This is the playful rehearsal appellation for Hamlet. Gimlet is at length captured, and goes rushing like a locomotive down the passage.

Stage Manager. "Now, ladies and gentlemen. All on!" They tumble up the stage steps, and gather in groups. H-1-n fences with everybody. Miss H-w-n executes an imperfect pas seul.

Leading Lady. "I-a-a-a-a love-um-um-um-and-a-a-a another"

Miss H--y, Miss M-d-e, or any other woman. "This engage-a-a-a my son's um-um-um Bank Exchange." A-d-n raises his hands and eyes to heaven, saying, "Great father! he's drunk!”

Leading Lady. (Very energetically.) "Go not, dearest Hawes! The Gorhamites are a-a-a-um-um devour thee." Mrs. S-n-s. "How! What!!"

Mrs. Jh. "Are those peasantry up there?" (Boy comes up to the stage and addresses the manager through his nose), "Mr. G., I can't find him anywhere."

H—y J—n. "Forasmuch as I"-(terrible hammering).

Nasal Boy. "Mr. G., I can't find him anywhere."
L-c-h. "Stop my paper

Manager. "Mr. L., that must be brought out very strong; thus, Stop my paper!"

L-c-h. (Bringing it out with an emphasis which raises the roof of the theatre,) "STOP MY PAPER !"

The leading lady here goes through the motion of fainting, and falls against the Star, who is partly unbalanced by her weight and momentum. The Star then rushes distractedly about, arranging the supernumeraries to his liking. Ed-s and B- -y walk abstractedly to and fro. S-n-r dances to a lady near the wings. These impromptu dances seem to be a favorite pastime on the undressed stage.

Second Lady. "Positively a-a-a Tom Fitch um- um amusing a-aitch, a-aitch, a-aitch.”

It puzzled me for a long time to find out what was meant by this repetition of a-aitch. It is simply the reading of laughter. A-aitch is where "the laugh comes in." The genuine peals of laughter are reserved for the regular performance. Actresses cannot afford to cachinnate during the tediousness and drudgery of rehearsal. Usually they feel like crying.

Stage Manager. "We must rehearse this last act over again."

Everybody, at this announcement, looks broadswords and daggers. There are some very pretty pouts from the ladies, and some deep but energetic profanity from the gentlemen.

Much more than this is said and done at rehearsal, but it is all equally tedious and monotonous. Daily do these unfortunate people go through such a performance, from ten A. M. to one or two P. M. And then they go home for a few hours, perhaps to study their parts and get up their wardrobes. I have no aspirations. Have you, Mr. Pea Green? If so, go-go on the stage, but let it be one that carries the mail and passengers.

HIGH ART IN HAIR.

77

CHAPTER VIH.

Stage Dresses.-Hair Dressers and the Like.-Exigencies of Attire.-The Art of Dressing a Part to Suit the Character and the Period.-Ristori's Attention to such Details.-Mistaking Dress for the Chief Requirement of an Actor.-Absurd Anachronisms by Ignorant or Careless Actors.The Wardrobe Keeper.-Curious Instances of Effect in Costume.-—A Living Pack of Cards.-Exaggerated Idea of Value of Stage Jewels. The Mountain Robbers.-The Stolen Crown.-My Jewel Bag in a Western Town.

All theatres of any importance have "dressers." Male dressers for the actors, and women dressers for the actresses. These help the players in change of dress, and fold up and put away their stage clothing after the piece is over. The leading players, I should say; for the poor ballet girls, who are most tired of all, are not vouchsafed the luxury of a dresser.

In French theatres a hair dresser is also furnished for the players' convenience, and a useful person he is. It is his duty to dress the heads of all the leading players in every piece each night; and to be sure that he shall dress it in the style worn at the time the play represents. Thus he must dress it fashionably if it is a modern play, or in the style of the Cavaliers, Round Heads, Greeks, or Roman, or powder it a la Pompadour, as the case may be. This useful person has not been adopted in American theatres, and we often see very stupid anachronisms committed on the stage by a character appearing in a style of head-dress not worn perhaps for a hundred years after the individual he is representing was dead and buried.

This matter of costuming has been in some cases carried so far as almost to reach a fine art.

In some theatres, where much attention is given to the

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ATTENTION TO DRESS.

costumes worn, the name of the costumer is printed on the evening playbill. This causes him to be known to the public, and his services are often sought by persons who are desirous of hiring or having made costumes for masquerade balls, private theatricals or charades.

Ristori was inimitable in her careful attention to details in dress. Macauley himself could scarely have had a better knowledge than she of the different peculiarities of the epochs in which her plays were laid. Her costumes in Marie Antoinette were copied from pictures taken from life; and her court dress in Elizabeth was one which it was asserted old Queen Bess had actually worn.

Those who saw Ristori in this play will not easily forget her wearing clumsy white cotton gloves. Kid gloves were not known in Elizabeth's time.

It is a great mistake, however, for a player to suppose that attention to dress will compensate for inattention to matters of even greater importance; and, as has been remarked, it must be extremely galling to a bad and imperfect performer to have a warm reception given him entirely on that score, as it sometimes happens, and to hear the gallery-gods shout heartily, "Brayvo the dress!" One should try to hit the happy medium in this respect, and to pay due regard to propriety of costume, without neglecting other essentials. The style and cut of a stage garment are of more consequence than the quality or nature of the material of which it is composed, and the correct dress of the period certainly enhances the beauty of the play; yet in the "School for Scandal" and other elegant comedies of the same date the gentlemen generally sport moustaches; and a “star” appears in "Guy Mannering” without previously shaving off his whiskers and imperial. But carelessness in these and other such instances is not half so censurable as the downright ignorance that is occasionly to be met with in the profession.