Volume III Part 74 (1/2)
”Certainly He will have real tears He says that if an actor wants to draw tears he ht there; but he should not be so severe with a actresses like you Such perfection is only to be looked for from professionals, but all authors are the same
They never think that the actor has pronounced the words with the force which the sense, as they see it, requires”
”I told him, one day, that it was not my fault if his lines had not the proper force”
”I ahed? No, sneered, for he is a rude and impertinent s?”
”Not at all; we have sent him about his business”
”Sent him about his business?”
”Yes He left the house he had rented here, at short notice, and retired to where you will find him now He never comes to see us now, even if we ask hih you sent him about his business?”
”We cannot deprive ourselves of the pleasure of ad his talents, and if we have teased hi of the iven a lesson to a great master”
”Yes; but when you see him mention Lausanne, and see what he will say of us But he will say it laughingly, that's his way”
During my stay I often saw Lord Rosebury, who had vainly courtedman more disposed to silence I have been told that he had wit, that he ell educated, and even in high spirits at tiave him an almost indefinable air of stupidity At balls, assemblies--in fact, everywhere, his manners consisted of innuood French but with the fewest possible words, and his shy manner shewed that every question was a trouble to hi with him, I asked him some question about his country, which required five or six save irl when she comes out The celebrated Fox as then twenty, and was at the sa solish, which I did not understand in the least Eight ain at Turin, he was then aue
At Lausanne I saw a young girl of eleven or twelve by whose beauty I was exceedingly struck She was the daughter of Madame de Saconai, whom I had known at Berne I do not know her after history, but the i in nature has ever exercised such a powerful influence over me as a pretty face, even if it be a child's
The Beautiful, as I have been told, is endoith this power of attraction; and I would fain believe it, since that which attracts me is necessarily beautiful in my eyes, but is it so in reality? I doubt it, as that which has influenced me has not influenced others The universal or perfect beauty does not exist, or it does not possess this power
All who have discussed the subject have hesitated to pronounce upon it, which they would not have done if they had kept to the idea of for to my ideas, beauty is only form, for that which is not beautiful is that which has no form, and the deformed is the opposite of the 'pulchruht to seek for the definitions of things, but e have theo farther? If the word 'for and not the French, which, however, often uses 'deforly, without people's noticing that its opposite should be a hich implies the existence of form; and this can only be beauty We should note that 'informe' in French as well as in Latin means shapeless, a body without any definite appearance
We will conclude, then, that it is the beauty of woman which has always exercised an irresistible sway over me, and more especially that beauty which resides in the face It is there the power lies, and so true is that, that the sphinxes of Roh, the face excepted, they are defor at the fine proportions of their faces one forgets their deformed bodies What, then, is beauty? We know not; and e attempt to define it or to enumerate its qualities we beco that our minds can seize is the effect produced by it, and that which charms, ravishes, andthat can be seen with the eyes, and for my eyes I speak If they had a voice they would speak better than I, but probably in the same sense
No painter has surpassed Raphael in the beauty of the figures which his divine pencil produced; but if this great painter had been asked what beauty was, he would probably have replied that he could not say, that he knew it by heart, and that he thought he had reproduced it whenever he had seen it, but that he did not knohat it consisted
”That face pleases ht to have thanked God for having given him such an exquisite eye for the beautiful; but 'oh renown, all those whose works proclaienius, have excelled in the delineation of the beautiful; but how small is their number compared to the vast craved who have strained every nerve to depict beauty and have only left ushis works beautiful, everyis easier than to fashi+on ugliness, and brush and canvas would be as easy to handle asis the most important branch of the art, it is to be noted that those who have succeeded in this line are very few
There are three kinds of portraits: ugly likenesses, perfect likenesses, and those which to a perfect likeness add an almost imperceptible character of beauty The first class is worthy only of conte, for to want of taste and talent they add is The second class cannot be denied to possess real s to the third, which, unfortunately, are seldoe fortunes they amass Such was the fareat artist was then eighty, and in spite of his great age his talents seemed in all their freshness He painted a plain wo likeness, and in spite of that those who only saw the portrait pronounced her to be a handsome woman