While I was visiting my parents in Massachusetts, I went through some boxes and found a hardcover book from the 1920s on magic tricks. So I read it. And, as seems to be the case with nearly every book I read these days, it contains a Shakespeare reference. It is a reference to Hamlet's advice to the players. Author Hereward Carrington writes, "Suiting the action to the word, the conjuror rubs his forefingers together, and requests the name of the first chosen card" (p. 32). Carrington makes the same reference later in the book: "Suiting the action to the word, the magician advances his two forefingers, until they almost touch the eyes of the onlooker" (p. 114). Hamlet tells the players, "Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the action."
Magic For Everyone was published in 1920. The hardcover copy I read is, I believe, from 1927.
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