all, or a desperate leap, a trained gymnast is usually engaged as
double to accomplish this portion of the performance. When in the
stage versions of "Kenilworth," Sir Richard Varney, in lieu of Amy
Robsart, is seen to descend through the treacherous trap and incur a
fall of many feet, we may be sure that it is not the genuine Varney,
but his double who undergoes this severe fate. The name of the double
is not recorded in the playbill, however, and he wins little fame,
let him acquit himself as skilfully as he may. Occasionally, however,
doubles of this kind are found to emerge from obscurity and establish
a reputation of their own. In 1820, a pantomime, dealing with the
fairly tale of "Jack and the Beanstalk," was produced at Drury Lane.
The part of the hero was allotted to little Miss Povey, who declined,
however, to undertake Jack's feat of climbing the famous beanstalk, a
formidable structure reaching from the stage to the roof of the
theatre. It became necessary to secure a substitute who should present
some resemblance to the small and slight figure of the young actress,
and yet be sufficiently strong and courageous to undertake the task
she demurred to. The matter was one of some difficulty, and for some
time no competent double was forthcoming. One morning, however,
Winston, the stage-manager, descried a little active boy, acting as
waterman's assistant, at the hackney-coach stand in Bedford Street,
Covent Garden. He was carried to the theatre and his abilities put to
the test at a rehearsal of the pantomime. His performance was
pronounced satisfactory. He nightly appeared during the run of "Jack
and the Beanstalk" as the climbing double of Miss Povey. Subsequently,
he became one of the pupils of the clown. The boy said he believed his
name was Sullivan. Years afterwards he was known to fame as Monsieur
Silvain, ballet-master, and principal dancer of the Academic Royale,
Paris, an artist of distinction, and a most respectable member of
society.

Mrs. Mowatt, the American actress, has recorded in her Memoirs a
curious instance of a double being employed in connection with a dummy
to secure a theatrical illusion of a special kind. The play produced
at the Olympic Theatre some twenty years ago, was an English version
of the "Ariane" of Thomas Corneille. In the original, Ariadne, upon
the discovery of the perfidy of Theseus, falls upon a sword and
expires. This catastrophe was altered in the adaptation, and a
start