Some plays are so successful that they run for years on end, In many ways,
this is unfortunate for the poor actors who are required to go on repeating
the same lines night after night. One would expect them to know their parts by
heart and never have cause to falter. Yet this is not always the case.#
A famous actor in a highly successful play was once cast in the role of an
aristocrat who had been imprisoned in the Bastille for twenty years. In the
last act, a gaoler would always come on to the stage with a letter which he
would hand to the prisoner. Even though the noble was expected to read the
letter at each performance, he always insisted that it should be written out
in full.#
One night, the gaoler decided to play a joke on his colleague to find out if,
after so many performances, he had managed to learn the contents of the letter
by heart. The curtain went up on the final act of the play and revealed the
aristocrat sitting alone behind bars in his dark cell. Just then, the gaoler
appeared with the precious letter in his hands. He entered the cell and
presented the letter to the aristocrat. But the copy he gave him had not been
written out in full as usual. It was simply a blank sheet of paper. The gaoler
looked on eagerly, anxious to see if his fellow actor had at last learnt his
lines. The noble stared at the blank sheet of paper for a few seconds. Then,
squinting his eyes, he said: 'The light is dim. Read the letter to me'. And he
promptly handed the sheet of paper to the gaoler. Finding that he could not
remember a word of the letter either, the gaoler replied: 'The light is indeed
dim, sire, I must get my glasses.' With this, he hurried off the stage. Much
to the aristocrat's amusement, the gaoler returned a few moments later with a
pair of glasses and the usual copy of the letter which he proceeded to read to
the prisoner.&