The Stage: Both Before and Behind the Curtain: From "observations Taken on the Spot.", Volume 3R. Bentley, 1840 |
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Common terms and phrases
actors Alfred Bunn Amburgh amongst amusements Balfe character Charles Kean Chevalier Spontini city of Westminster committee Covent Garden Theatre DEAR BUNN DEAR SIR dinner Ditto Drury Lane Theatre Duke Duncombe engagement entertainments exertions Farinelli favour feeling Fridays Garrick gentlemen George Robins German operas give given Guillaume Tell hear honour Kean's Kemble Knowles Lady legitimate drama Lent lessee letter license London Lord Byron Lord Chamberlain Lord Chamberlain's Office Lord John Russell lordship Macready Majesty Majesty's March matter MEMS ment Miss Monsieur never nights noble lord obedient servant occasion opinion paid parties patent theatres performance piece played present proprietors question reader receipts received reply respect Reynolds Royal Drury Lane salary School for Scandal season Shakspeare Shakspeare's Sheridan Sir Giles stage sub-committee subjoined talent Theatre Royal Drury theatrical tion Wednesday wish
Popular passages
Page 71 - I am in blood Stepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er : Strange things I have in head, that will to hand ; Which must be acted, ere they may be scann'd.
Page 75 - Enter: its grandeur overwhelms thee not; And why ? It is not lessened ; but thy mind, Expanded by the genius of the spot, Has grown colossal, and can only find A fit abode wherein appear enshrined Thy hopes of immortality; and thou Shalt one day, if found worthy, so defined, See thy God face to face, as thou dost now His holy of holies, nor be blasted by his brow.
Page 92 - Content thyself to be obscurely good. When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, The post of honour is a private station.
Page 57 - Out upon Time ! it will leave no more Of the things to come than the things before ! Out upon Time ! who for ever will leave But enough of the past for the future to grieve...
Page 47 - Cause, slave ! why, I am angry, And thou a subject only fit for beating, And so to cool my choler. Look to the writing ; Let but the seal be broke upon the box, That has slept in my cabinet these three years, I'll rack thy soul for't.
Page 196 - Glory is like a circle in the water, Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself, Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to nought.
Page 50 - ... find I have as daring spirits in my blood As thou or any of thy race e'er boasted; And though no gaudy titles grac'd my birth, Titles, the servile courtier's lean reward, Sometimes the pay of virtue, but more oft The hire which greatness gives to slaves and sycophants, Yet heav'n, that made me honest, made me more Than ever king did when he made a lord.
Page 157 - ... examiner of plays to Drury Lane, with his report upon their merits and demerits. Certain of the items may be here reproduced : — ' Paired Off — The plan, characters, and dialogue of the piece are by no means objectionable, but I fear it is not up to the mark as to the breadth necessary for a one-act piece. The part intended for Mrs. Glover is tame, and what she could or would do nothing with. ' Nicolas Pedrossa— Sad stuff — to be returned.
Page 151 - This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war, This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea...
Page 123 - WELLINGTON SURPRISED. A nobleman ventured, in a moment of conviviality at his Grace's table, to put this question to him: — " Allow me to ask, as we are all here titled, if you were not SURPRISED at Waterloo ?" To which the Duke responded,