Reminiscences of Michael Kelly

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

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text excerpt

There was at this time a subscription concert, held at Freemasons Hall, called the Academy of Ancient Music, under the direction of Dr. Arnold ; I was engaged also at that concert for the season. The subscribers were chiefly bankers and merchants from the city ; I think I hardly ever saw a greater assemblage of beautiful women. In the summer of 1789, Mrs. Crouch and I went to Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Liverpool, and had a pleasant and profitable campaign. We performed " The Haunted Tower," in Dublin, with complete success. The morning after the first night's performance of that opera, I was at my father's, and heard a news-boy bawling about the street, " Here is the high-born Hibernian Journal ! the Freeman's Journal ! and Saunders's Great News, and more to come !" Anxious to hear what the papers said of my performance of the night before, I opened the street door, and calling the news-boy to me, asked him for Freeman's Journal ; " Sir," said the ragged urchin, " I've sold the last I had." Then," said I, " you stupid dog, if you have sold them, why are you crying them about the street ?" With an arch look, scratching his head, and looking me full in the face, he replied, " Practice makes perfect, Mr. Kelly; I do it just to keep myself in voice ;" and away he ran.

excerpt from 'Reminiscences of Michael Kelly' pp. 322 (222 words)

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