Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884 edition. Excerpt: ... front of the fireplace, where he had so many times sat at the feet ol his loved Gerty. For a little while he lay gasping for breath, with his eyes--the dear, kind eyes--now quickly glazing with the deathfilm, turned towards the door, in expectation of Gerty's return. With a great effort he lifted one paw tremblingly towards those who were tearfully watching him, and, with one deep, deep sigh and a little shiver, "Lion" the Dog Actor, had left this world's stage for ever. 3Ba3adllo tbe jfirejftenb. A passage from the autobiography of orlando ganderpest. By H. A. Jones. having carefully read all the recent magazine articles on the subject, I became morbidly aware of the present fearful decline of dramatic literature, and, though but the humble assistant to a country hairdresser, I determined to strike a blow for the emancipation of the stage. I determined I would write a blank verse tragedy that should drag the drama out of the slough into which it had fallen, and stand as a bright and lasting example to future ages of what Padbury-on-the-Wold could produce in this degenerate nineteenth century. Padbury-on-the-Wold is my native place. There is a desolate and hopeless tone about Padbury-on-the-Wold, and I affirm that if the choice of a birthplace had been left to my own discretion, Padbury is the very last place I should have chosen to be born in. However, there is one advantage in my being born in Padbury--no other noted person ever was, or in all human probability ever will be, born in Padbury-on-the-Wold; so in future ages I shall have it, as a birthplace, all to myself; for the present, since the scandalous reception by Padbury of my tragedy of " Bazarillo the Fire-Fiend," I have shaken the dust of my native town from off my feet, with...