Critical Essays on the Performers of the London Theatres: Including General Observations on the Practise and Genius of the Stage |
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Critical Essays on the Performers of the London Theatres: Including General ... Leigh Hunt No preview available - 2020 |
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acting action actor actress admiration amuse appears applause astonishment audience aukward BANNISTER beauties become Belvidera Caliban called certainly character CHARLES KEMBLE Charles Oakley Clandestine Marriage comedian comedy comic contempt Coriolanus countenance criticism dignity display DowTON drama dramatists effect elegant ELLISTON EMERY excellent exhibits expression fancy farce fault FAWCETT feeling female gaiety GARRICK genius gentleman gives habits Haymarket Theatre humour imagine imitation indifference indulge JORDAN judgment KEMBLE'S lady laugh laughter LEWIS LISTON look ludicrous manner MATHEWS ment merely mind MISS DUNCAN MUNDEN natural ness never observation Octavian original passions peculiar perfect performance perhaps perpetual person Pertinax Philotas play powers praise pronunciation Quaker racter real genius reason recollect render representation respect ridiculous rustic scene seems sentimental comedy SHAKSPEARE shews SIDDONS sion speech spirit stage style sublime theatre theatrical thing tion tone tragedian tragedy tragic utter vivacity voice VOLTAIRE vulgarity writers
Popular passages
Page 135 - In spite of outward blemishes, she shone, For humour fam'd, and humour all her own. Easy, as if at home, the stage she trod, Nor sought the critic's praise, nor fear'd his rod. Original in spirit and in ease, She pleas'd by hiding all attempts to please. No comic actress ever yet could raise, On humour's base, more merit or more praise.
Page 135 - With all the native vigour of sixteen, Among the merry troop conspicuous seen, See lively Pope advance in jig, and trip Corinna, Cherry, Honeycomb, and Snip ; Not without art, but yet to Nature true, She charms the Town with humour just yet new ; Cheer'd by her promise, we the less deplore The fatal time when Clive shall be no more.
Page 7 - Vitus's dance : by this study of nonentities it would appear that he never pulls out his handkerchief without a design upon the audience, that he has as much thought in making a step as making a speech, in short that his very finger is eloquent and that nothing means something. But all this neither delights nor deceives the audience : of an assembly collected together to enjoy a rational entertainment, the majority will always be displeased with what is irrational though they may be unable to describe...
Page 126 - I dare say all actors have their hours of disquiet, and perhaps more than most men, yet he has not the air of one who elevates his sensations the moment he enters the stage and drops them the instant he departs. It is a very common and a very injurious fault with actors to come before the audience with a manner expressive of beginning a task ; they adjust their neckcloths and hats as if they had dressed in a hurry, look about them as much as to say, " What sort of a house have I got this evening...
Page 74 - Munden, who is unluckily one of the strongest supports to our gigantic farces, and whose powers, like his features, have been so twisted out of their proper direction, that they seem unable to recover themselves. Almost the whole force of his acting consists in two or three ludicrous gestures and an innumerable variety of as fanciful contortions of countenance as ever threw woman into hysterics : his features are like the reflection of a man's face in a ruffled stream, they undergo a perpetual undulation...
Page 151 - Her laughter intermingles itself with her words as fresh ideas afford her fresh merriment; she does not so much indulge as she seems unable to help it; it increases, it lessens, with her fancy; and when you expect it no longer, according to the usual habits of the stage, it sparkles forth at little intervals as recollection revives it, like flame from half-smothered embers.
Page 18 - ... can make it not only imperfect but disgusting. Mr. Pope has not one requisite to an actor but a good voice, and this he uses so unmercifully on all occasions that its value is lost, and he contrives to turn it into a defect. His face is- as hard, as immovable, and as void of meaning as an oak wainscot ; his eyes, which should endeavour to throw some meaning into his vociferous declamation, he generally contrives to keep almost shut ; and what would make...
Page 60 - Citizen : if anything can excel the grave moniedness he affects in order to cheat his father, it is his description of the garret-author, of that miserable pamphleteer who, holding one baby on his knee and rocking another in the cradle with his foot, is writing a political essay with his right hand while he occasionally twirls round a scrag of roast pork with his left : during this description the mirth of the audience becomes impatient to express itself, till the admirable mimic having wound up...