" How far the accomplishment of
this proceeding is attended by shaking in the shoes, is preluded by
lessons in the art of deportment, or adds to the anxieties of a first
representation, must be left for some successful playwright to reveal.
It may be noted that this calling for the author is also of foreign
origin. The first dramatist called before the curtain in France was
Voltaire, after the production of "Merope;" the second was Marmontel,
after the representation of his tragedy of "Dionysius." More than a
century ago the author of a "Letter to Mr. Garrick" observed that it
was then usual in France for the audience of a new and well-approved
tragedy to summon the author before them that he might personally
receive the tribute of public approbation due to his talents. "Nothing
like this," he writes, "ever happened in England." "And I may say,
never will," commented the author of a reply to the letter, with more
confidence than correctness of prophecy. Further, he writes, "I know
not how far a French audience may carry their complaisance, but, were
I in the author's case, I should be unwilling to trust to the civility
of an English pit or gallery.
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