It became necessary to secure a substitute who should present
some resemblance to the small and slight figure of the young actress,
and yet be sufficiently strong and courageous to undertake the task
she demurred to. The matter was one of some difficulty, and for some
time no competent double was forthcoming. One morning, however,
Winston, the stage-manager, descried a little active boy, acting as
waterman's assistant, at the hackney-coach stand in Bedford Street,
Covent Garden. He was carried to the theatre and his abilities put to
the test at a rehearsal of the pantomime. His performance was
pronounced satisfactory. He nightly appeared during the run of "Jack
and the Beanstalk" as the climbing double of Miss Povey. Subsequently,
he became one of the pupils of the clown. The boy said he believed his
name was Sullivan. Years afterwards he was known to fame as Monsieur
Silvain, ballet-master, and principal dancer of the Academic Royale,
Paris, an artist of distinction, and a most respectable member of
society.
Mrs. Mowatt, the American actress, has recorded in her Memoirs a
curious instance of a double being employed in connection with a dummy
to secure a theatrical illusion of a special kind.
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