ing the leading part in a certain
vaudeville, and was required, in the course of the performance, to sit
at the table of a cheap cafe and consume a bottle of beer. The beer
was brought him by a _figurant_, or mute performer, in the character
of a waiter, charged with the simple duty of drawing the cork from the
bottle and filling the glass of the customer. Potier was struck with
the man's neat performance of his task, and especially with a curious
comical gravity which distinguished his manner, and often bestowed
upon the humble actor an encouraging smile or a nod of approval. The
man at length urged a request that he might, as he poured out the
beer, be permitted to say a few words. Potier sanctioned the gag. It
moved the laughter of the audience. Potier gagged in reply: and there
was more laughter. During later representations the waiter was allowed
further speeches, relieved by the additional gag of Potier, until at
the end of a week it was found that an entirely new scene had been
added to the vaudeville, and eventually the conversation between
Potier and the _garcon_--not a line of which had been invented or
contemplated by the dramatist--became the chief attraction of the
piece. It was the triumph of gag. The _figurant_, from this modest and
accidental beginning of his career as an actor, speedily rose to be
famous. He was afterwards known to the world as ARNAL, one of the most
admirable of Parisian _farceurs_.

CHAPTER XXXII.

BALLETS AND BALLET-DANCERS.

Dr. Barten Holyday, in the notes to his translation of "Juvenal,"
published at Oxford in 1673, describes the Roman plays as being
followed by an exodium "of the nature of a _jig_ after a play, the
more cheerfully to dismiss the spectators"--the word "jig" signifying
in the doctor's time something almost of a _ballet divertissement_,
with an infusion of rhyming songs or speeches delivered by the clown
of the theatre to the accompaniment of pipe and tabor. Jigs of this
kind commonly terminated the performances upon the Elizabethan stage,
which otherwise consisted of one dramatic piece only. Mr. Payne
Collier holds that these supplemental exhibitions probably originated
with, and certainly depended mainly upon, the actors who supported the
characters of fools and clowns in the regular dramatic representations.
He points out that Tarleton, one of Queen Elizabeth's players,
much famed for his comicality, obtained great success by his
efforts in jigs, and