English are a gallant nation; you are wonderfully polite to come and see
such horrible female performers! By the by, you observed when that young
lady came on the stage, how timidly she advanced, how frightened she
seemed. 'What modesty!' cry the audience; 'we must encourage her!' they
clap, they shout, they pity the poor thing, they cheer her into spirits.
Would you believe that the hardest thing the Manager had to do with her
was to teach her that modesty. She wanted to walk on the stage like a
grenadier, and it required fifteen lessons to make her be ashamed of
herself. It is in these things that the stage mimics the world, rather
behind the scenes than before!"

"Bless me, how Braham is improved!" cried a man with spectacles, behind me;
"he acts now better than he sings!"

"Is it not strange," said Asmodeus, "how long the germ of a quality may
remain latent in the human mind, and how completely you mortals are the
creatures of culture? It was not till his old age that Braham took lessons
in acting; some three times a week has he of late wended his way down, to
the comedian of Chapel-street, to learn energy and counterfeit warmth; and
the best of it is, that the spectators will have it that an actor feels
all he acts; as if human nature, wicked as it is, could feel Richard the
Third every other night. I remember, Mrs. Siddons had a majestic manner of
extending her arm as she left the stage. 'What grace!' said the world,
with tears in its eyes, 'what dignity! what a wonderful way of extending
an arm! you see her whole soul is in the part!' The arm was in reality
stretched impatiently out for a pinch from the snuff-box that was always
in readiness behind the scenes."

It is my misfortune, Reader, to be rapidly bored. I cannot sit out a
sermon, much less a play; amusement is the most tedious of human pursuits.