Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1913-08-28

ACrienne BeCouVreur was buried III d i'i'
for cattle on the banks of the SEINE
much to the disgust of Noltalre' ana
Moiere's friends had the greatest diiti-
Guilty in getting permission to ueposl.
his dead body in consecrated ground
Actors were even denied the sacrament
of marriage. The pros tried 10 get
| round" this edict by renouncing the pro-
fesslon in order to be married, ana re-
turning to it, by order of the KING alter-
ward; but the archbishop Of Paris put
n stop to this sort of thing by decidihs
only to marry an actor il he would guar
antee In writing not to return to the stage
when we'd lawyer, having protested
| against this, his pamphlet was burnt by
the executioner and he was Knocked OH
| the rolls. With so much GiscouraEcheht'
| two things are surprising that people
were found to become actors, ana that the
drama nourished and advanced exceed
| ingly.
The Elizabethan epoch was the 'palmy
| day" of the actor. All the companies we're
run on the commonwealth system
competition was kept down by the
| "rogues and vagabonds" statute, and ac-
| tors saved money and were solid men. 1t
bohemian, and to get stabbed in public
houses. Alleyn Is fine example Of the
actor of the period but anyone who ex-
| amines the accounts OF theatrical com
pany in Queen Elzabeth's time can easily
| understand how secure and lucrative was
the actors calling, as long as the plague
| and the Puritan party permitted him to
| exercise It, OF the actor in the Restora-
| tion period. the less said the better He
was a child of the time; and we know
what kind of time it was. In the nth
century he was more decorous, hut wa.~
| liable to he run through the body If n"
| attempted to defend his female colleagues
| from insult and abduction, as William
Mountford was by Capt. Hill, the para
| site of Lord Mohum. Then came the
| Augustan age of literature, with DR..
johnson and Addison as playwrights, and
! Garr1ck as high priest of the dramatic
cult. Then the actor. on the whole, seems
| to have had a pretty good time. And
so we glide into the early years of the
| last century, when the condition of the
n ctor was such as has been graphically
| described by Auguston Fion in his work
on the English stage Says the apprecia
| tive Frenchman: over and above the
privileged theaters, there were a number
| of others, such as the Haymarket and
| the Adelphi at which farces and melo-
dramas were chiefly given. In the prov
inces there prevailed a curious system,
without any analog, so far as I know,
in France, that of going on circuit-a
from the language and customs of the
10 III1t nc he Fnp Hob i1i6p rnS ~ No
round at certain dates of ali the import
ant towns within certain district, hold
ing assizes at each. and accompanied by
an army of barristers, solicitors and legal
officials Of all kinds, so the travelling com
panes Of actors would cater fon whole
| county, or group of counties, giving a
series of performances In the theaters of
every town at certain fixed dates, In ad-
dition to fete days and market days. Com
munication was slow and costly in those
days, and trips to London infinitely rarer
| than they are now. The country folk had
to look to their travelling company to
keep them in touch with the success of
the moment.
"On arriving in new town, the man.
ayers wife would go about soliciting re-
specially the patronage of the ladies OF
the place. The manager busted himself
over everything. played minor roles, pre-
sided over the box office undertook the
scene painting, and would even take off
his coat and turn up his sleeves and lend
n hand to the machinist. His wife and
the life of all his company hall
bourgeois, half bohemian; always er
route, but always on the same beat, al
ways coming upon familiar and friendly
faCes-a beat on which his father anC
grandfather before him had followed tn,
z same career. He had friends living II
every city, dead friends in ever,
: churchyard. Children We're born to hin
on his travels, and when four or fly,
years old made their appearance on thu
stage These comlngs and goings, thu
, journeyings over green fields, the stop
| pages and ample breakfastings at littl
hillside inns, while the horses browsed a
large along the hedges-the freshness ano
peaceful rusticity of all these things. al
ternating with the tinsel of the theate
and the applause of the audiences. Will
atrical life-must have been constan
entertainment to the little actors ant
actresses of eight or nine. For the adults
however, the life was a hard one, an,
> only too often their roman comique wa
roman tragique in reality"
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