The Stage: Both Before and Behind the Curtain: From "observations Taken on the Spot.", Volume 1

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R. Bentley, 1840 - Theater

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Page xxii - THE harp that once through Tara's halls The soul of music shed, Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls As if that soul were fled. So sleeps the pride of former days, So glory's thrill is o'er, And hearts that once beat high for praise Now feel that pulse no more.
Page 4 - tis but to fill A certain portion of uncertain paper ; Some liken it to climbing up a hill, Whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapour, For this men write, speak, preach, and heroes kill, And bards burn what they call their " midnight taper," To have, when the original is dust, A name, a wretched picture, and worse bust.
Page 15 - horse while another may not look over the hedge," has been seldom more fully exemplified than in the circumstance I am about to mention.
Page 156 - The very first Of human, life must spring from woman's breast, Your first small words are taught you from her lips, Your first tears quench'd by her, and your last sighs Too often breathed out In a woman's hearing, When men have shrunk from the ignoble care Of watching the last hour of him who led them.
Page 229 - THERE is a tear for all that die, A mourner o'er the humblest grave ; But nations swell the funeral cry, And Triumph weeps above the brave. For them is Sorrow's purest sigh O'er Ocean's heaving bosom sent : In vain their bones unburied lie, All earth becomes their monument ! A tomb is theirs on every page, An epitaph on every tongue : The present hours, the future age, For them bewail, to them belong.
Page 260 - And lastly, we do by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, grant unto the said James Russell, his executors, administrators, and assigns, that these, our letters patent, or the enrolment or exemplification thereof, shall be in and...
Page 12 - I know not ; all my new function consists ' in listening to the despair of Cavendish Bradshaw, ' the hopes of Kinnaird, the wishes of Lord Essex, the ' complaints of Whitbread, and the calculations of ' Peter Moore, — all of which, and whom, seem totally ' at variance. C. Bradshaw wants to light the theatre ' with gas, which may, perhaps (if the vulgar be be' lieved), poison half the audience, and all the Dramatis
Page 124 - Almighty's form Glasses itself in tempests; in all time, Calm or convulsed; in breeze or gale or storm, Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime Dark-heaving, boundless, endless, and sublime, — The image of Eternity, the throne Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime The monsters of the deep are made; each zone Obeys thee; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone.
Page 259 - ... plays and entertainments of the stage as aforesaid to the actors and other persons employed in acting representing or in any quality whatsoever about the said theatre as he or they shall think fit and that the said Company shall be under the sole government and authority of the said...
Page 206 - There is given Unto the things of earth, which Time hath bent, A spirit's feeling, and where he hath leant His hand, but broke his scythe, there is a power And magic in the ruined battlement, For which the palace of the present hour Must yield its pomp, and wait till ages are its dower.

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