Embellished with Sixty-nine Engravings, EXPRESSIVE OF THE VARIOUS PASSIONS, AND REPRESENTING THE MODERN COSTUME OF THE LONDON THEATRES. Second Edition, Improved. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. THE much approved work of Mr. HENRY SIDDONS, as it is expressed in the title page, originated with the learned and ingenious M. ENGEL, whose Treatise on Gesture and Theatrical Action in the German language had long been known and deservedly esteemed on the Continent. It may be said, with justice, to contain most luminous views relative to the human passions, and to reduce to scientific principles the ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. Such a work was obviously a desideratum in the English language; and a translation of M. Engel's Treatise might have been sufficient to supply it, if his principles in the original work had not been peculiarly adapted to the business of the German stage, and his references and examples chiefly taken from the drama of that country. Thus situated, it became an essential duty in the Editor to anglicise the matter, as well as translate the language of his author :-but in performing this task, the general sentiments and opinions of M. Engel were scrupulously retained; though, in every particular application of them, great care was taken to give the work, in its new form, all the interest of which it was susceptible to the English reader. The present Edition has also been enriched with the observations contained in Mr. Sharpe's ESSAY ON GESTURE, in which the improvements (entirely English) will be found numerous and characteristic. This was lately delivered before a Philosophical Society, and received with great applause. In the present Edition, the plates have been more conveniently arranged, and increased in number; and the Costume of the London Theatres has been illustrated by appropriate passages from some of our most popular dramas. London, Nov. 1821. |