"
Perhaps now and then, too, a minor actor or a supernumerary, who has
derided "the sham wine-parties of Macbeth and others," may lament the
scandalous waste of seeming good victuals in a pantomime. But, as a
rule, these performers are not fanciful on this, or, indeed, on any
other subject. They are not to be deceived by the illusions of the
stage; they are themselves too much a part of its shams and artifices.
Property legs of mutton are to them not even food for reflection but
simply "properties," and nothing more.
CHAPTER XXIII.
STAGE WIGS.
Wigs have claims to be considered amongst the most essential
appliances of the actors; means at once of their disguise and their
decoration. Without false hair the fictions of the stage could
scarcely be set forth. How could the old look young, or the young look
old, how could scanty locks be augmented, or baldness concealed, if
the _coiffeur_ did not lend his aid to the costumier? Nay, oftentimes
calvity has to be simulated, and fictitious foreheads of canvas
assumed. Hence the quaint advertisements of the theatrical hairdresser
in professional organs, that he is prepared to vend "old men's bald
pates" at a remarkably cheap rate.
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