Nothing, I Am Convinced, But The Poetical Temperament, That Hurried
Me Into The Scrape, Brought Me Out Of It Without My Becoming An Arrant
Vagabond.
Full of the enjoyment of the moment, giddy with the wildness of animal
spirits, so rapturous in a boy,
I capered, I danced, I played a
thousand fantastic tricks about the stage, in the villages in which we
exhibited; and I was universally pronounced the most agreeable monster
that had ever been seen in those parts. My disappearance from school
had awakened my father's anxiety; for I one day heard a description of
myself cried before the very booth in which I was exhibiting; with the
offer of a reward for any intelligence of me. I had no great scruple
about letting my father suffer a little uneasiness on my account; it
would punish him for past indifference, and would make him value me the
more when he found me again. I have wondered that some of my comrades
did not recognize in me the stray sheep that was cried; but they were
all, no doubt, occupied by their own concerns. They were all laboring
seriously in their antic vocations, for folly was a mere trade with the
most of them, and they often grinned and capered with heavy hearts.
With me, on the contrary, it was all real. I acted con amore, and
rattled and laughed from the irrepressible gayety of my spirits. It is
true that, now and then, I started and looked grave on receiving a
sudden thwack from the wooden sword of Harlequin, in the course of my
gambols; as it brought to mind the birch of my school-master. But I
soon got accustomed to it; and bore all the cuffing, and kicking, and
tumbling about, that form the practical wit of your itinerant
pantomime, with a good humor that made me a prodigious favorite.
The country campaign of the troupe was soon at an end, and we set off
for the metropolis, to perform at the fairs which are held in its
vicinity. The greater part of our theatrical property was sent on
direct, to be in a state of preparation for the opening of the fairs;
while a detachment of the company travelled slowly on, foraging among
the villages. I was amused with the desultory, hap-hazard kind of life
we led; here to-day, and gone to-morrow. Sometimes revelling in
ale-houses; sometimes feasting under hedges in the green fields. When
audiences were crowded and business profitable, we fared well, and when
otherwise, we fared scantily, and consoled ourselves with anticipations
of the next day's success.
At length the increasing frequency of coaches hurrying past us, covered
with passengers; the increasing number of carriages, carts, wagons,
gigs, droves of cattle and flocks of sheep, all thronging the road; the
snug country boxes with trim flower gardens twelve feet square, and
their trees twelve feet high, all powdered with dust; and the
innumerable seminaries for young ladies and gentlemen, situated along
the road, for the benefit of country air and rural retirement; all
these insignia announced that the mighty London was at hand.
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