Some Account of the English Stage: From the Restoration in 1660 to 1830. In Ten Volumes, Volume 6

Front Cover
H.E. Carrington, 1832
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 62 - HENCE, all you vain delights, As short as are the nights Wherein you spend your folly ! There's nought in this life sweet, If man were wise to see't, But only melancholy ; Oh ! sweetest melancholy.
Page 297 - tis a common proof, That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, Whereto the climber-upward turns his face; But when he once attains the upmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees By which he did ascend: so Caesar may; Then, lest he may, prevent.
Page 140 - Have not they vexed yourself a little, Sir? Have not you been vexed by all the turbulence of this reign, and by that absurd vote of the House of Commons: "That the influence of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished"?
Page 297 - That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger To sound what stop she please. Give me that man That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, As I do thee.
Page 105 - There new-born plays foretaste the town's applause, There dormant patterns pine for future gauze. A moral essay now is all her care, A satire next, and then a bill of fare. A scene she now projects, and now a dish, Here Act the First, and here 'Remove with Fish.
Page 62 - Fountain heads and pathless groves, Places which pale passion loves ! Moonlight walks, when all the fowls Are warmly housed save bats and owls ! A midnight bell, a parting groan, These are the sounds we feed upon ; Then stretch our bones in a still gloomy valley : Nothing's so dainty sweet as lovely melancholy.
Page 62 - t, But only melancholy ; O sweetest melancholy ! Welcome, folded arms and fixed eyes, A sigh that piercing mortifies, A look that 's fasten'd to the ground, A tongue chain'd up without a sound ! Fountain heads and pathless groves, Places which pale passion loves ! Moonlight walks, when all the fowls Are warmly...
Page 6 - And, since the Comic Muse Hath proved so ominous to me, I will try If TRAGEDY have a more kind aspect; Her favours in my next I will pursue, Where, if I prove the pleasure but of one. So he judicious be, he shall be alone A theatre unto me...
Page 587 - Do you place me in the rank of verminous fellows, To destroy things for wages? offer gold For the life-blood of man? is anything Valued too precious for my recompense? Beat. I understand thee not. De F. I could ha...
Page 280 - But when to please himself or charm his wife He aims at something in politer life, When blindly thwarting Nature's stubborn plan, He treads the stage by way of gentleman, The clown, who no one touch of breeding knows, Looks like Tom Errand dress'd in Clincher's* clothes.

Bibliographic information