[00:01.080]--- lesson 22 By heart
[00:05.920]--- Listen to the tape then answer the question below.
[00:11.600]--- Which actor read the letter in the end, the aristocrat or the gaoler?
[00:19.600]Some plays are so successful that they run for years on end.
[00:24.680]In many ways, this is unfortunate for the poor actors who are required to go on repeating the same lines night after night.
[00:33.280]One would expect them to know their parts by heart and never have cause to falter.
[00:38.880]Yet this is not always the case.
[00:42.400]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.
[00:53.640]In the last act, a gaoler would always come on to the stage with a letter which he would hand to the prisoner.
[01:00.480]Even though the noble was expected to read the letter at each performance,
[01:04.760]he always insisted that it should be written out in full.
[01:09.360]One night, the gaoler decided to play a joke on his colleague to find out if,
[01:15.200]after so many performances, he had managed to learn the contents of the letter by heart.
[01:21.280]The curtain went up on the final act of the play and revealed the aristocrat sitting alone behind bars in his dark cell.
[01:30.840]Just then, the gaoler appeared with the precious letter in his bands.
[01:36.400]He entered the cell and presented the letter to the aristocrat.
[01:40.680]But the copy he gave him had not been written out in full as usual.
[01:46.160]It was simply a blank sheet of paper.
[01:49.920]The gaoler looked on eagerly, anxious to see if his fellow actor had at last learnt his lines.
[01:57.040]The noble stared at the blank sheet of paper for a few seconds.
[02:01.200]Then, squinting his eyes, he said: 'The light is dim. Read the letter to me.'
[02:08.160]And he promptly handed the sheet of paper to the gaoler.
[02:11.920]Finding that he could not remember a word of the letter either,
[02:15.960]the gaoler replied: 'The light is indeed dim, sire. I must get my glasses.'
[02:22.800]With this, he hurried off the stage.
[02:25.600]Much to the aristocrat's amusement,
[02:28.360]the gaoler returned a few moments later with a pair of glasses and the usual copy of the letter which he proceeded to read to the prisoner.