Shakespeares Heroines On The Stage PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 edition. Excerpt: ...as vicious and the bad despised as foolish." The lady who created Dryden's heroine was a favorite of the town, and was of reputation less fair than her model complexion. Little Mrs. Boutell, with her childish look and weak voice, would hardly be considered fitting for the Queen of Caesar and of Antony; but as she " generally acted the young, innocent lady whom all the heroes are mad in love with," she apparently possessed a considerable degree of allurement in her action. Elizabeth Barry, whom Dryden pronounced the best actress he had ever seen, and who, although dis figured by a crooked mouth and plain features, could captivate my Lord Rochester, and could secure from James II.'s Queen, as a present, her majesty's wedding and coronation robes, was Mrs. Boutell's successor; and she, in turn, was followed by the tall, handsome Mrs. Oldfield, with the benevolent heart and the "speaking eyes," the lady who enjoyed the protection of the brother of the Duke of Marlborough, and who would play Cleopatra when she was thirtyfive. The jovial though demure-faced Peg Woffington, who excelled in Cleopatra, first tried the character when she was twenty-nine. The delicate and lovely Mrs. Hartley, whose features served as the model for many of Sir Joshua Reynold's pictures, was but twenty-two when she took up the part. Miss Younge, the lifelike copy of George III.'s idol, the beautiful Lady Sarah Lennox, was older by a decade, while Mrs. Siddons, who appears to have played the mile but once, was one year older still. A curious adventure befell the lovely and wicked George Anne Bellamy in the play, an adventure in which a rival actress, with truly womanly revenge, drove the...