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Excerpt from Masques and Mummers: Essays on the Theatre of Here and Now Some time ago a cherished friend of mine departed this life, leaving behind him an exhausted bank account and a widow young and pretty and still ambitious. The lady did me the honor, shortly after her bereavement had taken on the conventional dash of lavender, to call on me, ostensibly to seek counsel in regard to her future livelihood, but really to inform me of her determined purpose in the matter: She was going on the stage. "On the stage?" I wondered - "In what capacity?" "Why, as an actress, of course!" she returned in surprise; "I'm going to be an actress." "You've quite decided?" I persisted, incredulity getting the better of courtesy. "Oh, yes; quite. I think it will be splendid." "Doubtless - a most alluring occupation, that of the player. But there are others. Why not become a sculptor, or a painter, or a poet, or a novelist?" "But I don't know anything about sculpture, or painting, or writing," the lady admitted with refreshing modesty. "Then I presume, of course, that you do know something about acting." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.