22 By heart

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.