Here the walls and doors are spies,
and our every word is echoed far and near. Come, then, let's away!
False heart must hide, you know, what false heart dare not show." A
prompter could be of little service to a gentleman so fertile in
resources. He may be left to pair off with that provincial Montano who
modernised his speech in reference to Cassio:
And 'tis great pity that the noble Moor
Should hazard such a place as his own second
With one of an ingraft infirmity.
It were an honest action to say
So to the Moor--
into "It's a pity, don't you think, that Othello should place such a
man in such an office. Hadn't we better tell him so, sir?"
In small provincial or strolling companies it often becomes expedient
to press every member of the establishment into the service of the
stage. We read of a useful property-man and scene-shifter who was
occasionally required to fill small parts in the performance, such,
for instance, as "the cream-faced loon" in "Macbeth," and who thus
explained his system of representation, admitting that from his other
occupations he could rarely commit perfectly to memory the words he
was required to utter.
Pages:
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327