Memoirs of Mrs. Siddons: Interspersed with Anecdotes of Authors and Actors |
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Page ix
... Gives verse a music scarce confess'd its own ; Passion's wild break - and frown that awes the sense , And every charm of gentler eloquence , — All perishable ! like the electric fire , But strike the frame , and as they strike expire ...
... Gives verse a music scarce confess'd its own ; Passion's wild break - and frown that awes the sense , And every charm of gentler eloquence , — All perishable ! like the electric fire , But strike the frame , and as they strike expire ...
Page x
... give to my work the chronological form of Memoirs . Part of my plan I have executed in the Life of my late friend Mr. Kemble , which has been received by every description of readers with a degree of favour of which I may reasonably be ...
... give to my work the chronological form of Memoirs . Part of my plan I have executed in the Life of my late friend Mr. Kemble , which has been received by every description of readers with a degree of favour of which I may reasonably be ...
Page 4
... give the palm of virtue to the audiences of my own country . In the case of Phedra , the French , in compliment to the Greek Euripides or their own , while there can be found an actress to sustain the character , will continue to endure ...
... give the palm of virtue to the audiences of my own country . In the case of Phedra , the French , in compliment to the Greek Euripides or their own , while there can be found an actress to sustain the character , will continue to endure ...
Page 15
... give it more passion and less mouth . " Bannister's reverence for his great master might not lead him to inquire how often this scene had been played in the same place before ? But he could hardly fail to perceive that the tutor on the ...
... give it more passion and less mouth . " Bannister's reverence for his great master might not lead him to inquire how often this scene had been played in the same place before ? But he could hardly fail to perceive that the tutor on the ...
Page 22
... give the cast in 1776. The three lady graces in his book are Miss Sherry , Mrs. Davies , and Miss Platt . The reader has seen that Bate's report of our actress de- cided the great manager to receive her ; though , as to his heroines ...
... give the cast in 1776. The three lady graces in his book are Miss Sherry , Mrs. Davies , and Miss Platt . The reader has seen that Bate's report of our actress de- cided the great manager to receive her ; though , as to his heroines ...
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actor actress admirable appearance attention audience Barry beauty Belvidera Brereton brother called character charm Cibber Colman comedy comic Coriolanus Covent Garden Theatre critic delight display dramatic Drury Lane Theatre effect excellence excited exhibited expression fame fancy Farren father favour favourite feeling female Garrick genius grace Hamlet happy heart Henderson heroine honour humour husband Iago imagination interest Isabella Jaffier Jane Shore Kemble Kemble family King King Lear Lady Macbeth language Lear look Lord manager manner mind Miss Younge modern Murphy Muse nature never night noble occasion opera Othello passion perfect performance perhaps person play poet present Queen reader retirement rival scene School for Scandal season seemed Shakespeare Sheridan Siddons sister spectators Spranger Barry stage style talents taste theatrical thee thou thought tion tragedy tragic truth uttered virtue Voltaire wife woman writer Yates
Popular passages
Page 298 - I have given suck, and know How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me : I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done to this.
Page 233 - Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that: You take my house, when you do take the prop That doth sustain my house; you take my life, When you do take the means whereby I live.
Page 307 - Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty ! make thick my blood ; Stop up the access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose...
Page 444 - It was on the day, or rather night, of the 27th of June 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last page, in a summer-house in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several turns in a berceau, or covered walk of acacias, which commands a prospect of the country, the lake, and the mountains. The air was temperate, the sky was serene, the silver orb of the moon was reflected from the waters, and all nature was silent.
Page 322 - I have almost forgot the taste of fears : The time has been, my senses would have cool'd To hear a night-shriek ; and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse, and stir, As life were in't : I have supp'd full with horrors ; Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, Cannot once start me.
Page 314 - Exposing what is mortal and unsure To all that fortune, death and danger dare, Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great Is not to stir without great argument, But greatly to find quarrel in a straw When honour 's at the stake.
Page 297 - ... Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here ; And fill me, from the crown to the toe...
Page 42 - Alas ! poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio ; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy ; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times ; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is ! my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft.
Page 252 - For grief is proud and makes his owner stoop. To me and to the state of my great grief Let kings assemble; for my grief's so great That no supporter but the huge firm earth Can hold it up : here I and sorrows sit ; Here is my throne, bid kings come bow to it.
Page 211 - Looking tranquillity ! it strikes an awe And terror on my aching sight ; the tombs And monumental caves of death look cold, And shoot a chillness to my trembling heart.