The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 1: Miscellaneous ProseLamb, Charles
General
The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 1: Miscellaneous Prose
Lamb, Charles
English literature
Miss KELLY is not quite at home in _Charlotte_; she is too good for such
parts. Her cue is to be natural; she cannot put on the modes of
artificial life, and play the coquet as it is expected to be played.
There is a frankness in her tones which defeats her purposes: we could
not help wondering why her lover (Mr. PEARMAN) looked so rueful; we
forgot that she was acting airs and graces, as she seemed to forget it
herself, turning them into a playfulness which could breed no doubt for
a moment which way her inclinations ran. She is in truth not framed to
tease or torment even in jest, but to utter a hearty _Yes_ or _No_; to
yield or refuse assent with a noble sincerity. We have not the pleasure
of being acquainted with her, but we have been told that she carries the
same cordial manners into private life. We have heard, too, of some
virtues which she is in the practice of; but they are of a description
which repay themselves, and with them neither we nor the public have any
thing to do.
One word about WRENCH, who played the Colonel:--Was this man never
unhappy? It seems as if care never came near him, as if the black ox
could never tread upon his foot; we want something calamitous to befal
him, to bring him down to us. It is a shame he should be suffered to go
about with his well-looking happy face and tones, insulting us thin race
of irritable and irritable-making critics.
* * * *.
V.--NEW PIECES AT THE LYCEUM
(1819)
A plot has broke out at this theatre. Some quarrel has been breeding
between the male and female performers, and the women have determined to
set up for themselves. Seven of them, _Belles without Beaux_ they call
themselves, have undertaken to get up a piece without any assistance
from the men, and in our opinion have established their point most
successfully. There is Miss CAREW with her silvery tones, and Miss
STEVENSON with her delicious mixture of the school-girl and the
waiting-maid, and Miss KELLY sure to be first in any mischief, and Mrs.
CHATTERLY with some of the best acting we have ever witnessed, and Miss
LOVE, worthy of the _name_, and Mrs. GROVE that rhymes to her, and Mrs.
RICHARDSON who might in charity have been allowed somewhat a larger
portion of the dialogue. The effect was enchanting. We mean, for once.
We do not want to encourage these Amazonian vanities. Once or twice we
longed to have WRENCH bustling among them. A lady who sate near us was
observed to gape for want of variety. To us it was delicate
quintessence, an apple-pye made all of quinces. We remember poor
HOLCROFT'S last Comedy, which positively died from the opposite excess;
it was choked up with men, and perished from a redundancy of male
population. It had nine principal men characters in it, and but one
woman, and she of no very ambiguous character. Mrs. HARLOW, to do the
part justice, chose to play it in scarlet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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