which we are apt to admire the author for drawing, owe to the manner in which they are reprefented: And on the other hand, the plays of Moliere in France, and thofe of Beaumont and Fletcher with us, abound in characters which are fcarce ever play'd with juftice. We are not therefore to wonder that thefe do not always bring full houses, and of confequence, that they are feldom perform'd. The managers may depend on it, they wou'd fee no empty benches on the nights fuch pieces were play'd, if they wou'd employ as many of their principal performers in them as are neceffary; and allot the characters of confequence to fuch perfons as are able to give them all the force and expreffion they require. They tell us they don't play thefe, because the town is more fond of novelty: Let them do what we are recommending to them, and they will give us one of the greatest and moft acceptable kinds of novelty in their power.

CHA P. III.

Obfervations on the two principal Things essential to the Truth of Action.

A

S action and recitation compofe the effence of what we call expreffion in the player; fo the judicious changes in the countenance, and thofe in the attitude and gefture form the truth of action. That the changes of the actor's countenance may appear juft, and fufficiently expreffive to an audience, it is not enough that the paffion which he is to defcribe to them barely discover itself in his eyes; it must be feen there with an uncommon force and vivacity. The

face

face that can mark a paffion but weakly on the ftage, is to be rank'd with those which cannot mark it at all: That very degree of expreffion in the countenance, which is capable of affecting us elsewhere, is not enough to ftrike us in the player.

The paintings expos'd upon the stage, are seen at a certain distance by the greater number of the audience: they must therefore have a strength in the touches fomewhat too bold for a near view; but yet so moderated, that it may be overlook'd by those who have that fituation, in confideration of the neceffities of the reft.

The paffions must all fhew themselves with life and spirit in the countenance of the player; yet they are not to distort or disfigure it. It is the misfortune of one of the best actresses of the prefent or perhaps of any age, that a too great fenfibility in fcenes of diftrefs throws her features out of all form, and excites our diftaste instead of our compaffion; and 'tis the peculiar advantage of another of the modern favourites of that fex, to acquire a beauty in the height of forrow, which fhe wants at other times. We cannot but regret the fortune of one of these ladies, as much as we admire that of the other; but we are not to expect that we fhall find in others fo fingular a charm in a face of forrow, as we discover in the latter of them. It is not the good fortune of every tragedy princess to have a face that mifery fits well upon; much less to have fuch an one as we adore in the heroine of another house, for charming us equally under all the difguifes the poet for the night chooses to fhew it in. We have at leaft a right, however, to expect that anger is not reprefented to us by convul

fions, and that forrow and diftrefs are not made fhocking, when the poet intended they fhould be interesting and affecting.

Whatever exceptions may be made in regard to the justly celebrated actress hinted at above, it is certain that in general the players only fall into these exceffes, from their not being affected in fuch a degree as the circumftance and fituation of their characters require. Does the player feel fenfibly and strongly the paffion he is to express to us? It will then paint itself in his eyes, without his diftorting them to make it do fo. But is he oblig'd to teize and torture his foul, to rouze it out of the ftupid and lethargic state he finds it in? The constrain'd state of his mind, will fhew itself in all his action, his very features, as well as his gestures and motions, will discover it, and he will appear rather a fick man harrass'd with a fit of fome ftrange malady, than a player affected by a common paffion, and endeavouring only to exprefs it.

It fometimes happens that the countenance of a performer, is only fitted by nature for the expreffion of fome one peculiar paffion or affection of the foul. There are countenances naturally difmal which feem form'd only to fhed tears, and to draw them from other people; and there are others which feem calculated only for mirth and jollity; to be joyous themfelves and to make every body elfe fo.In the firft, gaiety never fits eafy; they never laugh but with constraint; and they tell you too evidently that they are merry only because they are bid to be fo. Sorrow fits upon the face of the others in the fame unnatural and forc'd manner; one wou'd take it for a stranger endeavouring by force to fettle

itself in a country where every native is an enemy. A judicious regulation in the attitude, geftures and manner of the player is as neceffary, and of as much confequence to the truth of his action, as all that can be done by the countenance. The general deportment and proper attitudes in the feveral fcenes a performer may be engag'd in, have been fufficiently treated of in the preceding chapters; we fhall therefore avoid repetitions, and content ourfelves with fome general remarks on the particular geftures neceffary under peculiar circumftances.

Geftures have a determinate fignification, as much as words; and, when properly apply'd, they add a vaft deal of life and force to the action.

The moft fignificant of them will even ferve to exprefs to an audience every paffion that we are capable of being agitated by, and raise in the fpectators every fentiment that we wish to infpire them with: Without the affiftance of words, we are able to fignify by gestures and figns our hopes, our fears, our fatisfaction, or our difpleasure. We can entreat by them, and obtain our requests as readily as if words were added to them. We can lament and exprefs our diftrefs and forrow by them, and that in fo plain and intelligible a manner, as to force others to weep with us; and finally, we can threaten by them, and by thofe threatnings excite

terror.

The figns which we ufe to express these feveral intentions of the foul are not however merely arbitrary, they are dictated by nature's felf, and are common to all mankind. The language of figns we all speak without having been

taught

2

taught it; by means of which we are able to converfe with people of all nations; and nature has been fo determinate in the sense of every particle of it, that art would attempt in vain to make it either more intelligible or more expreffive. The utmost that can be done by the niceft hand, is to polish and ornament it; and all that the player needs, or indeed is able to do, is only to avoid improprieties in it, and to be careful to use it only in fuch parts as nature fhews it to be neceffary and useful in.

The judgment of the player must inform him, that when he acts the part of a man of high rank and quality, he is to use fewer geftures, and those less violent than when he acts. a clown; nor is it difficult to guefs from whence this neceffary diftinction arifes. Nature left to herself, is under lefs reftraint, and runs into more irregular emotions, than when curb'd and regulated by a proper education.

People in high life have the fame affections with the vulgar; but they have more hypocrify. Their very paffions put on the air of diffimulation, which has been inculcated into them in all their other actions, and appear moderate and reafonable even when they are the most inordinate and ungovern'd. A man of high rank is in a manner fedate and tranquil even in his refentment, while a cobler under the fame circumstances wou'd be outrageous, kick the tables and chairs about the house, and half murder his wife and children, tho' they did not even know what it was that put him in this fury.

If the frequent ufe of paffionate geftures is on this account not allowable in genteel comedy,

much