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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
under water , —remaining there till \ was exhausted : I wonder they did not see Hiat I should become a pearl-diver . My hpur of weekly commuuiprv with my father arrived , and
brought about the same exhibition , with different results . He was surprised at my retention of the farce , and asked cne of the (tragedy / \ made no reply ; till , on his going intQ detail , I at length said , Oh , father , I cannot talk of it ; I seem to swing in the air when I think of it V He instantly changed the subject *
How often after this , during the short time I yet remained with ray uncle , did I race down to the stage-door , for the mere chance of looking at an actor or actress as they passed in or put , ox to catch a glimpse of a lamplighter or a scene-shifter , such happy mortals , such superlative beings did I think they were ; and after on one occasion of gallerying and one of pitting , ( to which latter
I was promoted by an aunt , not my master-uncle ' s wife , she was of the opposite to St . PeterV creed , ) how much did I covet the possibility of being admitted to the honour of walking in a procession , or of standing among the gallant guards , ( though , sooth to say , there were queer looking things among them occasionally , ) attendant on some of the kings and queens aud heroes ! But all
this was a vain hope , it coujLd never be realized ; yet op those very boards , no , for that building was burnt down , in the very place of those boards , the first tim $ I entered that theatre , twenty- * three years after my ' flitting' from the counting-house , home , an . d England , was to fulfil an engagement , in large letters * to play fivt nights oriZy , a series of Shakspeare ' s tragic glpi ' ies , * By Mr .
Verjujce , being his first appearance in this theatre ; ' and I swear to . you , reader , if you won ' t take it without an oath , I was not , ou this occasion , half so great a man in nay own opinion * as I thought , a message deliverer twenty-three years prior to this singular event * There was no lack of murmuring as to my going to the play \ * it would come to no good , ' and all the usual terrors of
consequence were spread out in detail . For my own part , I could not see the evil of it , I never could to this hour ; yet I thmk I have had my lessons , and I have pried into the affair with a close eye ; I have turned it over sourly and soberly , philosophically and coolly , doatingly and hatingly . Perhaps if others will take the
trouble to analyze theatrical representations to the extent that I have done , they will be less averse to them ; nay , some of them will be surprised at themselves for holding such opinions . Few , however , are disposed to think earnestly on matters which are not directly in the channel of their pursuits and occupations .
Much , most , if not entirely ajl the evil which the oppQiieqU find in dramatic representations they carry to the theatre themselves , buckled under their own belts . There is a preparation . qC the senses , perhaps by rather an established obtuseness , or 9 . temporary debas ^ meo ^ of the intellect , which causes them , to s $ e that which is neither shewn , q c * jegaot ^ ly intruded tp tx ^ khown j
Untitled Article
4 %$ Myrfrat Play .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1833, page 486, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2618/page/46/
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