Records Of A Girlhood Volume 1 (1 Of 2) - Frances Ann Kemble (sad books to read TXT) 📗
- Author: Frances Ann Kemble
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Do Not _Yet_ Call Her My Friend. You Are My Friend, And Mrs. Harry
Siddons Is My Friend, And You Are The Only Persons I Call By That
Name. I Have Read "Paul Clifford," According To Your Desire, And
Like It Very Much; It Is Written With A Good Purpose, And Very
Powerfully. You Asked Me If I Believed Such Selfishness As
Brandon's To Be Natural, And I Said Yes, Not Having Read The Book,
But Merely From Your Report Of Him; And, Having Read The Book, I
Say So Still.
Volume 1 Chapter 16 Pg 82DUBLIN, August, 1830.
MY DEAR H----,
I Should Have Answered Your Letter Sooner Had I Before Been Able To
Give You Any Certain Intelligence Of Our Theatrical Proceedings
Next Week, But I Was So Afraid Of Some Change Taking Place In The
List Of The Plays That I Resolved Not To Write Until Alteration Was
Impossible. The Plays For Next Week Are, On Monday, "Venice
Preserved;" On Wednesday, "The Grecian Daughter;" Thursday, "The
Merchant Of Venice." I Wish Your People May Be Able To Come Up, The
Latter End Of The Week; I Think "Romeo And Juliet," And "The
Merchant Of Venice," Are Nice Plays For Them To See. But You Have,
I Know, An Invitation From Mrs. J---- To Come Into Town On Monday.
I Do Not Know Whether My Wishes Have At All Influenced Her In This,
But She Has My Very Best Thanks For It, And I Know That They Will
Have Some Weight With You In Inclining You To Accept It; Do, My
Dearest H----, Come If You Can. I Shall Certainly Not Be Able To
Return To Ardgillan, And So My Only Chance Of Seeing You Depends
Upon Your Coming Into Dublin. I Wish I Had Been With You When You
Sat In The Sun And Listened To The Wind Singing Over The Sea. I
Have A Great Admiration For The Wind, Not So Much For Its Purifying
Influences Only, As For Its Invisible Power, Strength, The Quality
Above All Others Without Which There Is Neither Moral Nor Mental
Greatness Possible. Natural Objects Endowed With This Invisible
Power Please Me Best, As Human Beings Who Possess It Attract Me
Most; And My Preference For It Over Other Elements Of Character Is
Because I Think It Communicates Itself, And That While In Contact
With It One Feels As If It Were _Catching_; And Whether By The
Shore, When The Tide Is Coming Up Fast And Irresistible, Or In The
Books Or Intercourse Of Other Minds, It Seems To Rouse
Corresponding Activity And Energy In One's Self, Persuading One,
For The Time Being, That One Is Strong. I Am Sure I Have Felt
Taller By Three Inches, As Well As Three Times More Vigorous In
Body And Mind, Than I Really Am, When Running By The Sea. It Seemed
As If That Great Mass Of Waters, As It Rushed And Roared By My
Side, Was Communicating Power Directly To My Mind As Well As My
Bodily Frame, By Its Companionship. I Wish I Was On The Shore Now
With You. It Is Surprising (Talking Of E----) How Instantaneously,
And By What Subtle, Indescribable Means, Certain Qualities Of
Volume 1 Chapter 16 Pg 83Individual Natures Make Themselves Felt--Refinement, Imagination,
Poetical Sensibility. People's Voices, Looks, And Gestures Betray
These So Unconsciously; And I Think More By The Manner, A Great
Deal, Than The Matter Of Their Speech. Refinement, Particularly, Is
A Wonderfully Subtle, Penetrating Element; Nothing Is So Positive
In Its Effect, And Nothing So Completely Escapes Analysis And
Defies Description.
