“AWFUL” TASTE IN 1875!
Scene—A Ball Room. Edwin leads out Angelina as arranged earlier in the evening, to dance a promised “square.” They walk through the first figure. A pause.
Edwin. Been to the Academy, of course?
Angelina. O yes. Been several times. So fond of Miss Thompson’s picture, you know. I like the group of the dying soldier and the boy laughing at having killed a Frenchman, awfully. So awfully clever, you know.
Edwin. O awfully! The wounds are so awfully true to nature, you know. Do we begin?
They walk through the second figure. A pause.
Edwin. Been to see Salvini?
Angelina. Of course. Isn’t he awfully nice? I think he is perfectly charming in Othello. His face quite reminds me, in the Jealousy Scene, of dear Mr. Irving in the last Act of The Bells. His suicide at the end of the piece, you know, is really quite too awfully clever. Isn’t it?
Edwin. You mean the throat-cutting affair, eh? When he falls on his back and dies quivering, eh? O yes, awfully clever. It’s our turn, I think.