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Like a dull actor now,
I have forgot my part, and I am out,
Even to a read more
Like a dull actor now,
I have forgot my part, and I am out,
Even to a full disgrace.
It's very hard! Oh, Dick, my boy,
It's very hard one can't enjoy
A little private spouting;
read more
It's very hard! Oh, Dick, my boy,
It's very hard one can't enjoy
A little private spouting;
But sure as Lear or Hamlet lives,
Up comes our master, Bounce! and gives
The tragic Muse a routing.
You need three things in the theatre--the play, the actors and the audience,--and each must give something.
You need three things in the theatre--the play, the actors and the audience,--and each must give something.
The best actors do not let the wheels show.
The best actors do not let the wheels show.
A good actor must never be in love with anyone but himself.
A good actor must never be in love with anyone but himself.
Practice as if you are the worst, perform as if you are the best.
Practice as if you are the worst, perform as if you are the best.
A long, exact, and serious comedy;
In every scene some moral let it teach,
And, if it read more
A long, exact, and serious comedy;
In every scene some moral let it teach,
And, if it can, at once both please and preach.
Like hungry guests, a sitting audience looks;
Plays are like suppers; poets are the cooks.
The founder's read more
Like hungry guests, a sitting audience looks;
Plays are like suppers; poets are the cooks.
The founder's you: the table is the place:
The carvers we: the prologue is the grace.
Each act, a course, each scene, a different dish,
Though we're in Lent, I doubt you're still for flesh.
Satire's the sauce, high-season'd, sharp and rough.
Kind masks and beaux, I hope you're pepperproof?
Wit is the wine; but 'tis so scarce the true
Poets, like vintners, balderdash and brew.
Your surly scenes, where rant and bloodshed join.
Are butcher's meat, a battle's sirloin:
Your scenes of love, so flowing, soft and chaste,
Are water-gruel without salt or taste.