. Theatrical and circus life;. rm of success. Imagine, too, a lot of other triflingthings that beset him — signs, omens and the he stumbles when he first enters a scene it is a si<mof good luck. If he receives faint applause in the firstscene he is sure to succeed, amid thunderous plaudits,in the last; if Forrests sword, used in the Gladiator,becomes dim by damp air or other cause, it is a signof lack of fervor in the audience of the evening, while,on the contrary an extraordinary brightness of theweapon is a sure sign of great success. If a negroshould cross his path while he is on
. Theatrical and circus life;. rm of success. Imagine, too, a lot of other triflingthings that beset him — signs, omens and the he stumbles when he first enters a scene it is a si<mof good luck. If he receives faint applause in the firstscene he is sure to succeed, amid thunderous plaudits,in the last; if Forrests sword, used in the Gladiator,becomes dim by damp air or other cause, it is a signof lack of fervor in the audience of the evening, while,on the contrary an extraordinary brightness of theweapon is a sure sign of great success. If a negroshould cross his path while he is on his way to a per-formance, that is a never-failing omen of a prosperousengagement, while to encounter a cross-eyed woman(not a man, for strabismus in that sort of creaturedoes not affect John, probably because it is only thewoman he looks at), is a sure sign if not of failure,at least of annoyance to himself and coldness on thepart of his audience. The Macbeth music is, ofcourse, his great bugbear, as it is with all (126) THE LATE VENIE CLAXCIE. STAGE CHARMS AND OMENS. 127 No success could -attend any of his performances ifany one were to hum or whistle the witches chorus inthe wings or the dressing-rooms. Any poor, inexpe-rienced devil who might try it would find John, and,in fact, all the company, wrestling with him, and him-self lying in the gutter at the back door before he hadwarbled through two bars of the fatal music. This is,in the opinion of every actor, a sure invocation of dis-aster. Under the malign influence of this melodicdevilishness either the theatre will be burned down(for, if we are to believe the actors and stage tradi-tion, every theatre that was ever burned in this coun-try was put under the spell of fire by some singer orwhistler of the witches chorus), or salaries will not bepaid, or the manager will bring his season to an earlyand disastrous end. Something ill is sure to happenif the Macbeth music is heard, and John shares thatbelief in comm
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