Chapter M: Lacouff, Scholar

Young man, it is also important to know theatrical anecdotes; they help to fill out the conversation of a young dramatic author; here are a few:

Frederick the Great was accustomed to having his court actresses whipped before each presentation. He believed that flagellation communicated a rosy tint to their skin which was not without its charm.

At the court of the Grand Turk, the _Bourgeois Gentilhomme_ was being played, but in order to adapt it to the taste of the environment the _mamamouchi_ became a Knight of the Garter.[9]

Cecile Vestris, while returning to Mayence, one day, had her carriage held up by the famous Rhenish bandit Schinderhans. She rallied her spirits against this ill-fortune and danced for Schinderhans in the hall of a roadside tavern.

Ibsen was sleeping one time with a young Spanish lady who cried out at the proper moment:

"Now!... now!... Mr. Dramatist!"

An erudite actor admitted to me that he had liked only one statue in all his life: _The Squatting Scribe_, sculptured by an Egyptian, long before Jesus-Christ, and which he saw in the Louvre. But they are beginning to talk much less of Scribe, and yet he still reigns over the theatre.

THE THEATRE

Do not forget the final scene, nor the words at the end, nor the fact that the more crust you have the more you shine, nor that a number that is cited must end in 7 or 3 in order to seem accurate; nor not to lend money to anybody who says: "I have five acts at the Odéon," or "I have three acts at the Comédie-Française," nor to say carelessly: "If you want some free passes, I have so many of them, that I am obliged to give them to my concierge;" that doesn't lead to anything.

A young man at this point made good the occasion to come and sing with equivocal gestures and a lascivious air, some childish and entrancing songs.

M. PINGU

What juice, sir!

M. LACOUFF

Juice of the hat?

M. PINGU

No-no! I am mistaken. What a fluid!

He trembles like the paunch of an archbishop.

M. LACOUFF

Use the proper word, not your paunch.