At the Karl Theatre in Vienna the farce “Judith and Holofernes” was being played. During the performance a small dog that had been hiding behind the scenes walked out on the stage, stood still in front of Holofernes and wagged his tail. Nestroy, who was playing that part, had hardly spied the uninvited guest, when he cried pathetically:
“What does this young Assyrian here?”
The audience broke into a roar of laughter and applause, while the young Assyrian fled.
Nature, not Art
A singer, whose simple, soulful singing more than compensated for the usual flourishes of so-called high art, was playing Julia in “The Vestalin.”
“Is this art?” asked the resident prima donna, of the manager.
“God forbid!” replied he, with a sarcastic smile, “this is pure, true nature.”
The Methodist’s View
A Methodist once said of a theatre: “It is a place where Satan can have, every evening, so many souls for a few pieces of silver, that he is sorry he once bribed Judas Iscariot with thirty pieces.”