The Stage: Or, Recollections of Actors and Acting from an Experience of Fifty Years; a Series of Dramatic Sketches |
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Page 26
... expressing the emotion of the soul - be- tween the orator with his language and the actor with his physical expression and gesture- and that Roscius received the prize . Does not this antique record place the power of the actor on a ...
... expressing the emotion of the soul - be- tween the orator with his language and the actor with his physical expression and gesture- and that Roscius received the prize . Does not this antique record place the power of the actor on a ...
Page 28
... expression , in whatever form , de- mands not only the impulse and the fire , but that " which is of fervor all compact , " the creative power of genius ; and this is as true of high cultured tragic personation as of the masterly ...
... expression , in whatever form , de- mands not only the impulse and the fire , but that " which is of fervor all compact , " the creative power of genius ; and this is as true of high cultured tragic personation as of the masterly ...
Page 29
... expression - simplicity , nature , and truth - as in presenting Milton's soaring conception of Satan ( which originally existed in its author's mind embodied in a dra- matic form ) he would portray the loftiness of that spirit " not ...
... expression - simplicity , nature , and truth - as in presenting Milton's soaring conception of Satan ( which originally existed in its author's mind embodied in a dra- matic form ) he would portray the loftiness of that spirit " not ...
Page 30
... measured declamation swells out the text - correct and distinct , it may be , indeed , as to the words , but deadened to every effect of spirit and expression . In such counter- DRAMATIC EXPRESSION . 31 feit presentment of human passion ...
... measured declamation swells out the text - correct and distinct , it may be , indeed , as to the words , but deadened to every effect of spirit and expression . In such counter- DRAMATIC EXPRESSION . 31 feit presentment of human passion ...
Page 31
... EXPRESSION . 31 feit presentment of human passion the art " whose end both at the first and now was and is to hold the mirror up to Nature , " falls down to the mo- notonous delivery of a sermonized lecture or the recitation of a school ...
... EXPRESSION . 31 feit presentment of human passion the art " whose end both at the first and now was and is to hold the mirror up to Nature , " falls down to the mo- notonous delivery of a sermonized lecture or the recitation of a school ...
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Common terms and phrases
acting action actor admiration appeared APPENDIX applause Arch Street Theatre audience Booth Buckstone called character Charles Charles Kean Charles Kemble Chestnut Street Theatre comedy curtain David Garrick DeCamp dramatic Edmund Kean effect elocution engagement excellence exhibited expression feeling Forrest Garrick gave genius gentleman give glottis habit Hamlet hand heard heart honor humor imagination imitation impression John Kemble John Philip Kemble Kean Kean's Kemble Kemble's King lady language laugh laughter Lear London Lord Macbeth Macready MACREADY'S manager manner MARK ANTONY marked matter ment mimic mind Miss Murdoch Nature never night observed occasion passion peculiar performance person play players poet profession professional racter recitation rehearsal replied Richard scene Shakespeare Shylock soul speaking speech spirit stage story style taste theatrical thought tion tones tragedian tragedy Tremont Theatre uncon utterance vocal voice words young
Popular passages
Page 37 - Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature...
Page 325 - This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill ; cannot be good : — If ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success, Commencing in a truth ? I am thane of Cawdor : If good, why do I yield to that suggestion, Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair, And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, Against the use of nature...
Page 131 - Stain my man's cheeks !— No, you unnatural hags, I will have such revenges on you both, That all the world shall — I will do such things — What they are yet I know not ; but they shall be The terrors of the earth.
Page 352 - But here's a parchment with the seal of Caesar ; I found it in his closet ; 'tis his will : Let but the Commons hear this testament, (Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read,) And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds, And dip their napkins in his sacred blood...
Page 133 - Sky, mountains, river, winds, lake, lightnings ! ye ! With night, and clouds, and thunder, and a soul To make these felt and feeling, well may be Things that have made me watchful; the far roll Of your departing voices, is the knoll Of what in me is sleepless, — if I rest. But where of ye, oh tempests ! is the goal ? Are ye like those within the human breast ? Or do ye find, at length, like eagles, some high nest ? XCVII.
Page 131 - If it be you that stir these daughters' hearts Against their father, fool me not so much To bear it tamely ; touch me with noble anger ! O, let not women's weapons, water-drops, Stain my man's cheeks! — No, you unnatural hags, I will have such revenges on you both, That all the world...
Page 66 - As a wit, if not first, in the very first line: Yet, with talents like these, and an excellent heart, The man had his failings, a dupe to his art. Like an ill-judging beauty, his colours he spread, And beplaster'd with rouge his own natural red. On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting; Twas only that when he was off he was acting.
Page 353 - And dip their napkins in his sacred blood, Yea, beg a hair of him for memory, And, dying, mention it within their wills, Bequeathing it as a rich legacy Unto their issue.
Page 126 - O my love! my wife! Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty. Thou art not conquered ; beauty's ensign yet Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, And death's pale flag is not advanced there.
Page 36 - Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus ; but use all gently : for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say) whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings...