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They accept the play as it is presented to them, just as tho it had happened, with no suspicion of the forethought by which the performance has been made possible. George Henry Lewes, in his stimulating essays, 'On Actors and the Art of Acting, has told us that audiences are inclined to overestimate the genius of an actor and to underestimate his trained skill.
Lord Henry peered through his glasses, murmuring, "Charming! charming!" The scene was the hall of Capulet's house, and Romeo in his pilgrim's dress had entered with Mercutio and his other friends. The band, such as it was, struck up a few bars of music, and the dance began. Through the crowd of ungainly, shabbily dressed actors, Sibyl Vane moved like a creature from a finer world.
After that the lord and the lady entertained them with a great feast, where harpers and singers made music, and where certain actors acted a mystery before them. Thus ended that day which was the first day of the knighthood of Sir Percival of Gales.
Here Rest the Ashes of WILLIAM JAMES FLORENCE, Comedian. His Copious and Varied Dramatic Powers, together with the Abundant Graces of his Person, combined with Ample Professional Equipment and a Temperament of Peculiar Sensibility and Charm, made him one of the Best and Most Successful Actors of his Time, alike in Comedy and in Serious Drama.
Of the several ways this faculty of projecting have exerted itself, and of the various methods, as the genius of the authors has inclined, I have been a diligent observer and, in most, an unconcerned spectator, and perhaps have some advantage from thence more easily to discover the faux pas of the actors.
The country was now too effectually subjected to the law for this vile outrage to be followed by the advantages proposed by the actors, Military parties were sent out in every direction to seize the MacGregors, who were for two or three weeks compelled to shift from one place to another in the mountains, bearing the unfortunate Jean Key along with them.
The stage now began to fill with the privileged, among whom were many of the high aristocracy of the ruling canton, most of its officials, who were too dignified to be more than complacent spectators of revels like these, many nobles of mark from Prance and Italy, a few travellers from England, for in that age England was deemed a distant country and sent forth but a few of her élite to represent her on such occasions, most of those from the adjoining territories who could afford the time and cost, and who by rank or character were entitled to the distinction, and the wives and families of the local officers who happened to be engaged as actors in the representation.
Think of this well, young actors, who are content to play for safety, to avoid ridicule at all costs, to be "natural" oh, word most vilely abused! What sort of naturalness is this of Hamlet's? "O, villain, villain, smiling damned villain!" Henry Irving's imitators could make people burst with laughter when they took off his delivery of that line.
I should be a good deal puzzled to make you understand this, if we had not our grand list to refer to. Ounces. Carbon 63 Hydrogen 7, etc. Fibrine, casein, albumen, they are all the same thing in the main. It is one substance assuming different appearances, according to the occasion; like actors who play several parts in a piece, and go behind the scenes from time to time to change their dresses.
Curtis laughed and frowned at the same time. "Poor little daughter of the tenements! She is indeed a problem." "Shall I tell you all I have been able to find out about Tania?" asked Madge. "Her history is quite like a story-book tale. I think her father and mother were actors, but the father died when Tania was only a little baby.
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