]
[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales
of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or
software or any other related product without express permission.]
Etext by James Rusk, jrusk@mac-email.com. Italics are indicated by the
underscore character (_). Accent marks in are ignored.
Peg Woffington
by Charles Reade
To T. Taylor, Esq., my friend, and coadjutor in the comedy of "Masks and
Faces," to whom the reader owes much of the best matter in this tale: and
to the memory of Margaret Woffington, falsely _summed up_ until to-day,
this "Dramatic Story" is inscribed by CHARLES READE.--
LONDON. Dec. 15, 1852.
CHAPTER I.
ABOUT the middle of the last century, at eight o'clock in the evening, in
a large but poor apartment, a man was slumbering on a rough couch. His
rusty and worn suit of black was of a piece with his uncarpeted room, the
deal table of home manufacture, and its slim unsnuffed candle.
The man was Triplet, scene painter, actor and writer of sanguinary plays,
in which what ought to be, viz., truth, plot, situation and dialogue,
were not; and what ought not to be, were--_scilicet,_ small talk, big
talk, fops, ruffians, and ghosts.
His three mediocrities fell so short of one talent that he was sometimes
_impransus._
He slumbered, but uneasily; the dramatic author was uppermost, and his
"Demon of the Hayloft" hung upon the thread of popular favor.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25