, Pigmies, Cannibals, &c., and to cross the stage in
procession in the presence of the leading characters. The names of
these performers are supplied, and it is apparent that Messrs. George,
Thomas Morbeck, Parsons, W. Parr, and other members of the company,
were present early in the scene as nobles and soldiers in attendance
upon the conqueror, and later--sufficient time being allowed for them
to change their costumes--as representatives of "the people of Bohare,
a Cattaian, two Bactrians," &c.

In proportion as the actors were few, and the _dramatis personae_
numerous, so the system of doubling, and even trebling parts, more
and more prevailed. Especially were the members of itinerant companies
compelled to undertake increase of labour of this kind. It was to
their advantage that the troupe should be limited in number, so that
the money accruing from their performances should not be divided into
too many shares, and, as a consequence, each man's profit reduced too
considerably. Further, it was always the strollers' principle of
action to stick at nothing: to be deterred by no difficulties in
regard to paucity of numbers, deficient histrionic gifts, inadequate
wardrobes, or absent scenery. They were always prepared to represent,
somehow, any play that seemed to them to promise advantages to their
treasury. The labours of doubling fell chiefly on the minor players,
for the leading tragedian was too frequently present on the scene as
the hero of the night to be able to undertake other duties. But if the
player of Hamlet, for instance, was confined to that character, it was
still competent for the representative of "the ghost of buried
Denmark" to figure also as Laertes; or for Polonius, his death
accomplished, to reappear in the guise of Osric or the First
Gravedigger; to say nothing of such minor arrangements as were
involved in entrusting the parts of the First Actor, Marcellus, and
the Second Gravedigger to one actor. Some care had to be exercised
that the doubled characters did not clash, and were not required to be
simultaneously present upon the scene. But, indeed, the strollers did
not hesitate to mangle their author when his stage directions did not
accord with their convenience. The late Mr. Meadows used to relate
that when in early life he was a member of the Tamworth,
Stratford-upon-Avon, and Warwick company, he was cast for Orozembo,
the Old Blind Man, and the Sentinel in "Pizarro," and took part in a
mutila