Not only many of these people push themselves upon the ftage, without having any one of the neceffary difpofitions for fucceeding in it; but often those who really have the proper requifites, employ the leaft of their care in fhewing them, or in diftinguishing themselves by the only things which ought to command our notice. They are thruft forward in fome part, not that is fit for them, but that it pleases their fancy; they are fupported by a body of friends for their firit appearances: they find they have an applaufe that night, and are not hifs'd the next; and then take it for granted they have done every thing neceffary to their own honour and our fatisfaction.

We are not to flatter ourselves fo far as to fuppofe that we can perfuade thofe people who attempt the ftage without being form'd by nature for it, to quit it: Nor are we even to fuppofe that it will be in our power to prevent a multitude of others of the fame ftamp, encourag'd by the fuccefs of people like themselves, from entering upon it with the fame impoffibility of fucceeding.

We are not to imagine that we ever can improve our theatrical entertainments by infpiring a fet of wretches whom we fee at prefent upon the ftage, with fo noble a paffion as a juft emulation, while they play for no other end but intereft. One might indeed wifh better of these people, because they are too numerous among our prefent players; but what have we to hope for from them, when we fee that they have no more love for their profeffion, than refpect for their audience; but come upon the stage to deliver out their parts, as if they

were

were eafing themselves of a burthen which they were hir'd for carrying, and in pain till they were rid of.

In endeavouring to prove the neceffity there is, that the players in comedy as well as tragedy, thou'd have received many peculiar accomplishments from nature; we have not been vain enough to imagine that we shou'd perfuade people who are not thus form'd for the stage, to keep off it: We only propos'd to ourfelves to difabuse those who have establish'd it as a rule that all that is neceffary to the making an actor, is, that the man have a memory, and the power of speaking, walking, and toffing his arms about.

In endeavouring to prove how diligently the player ought to ftudy in order to arrive at perfection in his bufinefs; we have not flatter'd ourselves fo far as to fuppofe we cou'd conquer the idleness of thofe performers, who every day give us inftances enough of their being enemies to induftry. We have only meant by this to open the eyes of those beginners in this way of life, who from the feeming ease with which the best players obtain applaufe, are apt to perfuade themselves, that a very little trouble will ferve to prepare them for playing both tragedy and comedy. We fhall endeavour to fhew in the fequel, to thofe who wifh, and have fome grounds to hope, that they may in time arrive at the art of playing the one or the other with fuccefs, what are the talents, and what the means by which they may command our applaufe.

СНА Р. Г.

In what the Truth of a Reprefentation on the

A

Stage confifts.

LL dramatic fictions please us the more, the more like they are to real adventures and occurrences. The perfection which we are most of all defirous of feeing arriv'd at in the representation of thefe pieces, is what the judges of theatrical performances exprefs by the word Truth.

They mean, by that term, the concourfe of all thofe appearances which may affift in deceiving the audience into an imagination, that 'tis a fcene of real life they are attending to.

Thefe appearances are naturally divided into two claffes. The play of the performer furnishes thofe of the one kind; the others are foreign to his acting, and we owe them to the disguise we fee him under, or to the decorations of the place where he plays.

The appearances of the firft kind; that is, thofe which arife from the theatrical action of the performer, are of all others the most important to the illufion; and these the nature of our fubject leads us more immediately to the examination of. They in general confift in the nice and perfect obfervation of every circumftance of the character, and every thing requifite to it. The performance of an actor, in what-: ever fcene or character, is only true, when we. perceive in him every thing that agrees with the age, condition, and fituation of the perfon he

2.

reprefents.

1

reprefents. Does a player enter upon the ftage in the part of Sciolto in the Fair Penitent? We shall never allow him to reprefent the character, even to the eye, if we do not fee in him the wrinkles of age, and the whole carriage of a man old enough to be the father of the perfons he converfes with. Sciolto is a man of great rank and quality; the actor will therefore never be what we expect in the character, if he does not join to the gravity of the old man the deportment and air of nobility in every part: He is rejoiced at the fuppofed happiness of his family in the beginning of the play, and carries a mixture of an unconquerable grief and refentment, at the behaviour of his daughter in the latter part of it: The image which the player gives of him, is therefore not at all juft, if we have not, in the firft part, all the transport of a fond and indulgent parent exprefs'd, and in the latter, all the rage and vengeance of a man of honour wounded in the tenderest point, and feeking the means of vengeance, tho' at the expence of life itself.

The actor who is to exprefs to us a peculiar paffion and its effects, if he wou'd play his character with Truth, is not only to affume the emotions which that paffion wou'd produce in the generality of mankind; but he is to give it that peculiar form under which it wou'd appear, when exerting itself in the breaft of fuch a perfon as he is giving us the portrait of. The rage of Bajazet is very different from that of Mr. Alderman Fondle wife, tho' both are rais'd from fufpicions of the very fame kind: And the grief of Statira when the conqueror of the world proves falfe to her, is very different fromi that of Phyllis when he has loft her Damon.

The

The expreffion of the actor is alfo to be varied, as well as his deportment, according to the character he reprefents. Love in a young man ought to burft forth in tranfports and impetuofity; in an old fellow it is to fhew itself by degrees, and with a deal of art and circumfpection.

A perfon of a fuperior quality, throws into his very forrow, into his complaints, and into his threats a fort of decent greatness, and has ever lefs violence, even in his anger, than a perfon who has had no education. The affliction con

ceived for the lofs of a fum of money, paints itself in very different colours in the face of an old mifer, and in that of a young extravagant; and the coxcomb does not blufh at a reproof in the fame manner as the man of merit and modefty.

The truth of expreffion in the player depends, upon the whole, on the truth of the action, and on that of the recitation.

CHA P. II.

On the Truth of Action on the Stage.

T

O exhibit True Action in a part, is to do every thing allotted by the author to the character reprefented, in a manner exactly conformable to what the person himself wou'd or ought to have done it in, under every circumftance and in every fituation thro' which the action of the play fucceffively carries him.

Every fcene produces fome change in the circumftances of the character, and every change of this kind demands a multitude of other variations in the actor in conformity to it. Many

Occurrences