Actresses: “Horrid People With Dyed Hair and Painted Faces”

I am reading The Picture of Dorian Gray right now and immediately wanted to post the following passage. It is an affirmation of the power that actresses can have. To all my actress friends out there, this is for you!

From The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde:

“This play was good enough for us, Harry. It was Romeo and Juliet. I must admit that I was rather annoyed at the idea of seeing Shakespeare done in such a wretched hole of a place. Still, I felt interested, in a sort of way. At any rate, I determined to wait for the first act. There was a dreadful orchestra, presided over by a young Hebrew who sat at a cracked piano, that nearly drove me away, but at last the drop-scene was drawn up, and the play began. Romeo was a stout elderly gentleman, with corked eyebrows, a husky tragedy voice, and a figure like a beer-barrel. Mercutio was almost as bad. He was played by the low-comedian, who had introduced gags of his own and was on most friendly terms with the pit. They were both as grotesque as the scenery, and that looked as if it had come out of a country-booth. But, Juliet! Harry, imagine a girl, hardly seventeen years of age, with a little flower-like face, a small Greek head with plaited coils of dark-brown hair, eyes that were violet wells of passion, lips that were like the petals of a rose. She was the loveliest thing I had ever seen in my life. You said to me once that pathos left you unmoved, but that beauty, mere beauty, could fill your eyes with tears. I tell you, Harry, I could hardly see this girl for the mist of tears that came across me. And her voice – I never heard such a voice. It was very low at first, with deep mellow notes, that seemed to fall singly upon one’s ear. Then it became a little louder, and sounded like a flute or a distant hautbois. In the garden scene it had all the tremulous ecstasy that one hears just before dawn when nightingales are singing. There were moments, later on, when it had the wild passion of violins. You know how a voice can stir one. Your voice and the voice of Sibyl Vane are two things that I shall never forget. When I close my eyes, I hear them, and each of them says something different. I don’t know which to follow. Why should I not love her? Harry, I do love her. She is everything to me in life. Night after night I go to see her play. One evening she is Rosalind, and the next evening she is Imogen. I have seen her die in the gloom of an Italian tomb, sucking the poison from her lover’s lips. I have watched her wandering through the forest of Arden, disguised as a pretty boy in hose and doublet and dainty cap. She has been mad, and has come into the presence of a guilty king, and given him rue to wear, and bitter herbs to taste of. She has been innocent, and the black hands of jealousy have crushed her reed-like throat. I have seen her in every age and in every costume. Ordinary women never appeal to one’s imagination. They are limited to their century. No glamour ever transfigures them. One knows their minds as easily as one knows their bonnets. One can always find them. There is no mystery in any of them: They ride in the Park in the morning, and chatter at tea parties in the afternoon. They have their stereotyped smile, and their fashionable manner. They are quite obvious. But an actress! How different an actress is! Harry! why didn’t you tell me that the only thing worth loving is an actress?”

“Because I have loved so many of them, Dorian.”

“Oh, yes, horrid people with dyed hair and painted faces.”

“Don’t run down dyed hair and painted faces. There is an extraordinary charm in them, sometimes,” said Lord Henry.

Speaking of actresses, congrats to my “Fuji apple” of a cousin, Kerry O’Malley, who is babysitting my dear Hope as we speak (I miss her!!) for the spectacular review by Terry Teachout in the Wall Street Journal.

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3 Responses to Actresses: “Horrid People With Dyed Hair and Painted Faces”

  1. just1beth says:

    Sheila- When Kerry came on the Macy’s parade I friggin’ CALLED everyone I knew “HEY!!! TURN ON YOUR TV!! IT’S KERRY O’MALLEY!!!” Like she was MY cousin. Hahahahahah!! Good work Kerry!! (And hi, Hope! I thought of you last night, when my cat Ollie kneaded my head, then licked it in the middle of the night!)

  2. Kerry says:

    Hope is sitting on my lap purring as I read this. Thanks for the shout-out, Sheila! Hope misses you!

  3. tracey says:

    The WSJ review? Now that seems much more like it. He didn’t go in with his nose in the air already. Love the “Fuji apple” analogy. That’s lovely. Congratulations to Kerry!

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