The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 250: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BEHIND THE SCENES 239 ably practise for several hours each day. The ballet-master is almost constantly in attendance, and if a visitor, escorted by some official of the establishment, peeps into the place any time between eleven in the forenoon and five in the evening, he will see a bevy of those girls dancing, pirouetting, bounding, and practising other saltatory exploits upon the stage, to the notes of a violin. This constant exercise there- fore keeps the dancers thin, and renders many of them positively emaciated. ‘Theirs is the hardest life, theirs the most wearing toil, of any amongst the theatrical contingents. Then, too, though the stars of the ballet are handsomely remunerated, the ordinary dancers are but indifferently paid, the lowest in rank wretchedly enough. When the performance is over, these ill-paid creatures may be seen issuing forth from the hot and feverish atmosphere of the theatre, having just thrown off their gauzy raiment and huddled on their own clothing, too often poor and scant even to wretchedness; and thus from that torrid region they emerge into the chill of the night air, perhaps to face a del- uging rain, or at some seasons a nipping frost. ‘Their health suffers, their constitutions are undermined, and thus with the ~ constant wear and tear of practice, and these labilities to sudden variations of atmosphere, with their accompanying rheums and coughs, whatever personal beauty the ballet- sirl may have originally possessed soon wanes, fades, and disappears. Some of them, too, with sorrow be it said, ” lead a course of life which is of a nature to aggravate all the above-mentioned evils; and thus, when viewed close, they are very different from what they appear to be when seen from the house, bounding amidst a blaze of light upon the elastic boards of the stage. That bloom which appears to rest so naturally upon their cheeks as they are thus viewed from a distance looks but a mere daub when beheld close, a thick coat of rouge, yet not always so thick as to prevent the haggard traits of the countenance from appearing through. | But we will not extend this picture to a length intruding upon the current of our tale. Having ere now stated that there is no greenroom at the opera-house in the Haymarket, we may observe that at the time of which we are writing the concert-room above mentioned sometimes served as a lounge for the performers, and likewise for those privileged CONnNIEOOOKS (FO)