A panic afflicted them, and their
powers of gag were paralysed. They refused to confront the
foot-lights. The audience grew impatient; the fiddlers were weary of
repeating their tunes. Still the curtain did not rise. At length the
manager presented himself with a doleful apologetic face. "Owing to an
unfortunate accident," he said, "the company had left behind them the
prompt-book of the play. The performance they had announced could not,
therefore, be presented; unless," and here the speech was especially
pointed to the gentleman in the boxes, "anyone among the audience, by
a happy chance, happened to have brought to the theatre a copy of the
comedy." The gentleman rose and said his book was much at the service
of the manager, and it was accordingly handed to him. The players
forthwith recovered their spirits; exposure of their deficiencies was
no longer possible; and the performance passed off to the satisfaction
of all concerned.
It has been suggested that gag is leniently, and even favourably
considered by audiences; and it should be added that dramatists often
connive at the interpolations of the theatre.
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