FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   >>  
cting in scene two, act five, when he was quoting these words, "It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul; Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars! It is the cause. Yet I'll not shed her blood, Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow, And smooth as monumental alabaster. Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men. Put out the light, and then--put out the light! If I quench thee, thou flaming minister, I can again thy former light restore, Should I repent me: But once put out thy light, Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature; I know not where is that Promethean heat, That can thy light relume. When I have plucked thy rose, I cannot give it vital growth again; It needs must wither:--I'll smell it on the tree-- (_kissing her_) O balmy breath, that dost almost persuade Justice to break her sword:--One more, one more:-- Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee, And love thee after:--One more--and this the last: So sweet was ne'er so fatal. I must weep. But they are cruel tears: This sorrow's heavenly: It strikes where it doth love." the house was so carried away with the manner in which he rendered it, that a young man stood up and exclaimed with the greatest earnestness: "She is innocent, Othello, she is innocent," and yet so interested was he in the acting himself that he never moved a muscle but continued as if nothing had been said to embarrass him. The next day he learned, while dining with a Russian prince, that a young man who had been present had been so affected by the play that he had been seized with a sudden illness and died the next day. Mr. Aldridge was a welcome guest in the ranks of the cultured and wealthy, and was often in the "salons" of the haughty aristocrats of St. Petersburg and Moscow. Titled ladies wove, knitted and stitched their pleasing emotions into various memorials of friendship. In his palatial residence at Sydenham, near London, were collected many presents of intrinsic value, rendered almost sacred by association. Prominent among these tokens of regard was an autographic letter from the King of Prussia, transmitting the first medal of art and sciences; the Cross of Leopold, from the Emperor of Russia, and a Maltese cross received at Berne. In all his triumphs he never lost interest in the condition of his race. He always took an interest in everything touc
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   >>  



Top keywords:

innocent

 

interest

 

rendered

 
haughty
 
aristocrats
 

illness

 

seized

 
salons
 

sudden

 

Othello


Aldridge

 

cultured

 

wealthy

 
Russian
 

embarrass

 

muscle

 

continued

 
learned
 

present

 
affected

prince

 
interested
 

dining

 

acting

 
London
 

sciences

 

Leopold

 

Russia

 

Emperor

 

transmitting


autographic

 

regard

 

letter

 

Prussia

 
Maltese
 

condition

 
received
 
triumphs
 
tokens
 

emotions


pleasing

 

memorials

 

stitched

 
Titled
 

Moscow

 

ladies

 

knitted

 
friendship
 

palatial

 
intrinsic