The Life of an ActorFictional account of an actor's life at the beginning of the 19th century. |
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Common terms and phrases
acquainted actor amongst anecdotes appearance applause attention audience Baronet Bartholomew Fair beautiful better blue-eyed nymph Brilliant Shore celebrated character comic Covent Garden Covent Garden Theatre dear delight door Drawn & Engraved dress elegant endeavour engagement exclaimed eyes fair ELIZA fame father favourite feelings fellow flattered fond friend Horatio gentleman GRINE Hamlet happy Haymarket Theatre heart hero honour Horatio Quill hour John Kemble John Philip Kemble Kemble Knipe ladies laugh likewise London look mansion MARIA master metropolis MILDMAY mind Miss mistress Mug-Cutter never night numerous obtain Othello Oxberry PERE PEREGRINE PEREGRINE'S performers person pieces play player possessed prison profession PROTEUS public house rehearsal replied respecting retired retreat Romeo salary scene Screw servants Shakspeare shillings SIR HENRY GAYBOY situation smile soon stage success talents Tavistock Street Teazer Theatres Royal theatrical THEATRICAL PROPERTY Theodore Lane Thespis thing thought town Whitecross young BULLION
Popular passages
Page 33 - Let me play the fool : With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come, And let my liver rather heat with wine Than my heart cool with mortifying groans. Why should a man, whose blood is warm within, Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster?
Page 106 - Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air...
Page xiv - Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances, And so he plays his part.
Page 161 - Her brow was white and low, her cheek's pure dye Like twilight rosy still with the set sun ; Short upper lip — sweet lips ! that make us sigh Ever to have seen such ; for she was one Fit for the model of a statuary, (A race of mere impostors, when all's done — I've seen much finer women, ripe and real, Than all the nonsense of their stone ideal).
Page 58 - O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown: The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword, The expectancy and rose of the fair state, The glass of fashion and the mould of form, The observ'd of all observers, quite, quite down.
Page 33 - I love thee, and it is my love that speaks,— There are a sort of men, whose visages Do cream and mantle like a standing pond; And do a wilful stillness entertain, With purpose to be dress'd in an opinion Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit; As who should say, ' I am Sir Oracle, And, when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!
Page 260 - Pity it is that the momentary beauties flowing from an harmonious elocution cannot, like those of poetry, be their own record; that the animated graces of the player can live no longer than the instant breath and motion that presents them, or at best can but faintly glimmer through the memory or imperfect attestation of a few surviving spectators...
Page 110 - My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.
Page 161 - I said, was auburn : but her eyes Were black as death, their lashes the same hue, Of downcast length, in whose silk shadow lies Deepest attraction ; for when to the view Forth from its raven fringe the full glance flies, Ne'er with such force the swiftest arrow flew : "Tis as the snake late coil'd, who pours his length, And hurls at once his venom and his strength.
Page 24 - He who in earnest studies o'er his part Will find true nature cling about his heart. The modes of grief are not included all In the white handkerchief and mournful drawl...