Still the office requires some exercise of care and judgment.

"Here's a nice mess you've got me into," said once a tragedian, imperfect in his text, to an inexperienced or incautious prompter.

"What am I to do now?
Thanks to you, I've been and spoken all the next act!" And the prompter has a task of serious difficulty before him when the actors are but distantly acquainted with their parts, or "shy of the syls," that is, syllables, as they prefer to describe their condition.

"Where have they got to now ?" he has sometimes to ask himself, when he finds them making havoc of their speeches, missing their cues, and leading him a sort of steeple-chase through the book of the play.

It is the golden rule of the player who is "stuck"-- at a loss for words--to "come to Hecuba," or pass to some portion of his duty which he happens to bear in recollection.