PROFESSIONS ESTEEMED INFAMOUS.
In the reign of Louis XVIII., an oration was made in the French Chamber of
Deputies, complaining of the vileness of certain parties employed by the
police. The Duc Decazes, then at the head of the administration, replied:
"Point out to me honest men who would undertake the same functions, and I
promise to employ them."
The infamy attached to spies and common informers is a wholesome
prejudice. In England, the nature of our constitution and political
institutions secures us from the intrusion of such vermin; who were
extensively employed in France by the police of the elder Bourbons and of
Napoleon. In Austria, and, above all, in Russia, no society is secure
against them; and half the Russian travellers dispersed through Europe,
even those bearing illustrious names, are neither more nor less than
spies. The fashionable watering places of the continent are infested by
these individuals, most of whom have solicited from the Emperor the
honourable appointment of travelling spy.
A vocation which must always convey infamy, and which is more essential to
the well-being of society, is that of public executioner; and
notwithstanding the disgust with which it is contemplated, whenever there
occurs a vacancy in the office, in any country, a host of solicitors
present themselves.
In Russia, which many pretend to consider a barbarous country, there is no
salaried executioner. So infamous is the office considered, that in the
event of a capital execution, a criminal convicted of a less heinous crime
undertakes it, and thereby gains his pardon. Formerly, in state
executions, the executioner used to be masked, to secure him from the
odium attending his calling.
In some countries, the stage, or rather the profession of an actor is an
object of violent prejudice. In France actors were denied for several
centuries the rites of Christian burial, and even in the present century
have been made objects of excommunication. England was the first to show a
more liberal example, by the interment of Garrick in Westminster Abbey,
and the intermarriage of the nobility with actresses;--a violent and
pernicious extreme. During the Consulate in France, even on occasion of
state dinners, Mademoiselle Coutat was admitted as the associate of Madame
Bonaparte, as Talma of the First Consul. But on the restoration of the
Bourbons, public opinion resumed in this particular nearly all its former
inveteracy.
In England, the leading members of the profession, such as the Kembles,
Young, Macready, Charles Kean, whose conduct in private life is as
exemplary as their talents on the stage are distinguished, are received in
society with the same respect conceded to any other order of literary
persons. In France, this honourable position would be untenable; so deeply
rooted are the prejudices of the vulgar. A clever French writer, who was
in his youth an actor, relates the following anecdote:--
"Being once engaged in a company of players in a town in the south of
France, he devoted the leisure of his theatrical duties to literary
pursuits. A shoe-maker, whom he employed, an ardent admirer of the
dramatic art, occasionally attempted to engage him in conversation; and
the actor indulged the man's passion for theatricals by presenting him
with tickets of free admission. At the end of some month's acquaintance,
the shoemaker entered the actor's lodgings one morning in the greatest
glee, and informed him that it was his daughter's wedding-day, and that he
was come to invite him to the ceremony. The actor, hesitating to accept
the invitation, made a variety of polite excuses to his humble friend, who
seized him cordially by the hand. "I see how it is," said he. "You think
my friends will not like to sit at table with an actor! But never mind. I
am not proud, and for my sake they will overlook it!"
The gentlemen of the household of Louis XIV. refused to make the King's
bed with Molière, who had purchased a small place in the royal household,
because he had been an actor. This was a just punishment to one who should
have abstained from a position so infinitely below his rank in the great
scale of human nature. Of the individuals thus fastidious, the names are
unknown to posterity. That of Molière is immortal.
John Kemble was the occasional guest of the Prince Regent, and Mrs.
Siddons enjoyed the highest distinctions from the highest personages in
the realm. Still, even in England, among the lower classes, a prejudice
prevails against comedians; but arising chiefly from the irregularities
with which many belonging to the inferior class of the profession are
unfortunately chargeable.