The critic; or, A tragedy rehearsed: altered from Sheridan [by R. Valpy] as it was performed at Reading school, Volume 248 |
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Common terms and phrases
accomplished Christopher actors admirable amazement lost authors believe Briscoe Burleigh comedy Cons Crit critics Dang dapper daisy daughter dear Dangle dear Sneer Don Whisker dropsies Drury Lane EARL of LEICESTER Enter Prompter Enter Servant Enter TILBURINA Exeunt Exit Constable finches friend Puff gentlemen give ha!-very hath hear heart honor is't ladies Leic Linnet Lord Lord Burleigh madam managers mean ment Morning Chronicle never newspaper Nieces nity-He panegyric piece Plague play plumed valor polyanthus pray Prom Puff's tragedy quits this bustling rehearsal RULE BRITANNIA sea-fight Sentinels Shakspeare Sir Christopher Hatton Sir F Sir Fretful Plagiary Sir Walter SIR WALTER RALEIGH smart gillyflower soft music Spanish Spanish Armada speak stage stark mad strike suppose sure Swords tell theatrical thing TILBURINA and CONFIDANT Tilbury Fort trope true uncles vastly Walter Raleigh Whisk Whiskerandos quits white satin
Popular passages
Page 46 - NIECES' arms, and turn the points of their swords to WHISKERANDOS, who immediately draws two daggers, and holds them to the two NIECES' bosoms." Puff. There's situation for you! there's an heroic group! — You see the ladies can't stab Whiskerandos — he durst not strike them, for fear of their uncles — the uncles durst not kill him, because of their nieces! — I have them all at a dead lock ! — for every one of them is afraid to let go first. Sneer. Why, then they must stand there for ever!
Page 18 - From me they learned to inlay their phraseology with variegated chips of exotic metaphor: by me too their inventive faculties were called forth: — yes, sir, by me they were instructed to clothe ideal walls with gratuitous fruits — to insinuate obsequious rivulets into visionary groves...
Page 20 - To the charitable and humane!" and "to those whom Providence hath blessed with affluence!" Sneer. Oh, — I understand you. Puff. And, in truth, I deserved what I got ; for I suppose never man went through such a series of calamities in the same space of time ! — Sir, I was five times made a bankrupt, and reduced from a state of affluence, by a train of unavoidable misfortunes...
Page 11 - Believe me, Mr. Sneer, there is no person for whose judgment I have a more implicit deference. But I protest to you, Mr. Sneer, I am only apprehensive that the incidents are too crowded. My dear Dangle, how does it strike you ? Dan.
Page 9 - I take away from no man's merit — am hurt at no man's good fortune — I say nothing — but this I will say — through all my knowledge of life, I have observed, that there is not a passion so strongly rooted in the human heart as envy ! Sneer.
Page 34 - Ay, this is always the way at the theatre: give these fellows a good thing, and they never know when to have done with it.
Page 44 - Why, by that shake of the head he gave you to understand that even though they had more justice in their cause, and wisdom in then- measures ; yet if there was not a greater spirit shown on the part of the people, the country would at last fall a sacrifice to the hostile ambition of the Spanish monarchy.
Page 9 - ... can tell you it is not always so safe to leave a play in the hands of those who write themselves. Sneer. What, they may steal from them, hey, my dear Plagiary ? Sir Fret.
Page 30 - Mr. Puff, as he knows all this, why does Sir Walter go on telling him? Puff. But the audience are not supposed to know anything of the matter, are they? Sneer. True; but I think you manage ill : for there certainly appears no reason why Sir Walter should be so communicative. Puff.
Page 31 - Fore Gad, now, that is one of the most ungrateful observations I ever heard! — for the less inducement he has to tell all this, the more, I think, you ought to be obliged to him ; for I am sure you'd know nothing of the matter without it.