?I believe we must be satisfied with less,? said Maria?There would
not be time, and other difficulties would ariseWe must rather adopt
MrCrawford?s views, and make the performance, not the theatre,
our objectMany parts of our best plays are independent of scenery
?Nay,? said Edmund, who began to listen with alarm?Let us do
nothing by halvesIf we are to act, let it be in a theatre completely
fitted up with pit, boxes, and gallery, and let us have a play entire
from beginning to end; so as it be a German play, no matter what,
with a good tricking, shifting afterpiece, and a figure-dance, and a
hornpipe, and a song between the actsIf we do not outdo Ecclesford,
we do nothing
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?Now, Edmund, do not be disagreeable,? said Julia?Nobody loves
a play better than you do, or can have gone much farther to see
one
?True, to see real acting, good hardened real acting; but I would
hardly walk from this room to the next to look at the raw efforts of
those who have not been bred to the trade: a set of gentlemen and
ladies, who have all the disadvantages of education and decorum to
struggle through
After a short pause, however, the subject still continued, and was
discussed with unabated eagerness, http://www.enluxury.com/categorys_99_Gucci-Tote_1.html" target="_blank every one?s inclination increasing
by the discussion, and a knowledge of the inclination of the
rest; and though nothing was settled but that Tom Bertram would
prefer a comedy, and his sisters and Henry Crawford a tragedy, and
that nothing in the world could be easier than to find a piece which
would please them all, the resolution to act something or other
seemed so decided as to make Edmund quite uncomfortableHe
was determined to prevent it, if possible, though his mother, who
equally heard the conversation which passed at table, did not evince
the least disapprobation
The same evening afforded him an opportunity of trying his
strengthMaria, Julia, Henry Crawford, and MrYates were in the
billiard-roomTom, returning from them into the drawing-room,
where Edmund was standing thoughtfully by the fire, while Lady
Bertram was on the sofa at a little distance, and Fanny close beside
her arranging her work, thus began as he entered??Such a horribly
vile billiard-table as ours is not to be met with, I believe, above
groundI can stand it no longer, and I think, I may say, that nothing
shall ever tempt me to it again; but one good thing I have just
ascertained: it is the very room for a theatre, precisely the http://www.culuxury.com/category_1_Balenciaga_1.html" target="_blank shape and
length for it; and the doors at the farther end, communicating with
each other, as they may be made to do in five minutes, by merely
moving the bookcase in my father?s room, is the very thing we could
have desired, if we had sat down to wish for it; and my father?s room
will be an excellent greenroomIt seems to join the billiard-room
on purpose
?You are not serious, Tom, in meaning to act?? said Edmund, in a
low voice, as his brother approached the fire
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Jane Austen
?Not serious! never more so, I assure youWhat is there to surprise
you in it??
?I think it would be very wrongIn a general light, private theatricals
are open to some objections, but as we are circumstanced, I
must think it would be highly injudicious, and more than injudicious
to attempt anything of the kindIt would shew great want of
feeling on my father?s account, absent as he is, and in some degree
of constant danger; and it would be imprudent, I think, with regard
to Maria, whose situation is a very delicate one, considering everything,
extremely delicate
?You take up a thing so seriously! as if we were going to act three
times a week till my father?s return, and invite all the countryBut it
is not to be a display of that http://www.ualuxury.com/categorys_105_Chanel-Earrings_1.html" target="_blank sortWe mean nothing but a little
amusement among ourselves, just to vary the scene, and exercise
our powers in something newWe want no audience, no publicity
We may be trusted, I think, in chusing some play most perfectly
unexceptionable; and I can conceive no greater harm or danger to
any of us in conversing in the elegant written language of some
respectable author than in chattering in words of our ownI have
no fears and no scruplesAnd as to my father?s being absent, it is so
far from an objection, that I consider it rather as a motive; for the
expectation of his return must be a very anxious period to my mother;
and if we can be the means of amusing that anxiety, and keeping up
her spirits for the next few weeks, I shall think our time very well
spent, and so, I am sure, will heIt is a very anxious period for her
As he said this, each looked towards their motherLady Bertram,
sunk back in one corner of the sofa, the picture of health, wealth,
ease, and tranquillity, was just falling into a gentle doze, while Fanny
was getting through the few difficulties of her work for her
Edmund smiled and shook his head
?By Jove! this won?t do,? cried Tom, throwing himself into a chair
with a hearty laugh?To be sure, http://www.enluxury.com/categorys_102_Gucci-Lastet-Collection_1.html" target="_blank my dear mother, your anxiety?I
was unlucky there
?What is the matter?? asked her ladyship, in the heavy tone of
one half-roused; ?I was not asleep
?Oh dear, no, ma?am, nobody suspected you! Well, Edmund,? he
continued, returning to the former subject, posture, and voice, as
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soon as Lady Bertram began to nod again, ?but this I will maintain,
that we shall be doing no harm
?I cannot agree with you; I am convinced that my father would
totally disapprove it
?And I am convinced to the contraryNobody is fonder of the
exercise of talent in young people, or promotes it more, than my
father, and for anything of the acting, spouting, reciting kind, I
think he has always a decided tasteI am sure he encouraged it in us
as boysHow many a time have we mourned over the dead body of
Julius Caesar, and to be?d and not to be?d, in this very room, for his
amusement? And I am sure, my name was Norval, every evening of
my life through one Christmas holidays
?It was a very different thingYou must see the difference yourself
My father wished us, as schoolboys, to speak well, but he would
never wish his grown-up daughters to be acting playsHis sense of
decorum is strict
?I know all that,? said Tom, http://www.irluxury.com/category_27_Chanel-Watches_1.html" target="_blank displeas