218 HUNG ARIAN LITERATDRE his mistake and the uncongenial surroundings in wh ich he found himself. He th ought that the stage would enable hím to realise his poetical feelings, but his experi ences proved to be prosaic and sometimes repulsive . His past life, his educati on and his aims, marked bim out for a different career. He was famiHar with, and admired, the great Latin, Greek, Freneh and German poets. His culture, therefore, was far above that of his illiterate fellow-actors . His temperament, too, difiered from that required for an actor's life. He was tender-hearted, timid, over sensitíve and contem plative, and his manners were awkward. Such qualities make it difficult en ough to succeed on the stage of real life,· and still more difficult on the theatrical stage. And yet, what efforts he mad e to be useful to the company 1 He copied the play-bills and carried them round to people's houses. He repaired the scenery, painted the curtain, and supplied the thunder by rattling sheets of iron, and the cannonade of the hattles by thomping the floor with heavy sticks. Doring the day he went about borrowing furniture and other requisites, and in the evening lit the lamps of the th eatre . At night, when the performance was over, he was left in charge of the theatre, which was really an empty store room belonging to a manufacturer, and then, gatheri ng up the remnants of the rushlights, and making a couch of odd garments from the ward robe, he would commence reading Horace, the poet of the refined pleasures of life. Sometimes, however, he was assigned a good part in one of the plays, and then he was much applauded by the n ot over-numerous audienc e (and how many even of them had free tickets 1) for he recited weil, with real
