The same things were there materially; but the emblem, the reference was gone! The green curtain was no longer a veil drawn between two worlds, the unfolding of which was to bring back past ages, to present a 'royal ghost'-- but a certain quantity of green baize, which was to separate the audience for a given time from certain of their fellow-men who were to come forward and pretend those parts.

The lights--the orchestra lights--came up a clumsy machinery.

The first ring, and the second ring, was now but a trick of the prompter's bell--which had been, like the note of the cuckoo, a phantom of a voice; no hand seen or guessed at which ministered to its warning.

The actors were men and women painted.

I thought the fault was in them; but it was in myself, and the alteration which those many centuries--of six short twelvemonths--had wrought in me." Presently, however, Lamb recovered tone, so to speak, as a playgoer.