Rachel, Her Stage Life and Her Real Life

Front Cover
Chapman and Hall, 1911 - Actresses - 275 pages

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 130 - I had heard this woman termed "plain," and I expected bony harshness and grimness something large, angular, sallow. What I saw was the shadow of a royal Vashti: a queen, fair as the day once, turned pale now like twilight, and wasted like wax in flame. For...
Page 130 - Suffering had struck that stage empress; and she stood before her audience neither yielding to, nor enduring, nor, in finite measure, resenting it: she stood locked in struggle, rigid in resistance. She stood, not dressed, but draped in pale antique folds, long and regular like sculpture. A background and entourage and flooring of deepest crimson threw her out white like alabaster — like silver; rather, be it said, like Death.
Page 130 - The theatre was full — crammed to its roof: royal and noble were there: palace and hotel had emptied their inmates into those tiers so thronged and so hushed. Deeply did I feel myself privileged in having a place before that stage; I longed to see a being of whose powers I had heard reports which made me conceive peculiar anticipations.
Page 66 - Mon époux, en mourant, m'a laissé ses lumières ; Son sang dont tes bourreaux viennent de me couvrir M'a dessillé les yeux et me les vient d'ouvrir.
Page 53 - Si ta bouche ne doit rien dire De ces vers désormais sans prix; Si je n'ai, pour être compris, Ni tes larmes, ni ton sourire; Si dans ta voix, si dans tes traits, Ne vit plus le feu qui m'anime; Si le noble cœur de Monime Ne doit plus savoir mes secrets ; Si ta triste lettre est signée; Si les gardiens d'un vieux tombeau Laissent leur prêtresse indignée Sortir, emportant son flambeau ; Cette langue de ma pensée Que tu connais, que tu soutiens, Ne sera jamais prononcée...
Page 130 - I wondered if she would justify her renown: with strange curiosity, with feelings severe and austere, yet of riveted interest, I waited. She was a study of such nature as had not encountered my eyes yet: a great and new planet she was: but in what shape? I waited her rising. She rose at nine that December night: above the horizon I saw her come. She could shine yet with pale grandeur and steady might; but that star verged already on its judgment-day.
Page 130 - These evil forces bore her through the tragedy, kept up her feeble strength — she was but a frail creature ; and, as the action rose and the stir deepened, how wildly they shook her with their passions of the pit ! They wrote " Hell" on her straight, haughty brow.
Page 74 - of a very good height, too thin for beauty, but not for dignity or grace. . . . Her face is very expressive and dramatically fine, though not absolutely beautiful. It is a long oval, with a head of classical and very graceful contour, the forehead rather narrow, and not very high ; the eyes small, dark, deep set, and terribly powerful ; the brow straight, noble, and fine in form.
Page 130 - I found upon her something neither of woman nor of man : in each of her eyes sat a devil. These evil forces bore her through the tragedy, kept up her feeble strength — for she was but a frail creature ; and as the action rose and the stir deepened, how wildly they shook her with their passions of the pit ! They wrote HELL on her straight, haughty brow. They tuned her voice to the note of torment. They writhed her regal face to a demoniac mask. Hate and Murder and Madness incarnate she stood. It...
Page 130 - I recognised my mistake. Behold ! I found upon her something neither of woman nor of man: in each of her eyes sat a devil. These evil forces bore her through the tragedy, kept up her feeble strength — for she was but a frail creature ; and as the action rose and the stir deepened, how wildly they shook her with their passions of the pit 1 They wrote HELL on her straight, haughty brow.

Bibliographic information