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Butler, Samuel, 1835-1902

"The Way of All Flesh"

This was all he knew of as belonging to him.
He said he proposed at once taking an unfurnished top back attic in as
quiet a house as he could find, say at three or four shillings a week,
and looking out for work as a tailor. I did not think it much mattered
what he began with, for I felt pretty sure he would ere long find his way
to something that suited him, if he could get a start with anything at
all. The difficulty was how to get him started. It was not enough that
he should be able to cut out and make clothes--that he should have the
organs, so to speak, of a tailor; he must be put into a tailor's shop and
guided for a little while by someone who knew how and where to help him.
The rest of the day he spent in looking for a room, which he soon found,
and in familiarising himself with liberty. In the evening I took him to
the Olympic, where Robson was then acting in a burlesque on Macbeth, Mrs
Keeley, if I remember rightly, taking the part of Lady Macbeth. In the
scene before the murder, Macbeth had said he could not kill Duncan when
he saw his boots upon the landing. Lady Macbeth put a stop to her
husband's hesitation by whipping him up under her arm, and carrying him
off the stage, kicking and screaming.


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