[The Palmy Days of Nance Oldfield by Edward Robins]@TWC D-Link bookThe Palmy Days of Nance Oldfield CHAPTER X 14/19
Yea, the husband waxed ecstatic after several years of married bliss, once more tuned his lyre, and burst forth into verses, wherein he set forth, among other things: "Happy the hour when first our souls were joined! The social virtues and the cheerful mind Have ever crowned our days, beguiled our pain; Strangers to discord and her clamorous train," &c. The lines suggest placidity of existence, and placid, indeed, was the married life of Booth, barring his moments of ill-health.
When his career is compared to that of certain other players, it stands out in rather pleasant relief, by virtue of its even tenor and prosperity.
It was free from the vicissitudes which have waylaid the paths of equally great artists, and the current of his genius ran on without a ripple, save that of sickness.
There was one direction, however, wherein Booth found variety and excitement, and that was in the wondrous diversity of parts which he assumed.
In tragedy, his work took a wide range, going all the way from Laertes to Othello, while he sallied forth now and again into the field of comedy, and emerged therefrom with honour. He did not, to be sure, distinguish himself so brilliantly as a comedian as he did in tragic garb, yet he wooed Thalia in a genteel way which seldom failed to please.
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