A CURIOUS ACCIDENT.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2438, 11 January 1881, Page 4

A CURIOUS ACCIDENT.

A curious accident occurred at a Marseilles theatre the other night, while Dumas’s brilliant play “La Dame de Montsoreau ” was being played. The actor who took the part of Chicot, the gallant noble hearted jester of Henry 111., got so excited by his part that he forgot to be cautious in one of the lighting episodes, and wounded afellowplajcr. It is really remarkable, however, how very seldom such accidents take place ; the wonder should rather be, not that they occur at all, but that they occur so seldom. The space in oven the largest theatre is limited, and wlmn actors fight with the vehemence and grim semblance of reality, which it is now necessary to give to these mimic combats, it would seem as if the chances were rather in favor of than against an accident. Sometimes actors themselves are a little reckless. It is told of Booth, the father of the eminent tragedian, who is about to revisit London after a long absence, that he was very trying to other acors, because of his carelessness in fighting on the stage, and the vigour with which he fenced. On one occasion,however, he met his match. He was playing Hamlet somewhere with a new Laertes, whom he warned before the peformance that, as he got very excited in the fencing scene, and often wounded his opponent, it therefore behoved Laertes to be careful. Laertes thanked him for the hint, and observed that he too was very excitable, and whenever ho felt himself wounded he always ran his opponent through the body, Booth contrived to keep his mind and his sword under control while fighting with that Laertes.