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tion'd figure in the generality of performers is very abfurd and unreafonable when we carry it, as is ufually done, beyond its juft bounds. One cannot but acknowlege indeed that there is fome fort of justice in the disgust which an audience is apt to exprefs at the difproportion'd and fhocking figures of fome who thruft themfelves upon the flage; but it is unpardonable, it is contrary to juftice, to our own intereffs, and to the neceffities of a theatre, to determine against admitting into a company any man, of whatever merit he may be poffefs'd, if he happen not to have a face or fhape more elegantly form'd than thofe of the common run of mankind.

There are indeed fome bodily imperfections which can never be fuffered in the player, tho' it is very poffible that people in real life may have them; nay even tho' the person whofe character they are to represent on the ftage actually had them. A hump'd back, or a leg half a foot fhorter than the other, would not have prevented Cæfar or Scipio from being in real life efteemed the first and greatest men of the world; yet if a man, who had either of the fe natural imperfections, tho' he had all the merit imaginable as a player, fhou'd attempt with thefe very imperfections to reprefent heroes, who also had them, he wou'd be hifs'd, and perhaps pelted off the ftage, for his abfurdity; we fhould never be able to bring ourselves to overlook thofe perfonal imperfections in the player, which the people of the age he liv'd in, might think it eafy to overlook in the perfon; or ourfelves in the hiftory of the Heroe.

The Juftice Balance of the Recruiting Officer, might poffibly in real life have his face disfigured

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by a wen, or drawn to one fide by a large fcar, and we should eafily have difregarded it; but we should never be able to reconcile the audience to a man, who, with either of thefe natural deformities, tho' join'd with ever so much merit, fhou'd attempt to perfonate the character of this generous friend and father.

Nay, we have had a proof that even the peculiar bodily imperfection which is mentioned in the play itself as belonging to the heroe of it; and which we even expect the performer fhou'd counterfeit to us by boliters and bandages, yet if he be unhappy enough reallyto poffefs it, he offends us in the reprefentation. There is fome where about town a perfon of the name of Machen, who has been long the darling of the theatres at the Blue Boar, the Tennis Court in James-Street, and fometimes of the Bartholomew-Booths; and who has of late been honour'd with the title of the lame actor of low comedy in Mr. Foit's drolleries. This perfon has, from an habitual attendance on the players, and a labour'd imitation of them for perhaps forty years together, acquir'd a knack.of fpeaking fomething that founds like tragedy declamation. It is his misfortune to be lame of one leg; which is fo much fhorter than the other, that the highest heel he can wear is not enough to raise that fide of his body to a level with the reft. Tragedy is the darling paffion of this player, and he concluded, from this natural imperfection, he was the fittest of all men to perform the character of Richard III. which Shakefpear himself (with how much justice we do not prefume to fay) has figured to us as lame.

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Vaft were the expectations of applause with which this man had flatter'd himself, when he fhould come to that part of the character where this peculiar natural defect, by which he thought himfelf qualified to perform the part, fhould come on: But what was the event? The audience, when he hop'd across the ftage as he spoke the line,

Dogs bark at me as I halt by them,

inftead of the applaufe he liften'd for, burst out into a loud laugh. They could never reconcile themselves to have an original impos'd on them, when they expected or defir'd no more than a

copy.

There is a feeming contradiction and abfurdity in the judgment of the world on thefe occafions: but it is only fuch, 'tis not a real one. There is even, when duly confider'd, a fort of justice in it. We look on the foul alone as conftituting the man; and in inftances where we know that nature had indeed given a defective body for the habitation of a great and noble mind, we expect that the flage, fo far as concerns the figure of the heroe, fhould redrefs thefe injuries, or at leaft fhould hide from our infpection these scarce juftifiable caprices. As tragedy pleafes principally by the air of grandeur and nobility which it gives to men, we are not willing that in the paintings it gives us of great events and of exalted perfonages, any thing fhould occur which might take off from that honour and efteem which it naturally gives us for the human fpecies.

As we feek in tragedy after objects that may flatter our pride, we wish to find in comedy fuch

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as may keep up our gaiety and spirits: our intent is by no means answer'd, if while the character the player acts makes us merry, the figure of his body caufes a melancholy, by putting us continually in mind what frail creatures we are, and how liable to be render'd even ridiculous by defects which may arife from accidents. Abfolute deformity in a player is not to expect from us the fame fort of indulgence that we fometimes bestow upon perfons in whom there is at worft but an entire abfence of every thing that is pleafing: and on the other hand, a mere want of charms in the perfon of an actor, ought never to prejudice us against him in the manner that an abfolute deformity would. Let us be fenfible of perfections and imperfections, but let us also be juft; let us pay a refpect to perfonal charms where we find them, but let us not despise merit for the want of them, when there is nothing abfolutely fhocking in the perfon who is poffefs'd of it. Let us not refufe ourselves the pleasure of being affected in the most agreeable manner by an actrefs who has real charms in her face or figure; but if another happens to want this lucky advantage, let us not for that reafon refufe her our applaufe, if fhe has other powers of pleafing which are not plac'd within the reach of age or difeafes.

Perfonal charms being more peculiarly the advantages of the other fex than of ours, the ladies may be more naturally expected to overlook the want of this fort of merit in an actor, than we to pardon it in an actress. We can easily bring ourselves to be fatisfy'd with any thing of our own sex that has real merit, and has no real deformity, and we would fain bring them to confider, that the actor need not always be look'd

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look'd upon as the lover, and that an overfeverity against the deficiencies of external charms would often deprive the ftage of perfons who are indebted to nature for qualifications infinitely more valuable than thofe which we are angry with her for having been capricious enough to refuse them.

We don't know our own intereft if we infift that every actor and actress that appears before us fhould be of an extraordinary graceful figure; we confider nothing of the laws, the neceffities, or the conveniencies of a theatre when we expect it; and perhaps it were to be wifh'd, even for our own better entertainment, not only that all the perfonal charms we are fo fond of were not to fall to the share of every one of our actors, but even that fome of the perfons who are to entertain us in this way, might not have any one of them.

Regular features, well proportion'd limbs, and a noble and diftinguishing air and deportment, ought without doubt, in general, to prejudice us greatly in favour of a performer; but there are evidently fome characters in which these accomplifhments are not only ufeleís, but it wou'd even be a merit in the player to want them. We cannot but acknowledge that an audience frequently bears the breach of all probability on these occafions without feeming hurt by it; that it is often even with a particular pleasure, that we fee a fine blooming young creature take up the character of an old hag; or an actor form'd by nature to please by his afpect, difguife himself, and hide all those charms under the habit of a coarse and clumfy ruftic: People indeed go to a play, as they themselves acknowledge, not to fee re

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alities,

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