The opening chorus, the witless dialogue of secondary personages, then
an almost empty stage, old Faust alone remaining, and the entrance of
Mephisto.
Some applause that came from people that had not heard the preliminary
announcement, and whose demonstration was intended for Renshaw, rather
disconcerted Mogley. Then, ere he had spoken a word, or his eyes had ranged
over the hazy lighted theatre on the other side of the footlights, there
sounded in the depths of his brain:
"My thoughts will be at the theatre with you!"
There were many vacant seats in the house. He singled out one of them on
the front row and imagined she was in it. He would play to that vacant seat
throughout the evening.
In all burlesques of "Faust" the role of Mephisto is the leading comic
figure. The actor who assumes it undertakes to make people laugh.
Mogley made people laugh that night, but it was not his intentional
humourous efforts that excited their hilarity. It was the man himself. They
began by jeering him quietly. Then the gallery grew bold.
"Ah there, Edwin Booth!" sarcastically yelled an urchin aloft.
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