"Their Majesties' Servants": Annals of the English Stage, from Thomas Betterton to Edmund Kean, Volume 2

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Scholarly Press, 1865 - Actors - 422 pages

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Page 34 - For physic and farces his equal there scarce is— His farces are physic, his physic a farce is.
Page 135 - Sincerity, Thou first of virtues! let no mortal leave Thy onward path, although the earth should gape, And from the gulf of hell destruction cry, To take dissimulation's winding way.
Page 20 - I had rather not suppress, viz. that it was the best first play that any author in his memory had produced ; and that for a young fellow to show himself such an actor and such a writer in one day, was something extraordinary.
Page 199 - ... his bed, walks up and down with me, Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words, Remembers me of all his gracious parts, Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form ; Then have I reason to be fond of grief. Fare you well : had you such a loss as I, I could give better comfort than you do. I will not keep this form upon my head, When there is such disorder in my wit. O Lord ! my boy, my Arthur, my fair son ! My life, my joy, my food, my all the world ! My widow-comfort, and my sorrows
Page 53 - ild you! They say the owl was a baker's daughter. Lord! we know what we are, but know not what we may be.
Page 316 - The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers, And heavily in clouds brings on the day, The great, the important day, big with the fate Of Cato and of Rome.
Page 133 - Among the fairest of Foote's sayings was the reply to Mr. Howard's intimation that he was about to publish a second edition of his Thoughts and Maxims. " Ay ! second thoughts are best." Fair, too, was his retort on the person who alluded to his "game leg.
Page 80 - Horatio — heavens, what a transition! — it seemed as if a whole century had been swept over in the transition of a single scene; old things were done away and a new order at once brought forward, bright and luminous, and clearly destined to dispel the barbarisms and bigotry of a...
Page 357 - Wide o'er this breathing world, a Garrick came. Though sunk in death the forms the Poet drew, The Actor's genius bade them breathe anew ; Though, like the bard himself, in night they lay, Immortal Garrick call'd them back to day : And till Eternity with power sublime Shall mark the mortal hour of hoary Time, Shakspeare and Garrick like twin stars shall shine, And earth irradiate with a beam divine." It would be an insult to my readers' understandings to attempt any thing like a criticism on this...
Page 228 - Form'd gen'ral notions from the rascal few ; Condemn'da people, as for vices known, Which, from their country banish'd, seek our own. At length, howe'er, the slavish chain is broke, And Sense, awaken'd, scorns her ancient yoke : Taught by thee, Moody, we now learn to raise Mirth from their foibles ; from their virtues, praise.

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