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juft to fay, that they are not fo conveniently exprefs'd by fuch perfons as they may be by others; and that the expreffing a transport of violent rage, or the infpiring an audience with a reverence for the character reprefented, are not fo properly in the way of men of this fort of figure, nor are of the number of things which they are formed by nature to excel in.

The actions of the player are all to be borrow'd from those of people in real life; and whenever we see him reprefenting a character on the stage, our imagination fets him in a manner in the place of a man acting in the world, and views him in the circumftance and fituation of the perfon to whom the fentiments he delivers properly belong: he fhould therefore always be in fome degree the fort of man to whom not only fuch thoughts, fuch refolutions, but fuch a deportment as he affumes alfo is natural; fince he is to make the fame impreffion on us as the real character would. We are too apt to laugh at the fight of a trifling and contemptible figure, agitated by all the noble fury of a violent rage, and cannot prevent our imagination from recollecting that we see the player, not the perfon reprefented; and when this unlucky agent proceeds to carry the heroe off the ftage, and fuppofe him exerting the like emotions in the fame manner in real life, we cannot help fmiling at the idea of the ridiculous figure he would then make with them.

The man of a ftature fmaller than ordinary appears then to be improper for the capital characters in tragedy; and if we were rigid in our determinations, we might alfo (unless any peculiar merit pleaded in his favour) take from him all the principal parts in comedy, and only bear

with him in those particular characters in which the deficiency of his height would ferve to make the ridicule he was deftin'd to raise, more ftrong than it could be if given us from a man of a more pleafing figure.

Thefe are confiderations of the utmoft weight, and fuch as a very great fhare of merit has often been forc'd to yield to. Our managers have more than once rejected perfons who have offer'd themselves, not only for playing the first characters, but even the fubordinate ones, merely for want of height, tho' they have not been deficient in any other particulars: and we have seen within these few years, that when Mr. Johnson, a perfon of confiderable merit in tragedy, but of an enormous ftature, was received by a manager who had more good nature than the gentlemen in that station usually have; it was in vain that he attempted to bring the audience to approve him, even with the advantages of an expreffive countenance, a fonorous voice, and a majeftic deportment. He appear'd a giant among a nation of dwarfs; a Gulliver furrounded by a Lilliputian army: if he was engag'd in a quarrel, it was no merit in him to conquer a man whom he feem'd fo vaftly an over-match for; and if he made love, we had no idea but of a Polypheme and Galatea; and thought it unnatural for a little creature to venture to like him. The difproportion between this gentleman's ftature and that of Mrs. Giffard, with whom he usually play'd, was esteem'd to be fuch as no audience would ever be brought to bear; but we are happy enough now to be taught otherwife we have the good fortune to live in an age when there are players whofe merit is infinitely an over

ballance

ballance to this fort of difproportion; and in whom the faculties of the foul fhine fo ftrongly, that we have no attention to bestow upon the height or fhortnefs of the body.

The world has fo entirely overlook'd the deficiency of ftature in Mr. Garrick, that he now leaves off the cork foals which us'd to give him half an inch in height; and one of the greatest genius's of the age has thought it neceflary to write a treatife (which to the misfortune of the world. is yet in manufcript) to prove that he is not fix, foot high.

The difproportion in ftature between Mr. Barry and Mrs. Cibber is fcarce less than that which us'd to fhock us between Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Giffard; yet have thefe two egregious deluders in that refpect perfectly blinded our eyes. Who ever thought it monftrous that Barry in Caftalio figh'd for this lady in Monimia, or that fhe met his paffion with an equal warmth; or who ever thought of the difproportion between Romeo and Juliet, where that excellent player, with a voice fweet as an angel's fong, fays to her,

The faints that heard our vows and know our loves,

Seeing thy faith and thy unspotted truth,

Will fure take care and let no wrongs annoy

thee.

Upon my knees I'll afk them ev'ry day,

How my kind Juliet does? and ev'ry night,
In the fevere diftreffes of my fate,

As I perhaps fhall wander thro' the defert,
And want a place to reft my weary head on,
I'll count the ftars and blefs 'em as they fhine,
And court them all for my dear Juliet's fafety.

The

2

'The tenderness that fuch an actor as Mr. Barry is able to throw into a speech like this, leaves us no power to attend to height or fhortnefs; nor did any one ever think him too tall for the tender creature he was courting, when with a heartfelt paffion, never fo well exprefs'd before, he speaks the best lines that ever were written on the occafion, much better than they ever were spoken before, on his feeing the object of his wishes at her window,

What light thro' yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the fun.

See how the hangs upon the cheek of night
Fairer than fnow upon a raven's back,
Brighter than brilliants in an Ethiop's ear;
Were fhe in yonder fphere, fhe'd fhine fo bright,
The birds would fing, and think the day were
breaking.

See how the leans her cheek upon
her hand.
O that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might kifs that cheek.

The reader will pardon us on this and fome other occafions, that where we quote paffages from plays, we give them as the author gives them, not as the butcherly hand of a blockhead prompter may have lop'd them, or as the unequal genius of fome bungling critic may have attempted to mend them. Whoever remembers the merit of the players fpeaking the things we celebrate them for, we are pretty confident will with he spoke them abfolutely as we give them, that is, as the author gives them; and if we add to this hint, the throwing in fometimes a line or two that

they

they ought to speak, but by fome infatuation do not, we hope they will thank us for it.

To return to our fubject, we are to obferve that no body who ever heard thefe fpeeches deliver'd by Mr. Barry, recollected how many inches he was taller than the lady he addreffes them to; nor have we lefs certain inftances of the want of height being rendered imperceptible by the fame fort of merit, than the redundance of it is in this inftance.

We believe that Mr. Garrick is the fmallest man that ever attempted the character of a king or heroe, who makes the capital figure in the play he appears in; but we alfo believe him to be one of the greatest men that ever did fo. We have already quoted the excellencies of Mr. Quin, in the character of Pierre, whofe figure all the world must allow pleads vaftly in his advantage in the character of that great, that hardy commander. We expect, from the nature of the character, a man of ftature in it; yet we do not obferve that Mr. Garrick is an inch too fhort in it while he plays it; or fcarce that he is a whit inferior to Mr. Quin, while he's faying to his falfe friend, who affures him he has taken care to fave his life,

I fcorn it more, becaufe preferv'd by thee:
And as when firft my foolish heart took pity
On thy misfortunes, fought thee in thy miferies,
Reliev'd thy wants, and rais'd thee from the state
Of wretchedness in which thy fate had plung'd

thee,

To rank thee in a lift of noble friends,
All I receiv'd in furety for thy truth

Were unregarded oaths; and this-this dagger,