Chapter IX: The Bust of Socrates

Let the reader picture to himself, completely isolated and suspended without visible support in the middle of the stage, a living bust with the features of Socrates. Notwithstanding this mutilation of the great philosopher, he is still able to speak, and introduces himself in a stanza of elegiac verse. An Athenian noble delivers the reply, the play of feature of the wisest of the sages of Greece being in strict accordance with the dialogue. Such is the _mise en scène_ of the ingenious illusion represented in the accompanying illustration (Fig. 16).

A, B, C, D (Fig. 17) represents a section of the stage on which the trick is exhibited. A sheet of silvered glass, G G, occupying the whole width of the stage, is placed in a diagonal position, extending from the upper part of the stage at the rear, down to the footlights, so as to form an angle of 45° with the floor.

In the centre of the glass is an opening through which the actor passes his head and shoulders, as shown in the figure.

It should be further mentioned that the ceiling and the two sides of the stage are hung with wall-paper of the same pattern, and are brilliantly illuminated, either by means of footlights at C, or by gas-jets placed behind the border A.

Such being the condition of things, the effect is as follows: The ceiling A is reflected in the mirror, and its reflection appears to the spectators to be the paper of the wall B D, which in reality is hidden by the glass.

By means of this reflection, of which he is of course unaware, the spectator is led to believe that he sees three sides of the stage; and there being nothing to suggest to his mind the presence of the glass, is led to believe that the bust is suspended in mid-air, and without any support.

Unless the spectators are so placed as to have a downward view, the actor who is on the stage may venture quite close to the glass, its inclination excluding all fear of his being seen reflected therein. In a regular theatre, in which, as a rule, some of the seats are placed very high up, the actor would be obliged to stand clear of the stage, and upon a lower level.