CHAPTER XXII.
STAGE BANQUETS.
A veteran actor of inferior fame once expressed his extreme dislike to
what he was pleased to term "the sham wine-parties" of Macbeth and
others. He was aweary of the Barmecide banquets of the stage, of
affecting to quaff with gusto imaginary wine out of empty pasteboard
goblets, and of making believe to have an appetite for wooden apples
and "property" comestibles. He was in every sense a poor player, and
had often been a very hungry one. He took especial pleasure in
remembering the entertainments of the theatre in which the necessities
of performance, or regard for rooted tradition, involved the setting
of real edible food before the actors. At the same time he greatly
lamented the limited number of dramas in which these precious
opportunities occurred.
He had grateful memories of the rather obsolete Scottish melodrama of
"Cramond Brig;" for in this work old custom demanded the introduction
of a real sheep's head with accompanying "trotters." He told of a
North British manager who was wont--especially when the salaries he
was supposed to pay were somewhat in arrear, and he desired to keep
his company in good humour and, may be, alive--to produce this play on
Saturday nights.
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