introductory, or, to use Mr. Boucicault's word, "proloquial" acts
of certain long and complicated plays, which seem to require for their
due comprehension the exhibition to the audience of events antecedent
to the real subject of the drama. But these "proloquial acts" are
things quite apart from the old-fashioned prologue.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE ART OF "MAKING-UP."

When, to heighten the effect of their theatrical exhibitions, Thespis
and his playfellows first daubed their faces with the lees of wine,
they may be said to have initiated that art of "making-up" which has
been of such important service to the stage. Paint is to the actor's
face what costume is to his body--a means of decoration or disguise,
as the case may require; an aid to his assuming this or that
character, and concealing the while his own personal identity from the
spectator. The mask of the classical theatre is only to be associated
with a "make-up," in that it substituted a fictitious facial
expression for the actor's own. Roscius is said to have always played
in a vizard, on account of a disfiguring obliquity of vision with
which he was afflicted. It was an especial tribute to his histrionic
merits that the Romans, disregarding this defect, required him to
relinquish his mask, that they might the better appreciate his
exquisite oratory and delight in the music of his voice. In much later
years, however, "obliquity of vision" has been found to be no obstacle
to success upon the stage. Talma squinted, and a dramatic critic,
writing in 1825, noted it as a strange fact that "our three light
comedians, Elliston, Jones, and Browne," each suffered from "what is
called a cast in the eye."

To young and inexperienced players a make-up is precious, in that it
has a fortifying effect upon their courage, and relieves them in some
degree of consciousness of their own personality. They are the better
enabled to forget themselves, seeing their identity can hardly be
present to the minds of others. Garrick made his first histrionic
essay as Aboan, in the play of "Oroonoko," "a part in which his
features could not easily be discerned: under the disguise of a black
countenance he hoped to escape being known, should it be his
misfortune not to please." When Bottom the Weaver is allotted the part
of Pyramus, intense anxiety touching his make-up is an early sentiment
with him. "What beard were I best to play it in?" he inquires. "I will
discharge it in either