The voice of Cooke was sharp and powerful, possessing little variety, and none of the softer inflections. In compass and celerity of vocal motion he was superior to any other orator, which peculiarly adapted him for scenes of villany.

Words lengthen or shorten under the passion with which they are uttered; in anger we hurry over them; in grief we dwell upon them

Kemble had a voice of very limited powers, and of a level tone, which, without his talent as an actor, would have interested little. That hollowness, so peculiar to him, rather increased than diminished certain effects; as in the character of the Stranger. His haggard look and deep sepulchral tones, which struck awfully upon the ear, 'like the croak of night's funeral bird,' admirably qualified him to depict the workings of a mind weighed down with sorrow and irretrievable calamity.

So powerfully are we affected by the tone of voice, that it is often of more importance to the just representation of character than any other qualification we may possess. The delicious sweetness and charming tone of Miss Murray's voice* can

* A celebrated actress, Mademoiselle Desgarcins, owed her success, in part, to this. Scarcely had she spoken, or even suffered some tones to escape, than her hearers were moved. The effect was irresistible; and this magic, on one occasion, realising the marvellous effects which poetry has ascribed to music, softened some assassins who had entered the house of that touching actress, who were disarmed by the all-pow erful seduction of her voice.-L. J. MOREAU.

never be forgotten, and the accents of Miss O'Neil, if possible, were more beautiful than herself.*

Macready, though an actor of great eminence, possesses but few of these excellencies. His voice is hard and croaking, and though his figure is well suited, his tones belong not to Hamlet. By aiming too much at distinctness, he incurs a false pronunciation of the vowels, which proceeds from his drawing back too much the corners of his mouth; so that we have scarn for scorn, go farth for go forth, harrible! harrible! for horrible! horrible! His sotto voce is more perfect; in the scene where he gives instruction to the players, he is highly natural and pleasing.†

A voice adapted to the character is as necessary to the drama, as a particular instrument to the orchestra, to express the ideas of the composer. The great inattention shown to this often renders

* Her laugh was captivating! Welch, the traveller, speaks of the pleasure he had in listening to the laughing of Indian women.

The following expressions I heard from Mr. Pemberton, who evinced a great knowledge of the part, and entered so fully into the feelings and agitated soul of Hamlet that it was perfect nature.

the character unnatural and ridiculous; as, in common life, we meet sometimes a stout athletic man with the piping voice of a child, and a spare slender creature with the hollow tones of a giant. Why are we so convulsed with laughter at the incomparable Liston? Perhaps the oddity arises from the junction of his pompous voice with the mean and senseless characters he personates. It is like putting the grave and sententious expression of a Lord Chancellor into the mouth of an idiot. This swelling of the words in a dignified character has its due effect, for, as Lord Pembroke observed, Johnson's sayings would not have appeared half so extraordinary but for his bow-wow way.

Liston's powers are of the highest order. His voce de petto is perfect, and the range of his voice is more extensive than any performer upon the stage. These qualifications would have given him the greatest advantages in tragedy; but then the singularity of his performance would have been destroyed. It is this odd union of voice, face, and figure, that render him so unlike any other actor,so truly comic, with a humor so unique, that no one has yet dared to imitate him.

At the bar, or in the pulpit, oratory has seldom risen to the highest pitch of excellence. There wants the action and business of the stage to keep alive the passions of the mind. It is true the actor has nothing to do with the invention of the images or sentiments; they are furnished by the poet. He

has only to depict them by appropriate voice and gesture.

Mr. Burke's oratory was of a contrary kind; nothing could exceed the flow of language, and the powers of his imagination. At the trial of Warren Hastings, his shrill voice rang through the hall, but it was cold and ineffective. There wanted the darker tones to clothe the sublime images of his fancy. As it regarded the effects of voice, there was more natural eloquence in the prisoner at the bar, when he called upon the lords to save him from the fury of his accusers.

In the pulpit, the want of vocal expression is still more apparent. The preacher is in too quiet possession of the field. The familiarity of the subject and the want of novelty beget a sameness of tone that wearies the attention and destroys the interest. As an exception to this remark, we may mention the performance of the Rev. Mr. Irving, at the Scotch church, which is purely a musical exhibition, not a little aided by dress and gesture.*

His

* Action contributes much to the power of words. The holding of the arm close upon the chest, reserving its use till the finger is pointed towards the audience, to call the attention and mark the sense; even the lodging of the hand within the bosom of the waistcoat, in an easy attitude, relaxes the attention of the audience, and prepares the mind to receive new effects. In the dramatic exhibition of the ancients, the speeches were made through metallic masks, which augmented the voice sufficiently to fill with sound their vast amphitheatres; and it is said that one person performed the oral part, and the action was given to another: yet such was the effect of their pantomimic performance, that Cicero says, it was a contest between him and Roscius, whether

voice is that of a clear sonorous basso, of considerable compass. In manner he is slow and reverential, never hurrying beyond the time of adagio, carefully using the right tone for the particular passion. His prayer, commencing with the words,

3

Al -mighty and most mer-ci-ful Father, in whom we

move,

and have our

be - ing,

live, reminded me of that slow and solemn strain of deep holding notes, gradually ascending, which describes the rising of the moon in Haydn's Creation.*

Although the advantages of a musical voice have been fully shown, yet there are speakers of great eminence but little qualified in this particular. As an instance, we may mention the extraordinary powers of the late Rev. Robert Hall, of Leicester, whose voice was naturally so deficient in strength, that in a large auditory he was heard with difficulty. Yet the stores of his mind and the brilliancy of his conceptions place him in the first rank of

he could express a sentiment in a greater variety of phrases, or Roscius in a greater variety of intelligible significant gestures.

* I once heard a preacher, after painting the abode of the blessed, artfully descend into the extreme depths of the petto, to describe the horrors of the damned.