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to follow the example of that actress, and fpeak as nearly as may be in the manner she does, when the performs parts which have fome refemblance to thofe which they are to reprefent. Nothing could be more defirable, in the generality of our actors, than attempts of this kind; but nothing can be more difficult, not to fay impoffible, than to fucceed to any great degree in them. We can no more, in a continued difcourfe, appropriate to ourselves all the inflexions of voice that we have admired in another perfon, than we can invariably, for a long time together, speak in an accent that is not natural to us. All that can be pretended to in this way, with any degree of fuccefs, is to imitate, as nearly as that may be done, certain of the finer and more ftriking cadences of thofe performers, whofe natural tone of voice is moft like that of the perfo n is to attempt the imitation as to the reft, nature alone can dictate what will be moft expreffive; and the fenfe of what is to be fpoken is the only inftructor which can difclofe the fecrets of that eloquent magick of founds, by which the player is to excite in his audience all thofe emotions which it is his bufinefs to make them feel.

The principal of all these fecrets is, not to employ indifferently thofe cadences, which tho' they are fomething alike in found, yet are different enough to be made, with proper management, the means of diftinguifhing very different paffions. The tones of the voice, under the command of the actor, may be rang'd under different genera, each of which is compos'd of a number of fpecies, in the fame manner as every one of the pri

mitive

mitive colours divides itself into a multitude of different fhades.

We may regard, for example, that tone by which we exprefs authority *, and that by which we exprefs pride, as both belonging to the fame genus; but yet it is evident that these two have their differences one from the other. By the first, we very frequently exprefs no more than the juft fense which we have of our own dignity; but by the other, we are always to be understood to carry the opinion we have of our greatness, much beyond the bounds of truth and reality.

The tone of voice, peculiar to the fimple creature who difclofes all his heart to every body he meets, is very like that in which the prudent but ingenuous man declares the truth in any affair he is interrogated upon. They are both evidently of the fame genus; but it would be an egregious blunder to ufe, or to understand, one of them for the other. The first is the tone of a weak perfon, who having neither understanding nor refolution enough to conceal his fentiments, reveals every thought of his heart, even in cafes where it is his intereft that they should be un

* It may be imagined by fome, that we are here contradicting ourselves on this head; and that after having afferted that there may be feveral true and juft tones ufed to exprefs the fame paffion, we are here admitting only one to express the sense of greatnefs which a man in authority carries always about him. We muft obferve, that we here ufe the term collectively; and mean, tho' we fpeak in the fingular number, every tone that is proper to exprefs the fentiment in question; and the reader is defired to understand the fame, in regard to all the other tones which we are about to mention.

known:

known the other is a fign of candour, not of weakness or folly; and is generally the attribute of those perfons who are fufficiently mafters of themselves to be able to disguife their manner of thinking, or even their fenfibility of accidents adverfe or fortunate, but whose innate honour and virtue will not fuffer them to betray the truth.

There are fome tones of the voice which are to be varied even under the fame genus. The figure of speech, which we call irony, may be equally dictated to us by anger, by contempt, or by mere mirth and good humour; but the ironical tone of voice, which is proper for the expreffing one of thefe kind of fentiments, is by no means proper to explain ourfelves by, when we mean either of the other two.

Love and friendship, in the fame manner, frequently fpeak the fame language; but the tone of voice by which they are to be expreffed, is by no means the fame: even the tones in which the various kinds of friendship itfelf are to be deliver'd, differ extremely from one another. That by which a father expreflès his tenderne fs and care for his favourite fon, is very different from that by which the fentiments of one friend are expreffed to another no way related to him.

CHAP.

CHA P. V.

What ought to be the Manner of Recitation in Comedy.

E

XCEPTING only a very few inftances, in which it is the bufinefs of the player to entertain his audience with an affected and intentionally ridiculous, declamatory manner, nothing in comedy is to be deliver'd in the way of declamation. It is a general, and, allowing only for a very few exceptions, an indifpenfible rule, that the actor, in comedy, is to recite as naturally as poffible he is to deliver what he has to fay, in the very same manner that he would have spoken it off the ftage, if he had been in the fame cir cumftances in real life that the perfon he reprefents is plac'd in.

:

There is much lefs difficulty in conforming to this rule, in fpeaking the parts in thofe comedies which are written in what is now the ufual and natural manner, that is, in profe, than there was in delivering the author's language in the fame natural manner, when an abfurd cuftom had, an age or two ago, made it neceflary for the author to throw many at least, if not all his fpeeches, into verfe. In France the fame fpecies of folly, in a great measure, ftill reigns; and tho' it is the intereft of the actors there, if they know the value of their reputation, to fpeak, for this reafon, nothing but profe, and notwithflanding that among whole companies of their comedians, it is no uncommon thing not to have so much as one person who can fpeak verfe decently; yet the whole company generally prefer the plays writ

ten

ten in verfe; and this for no better reafon, than that their parts in them are more easily remembered.

The French audiences alfo greatly help forward this falfe taste, as the generality of them never fail to give the preference to a comedy written in verfe, tho' the poet has evidently both cramp'd himself, and thrown a thousand difficulties in the way of the performer by writing it fo.

It is not the business of a treatife of this kind to determine, whether the laws of poetry, fo far as they regard verfification, belong to comedy, properly fo call'd, or not; or whether there are fome, and only fome cafes in which they may, or ought to be admitted. Perhaps the judicious reader of thofe comedies that have been written in it, will find, that one great reason for the author's adding this tinfel to his piece, has been his wanting fterling merit to recommend it; and that one great thing that discountenanc'd profe, among thofe writers who fet it on foot, was, that as it had only the wit it contain'd to recommend it, there requir'd more of that valuable commodity in it, than where there was fomething that might amufe the ear without it.

Nothing can be more evident, than that rhyme and measure always tend to take off greatly from the air of truth, nature and reality, which the cilogue would otherwife have. In confequence of this, the actor's principal care and study ought to be, wherever he is encumber'd with thefe fetters, to break the one, and, as much as poffible, fink and lofe the other in the reciting. Several of our Shakespear's and Ben Johnson's plays have paffages in rhyme and meafure, in fome parts; and that excellent compofition Co

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