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unearths some literary gems.
From Sara Skelton, by Rachel Ferguson:
***The audience roared with delight when the Chairman, genial H. P. Condiment, rapped with his hammer to announce Mrs. Ruddledial's turn.***an author whose name I could never catch, but which sounded like "Iron Bicycle"***He taught me not to say "Commence," "Westminster" and "Well I never!"***people...who merely leant out of windows and said, "Shoosh!" in the largest possible italics[N.B. "Shoosh!" is set in roman there.]***We would also pin our parts up in the flies, and this was a capital scheme for the long-sighted who had pages of vituperation, involving a lot of calling on high heaven.***We also became terribly polite, and would offer each other cups of tea all day long, even though we were ten miles from an urn.***Let me say at once that my own performance was vile. And for my failure I am artist enough to blame the author entirely.sorter_thing ***I had had no time to dip into the two books...but I am sure they were very good, as the print was very close, and that, in an author, is usually a sign of earnestness.***He was gazing at me hoarsely.***No wonder London christened her "The Guernesey Caramel"!***[A great bit of twisted zeugma, imo!]He had given me, with some daily orchids, to understand that I should be his leading lady when the theatre fell vacant.***"Leading ladyship is an exact science."[This seems to be quite the accidental precursor to Stephen Potter! Ferguson is writing in 1929, and though I imagine she landed on the "-ship" through wordplay on "[her] Ladyship," she's pretty squarely in the upmanship zone in relating the advice she was given on what practices to put in place to assert her status as leading lady in a play. They're not quite "gambits," but she's so close!]***TUESDAY: Dorrien Gray writes. As far as I can make out from mass of epigrams, he too is pleased.***one of those De-so-and-so Ladies***Light though heavy steps descended the companionway.***How tempora does mor.***[Plus lots of silly names for people, places, and things. They're presumably all fictitious, though some are spoofs on real people, places, and things.]Sanguine SilligagMorgan MuffinOssian Dermoid M'CartilegeGustav Poltergeist [a composer]"a Shakespearean skit called Stratford-on-Toast""the Pedantic, a boat of several thousand tons sterling""Let's all go down the Strand, have a banana!" [a ditty]the Satiety [a theatre, presumably a play on the Gaiety]Macdonnell, Sons, Nephew and Macdonnell [a law firm][Bonus: The inscription in the library copy I have out, which I've attached in case you like "that sorter thing."]
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