There was great laughter in the theatre one night when Stephen Kemble, playing Othello for the first time with Miss Satchell as Desdemona, kissed her before smothering her, and left an ugly patch of soot upon her cheek.

However, as Miss Satchell subsequently became Mrs.Stephen Kemble, it was held that sufficient amends had been made to her for the soiling she had undergone.
Another misadventure, in regard to the complexion of Shakespeare's Moor, has been related of an esteemed actor, for many years past attached to the Haymarket Theatre.

While but a tyro in his profession, he had undertaken to appear as Othello, for one night only, at the Gravesend Theatre.

But, not being acquainted with the accustomed method of blackening his skin, and being too nervous and timid to make inquiry on the subject, he applied to his face a burnt cork, simply.
At the conclusion of the performance, on seeking to resume his natural hue, by the ordinary process of washing in soap and water, he found, to his great dismay, that the skin of his face was peeling off rather than the colour disappearing! The cork had been too hot by a great deal, and had injured his cuticle considerably.

With the utmost haste, although announced to play Hamlet on the following evening, the actor--who then styled himself Mr.Hulsingham, a name he forthwith abandoned--hired a post-chaise and eloped from Gravesend.
Making-up is in requisition when the performer desires to look either younger or older than he or she really is.