Also,
there was a posture-master, showing his art in the centre of a ring of
miscellaneous spectators, and handing round his bat after going through
all his attitudes. The collection amounted to only one halfpenny, and,
to eke it out, I threw in three more. There were some large booths with
tables placed the whole length, at which sat men and women drinking and
smoking pipes; orange-girls, a great many, selling the worst possible
oranges, which had evidently been boiled to give them a show of
freshness. There were likewise two very large structures, the walls made
of boards roughly patched together, and rooted with canvas, which seemed
to have withstood a thousand storms. Theatres were there, and in front
there were pictures of scenes which were to be represented within; the
price of admission being twopence to one theatre, and a penny to the
other. But, small as the price of tickets was, I could not see that
anybody bought them. Behind the theatres, close to the board wall, and
perhaps serving as the general dressing-room, was a large windowed wagon,
in which I suppose the company travel and live together. Never, to my
imagination, was the mysterious glory that has surrounded theatrical
representation ever since my childhood brought down into such dingy
reality as this. The tragedy queens were the same coarse and homely
women and girls that surrounded me on the green. Some of the people had
evidently been drinking more than was good for them; but their
drunkenness was silent and stolid, with no madness in it.
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