FLEURY
Gay, debauched, and lascivious.
An extreme type of French bohemian.
Notice how the moustache is brushed back from the mouth; the insolent droop of the eyelids, and the elevation of the eyebrows.
The nose runs directly up into the forehead as in the case of Iago. The hair is long and curls in bushy masses.
Full instructions for making the beard will be found in the description accompanying the progressive stages of the false beard.
A large black-rimmed eyeglass helps the characterisation.
ABSINTHE
Liné. Drink?
Fleury. Absinthe.
Liné. Do you—do you—excuse me—paint? [Fleury shakes his head and drinks.] You are a poet?
Fleury. Yes, my friend, I am [drinks]. I sing an answer to the siren's song. It is a ballad of such enchanting lewdness, they hold their breath to listen, and silenced they are lost. Many a dainty female thing, drunk with voluptuous ecstasy, has crept into my nets.
Liné. On what seas do you roam?
Fleury. Seas! He that mentions water in my hearing, even if he dignifies it with the name of sea, insults me gravely. The only liquid of my life is that which but a moment since made virile this poor glass, that now alas is dead. [Fleury's glass is filled, and he drinks, smacking his lips.] An ocean was not too much. Nay, all the fluid systems of the world I'd gulp within. An ocean here [putting his hand upon his stomach], a lake upon my tongue. Through every vein a burning river run, and to my brain great clouds would rise through which pale opalescent rainbows would never cease to play.
From a Play by Cavendish Morton.
THE PROFESSOR
Men who study assiduously a certain branch of the animal kingdom sometimes grow to look more or less like the things they contemplate.
This etymologist has cultivated a family resemblance to the insects that he studies.
The inquisitive eyes and the impertinent nose might well become a mosquito.
The nose is elongated with nose-paste.
The groundwork of No. 3 is used. The shadows and wrinkles are of lake mixed with a little blue. The high lights are of pale yellow. The eyebrows are of grey made by mixing black and white paint. The eyelashes are thickly coated with white.
The face is treated with very light powder.
The spectacles, unkempt hair and velvet cap, all give characteristic touches.
Particular attention is called to the hands. They are shadowed at all spaces that occur between the bones with a mixture of lake and brown. Veins are outlined in blue and high lights on the bones and veins are accentuated with pale yellow.
THE PROFESSOR
I caught it myself. I could dance for joy. It bit me on the wrist. I watched it suck my blood. I let it quietly feed, then I put a little glass over it and held it down until it was dead.
See I have a ring upon my arm. I'll show you its sting under a microscope.