The same coat that served Romeo, turned with the blue lining outwards, served for his friend Mercutio: a large piece of crape sufficed at once for Juliet's petticoat and pall; a pestle and mortar from a neighbouring apothecary answered all the purposes of a bell; and our landlord's own family, wrapped in white sheets, served to fill up the procession.

In short, there were but three figures among us that might be said to be dressed with any propriety; I mean the nurse, the starved apothecary, and myself." Of his own share in the representation the stroller speaks candidly enough: "I snuffed the candles, and, let me tell you, that without a candle-snuffer the piece would lose half its embellishments." But there has always been forthcoming a very abundant supply of stories of this kind, not always to be understood literally, however, concerning the drama under difficulties, and the comical side of the player's indigence, distresses, and quaint artifices to conceal his poverty.
A word should be said as to the courage and enterprise of our early strollers.

Travelling is nowadays so easy a matter that we are apt to forget how solemnly it was viewed by our ancestors.

In the last century a man thought about making his will as a becoming preliminary to his journeying merely from London to Edinburgh.

But the strollers were true to themselves and their calling, though sometimes the results of their adventures were luckless enough.