Percy: "In grief we know the worst of what we feel, But who can tell the end of what we fear?"
By Hannah More
()
About this ebook
Hannah More was born on February 2nd, 1745 at Fishponds in the parish of Stapleton, near Bristol. She was the fourth of five daughters. The City of Bristol, at that time, was a centre for slave-trading and Hannah would, over time, become one of its staunchest critics. She was keen to learn, possessed a sharp intellect and was assiduous in studying. Hannah first wrote in 1762 with The Search after Happiness (by the mid-1780s some 10,000 copies had been sold). In 1767 Hannah became engaged to William Turner. After six years, with no wedding in sight, the engagement was broken off. Turner then bestowed upon her an annual annuity of £200. This was enough to meet her needs and set her free to pursue a literary career. Her first play, The Inflexible Captive, was staged at Bath in 1775. The famous David Garrick himself produced her next play, Percy, in 1777 as well as writing both the Prologue and Epilogue for it. It was a great success when performed at Covent Garden in December of that year. Hannah turned to religious writing with Sacred Dramas in 1782; it rapidly ran through nineteen editions. These and the poems Bas-Bleu and Florio (1786) mark her gradual transition to a more serious and considered view of life. Hannah contributed much to the newly-founded Abolition Society including, in February 1788, her publication of Slavery, a Poem recognised as one of the most important of the abolition period. Her work now became more evangelical. In the 1790s she wrote several Cheap Repository Tracts which covered moral, religious and political topics and were both for sale or distributed to literate poor people. The most famous is, perhaps, The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, describing a family of incredible frugality and contentment. Two million copies of these were circulated, in one year. In 1789, she purchased a small house at Cowslip Green in Somerset. She was instrumental in setting up twelve schools in the area by 1800. She continued to oppose slavery throughout her life, but at the time of the Abolition Bill of 1807, her health did not permit her to take as active a role in the movement as she had done in the late 1780s, although she maintained a correspondence with Wilberforce and others. In July 1833, the Bill to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire passed in the House of Commons, followed by the House of Lords on August 1st. Hannah More died on September 7th, 1833.
Hannah More
Hannah More (1745-1833) was one of the defining Christian female voices of Georgian Britain. An influential Evangelical writer, her vast literary output included essays, hymns, plays, poems, popular tracts (her Cheap Repository Tracts sold millions of copies) and a novel, while her philanthropic spirit established schools for children, woman's clubs and improved the conditions of the poor.She was a member of The Blue Stockings Society of England, and was connected with many notable figures of her era, including Edmund Burke, David Garrick, Samuel Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Horace Walpole, and the abolitionist William Wilberforce, whose campaign to end the British slave trade was greatly aided by her poem Slavery.Hannah steadfastly supported piety, traditional Christian values and education - her zeal even taking on Thomas Paine and the French Revolution.As England began to grapple with its industrial and scientific revolutions, More helped prepare British society for the challenges of the 19th century by promoting Biblical values and Evangelical social reforms. She was a paragon of her age, and a beacon for Christ.
Read more from Hannah More
Essays on Various Subjects, Principally Designed for Young Ladies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, and Other Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCoelebs In Search of a Wife Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Daniel - A Sacred Drama: Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCœlebs In Search of a Wife: "A Christian will find it cheaper to pardon than to resent" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEssays on Various Subjects: "Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Shepherd of Salisbury Plain and Other Tales: "If the one be good, the other must be evil" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fatal Falsehood Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Inflexible Captive: A Tragedy, in Five Acts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConsiderations on Religion and Public Education Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Inflexible Captive: "Life though a short, is a working day. Activity may lead to evil; but inactivity cannot be led to good" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStories for the Young Or, Cheap Repository Tracts: Entertaining, Moral, and Religious. Vol. VI. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Search After Happiness: "The world does not require so much to be informed as reminded" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fatal Falsehood: A Tragedy. In Five Acts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fatal Falsehood: "Depart from discretion when it interferes with duty" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStories For the Young: "Luxury! More perilous to youth than storms or quicksand, poverty or chains" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Inflexible Captive A Tragedy, in Five Acts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPercy: A Tragedy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCoelebs In Search of a Wife Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Percy
Related ebooks
The Poetry Of Oliver Goldsmith: “Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies.” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPercy: A Tragedy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fatal Falsehood: "Depart from discretion when it interferes with duty" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNarcissus: or, The Self-Lover Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Search After Happiness: "The world does not require so much to be informed as reminded" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Voyage to the Isle of Love: "Love, like reputation, once fled, never returns more." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister: “Money speaks sense in a language all nations understand.” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Cardinal: "Heaven's the perfection of all that can be said or thought" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetry of Aphra Behn - Volume II: "Where there is no novelty, there can be no curiosity." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetry of Dora Sigerson Shorter - Volume VI - Uncollected Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsErnest Maltravers — Volume 04 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetry of Dora Sigerson Shorter - Volume IV - The Tricolour, Poems of the Irish Revolution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEliza Hamilton: The Extraordinary Life and Times of the Wife of Alexander Hamilton Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Widow's Tears: 'She be my guide, and hers the praise of these, My worthy undertakings'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetry of Dora Sigerson Shorter - Volume V - In the Midst of Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn a Cellar and other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Bridal of Carrigvarah Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn a Cellar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetry of Alexander Pope - Volume IX: “You purchase pain with all that joy can give and die of nothing but a rage to live.” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetry of Charlotte Dacre - Volume I: 'To mingle her tears, as his sadly flow'd, And sooth the despair of his mind'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEssential Novelists - Fanny Burney: novelists of manners with a satirical bent Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBallads, Founded on Anecdotes Relating to Animals Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetry of William Collins: "Always mistrust a subordinate who never finds fault with his superior." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetry of Dora Sigerson Shorter - Volume III - The Sad Years Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJane Shore: A Tragedy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Midsummer Night's Dream Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Night Land (Annotated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Performing Arts For You
The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Sisters Brothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hamlet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Importance of Being Earnest: A Play Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Macbeth (new classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diamond Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Your Huckleberry: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coreyography: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Robin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lucky Dog Lessons: From Renowned Expert Dog Trainer and Host of Lucky Dog: Reunions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fifth Mountain: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Romeo and Juliet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hollywood's Dark History: Silver Screen Scandals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mash: A Novel About Three Army Doctors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trial Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Town: A Play in Three Acts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unsheltered: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Count Of Monte Cristo (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Best Women's Monologues from New Plays, 2020 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How I Learned to Drive (Stand-Alone TCG Edition) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Strange Loop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Whale / A Bright New Boise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Percy
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Percy - Hannah More
Percy: A Tragedy by Hannah More
Hannah More was born on February 2nd, 1745 at Fishponds in the parish of Stapleton, near Bristol. She was the fourth of five daughters.
