liable to be contefted, if they were more animated with this invigorating flame, which, as it. were, gives life to the representations of the ftage.

We remember when Mrs. Elmy, an actress of great judgment, endowed with a fweet voice and a pleafing deportment, obtain'd a merited applaufe in the Character of Lavinia in the Fair Penitent; fo great, that it startled the Califta in the fame play; and had Califta been any body but Mrs. Cibber, would unquestionably have made Lavinia the firft character in the performance for that night.

The sweetness of difpofition, tenderness, affection, and fidelity of that part fuited extremely well with the peculiar turn of this actress; they gave her room to fhew all her perfections, and gave us no opportunity to fee her defects; we were charm'd with her; nay, many were in doubt whether they should declare her the fecond, or the first actress of the prefent ftage. Full of the fuccefs of this, fhe appeared again in her other characters afterwards; but we then not only found her of fomewhat lefs merit than we had before esteemed her, but we difcovered too the defect which kept down all her other perfections. We name this to the lady not by way of cenfure or reproach, but to tell her, in honeft friendship, the only thing fhe wants, in order to her being as great in every character, as he was in that of Lavinia. The one thing wanting in her is, that Promethean heat, that fire we have been juft now fpeaking the praises of. How far fhe can attain this, by practice, the herself will beft judge, when the examines her own heart, and finds whether nature has left her deficient in it, or whether it is only a falfe modefty that prevents her ufing it. How

How fine a figure did this judicious fpeaker make in some parts of the character of the Lady in Comus; but how cold, how (not to fpare the word) contemptible did her want of fire make her appear, when, with little more heat than we have juft mentioned in the memorable Het/pur, fhe faid to the god who was courting her by arguments against virtue and chastity,

-to him who dares Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words Against the fun-clad power of chastity,

Fain wou'd I fomething fay :-yet to what purpofe.

Thou haft not ear nor foul to apprehend;
And thou art worthy that thou shou'dst not know
More happiness than this thy prefent lot;
Thou art not fit to hear thyfelf convinc'd.
Yet fhould I try, the uncontroled worth
Of this pure caufe wou'd kindle my rapt spirits
To fuch a flame of facred vehemence,

That dumb things wou'd be mov'd to fympathize,
And the brute earth wou'd lend her nerves, and

fhake

Till all thy magic ftructures, rear'd fo high,
Were fhatter'd into heaps o'er thy falfe head.

It is easy to conceive what tranfport and vehemence the poet intended fhould accompany thefe words, by the uncommon ftrength he has given them; and we may imagine how ftrongly he intended an audience fhould be affected by them, when he introduces the immortal being to whom they were addrefs'd; to ufe his own words, trembling with terror as he hears them.

As when the wrath of Jove Speaks thunder, and the chains of Erebus, To fome of Satan's crew.

'Tis impoffible for words of fo much force to be heard without being admired; but we appeal to the audience, whether that admiration was not all that was felt when this lady spoke them! We loft the terror that fhould have accompanied fo bold, fo nobly daring a speech; and, in fine, we admired the poet, while we forgot the actress.

The propofitions we have deliver'd in this chapter will never be call'd in question by any one who knows how to avoid the common error of confounding the vehemence of declamation with true and genuine fpirit, or who will properly reflect on the nature of that quality, and by this means find, that this fire, which we are celebrating in the player, is nothing more than a juft rapidity of thought, and vivacity of difpofition, in concurrence with which only it is, that all the other qualities that conftitute him a good one, are happy in giving the marks of reality to his performance.

When this principle is establish'd, it is eafy to conclude from it, that an actor can never have too much fire; fince it is impoffible that the representation of his character can ever have too much the air of a reality: and, confequently, that the impreffion on his mind can never be too ready or too lively; nor can the expreffion of it anfwer too fuddenly, or too faithfully to the impulfe he receives from it.

A performer will, indeed, be very feverely cenfur'd,and veryjuftly too, if his playing be not in all

refpects

respects confonant with, and perfectly agreeable to the character and circumftances of the perfon he reprefents; or if, under the intent of manifefting his fire, he only exhibits a set of convulfive geftures, or roars out a parcel of inadequate exclamations. But, in this cafe, the people of tafte and judgment will not accuse him of having too much fire, but too little understanding; they will even complain, under these very circumstances, of his wanting fire; and he will find himself under the fame fort of cenfure with certain modern books, which the vulgar accufe of having too much wit in them, but which thefe fort of judges condemn for having no wit at all!

There is not, perhaps, a scene on the modern ftage in which an actor is required to feel more, or to express himself with greater force and real fire, than that of Caffio, in Othello, after the mifchiefs of his drunken fit. An honeft, brave, good-natur'd man is, in this play, feduced by a villain to drink, with intent to breed a quarrel; he gets drunk, he quarrels, he behaves very ill, and his fuperior officer coming in, he is broke for it upon the fpot. Rage here takes the place of drunkennefs, and too much fire cannot fhew itself in his expreffion of that rage; but we find that a falfe fire may easily be thrown into it. What can be more natural, more beautiful, than the expreffions the inimitable author of this play throws into his mouth upon this occafion.

Reputation reputation !-I have loft my reputation-I have loft the immortal part of myfelf, and all that remain is beftial-my reputation!-O thou invincible spirit of wine, if thou haft no name to be known by, let us call thee. Devil

I

Devil-O that men fhou'd put an enemy into their mouths to fteal away their brainsTo be now a fenfible man, by and by a fool, and presently a beaft--Every inordinate cup is unblefs'd and the ingredient is a devil.

What infinite room is there in thefe broken fentences, for an actor who has the true fire of his profeffion in him, to get himself applause! Yet fo it has happen'd that in our time, nothing has been made of it: We have had no tolerable Caffio in my remembrance; and these inimitable paffages have either been pronounc'd with all the drawling fedatenefs of a philofopher; or bawl'd out with noise instead of vehemence; with madnefs instead of fire, and accompany'd with geftures only reconcileable to an imagination of the players being drunk in earnest.

An author in the diftribution of what he calls the good things in a comedy, throws a delicacy of fentiment and a polite wit into the character of a footman, or a chambermaid; or puts madrigals and epigrams into the mouth of an actor, agitated by fome of the moft violent paffions; and the vulgar give him for this the credit of having too much wit: It wou'd be more just to determine of him that he had too little judgment, and was but very poorly qualify'd in that most material of all the requifites of an author for the ftage, the imitation of real life; let us not call the one of these abfurdities wit, or the other playing Iwith fire.

We may add that many an actor in perform ing a favourite part, gives himself up to an extravagance of paffion in places where the fenfe of the author, and circumstances of the character