f a French Book. {147} I just now forget the name, and it is gone
back to Mudie. About 1783, or a little later, a young _Danseur_ of the
French Opera falls in love with a young _Danseuse_ of the same. She,
however, takes up with a 'Militaire,' who indeed commands the Guard who
are on Service at the Opera. The poor Danseur gets mad with jealousy:
attacks the Militaire on his post; who just bids his Soldiers tie the
poor Lad to a Column, without further Injury. The Lad, though otherwise
unhurt, falls ill of Shame and Jealousy; and dies, after bequeathing his
Skeleton to the Doctor attached to the Opera, with an understanding that
the said Skeleton is to be kept in the Doctor's Room at the Opera.
Somehow, this Skeleton keeps its place through Revolutions, and Changes
of Dynasty: and re-appears on the Scene when some Diablerie is on foot,
as in Freischutz; where, says the Book, it still produces a certain
effect. I forgot to say that the _Subject_ wished to be in that Doctor's
Room in order that he might still be near his Beloved when she danced.

Now, is not this a capital piece of French all over?

In Sophie Gay's 'Salons de Paris' {148} I read that when Madlle Contat
(the Predecessor of Mars) was learning under Preville and his Wife for
the Stage, she gesticulated too much, as Novices do. So the Previlles
confined her Arms like '_une Momie_' she says, and then set her off with
a Scene. So long as no great Passion, or Business, was needed, she felt
pretty comfortable, she says: but when the Dialogue grew hot, then she
could not help trying to get her hands free; and _that_, as the Previlles
told her, sufficiently told her when Action should begin, and not till
then, whether in Grave or Comic. This anecdote (told by Contat herself)
has almost an exact counterpart in Mrs. Siddons' practice: who recited
even Lear's Curse with her hands and arms close to her side like an
Egyptian Figure, and Sir Walter Scott, {149a} who heard her, said nothing
could be more terrible. . . .

The Egyptian Mummy reminds me of a clever, dashing, Book we are reading
on the subject, by Mr. Zincke, Vicar of a Village {149b} near Ipswich.
Did you know, or do you believe, that the Mummy was wrapt up into its
Chrysalis Shape as an Emblem of Future Existence; wrapt up, too, in
bandages all inscribed with ritualistic directions for its intermediate
stage, which was not one of total Sleep? I supposed that this might be a
piece of ingenious Fanc