I Am Glad Dear Little H---- Thought I "Grew Pretty;" There Is A
World Of Discrimination In That Sentence Of His. To Your Charge
That I Should Cultivate My Judgment In Preference To My
Imagination, I Can Only Answer, "I Am Ready And Willing To Do So;"
But It Is Nevertheless Not Altogether Easy For Me To Do It. My Life
In London Leaves Me Neither Time Nor Opportunity For Any
Self-Culture, And It Seems To Me As If My Best Faculties Were Lying
Fallow, While A Comparatively Unimportant Talent, And My Physical
Powers, Were Being Taxed To The Uttermost. The Profession I Have
Embraced Is Supposed To Stimulate Powerfully The Imagination. I Do
Not Find It So; It Appeals To Mine In A Slight Degree Compared With
Other Pursuits; It Is Too Definite In Its Object And Too Confined
In Its Scope To Excite My Imagination Strongly; And, Moreover, It
Carries With It The Antidote Of Its Own Excitement In The Necessary
Conditions Under Which It Is Exercised. Were It Possible To Act
With One's Mind Alone, The Case Might Be Different; But The Body Is
So Indispensable, Unluckily, To The Execution Of One's Most
Poetical Conceptions On The Stage, That The Imaginative Powers Are
Under Very Severe Though Imperceptible Restraint. Acting Seems To
Me Rather Like Dancing Hornpipes In Fetters. And, By No Means The
Least Difficult Part Of The Business Is To Preserve One's Own
Feelings Warm, And One's Imagination Excited, While One Is Aiming
Entirely At Producing Effects Upon Others; Surrounded, Moreover, As
One Is, By Objects Which, While They Heighten The Illusion To The
Distant Spectator, All But Destroy It To Us Of The _Dramatis
Personæ_. None Of This, However, Lessens The Value And Importance
Of Your Advice, Or My Own Conviction That "Mental Bracing" Is Good
For Me. My Reception On Monday Was Quite Overpowering, And I Was
Escorted Back To The Hotel, After The Play, By A Body-Guard Of
About Two Hundred Men, Shouting And Hurrahing Like Mad; Strange To
Say, They Were People Of Perfectly Respectable Appearance. My
Father Was Not With Us, And They Opened The Carriage Door And Let
Down The Steps, When We Got Home, And Helped Us Out, Clapping, And
Showering The Most Fervent Expressions Of Good-Will Upon Me And
Aunt Dall, Whom They Took For My Mother. One Young Man Exclaimed
Pathetically, "Oh, I Hope Ye're Not Too Much Fatigued, Miss Kemble,
By Your Exertions!" They Formed A Line On Each Side Of Me, And
Several Of Them Dropped On Their Knees To Look Under My Bonnet, As
I Ran Laughing, With My Head Down, From The Carriage To The House.
I Was Greatly Confused And A Little Frightened, As Well As Amused
And Gratified, By Their Cordial Demonstration.
The Humors Of A Dublin Audience, Much As I Had Heard Of Them Before
Going To Ireland, Surprised And Diverted Me Very Much. The Second
Night Of Our Acting There, As We Were Leaving The Theater By The
Private Entrance, We Found The Carriage Surrounded By A Crowd
Volume 1 Chapter 16 Pg 84Eagerly Waiting For Our Coming Out. As Soon As My Father Appeared,
There Was A Shout Of "Three Cheers For Misther Char-_Les!_" Then
Came Dall, And "Three Cheers For Misthriss Char-_Les!_" Then I, And
"Three Cheers For Miss Fanny!" "Bedad, She Looks Well By
Gas-Light!" Exclaimed One Of My Admirers. "Och, And Bedad, She
Looks Well By Daylight Too!" Retorted Another, Though What His
Opportunity For Forming That Flattering Opinion Of The Genuineness
Of My Good Looks Had Been, I Cannot Imagine. What Further Remarks
Passed Upon Us I Do Not Know, As We Drove Off Laughing, And Left
Our Friends Still Vociferously Cheering. My Father Told Us One Day
Of His Being Followed Up Sackville Street By Two Beggar-Women,
Between Whom The Following Dialogue Passed, Evidently With A View
To His Edification: "Och, But He's An Iligant Man, Is Misther
Char-_Les_ Kemble!" "An' 'Deed, So Was His Brudher Misther John,
Thin--A Moighty Foine Man! And To See His _Demanour_, Puttin' His
Hand In His Pocket And Givin' Me Sixpence, Bate All The Worrld!"
When I Was Acting Lady Townley, In The Scene Where Her Husband
Complains Of Her Late Hours And She Insolently Retorts, "I Won't
Come Home Till Four, To-Morrow Morning," And Receives The Startling
Reply With Which Lord Townley Leaves Her, "Then, Madam, You Shall
Never Come Home Again," I Was Apt To Stand For A Moment Aghast At
This Threat; And One Night During This Pause Of Breathless Dismay,
One Of My Gallery Auditors, Thinking, I Suppose, That I Was Wanting
In Proper Spirit Not To Make Some Rejoinder, Exclaimed, "Now Thin,
Fanny!" Which Very Nearly Upset The Gravity Produced By My Father's
Impressive Exit, Both In Me And In The Audience.
DUBLIN, Friday, August 6, 1830.
MY DEAREST H----,
I Fear I Caused You A Disappointment By Not Writing To You
Yesterday Afternoon, But As It Was Not Until Between Five And Six
O'clock That I Learned We Were Not Going To Cork, When I Thought Of
Writing You To That Effect I Found I Was Too Late For The Post. I
Hope Still That Dall And I May Be Able To Come To Ardgillan Again,
But We Cannot Leave My Father Alone Here, And His Departure For
Liverpool Is At Present Quite Uncertain. I Have Been Trying To
Reason Myself Into Patience, Notwithstanding A Very Childish
Inclination To Cry About It, Which I Think I Will Indulge Because I
Shall Be Able To Be So Much More
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