“He is just the man to play the gladiator,” replied her fair neighbour; “but I dare say he is the first English actor now living.”
“Unquestionably,” resumed the first. “How Macready must have been jealous of him!”
“And, in fact, every other English actor!” added the second. “You know the prejudices of John Bull with regard to America.”
Othello.—“For know, Iago,
But that I love the gentle Desdemona,
I would not my unhoused free condition
Put into circumscription, and confine,
For the sea’s worth.”
“A fine moral lesson, this, for our young men that want to get married!” exclaimed an elderly lady, turning round to the gentleman behind her.
“You must not forget, ma’am, that he is but a negro,” replied the gentleman.
“I don’t like this play at all,” rejoined the lady. “I think it immoral from beginning to end.”
“And most unnatural too!” vociferated the gentleman. “A white woman to fall in love with a black man!”
“And the daughter of a senator too!” exclaimed the lady.
“It’s preaching a regular amalgamation doctrine! The play ought not to be allowed to be performed before our negroes.”