The Life of Edmund Kean, Volume 1

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Tinsley brothers, 1869 - Actors - 420 pages

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Page 151 - To bait fish withal : if it will feed nothing else it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me and hindered me of half a million ; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies! and what's his reason? I am a Jew ! Hath not a Jew eyes?
Page 225 - Twere now to be most happy, for I fear My soul hath her content so absolute That not another comfort like to this Succeeds in unknown fate.
Page 154 - I pray you, give me leave to go from hence; I am not well; send the deed after me, And I will sign it.
Page 131 - bated breath, and whispering humbleness, Say this, — " Fair, sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last ; You spurned me such a day ; another time You called me — dog ; and for these courtesies I'll lend you thus much moneys.
Page 356 - Yes, as rocks are, When foamy billows split themselves against Their flinty ribs ; or as the moon is moved, When wolves, with hunger pined, howl at her brightness.
Page 138 - His style of acting is, if we may use the expression, more significant, more pregnant with meaning, more varied and alive in every part, than any we have almost ever witnessed.
Page 226 - Excellent wretch ! Perdition catch my soul, But I do love thee ! and when I love thee not Chaos is come again.
Page 232 - Is this the nature Whom passion could not shake? whose solid virtue The shot of accident, nor dart of chance. Could neither graze nor pierce?
Page 159 - A name to all succeeding ages curst: For close designs and crooked counsels fit, Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit; Restless, unfixed in principles and place; In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace; A fiery soul, which, working out its way, Fretted the pigmy body to decay, And o'er-informed the tenement of clay...
Page 356 - I pen this passage; now composed, now grand as the foamy billows ; so flute-like on the word ' moon,' creating a scene with the sound, and anon sharp, harsh, fierce in the last line, with a look upward from those matchless eyes, that rendered the troop visible, and their howl perceptible to the ear ; the whole serenity of the man, and the solidity of his temper, being less illustrated by the assurance in the succeeding words than by the exquisite music in the tone with which he uttered the word

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