(1) THE ACTOR. PART the FIRST. Of the principal Advantages which a Player ought to bave from Nature. ·A MONG the many arts which should never be exercis'd but by perfons who are happy in a variety of natural accomplishments, there are few, to the excelling in which they are more effential, than in performing well in tragedy and comedy. The Actor is expected to delude the imagination, and to affect the heart and in order to his attaining to perfection in this difficult task, nature must have been affiftant to him in an uncommon‐man ner. It is effential to our being rationally pleas'd with theatrical reprefentations, that the performers to whom the principal parts are allotted, perfectly keep up the illufion we are to be entertained with; as it is peculiarly from them, that we expect what is to move and affect us. These performers, therefore, more than all the reft, ought to be felected from among perfons, whom nature has particularly favour'd. In enquiring what are the natural endowments immediately neceffary to performers on the stage in general, we fhall endeavour to difcufs certain preliminary points, which have not hitherto been properly or fufficiently explain'd; and thence proceed to examine, what are the peculiar qualifications neceffary to particular actors. Perhaps it would not be easy to do the publick a more acceptable fervice on the subject of these entertainments, than by informing those who are ambitious to appear in the capital parts of our plays, (tho' nature has deny'd them the neceflary means) that it is impoffible to fucceed in fo illjudg'd an attempt. This we fhall endeavour to explain, in the fecond book of this first part. BOOK In which many of the common Prejudices of the Age are confidered; and Obfervations made on the necessary Qualifications of Performers on the Stage in general. CHAP. I. Can an Actor excell in his Profeffion, without a good Understanding? A Α Thing is not always the more true, becaufe it is generally affirm'd. We frequently hear people who pretend to be the beft judges of dramatic performances, declare that some of the modern actors, who have a general and not wholly undeferv'd applaufe, have mean understandings: But we flatter ourselves, it may be easily proved, that either the actors, whom thefe fevere criticks cenfure, have more fenfe than they have the difcernment to diftinguifh in them; or that they have less merit, even than they allow them, and have the good fortune to be efteemed much better performers, than they really are. It is not eafy to avoid the allowing a good understanding, even to perfons who excel in arts. that are merely mechanick; and furely the accomplish'd actor, if he have no other title to it than that of his being fuch, ought not to be de B 2 ny'd ny'd the fame conceffion. Is it poffible that a man can, in a series of different parts, continually command our applaufe, if he have not a juft and diftinguishing apprehenfion, to give him at all times, and always with propriety, the neceffary admonitions for his juft deportment under every circumftance of every one of them? and indeed, if he have not a nice difcernment to perceive the affinities of things, and the dependances of the incidents on one another? for this must ever be the directing needle that points out the invariable pole, both to the poet and performer. It is not enough to entitle a player to our applaufe, that he remembers every ftriking incident, every beauty in his part; 'tis equally neceffary, that he diftinguifh the true, the exact manner, under which every fingle beauty must be reprefented. It is not fufficient that he knows how to raise his paffion, he muft know how to raife it by just rules, and to affign it its peculiar bounds and height, according to the degree the circumstances of his part require; below which it muft not fink, and beyond which it must not rise. It is not fufficient that his figure be in general good and proper for the ftage; and that his face can mark the changes of his foul: we fhall be dif fatisfied with him if his perfon be not always kept in a proper attitude; and fhall quarrel even with the expreffion of his countenance if it do not regulate itfelf at every circumstance, not only to the paffion, but to the degree of the paffion it is to defcribe to us. It is not only effential to his fuccefs that he never let a paffage which he delivers, lose the leaft part of its force, or of its delicacy, in his speaking * it: when he has thus given it all the juftice imaginable, he must add to that all the graces that a ftudy'd delivery and action can beftow on it. He is not to content himself with following his author strictly and faithfully; but in many places, he muft affift and support him; he must even in fome inftances become a fort of author himself; he mut know not only how to give the proper expreffion to every fineffe the poet has thrown into his part, but he must frequently add new ones; and not only execute, but create graces. A ftart, a gefture, nay, a mere attention, properly employ'd, are often of as happy effect as a brilliant piece of wit in comedy, or a noble fentiment in tragedy; a peculiar cadence in the actor's voice, or a bare paufe artfully thrown in, have frequently produc'd applaufe from a fentence, which if it had. been delivered by an inferior performer, would not have had any attention paid to it by the hearers. The art of exciting the paffions in an audience by the performer's railing them in himself, with a judgment and exactnefs proportion'd justly to the feveral circumftances, is at leaft as difficult to arrive at, as that of giving its due force, or true delicacy, to every paffage. The poet who has made himself a master of the power of commanding the paffions and throwing the foul into every degree of them that he pleafes, exerts his utmost efforts in vain, and uses every art without fuccefs, when the actor does not join his skill to the raising the effects he intends by them. When even a *The truth of this affertion will be made evident, when we come to fpeak of the fineffes in the art of the player, in the fecond part of this work, B 3 good |