occurrences dictate of themselves to the actor what he is to do, and in what manner he is to behave under them. A lady is, for inftance, introduced on the ftage, endeavouring to footh the pains of a forc'd absence from her lover, by drawing his picture from her memory. The lover bribes her maid, and is introduc'd into her chamber, where, without being discovered, he can fee how fhe employs the hours of his imaginary absence. It is evident in this cafe, that he is to place himself in fuch a manner that he may contemplate the picture, as it rifes from her touches, without being discovered by her; that from time to time, his curiofity tempting him to nearer and nearer views, he is to throw himfelf into the danger of being feen; that at every motion fhe makes, he is to exprefs a terror left he should be obferv'd; and that, eager to prolong the ravishing contemplation, he is to recover with a precipitate hafte, but at the fame time with a vifible affliction in his countenance, that part of the stage where he is out of her fight.

There are other circumftances as interefting as this, which yet do not point out fo clearly to the player, the action that should attend them, and we frequently have opportunities of seeing, that there are fome in which it is too eafy for him to take an exactly contrary part to nature, to reality, and to the intention of the poet. We fhall fpare the cenfure of our own performers, and give an inftance of this in a well known French tragedy, that of Iphigenia. When Agamemnon is afk'd by that unhappy princess, if the may be permitted to affift at the facrifice he is preparing, he answers, You fhall be there, my child! Many actors have imagin'd that it was their bu

finefs to add a great deal of the pathetic to this fhort answer, by fixing their eyes with the utmost affection, grief, and tendernefs on the lady, while they deliver'd it. But this, however proper it may appear at firft fight, is, when ftrictly confider'd, abfolutely contrary to nature, and reality; for doubtless Agamemnon, who knew he was going to facrifice that very daughter, who had fo little imagination of it, that she was afking it as a favour that the might be present, and who did not intend fhe fhou'd know his cruel purpofe till it cou'd be no longer conceal'd, ought to turn his eyes away, while he gives this anfwer to her innocent question, that she might not perceive his grief and agony while he spoke to her.

In the Penelope, another favourite play of that nation, Ulyffes, after having been a long time expos'd to the vengeance of Neptune and Venus, and after having fuffer'd innumerable hardships, returns to his country. Charm'd with the behaviour of his fon, he discovers himself to him; and the faithful Eumeus is prefent at this scene. At first thought one wou'd be apt to imagine, that the bufinefs of the player who represents Telemachus, fhou'd be to throw himself immediately at the feet of his father, and give himself up to all thofe tranfports of joy natural to a fon, who, after feeking his parent thro' the world in vain, had now met him unexpectedly. But, on farther confidering the circumftances, we fhall change our opinion. Ulyes had been abfent fo many years, that his fon, a child at the time he left him, cou'd have no remembrance of his perfon; he ought therefore to expect a confirmation of the truth of what was told him by a ftranger, before he gave way

to

to thofe emotions, which would naturally and neceffarily arife if he was rightly inform'd. The action of the player, who performs the character of Telemachus, will therefore be true, if he expreffes only a mixture of astonishment and refpect at what his father fays, and puts on an air of indetermination, during the moment that interferes before a perfon whofe fidelity he is perfectly convinc'd of, affures him, that he fees his father and his king.

Thefe and many other examples of a like kind, abundantly prove how very different the true action requir'd in a great character under particu'ar circumstances, may be from that which may first prefent itself to the imagination of the player.

his

It is plain alfo from the laft inftance, that he is not to fuppofe it fufficient in all cafes to ftudy the truth of the action, with which he is to accompany the words the author has put into mouth; in many circumstances the filence of a player, may be as eloquent as the finest form of words cou'd be; nay, there is often more beauty, as well as more difficulty, in the being properly filent, than in the delivering the most founding line a poet can put into the part of the higheft character.

It is not long fince, to borrow one more inftance from our neighbours, that a French actress immortaliz'd her reputation in the character of Penelope, in the play we have juft mentioned; and we may affure the world that a judicious and well-conducted filence, had no little fhare in the acquiring her those applauses she receiv'd in it. The discovery of her husband who had been fo long absent, had never ftruck' the fpectators in that amazing manner, had there'

been

been no merit in her fhare of the scene, befide the repeating the words of her part. What charm'd every body, was the deportment of the actress, the infenfible gradations by which the turn'd herself toward the pretended stranger, as fhe more and more affur'd herself, that the voice of the perfon who spoke to her, was that of the hufband fhe had fo long lamented; this had infinitely more effect than any thing the faid, or cou'd have faid on the occafion.

The difficulty of obferving every circumstance on which the truth of action depends, is greatest of all in those peculiar fituations of the character, under which the performer is obliged to play as it were two parts at the fame time.

We have an inftance of this kind in a fscene in the Old Batchelor, in which the dotard, his wife, and the gallant, under the disguise of Mr. Spintext, are on the ftage together.

The lady has here the jealousy of a husband to deceive, and the ardour of a favourite lover to return at the fame time. She embraces the gallant by a pretended mistake inftead of the husband; fhe cajoles the dotard with fond expreffions, while fhe makes figns over his head to the lover, and addreffes her difcourfe to the one while the pretends to speak to the other. The actress who wou'd fucceed in this character, ought to be extremely upon her guard, that the audience may not find her either too little upon the watch as to her husband's jealoufy, or wanting in that tenderness which he ought to fhew to her lover.

Thefe fort of incidents are abundantly difficult to perform to fatisfaction; but there are yet fome others in which there requires ftill more addrefs

and

and management. There are thofe in which the performer, has three inftead of two parts to play at the fame time; where there are two

people to be deceived by two different stories at the fame inftant, and the performer is all the while to express alfo to the audience a fenfe of the difficulty of what is doing, and a continual dread of being difcovered by one or other of the perfons deceived. We have an eminent inftance of this kind in one of our farces, where an intriguing maid-servant finds it neceffary for the good of her young mafter to delude his father, and the aunt of the lady he courts, into an opinion of one another, as perfons out of their fenfes. While the actrefs is here conftruing e very look and gefture of Mr. Goodall into madnefs to Mrs. Highmore, and every glance and accent of that lady into frenzy to him; he is expreffing to the audience all the while the utmoft terror in the world, left one or the other of them fhou'd difcover her: Nay, fhe even adds. to the neceffary perplexity of the part he has to act, by blending with her very terror the pert felf-fufficiency, that marks out the rest of her character; and gives us one of the ftrongest modern examples it is poffible to quote, of the application of the rule deliver'd in the last chapter, that the fame paffions are to be exprefs'd very differently, as acting upon different characters. The perfon who understands this merit in Mrs. Clive's playing this fhort character, will not wonder if it appear very infipid when perform'd by any body elfe.

There is no conceiving, but by an attentive examination, into the peculiar merits of the performer, how much many of those characters