Memoirs of Richard Cumberland

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Parry and McMillan, 1856 - 397 pages

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Page 190 - I received one morning a message from poor Goldsmith that he was in great distress, and, as it was not in his power to come to me, begging that I would come to him as soon as possible. I sent him a guinea, and promised to come to him directly. I accordingly went as soon as I was dressed, and found that his landlady had arrested him for his rent, at which he was in a violent passion. I perceived that he had already changed my guinea, and had got a bottle of Madeira and a glass before him. I put the...
Page 307 - Though secure of our hearts, yet confoundedly sick If they were not his own by finessing and trick: He cast off his friends as a huntsman his pack, For he knew, when he pleased, he could whistle them back.
Page 191 - ... which he might be extricated. He then told me that he had a novel ready for the press, which he produced to me. I looked into it, and saw its merit ; told the landlady I should soon return, and having gone to a bookseller, sold it for sixty pounds. I brought Goldsmith the money, and he discharged his rent, not without rating his landlady in a high tone for having used him so ill '." My next meeting with Johnson was on Friday the 1st of July, when he and I and Dr.
Page 393 - I knew him,' says Mr. Burke, in a pamphlet written after their unhappy difference, ' when he was nineteen ; since which time he has risen, by slow degrees, to be the most brilliant and accomplished debater the world ever saw.
Page 21 - It is the fashion to underrate Horace Walpole, firstly, because he was a nobleman, and secondly, because he was a gentleman; but, to say nothing of the composition of his incomparable " Letters," and of the "Castle of Otranto," he is the "Ultimus Romanorum," the author of the " Mysterious Mother," a tragedy of the highest order, and riot a puling love-play.
Page 189 - Here Cumberland lies, having acted his parts, The Terence of England, the mender of hearts; A flattering painter, who made it his care To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are.
Page 167 - Flow'd ere the wonted season, with a torrent So unexpected, and so wondrous fierce, That the wild deluge overtook the haste Ev'n of the hinds that watch'd it: men and beasts Were borne above the tops of trees, that grew On th' utmost margin of the water-mark.
Page 307 - As an actor, confess'd without rival to shine ; As a wit, if not first, in the very first line : Yet, with talents like these, and an excellent heart, The man had his failings, a dupe to his art. Like an ill-judging beauty, his colours he spread, And beplaster'd with rouge his own natural red. On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting ; 'Twas only that when he was off he was acting.
Page 178 - ... and from vanity and an eager desire of being conspicuous wherever he was, he frequently talked carelessly without knowledge of the subject, or even without thought. His person was short, his countenance coarse and vulgar, his deportment that of a scholar awkwardly affecting the easy gentleman. Those who were in any way distinguished, excited envy in him to so ridiculous an excess, that the instances of it are hardly credible.
Page 189 - Like a tragedy queen he has dizen'd her out, Or rather like tragedy giving a rout. His fools have their follies so lost in a crowd Of virtues and feelings, that folly grows proud; And coxcombs, alike in their failings alone, Adopting his portraits, are pleas'd with their own.

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