Читать книгу The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. - James Boswell - Страница 193

[579] Johnson said of Mrs. Pritchard’s playing in general that ‘it was quite mechanical;’ post, April 7, 1775. See also post under Sept. 30, 1783.

[580] ‘The strangling of Irene in the view of the audience was suggested by Mr. Garrick.’ Davies’s Garrick, i. 128. Dryden in his Essay of Dramatick Poesie (edit. 1701, i. 13), says:—‘I have observed that in all our tragedies the audience cannot forbear laughing when the actors are to die; ‘tis the most comick part of the whole play.’ ‘Suppose your Piece admitted, acted; one single ill-natured jest from the pit is sufficient to cancel all your labours.’ Goldsmith’s Present State of Polite Learning, chap. x.

[581] In her last speech two of the seven lines are very bad:—

‘Guilt and despair, pale spectres! grin around me,

And stun me with the yellings of damnation!’