Maquet and Jules Lacroix, for the express purpose,
it would seem, of rehabilitating the Empress Messalina. The actress
personated Valeria, otherwise Messalina, and also Cynisca, a
dancing-girl of evil character, but so closely resembling the empress
that, as the dramatists argued, history had confounded the two ladies,
and charged the one with the misdeeds of the other. "Like and Unlike,"
an adaptation from the French, in which, some years since, Madame
Celeste was wont to perform at the Adelphi, is also a drama of the
same class. But, indeed, works contrived for doubling purposes are
numerous enough. And in this category may be included the elaborate
melodramas which deal with long lapses of years, and relate the
adventures of more than one generation, and in which the hero or
heroine of the earlier scenes reappears at a later stage of the
performance as his or her own child. Here, however, frequent change of
dress is not required; the character first personated, when once laid
aside, is not resumed, but is supposed to have been effectually
removed from the scene by death, generally of a violent description.
It is to be added that the applause often won by the actor who doubles
a part on account of his rapid changes of attire, are in truth due
much less to him than to the activity of his dresser--a functionary,
however, who is never seen by the public. Still, calls before the
curtain have now become such common compliments, that even the
dressers of the theatre may yet obtain this form of recognition of
their deserts.

The services of a mute double to assist the illusion of the scene, or
to spare a leading performer needless fatigue, have often been
required upon the stage. Such a play as "The Corsican Brothers" could
scarcely be presented without the aid of a mute player to take the
place, now of Louis, now of Fabian dei Franchi, to personate now the
spectre of this twin, now of that. In former days, when the deepest
tragedy was the most highly esteemed of theatrical entertainments,
funeral processions, or biers bearing the corpses of departed heroes,
were among the most usual of scenic exhibitions. Plays closed with a
surprising list of killed and wounded. But four of the characters in
Rowe's "Fair Penitent" are left alive at the fall of the curtain, and
among those survivors are included such subordinate persons as
Rossano, the friend of Lothario, and Lucilla, the confidante of
Calista, whom certainly it was worth