Strolling Players. 209 



sets, as it were, in the road, where these strolling 

 players, and gypsies, pedlers, and itinerant venders of 

 all sorts of queer things, can call a halt and enjoy them- 

 selves. Every van appears to be invested with an air 

 of mystery, for was not our Shakespeare, 



" Th' applause, delight, the wonder of our stage," 



a strolling player, playing his part in barns and out- 

 houses to wondering rustics? There are such pos- 

 sibilities in every van that I greet the sweet little 

 child as if she were a princess in disguise, and the dark- 

 eyed, foreign-looking boy as if he might have within 

 him the soul of Buddha. I do not believe that any 

 other form of life has the attractions of this nomadic 

 existence. To make it perfect one should put away 

 enough in the funds as a reserve to be drawn upon when 

 he could not make the pittance necessary to feed and 

 clothe him and buy a few old copies of good books as 

 he passed through a village. The rule might be, only 

 when hungry shall this pocket-book be opened. I should 

 have one other contingency in order to be perfectly 

 happy — when I wanted to help a companion in distress. 

 Elia was truly not very far from it when he said that if 

 he were not the independent gentleman he was he 

 would be a beggar. So, if I were not the independent 

 gentleman I am, I would be a member of a strolling 

 band, such as we often pass in this crowded land, and 

 boast that Shakespeare was of our profession. What 

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