Pierrot, Colombine, &c. to their respective characters) spoke a good deal extempore; and being none of them without wit, their repartees pleafed the populace, and thefe diverfions came into vogue..

Weaver the dancing-mafter, whose character is too well known to need illustration, endeavoured to revive the manner of the antient mimes, which expreffed, by dumb-fhew and dancing, a variety of actions and paffions; and to his various characters he gave the foreign names by which they are now distinguished. The first of his reprefentations was made in 1716, under the title of The Loves of Mars and Venus, in which the scenery was very fine, and the dancing just and well executed. There certainly was more pleasure in seeing the characters express the paffions in dance, than in running about. As Mr. Dryden mentions, in one of his Prologues, good fenfe being banished for Harlequin, it may be objected against what I here advance, as if Pantomimes were then known. To this I reply, that there was a speaking Harlequin brought into the Emperor of the Moon, a very ridiculous piece written by Mrs. Behn, and played

in the year 1687, on account of its novelty, with great fuccefs, which mortified very much Dryden and his brother bards. Entertainments of this nature are fit only for weak minds, which cannot bear the impreffions of reflection; and the Managers are only excufable in exhibiting them, inafmuch as it is inconfiftent with honesty to advise them

To be wife to empty boxes.

END of the FIRST PART.

PART

PART II.

Of the ART of ACTING.

CHAP. I.

Alting defined; general obfervations on the Art: the effential requifites for forming a complete Altor, &c.

A

CTING is the most perfect of all the imitative Arts, as being made up of all that is beautiful in Poetry, Painting, and Mufic. The Poet can only prefent perfons and things to the mental eye; the Painter, with artful blending of light and fhade, mellows and foftens them to the corporal; the Mufician modulates the different tones and inflec tions of the voice (or inftrument) to convey a variety of paffions; but life and motion are derived from the Actor: he unites all the

beauties of the Poet's fancy, the Painter's pencil, the Musician's art; he graces them with elocution, action, and a proper expreffion, as well as impreffions of the various paffions neceffary to the character he affumes. It is, I think, fomewhere said by Aristotle, that "there are pictures as capable of reclaiming men, as precepts of moral philosophy :" the Player exhibits such pictures, and has this fuperiority over other artists, that he can vary his piece at pleasure, and be inftructively pleafing in a variety of lights and attitudes; a perfection peculiar only to himself.

The Actor is the Poet's beft means of conveying instructions to mankind: to answer this purpose capitally, he should enjoy a large portion of the gifts of Nature; viz. a penetrating wit, a clear understanding, and a good memory; with an articulate voice, ready utterance, a feeling heart, expreffive countenance, a genteel figure, and a piercing eye, which, at one glance, can convey the inward motions of the foul to the obferving beholder. These are qualifications which he must derive from nature; but to perfect them, he should have not only a tafte of, but a competent skill in Poetry, Painting, Mufic,

and

and Oratory, that he may be enabled judiciously to select whatever is graceful, in each, and transfufe it into his performance; for "there is an affinity between all arts, and they are mutually affiftant to each other*." To his polite taste in the arts, he should also add a knowledge of the leading manners and languages of nations, whether antient or modern; because the Drama at different times embraces them all, from the Artic to the Antartic Pole; and if a new character falls in his way, with the forming which he is unacquainted, he ought to apply to history for illustration; because his failing to imitate properly the manners and deportment of that nation wherein the Poet has laid his fcene, or forgetting the quality of the character he reprefents, must expose him to the disgust of his auditors. "That the orator who moves most, is he that is most moved," is an observation of Quintilian's, which may, with equal propriety, be applied to the Actor; for unless he himself be affected with what he says and does, he cannot hope to infpire the beholders with fympathetic feelings, or indeed with any paffion but that of contempt: nay, though

• CICERO.

4