Life of Richard Brinsley Sheridan

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W. Scott, 1890 - 177 pages

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Page 143 - They offer us their protection; yes, such protection as vultures give to lambs — covering and devouring them ! They call on us to barter all of good we have inherited and proved, for the desperate chance of something better which they promise. Be our plain answer this: — The throne we honor is the people's choice; the laws we reverence are our brave fathers...
Page 36 - Jack, there never can be but one man in the world whom a truly modest and delicate woman ought to pair with in a country-dance; and, even then, the rest of the couples should be her great-uncles and aunts!
Page 72 - I'm in a rare humour to listen to other people's distresses! I sha'n't be able to bestow even a benevolent sentiment on Stanley. — So! here he comes, and Rowley with him. I must try to recover myself, and put a little charity into my face, however.
Page 166 - But should there be to whom the fatal blight Of failing wisdom yields a base delight — Men who exult when minds of heavenly tone Jar in the music which was born their own — Still let them pause — ah ! little do they know That what to them seemed vice might be but woe.
Page 123 - Mr. Sheridan has a very fine figure, and a good though I don't think a handsome face. He is tall, and very upright, and his appearance and address are at once manly and fashionable, without the smallest tincture of foppery or modish graces. In short, I like him vastly, and think him every way worthy his beautiful companion.
Page 105 - Begums' machinations to produce all this !' Why did they rise ? Because they were people in human shape ; because patience under the detested tyranny of man is rebellion to the sovereignty of God ; because allegiance to that Power that gives us the forms of men commands us to maintain the rights of men. And never yet was this truth dismissed from the human heart — never in any time, in any age — never in any clime, where rude man ever had any social feeling, •or where corrupt refinement had...
Page 153 - H. with thousands upon thousands a year, some of it either presently derived, or inherited in sinecure or acquisitions from the public money, to boast of their patriotism and keep aloof from temptation ; but they do not know from what temptation those have kept aloof who had equal pride, at least equal talents, and not unequal passions, and nevertheless knew not in the course of their lives what it was to have a shilling of their own.
Page 120 - Whose humour, as gay as the fire-fly's light, Played round every subject, and shone as it played — • Whose wit, in the combat, as gentle as bright, Ne'er carried a heart-stain away on its blade...
Page 87 - Well, if they had kept to that, I should not have been such an enemy to the stage; there was some edification to be got from those pieces, Mr. Sneer ! Sneer. I am quite of your opinion, Mrs. Dangle: the theatre, in proper hands, might certainly be made the school of morality ; but now, I am sorry to say it, people seem to go there principally for their entertainment ! Mrs.

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