" The gallery would recognise the clown's voice,
and all seriousness would be over for the evening. It was like the ass
in the lion's skin--he would bray, and all would be betrayed. At last
it was determined that the part should be divided; Follet should
perform the actions of the ghost, while Thompson, in the wings, out of
the sight of the audience, should pronounce the important words. The
success of the experiment was signal. Follet, in a closely-fitting
suit of dark-gray stuff, made in the shape of armour, faintly visible
through the sheet of gauze, flitted across the stage like a shadow,
amidst the breathless silence of the house, to be followed presently,
on the falling of the curtain, by peal after peal of excited applause.
A humorous story of a stage ghost is told in Raymond's "Life of
Elliston," aided by an illustration from the etching-needle of George
Cruikshank, executed in quite his happiest manner. Dowton the actor,
performing a ghost part--to judge from the illustration, it must have
been the ghost in "Hamlet," but the teller of the story does not say
formally that such was the fact--had, of course, to be lowered in the
old-fashioned way through a trap-door in the stage, his face being
turned towards the audience.
Pages:
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352