dead king was borne from the
stage, and Elliston was then enabled to reappear as Richmond, and
speak the closing lines of the play.

Among more legitimate exploits in the way of doubling are to be
accounted the late Mr. Charles Mathews's assumption of the two
characters of Puff and Sir Fretful Plagiary in "The Critic;" Miss Kate
Terry's performance both of Viola and Sebastian in "Twelfth Night;"
Mr. Phelps's appearance as James the First and Trapbois, in the play
founded upon "The Fortunes of Nigel;" and the rendering by the same
actor of the parts of the King and Justice Shallow in "The Second Part
of Henry IV." The worst that can be said for these performances is
that they incline the audience to pay less heed to the play than to
the frequent changes of appearance entailed upon the players. The
business of the scene is apt to be overlooked, and regard wanders
involuntarily to the transactions of the tiring-room and the
side-wings. Will the actor be recognisable? will he really have time
to alter his costume? the spectators mechanically ask themselves, and
meditation is occupied with such possibilities as a tangled string or
an obstinate button hindering the performer. All this is opposed to
the real purpose of playing, and injurious to the actor's art, to say
nothing of the interests of the dramatist. Illusion is the special
object of the theatre, and this forfeits its magic when once inquiry
is directed too curiously to its method of contrivance. Still doubling
of this kind has always been in favour both with actors and audiences,
and many plays have been provided especially to give dual occupation
to the performers. Certain of these have for excuse the fact that
their fables hinge upon some question of mistaken identity, or strong
personal resemblance. The famous "Courier of Lyons," founded, indeed,
upon a genuine _cause celebre_, was a drama of this kind. Here it was
indispensable that the respectable Monsieur Lesurques and the criminal
Dubosc, between whom so extraordinary a likeness existed that the one
suffered death upon the scaffold for a murder committed by the other,
should be both impersonated by the same performer. "The Corsican
Brothers," it need hardly be said, narrated the fortunes of the
twin-born Louis and Fabian dei Franchi, reasonably supposed to be so
much alike that they could not be known apart. Mademoiselle Rachel
appeared with success in a drama called "Valeria," written by
Messieurs Auguste