chambermaids usually known as “fat-heads.” Here, too, no clear line can be drawn. One usually finds that the réle which is handed out to a player is not at all in his or her “line,” while the rôle which is in his or her “line” is given to another player. This gives rise to much unpleasantness: rôles are brought back and taken upstairs, to “those in authority.” As though “those in authority” are responsible for the idiotic author having written such wretchedly small parts! And if he must write a small part then he should not drag it through every act; he should get rid of it in the first act and let the poor actor get home early.
I should like to lead you through the lives of the players, and reveal to you their pasts, their cares, their sorrows, their sensitiveness, the difficulties of their profession, their stage-frights, their curious superstitions, their loves and hates, their jokes and their lamentations, their brief joys which are always being revived: but I am not writing a realistic novel about stage life but only a short guide.
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