The City of Bristol, at that time, was a centre for slave-trading and Hannah would, over time, become one of its staunchest critics.
She was keen to learn, possessed a sharp intellect and was assiduous in studying. Hannah first wrote in 1762 with The Search after Happiness (by the mid-1780s some 10,000 copies had been sold).
In 1767 Hannah became engaged to William Turner. After six years, with no wedding in sight, the engagement was broken off. Turner then bestowed upon her an annual annuity of £200. This was enough to meet her needs and set her free to pursue a literary career.
Her first play, The Inflexible Captive, was staged at Bath in 1775. The famous David Garrick himself produced her next play, Percy, in 1777 as well as writing both the Prologue and Epilogue for it. It was a great success when performed at Covent Garden in December of that year.
Hannah turned to religious writing with Sacred Dramas in 1782; it rapidly ran through nineteen editions. These and the poems Bas-Bleu and Florio (1786) mark her gradual transition to a more serious and considered view of life.
Hannah contributed much to the newly-founded Abolition Society including, in February 1788, her publication of Slavery, a Poem recognised as one of the most important of the abolition period.
Her work now became more evangelical. In the 1790s she wrote several Cheap Repository Tracts which covered moral, religious and political topics and were both for sale or distributed to literate poor people. The most famous is, perhaps, The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, describing a family of incredible frugality and contentment. Two million copies of these were circulated, in one year.
In 1789, she purchased a small house at Cowslip Green in Somerset. She was instrumental in setting up twelve schools in the area by 1800.
She continued to oppose slavery throughout her life, but at the time of the Abolition Bill of 1807, her health did not permit her to take as active a role in the movement as she had done in the late 1780s, although she maintained a correspondence with Wilberforce and others.
In July 1833, the Bill to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire passed in the House of Commons, followed by the House of Lords on August 1st.
Hannah More died on September 7th, 1833.
Index of Contents
NOTES
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
SCENE
PERCY
ACT THE FIRST
SCENE I - A GOTHIC HALL
ACT II
SCENE I - THE HALL
ACT III
SCENE I - A GARDEN AT RABY CASTLE, WITH A BOWER
ACT IV
SCENE I - THE HALL
SCENE II - THE GARDEN
ACT V
SCENE I - ELWINA'S APARTMENT
HANNAH MORE – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY
NOTES
This tragedy, in which Mrs. Hannah More is supposed to have been assisted by Garrick, was produced at Covent Garden Theatre, in 1778, with success; and revived, in 1818, at the same Theatre.
The feuds of the rival houses of Percy and of Douglas have furnished materials for this melancholy tale, in which Mrs. More[1] has embodied many judicious sentiments and excellent passages, producing a forcible lesson to parental tyranny. The victim of her husband's unreasonable jealousy, Elwina's virtuous conflict is pathetic and interesting; while Percy's sufferings, and the vain regret of Earl Raby, excite and increase our sympathy.
[1] Of this estimable lady, a contemporary writer says, This lady has for many years flourished in the literary world, which she has richly adorned by a variety of labours, all possessing strong marks of excellence. In the cause of religion and society, her labours are original and indefatigable; and the industrious poor have been at once enlightened by her instructions, and supported by her bounty.
As a dramatic writer, Mrs. More is known by her Search after Happiness,
pastoral drama; The Inflexible Captive,
—Percy,
and Fatal Falsehood,
tragedies; and by her Sacred Dramas.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Percy, Earl of Northumberland Mr. Lewis.
Earl Douglas Mr. Wroughton.
Earl Raby, Elwina's Father Mr. Aickin.
Edric, Friend to Douglas Mr. Whitefield.
Harcourt, Friend to Percy Mr. Robson.
Sir Hubert, a Knight Mr. Hull.
Elwina Mrs. Barry.
Birtha Mrs. Jackson.
Knights, Guards, Attendants, &c.
SCENE,—Raby Castle, in Durham.
ACT THE FIRST
SCENE I - A GOTHIC HALL
[Enter EDRIC and BIRTHA.]
BIRTHA
What may this mean? Earl Douglas has enjoin'd thee
To meet him here in private?
EDRIC
Yes, my sister,
And this injunction I have oft receiv'd;
But when he comes, big with some painful secret,
He starts, looks wild, then drops ambiguous hints,
Frowns, hesitates, turns pale, and says 'twas