would not have been deliver'd, but from the remembrance that ill habits newly contracted are eafily removed. The players in comedy are very rarely to be reproached with the third fpecies of monotony, the too frequent repetitions of the fame inflexions of voice; but we find those who perform in tragedy have a great deal of trouble to guard against it: where the numbers and measure are the fame, it is very natural that the pronunciation should run into the fame equality; and the neceffity that the performers in the modern tragedy are under, from time to time, of delivering with a pompous accent a long chain of blank verfes, exposes them too much to it. It would be a very obvious piece of advice on this occafion, efpecially to the younger actors, to avoid as much as poffible refting at the end of a line; but it would not be equally juft. Verfe is the natural language of tragedy; and tho' where the sense continues, the measure is not to command a stop, yet when it is equal where to paufe, fome preference ought generally to be given to the observance of it. It is otherwise indeed in our tragedies which are written in rhyme, as was the fashion an age or two ago; in these the judicious speaker, as in the like unnatural paffages in comedy, finks the rhyme wherever the obfervance of the fense pleads at all for his doing it; and we fee enough of the folly and abfurdity of the contrary practice in fome of our fubordinate people, who in Hannibal's Overthrow, and the like plays, through an entire abfence of both taste and judgment, pay that refpect to the number of fyllables and jingle of rhimes, which the sense pines for want of. K 4. When When we propofe to thefe people to pay more refpect to the connexion of ideas and closes of the fenfe, than to that found and measure which these have been forc'd into; we do not mean that it is an invariable law that they are never to stop at the end of a line: we are very sensible that it is not only convenient and proper, but neceffary, The poet has frequently clofed his fenfe fo, and we have daily opportunities of obferving, even in Mr. Quin, who hates the jingling tag of an act in comedy as much as any man can do, that tho' the rhime may often be funk, yet it cannot be always fo. In tragedies where the lines do not rhyme, the poet is often blameable for forcing a fort of monotony upon the performer which he can no way avoid when the author carefully delivers a fentence in every line; and brings the fenfe to a period with every tenth fyllable, the actor is in a manner compell❜d to deliver whole speeches in the fame tone and cadence, and to make a fort of recitaLive of it, tho' avery inharmonious one. Perhaps there is not a fault in the whole compass of the player's sphere more difficultly avoided than this; the best rule we can give for the preventing it, is, to obferve the conduct of Mr. Garrick in the like circumftances in fome of the characters which he is not a little fond of, there is this fort of prefcription for monotony in many places; every verfe is a fentence, and every one seems to require to be fpoken with the fame pause at its end; but with what addrefs and caution does this mafterly player avoid the fnare? he lengthens or fhortens the paufe at every period, according to the circumftances, fo that the reffs are too much varied from one another to affect the ear as the fame thing: he delivers an equal number of fyllables in two fucceeding lines in very unequal time; and while he gives a more than common force to fuch paffages as will bear it, he delivers others of more familiar import with a naked fimplicity, which, tho' the very reverse of that pomp we generally expect in tragedy, is not lefs juft or affecting. In this conduct of Mr. Garrick there is a leffon for the players of fucceeding ages, for raifing the charms of variety on the moft barren parts of their author, and for making every thing please: we fay, to the players of fucceeding ages; for those of the prefent find it much easier to admire than imitate the models we have propofed to them to form themselves by. We are not to close this article of monotony without doing the fame fort of justice to the other great player of the age, Mr. Quin, that we have here done to Mr. Garrick; it is the more peculiarly neceffary in this part, because this master in the art has been accufed by many people of this very fault. We are fond of finding blemishes in the brightest characters, and the love of defamation at prefent runs fo high among us, that we feem incapable of throwing it off, even tho' we are to purchase it at the expence of our own reputation. Let a man mention the name of Mr. Quin in company in the manner in which that name deferves to be mentioned, and 'tis more than ten thousand to one but the fucceeding fentence, let who will utter it, has the word Monotony in it we are apt to believe, however, that the people who accufe this gentleman of this fault, are not well acquainted with what it is: we have here established three kinds of it, a distinction which they perhaps had not thought of; yet, we K 5 declare declare Mr. Quin to be no more guilty of any one of them, than Mr. Garrick or Mr. Barry. If these people mean that Mr. Quin is always Mr. Quin and never Mr. Garrick, or that Mr. Garrick is always Mr. Garrick and never Mr. Quin, we agree with them that they both certainly have fo much monotony; they have each, as every man elfe has, a peculiar tone of voice, which neither of them will ever be able to throw off, or to affume that of the other in its place but if they mean that Mr. Quin pronounces different sentiments with the fame ca'dence, nothing was ever more unjust or ungrateful. We have taken upon us, thro' the course of this work, the part of a wholly impartial and unprejudic'd judge, and as fuch cannot but deliver it as our opinion, that Mr. Quin is the player, who, of all we at present know or can remember to have feen, has the most variety: if it is obferv'd, that thro' the whole part of Cato he has a fort of famenefs in his manner and delivery, we readily acknowlege it: we doubt not but this, tho' afcrib'd to him as a fault, has been a more labour'd thing than the greatest variety that we fee either in him or in any body elfe, in any part that requires it; and we efteem it a much greater beauty. Let us remember what Cato was, and we fhall not blame the actor who reprefents him for not changing with every circumftance. A great part of the character in Tamerlane is of the fame kind, and we fee this excellent player in all that part keep up the fame fort of equality in his voice and manner; but let those who have not judg ment ment enough to diftinguish between faults and beauties, and who condemn this as of the first kind, obferve with how much prudence he changes his manner, when in this part he feels the impreffions of a growing love, or a growing anger, both which, tho' he fuppreffes in time, yet he first fhews the effects of; and they will acknowlege that his variety in these parts of the character, fhew, that he could have used the fame fort of charm every where else in it if he pleas'd. This is then throwing the blame upon the judgment of Mr. Quin, not upon his natural qualifications; and when we find that the people who make the objection have more judgment in playing than the perfon they cenfure, we fhall believe there may be fomething in the accufation. If to keep up the spirit of a character, not only by the look, gefture, and manner, but even by the tone of voice, where there is no contrary indication from the paffions, be to fall into the crime of monotony, we do allow Mr. Quin to be guilty of it in the highest degree; but if the varying the voice and deportment as often as the change of fentiments, of circumftances, or of perfons require it, be to be various as much as a player ought to be, we cannot but give him this. praife, and congratulate ourselves that he is no more fo. We readily acknowlege that where the author has thought proper to put a chain of fentences of the fame kind into the mouth of that player, he delivers them in the fame manner; we own it, and we praise him for it; nay, we have ventur'd to blame fome of the greatest actors of the age for affecting to do otherwife: when the fam Speech K 6 |