Identifier: twiceroundclocko00sala (find matches)
Title: Twice round the clock; or, The hours of the day and night in London
Year: 1859 (1850s)
Authors: Sala, George Augustus, 1828-1895 McConnell, William, 1833-1867
Subjects:
Publisher: London, Houlston and Wright
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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n its legs, and keys that areyellow and worn down, like the teeth of an old horse. There is acheval glass, too, in tolerably good repair, for the danseuses to arrangetheir skirts withal; and over the chimney-piece there is another greatglass, with a tarnished frame and longitudinal crack extending over itiin the sides of which—the interstices of the frame, I mean, not thecrack—are stuck notices having reference to the rehearsals to be heldon the morrow. All the ladies of the ballet at ten ; All the com-pany for reading of new piece at twelve. So may run the waferedannouncements signed in the fine Roman hand of the prompter orstage-manager. There are varied pilasters, in imitation of scagliola,supporting the ceiling; the doors are handsomely panelled with giltheadings. There are four tall windows in a row, with cornices wofuliydingy, and draped with curtains of shabby moreen. There is goodstore of settees and ottomans covered with faded chintz. Everything 244 TWICE ROUND THE CLOCK.
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SEVEN P.M.—A THEATRICAL GREEN-ROOM. 245 about the place bears that stagey, unreal, garish, dream-like aspect,that seems inherent to things theatrical, and makes us, directly we passthe stage-door, look upon everything, from the delusive banquet onthe imitation marble table, to the paint on the singing chambermaidscheeks, as a mockery and a delusion—as the baseless fabric of a vision,that will soon fade and leave not a wrack behind. And yet I havesaid (vide ante ct supra) that behind the scenes is common-place.And so it is; but it is the common-place of dreamland, the every-daylife of the realms of Prester John, the work-a-day existence of thekingdom of Cockaigne, or of that shadowy land where dwell theAnthropophagi, and men whose heads do grow beneath theirshoulders. What shall I assume the first piece that is to be performed thisnight to be? Will you have the Flowers of the Forest, the PoorStrollers, Sweethearts and Wives, Pizarro, the Padlock, ora Game at Romps : What do you say

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