The Wilds of London |
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Popular passages
Page 300 - But behold when men were most secure and thought the woorke to be perpetuall, on All Saints' daie 1597 appeared the mighty force of God, who with the finger of his hand at one great and exceeding high spring tyde with a south east wynd overthrew this huge worke in lesse than an hower to the great terrour and abashment of all beholders...
Page 168 - ... of prey of uglier type than this two-legged creature, who poisons the minds of little children to make his bread. Never a more dangerous one, for his manginess is hidden under a sleek and glossy coat, and lips of seeming innocence conceal his cruel teeth. His subtlety, too, is more than canine.... Beware of him, O careful parents of little lads! He is as cunning as the fabled vampire. Already he may have bitten your little rosy-cheeked son Jack. 5...
Page 15 - I've done a-singin' my song then the piece'll be ready and not a oat before, and the more you hinterrupts 'why the longer you'll be kept-awaitin', that's all.' And having expressed these manly and British sentiments in genuine Whitechapel English, he readjusted his wig and became once more an afflicted African bewailing how 'Cruel massa stole him wife and lily piccaninny...
Page 289 - ... relations between the sexes. While its attitude towards courtship could be rhapsodic, there were few illusions about marriage. Writing about marriage among the London poor in the 1870s, Greenwood remarked of the couples he saw entering and leaving the church, 'they are as a rule, cool and business like, as though, having paid a deposit on the purchase of a donkey or a handsome barrow, they were just going in with their witnesses to settle the...
Page 95 - Love he plays some funny tricks With us unlucky elves : So, gentlemen, I pray look out, And take care of yourselves. For once I met a nice young maid, Looking so demure ; All at once to me she said, "You are a perfect Ourel
Page 15 - She wore buckskin shorts, and boots of brilliant polish knee high and higher, and with spurs to them; her coat was of green velvet slashed with crimson, with a neat little breast pocket, from which peeped a cambric handkerchief; her raven curls hung about her shoulders, and on her head was a threecornered hat, crimson edged with gold; under her arm she carried a riding whip, and in each hand a pistol of large size. By way of thanking her friends in the boxes and pit for their generous greeting (it...
Page 108 - I vengefully approached him, and said "Mr Shaw: I know what you are going to say. But you may depend on me. In the intellectual drama I never clown." And it was some time before I could persuade him that I was in earnest when I exhorted him to clown for all he was worth. I was continually struggling with the conscientious efforts of our players to underdo their parts lest they should be considered stagey. Much as if Titian had worked in black and grey lest he should be considered painty.
Page 13 - In a few minutes the doors were opened, and we were admitted - the box customers on payment of twopence, and the pit customers at the rate of a penny each. It was not a commodious building, nor particularly handsome, the only attempt at embellishment appearing at the stage end, where for the space of a few feet the plaster wall was covered with ordinary wallpaper of a grape-vine pattern. and further ornamented by coloured and spangled portraits of Mrs Douglas Fitzbruce in her celebrated characters...
Page 165 - Toby Marks dangled now a dead weight by his legs ; the two robbers saw the thick and deep-coloured blood roll sluggishly from his nostrils. Then it burst in a torrent from his ears and mouth, and soon his face presented a horrible spectacle to look upon. The blood had completely saturated his hair, until he looked as though he had been newly scalped. The torture was over. The traitorous wretch could bear no more in safety, and so they cut him down. And thus did they avenge the sad end of the gallant...
Page 17 - ... thick and heavy legs in a decidedly sleepy manner. Properly, I believe, he should have showed his high mettle by rearing and plunging a bit when Gentleman Jack spurred him, but though the bold rider sawed at its bit until the animal's toothless gums were visible, and spurred it until the rowels were completely clogged with the yielding hair of its flanks, it only wagged its tail languidly and snorted. Again was the sound of approaching hoofs heard, this time accompanied by the rumbling of wheels,...