyed symmetry; but art has
probably discovered a better method of concealing deficiencies than
consists in the employment of "ragged silken hose.
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