e the curtain descends upon it, to "our kind friends in
front," entreating their applause. The final _couplets_ of a French
vaudeville, it may be noted, usually contained an appeal of this kind;
otherwise, tags, and epilogues are alike eschewed upon the French
stage. But this "coming forward" of the player, to deliver his tag, is
a practice of old date. The concluding speech in Massinger's "New Way
to Pay Old Debts," addressed to the audience, and commencing--

Nothing wants then
But your allowance--and in that our all
Is comprehended--

is, according to the old stage direction, to be spoken by Wellborn
"coming forward." So also Cozimo is directed to "come forward," to
address to the audience the last lines of "The Great Duke of
Florence."

Epilogues have rarely been employed as supplementary acts, continuing
and completing the action of a play, as prologues in modern times have
been converted into introductory chapters, explanatory of events to be
presently exhibited upon the scene. Yet the interminable drama of
"Marie Antoinette," by Signor Paolo Giacometti, in which Madame
Ristori was wont to perform, presents an instance of this kind. "Marie
Antoinette" is in five acts, with a prologue exhibiting the queen's
life at Versailles, in 1786, and an epilogue showing her imprisonment
in the Conciergerie, and her march to the guillotine in the custody of
Samson the executioner.

* * * * *

The epilogue spoken, the entertainments are indeed terminated. The
audience move from their seats towards the portals of the playhouse.
The lights are being extinguished; the boxes are about to be covered
over with brown-holland draperies; the prompter has closed his book
and is thinking of moving homewards.

It remains for us only to interchange "Good-byes"--and to separate.

THE END.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Book of the Play, by Dutton Cook

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