Autobiography, a Collection of the Most Instructive and Amusing Lives Ever Published, Volume 1Hunt and Clarke, 1826 |
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Page 39
... imagined my having that advantage , would be security enough for my success , and so sent me simply down thither , with- out the least favourable recommendation or interest , but that of my naked merit , and a pompous pedigree in my ...
... imagined my having that advantage , would be security enough for my success , and so sent me simply down thither , with- out the least favourable recommendation or interest , but that of my naked merit , and a pompous pedigree in my ...
Page 68
... imagined all the merit of delivering those blazing rants lay only in the strength and strained exertion of the voice , began to tear his lungs upon every false or slight occasion , to arrive at the same applause ; and it is from hence I ...
... imagined all the merit of delivering those blazing rants lay only in the strength and strained exertion of the voice , began to tear his lungs upon every false or slight occasion , to arrive at the same applause ; and it is from hence I ...
Page 76
... imagined Kynaston would have done , had he been then living to have stood in the same character . Mr Addison , who had something of Mr Booth's diffidence , at the rehearsal of his play , after it was acted , came into my opinion , and ...
... imagined Kynaston would have done , had he been then living to have stood in the same character . Mr Addison , who had something of Mr Booth's diffidence , at the rehearsal of his play , after it was acted , came into my opinion , and ...
Page 86
... imagined I knew how Sandford would have spoken every line of it . If therefore in any part of it I succeeded , let the merit be given to him ; and how far I succeeded in that light , those only can be judges who remember him . In order ...
... imagined I knew how Sandford would have spoken every line of it . If therefore in any part of it I succeeded , let the merit be given to him ; and how far I succeeded in that light , those only can be judges who remember him . In order ...
Page 112
... imagining no consequence could shake the right of their authority , refused all terms of accommodation . In the mean time this dis- sension was so prejudicial to their daily affairs , that I remember it was allowed by both parties ...
... imagining no consequence could shake the right of their authority , refused all terms of accommodation . In the mean time this dis- sension was so prejudicial to their daily affairs , that I remember it was allowed by both parties ...
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Common terms and phrases
acted actors actress Æsop affairs allowed applause approbation audience auditors Beggar's Opera better Betterton Booth character Cibber COLLEY CIBBER Collier comedian comedy court delight distress Dogget Drury-lane duke's company entertainment equal excellence excuse extraordinary farther favour folly fortune gave gentleman give happiness Haymarket Haymarket theatre honour hope humour imagined inclination judge judgment king knew labour laugh least Leigh less liberty license lord chamberlain Love for Love managers master ment merit nature never obliged observed occasion Oldfield opera opinion Othello particular passion patentees perhaps person play pleasure pounds Powel pretend profits proper racter reader reason scenes seemed share sir John Vanbrugh sir Richard sir Richard Steele sometimes sort speak spectators spirit stage sure Swiney taste Tatler terton theatre theatrical thought tion Tony Leigh took tragedy true truth vanity voice Wilks word write
Popular passages
Page 101 - ... at once; and that the letter might not embarrass her attack, crack ! she crumbles it at once into her palm, and pours upon him her whole artillery of airs, eyes, and motion. Down goes her dainty, diving, body to the ground, as if she were sinking under the conscious load of her own attractions ; then launches into a flood of fine language and compliment, still playing her chest forward in fifty falls and risings, like a swan upon waving water ; and, to complete her...
Page 66 - All this ? ay, more: Fret, till your proud heart break; Go, show your slaves how choleric you are, And make your bondmen tremble.
Page 87 - ... before his time; and yet his general excellence may be comprehended in one article, viz. a plain and palpable simplicity of nature, which was so utterly his own, that he was often as unaccountably diverting in his common speech, as on the stage. I saw him once...
Page 164 - Such then was the mettlesome modesty he set out with ; upon this principle he produced several frank and free farces, that seemed to knock all distinctions of mankind on the head. Religion, laws, government, priests, judges, and ministers, were all laid flat at the feet of this Herculean satirist...
Page 65 - Betterton ; and it has often amazed me to see those who soon came after him, throw out in some parts of a character a just and graceful spirit which Betterton himself could not but have applauded ; and yet, in the equally shining passages of the same character, have heavily...
Page 101 - Melantha is as finished an impertinent as ever fluttered in a drawing-room, and seems to contain the most complete system of female foppery that could possibly be crowded into the tortured form of a fine lady.
Page 293 - Meaning, the Fable of Mars and Venus* was form'd into a connected Presentation of Dances in Character, wherein the Passions were so happily expressed, and the whole Story so intelligibly told by a mute Narration of Gesture only, that even thinking Spectators allow'd it both a pleasing and a rational Entertainment...
Page 100 - Mountfort, whose second marriage gave her the name of Verbruggen, was mistress of more variety of humour than I ever knew in any one woman actress. This variety too was attended with an equal vivacity, which made her excellent in characters extremely different. -As she was naturally a pleasant...
Page 64 - Hamlet should be in so violent a passion with the gho«t, which, though it might have astonished, had not provoked him ? For you may observe, that in this beautiful speech the passion never rises beyond an almost breathless astonishment, or an impatience limited by filial reverence, to...
Page 310 - ... if the common fame of her may be believed, which in my memory was not doubted, she had less to be laid to her charge, than any other of those ladies who were in the same state of preferment : she never meddled in matters of serious moment, or was the tool of working politicians ; never...