STAGE FRIGHT.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3660, 18 September 1880, Page 4

STAGE FRIGHT.

Novices under the influence of stago fright will ■, Bay and do the most extraordinary things. Some years ago a laughable incident occurred during the/ performance of " Hamlet" at a theatre in the north of England. Although a rery small part, consisting, as it does, of one speech, the "Second Actor " is a very difficult one, the language being peculiarly cramped. In the play scene he assassinates the player king by pouring poison in his ear. The speech preceding the action is as follows .* " Thoughts black, bands apt, drugs fit, and ; time agreeing; Confederate season, else no creature seeing ; Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected, /■ -.'.'.'))■■.'''■ ■ '■■■ ■ ■ '.'' ■. With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected, Thy natural magic and dire property On wholesome life usurp immediately." Upon which follows the stage direction— " Pours poison into his ear." In a play of so. many characters as "Hamlet," such a part in a second class theatre, can bo given only to a very inferior performer. The one to whom it was intrusted on the present ocoasion was a novice. Muffled in a black slouched hat, and a face half hidden by burnt cork, he look a most villainous villain, as be stole out and gazed about in the most approved melodramatic fasbien. Then he began, in strong north country brogue : -Thought* black, bands aptThen his. memory failed him, and he stuck fast. The prompter whispered tf drugs .fit,", but stage fright had seized him, and he could not take the word. He tried back, but stuck again in the same place. Half a dozen people were prompting him at the same, time now, but all in vain. At length one more practical than the rest whispered angrily, "Pour the poison into his ear and get off." The suggestion restored a glimmering of reason to the trembling, perspiring wretch. He could not remember the words of Shakespeare,, so he improvised a line. Advancing to the sleeping figure, he raised his vial in his hand, and, in a terribly tragic tone, shouted, "Into his ear-hole this I'll power 1"