At last the great day arrived, and for the first time in the history of the little theatre, operetta and pastoral were replaced by the Buskined Muse of tragedy.
"The Valley of Decision"
Edith Wharton
He was, in fact, the incarnation of that great spirit which the laws of the world raise up against the world, and by which the world's injustice on a large scale is awfully chastised; on a small scale, merely nibbled at and harassed, as the rat that gnaws the hoof of the elephant:-the spirit which, on a vast theatre, rises up, gigantic and sublime, in the heroes of war and revolution-in Mirabeaus, Marats, Napoleons: on a minor stage, it shows itself in demagogues, fanatical philosophers, and mob-writers; and on the forbidden boards, before whose reeking lamps outcasts sit, at once audience and actors, it never produced a knave more consummate in his part, or carrying it off with more Buskined dignity, than William Gawtrey.
"Night and Morning, Volume 3"
Edward Bulwer Lytton
O nymph with loosely-flowing hair, With Buskined leg, and bosom bare, Thy waist with myrtle-girdle bound, Thy brows with Indian feathers crowned, Waving in thy snowy hand An all-commanding magic wand, Of power to bid fresh gardens blow, 'Mid cheerless Lapland's barren snow, Whose rapid wings thy flight convey Through air, and over earth and sea, While the vast various landscape lies Conspicuous to thy piercing eyes.
"Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Vol. 3"
George Gilfillan
