ftrongly felt by the performer. We did not know how strongly it was poffible for us to be affected, only by feeing that an actor was fo, till this perfon entering with his young mafter, warn'd him from the houfe of his treacherous and tyrannic brother; told him the danger of being too meritorious in fuch a place of wickedness; and added,

Your virtues, gentle mafter,
Are fanctify'd and holy traitors to you.
O what a world is this, when what is comely
Envenoms him that bears it,

O unhappy youth,

Come not within these doors, this is no place for you,

This houfe is but a butchery

Abhor it, fear it, do not enter it.

The poet has with great art introduc'd the old man's reafon for loving this his young mafter preferably to the elder and richer fon, by making him call him the Memory of old fir Rowland. We are ftrongly affected by the honefty and friendship of this venerable fervant, as he delivers to him without much ornament the cautions above mention'd; but how are our hearts ftruck within us, when to the defpair of his young mafter, on the thought of his flying to mifery and want from the tyranny of his cruel brother, he anfwers,

I have five hundred crowns,

The thrifty hire I fav'd under your father,
Which I did store to be my fofter nurse
When fervice fhould in my old limbs lie lame,
And unregarded age in holes be thrown.

Take

Take that, and he that doth the ravens feed,
Yea providently caters for the fparrow,
Be comfort to my age. Here is the gold,
All this I give you. Let me be your fervant,
Tho' I look old, yet I am strong and lufty;
For in my youth, I never did apply

Hot and rebellious liquors to my blood,
Nor did I with unbafhful forehead, woo
The means of weakness and debility;
Therefore my age is as a lufty winter,
Frofty, but kindly--Let me go with you,
I'll do the fervice of a younger man
In all your business and neceffities.

The unfeigned tears that trickled down the player's cheeks, as he delivered this generous and noble fpeech, were accompany'd with those of every spectator; and the applaufe that fucceeded thefe, fhew'd fufficiently the fenfe of the audience, and spoke in the ftrongeft terms the praises of that fenfibility, that feeling, which we are fo earnestly recommending to every other player.

An expreffion like this, dictated only by a fense of the nature of the part, is in many other cafes, as well as the present inftance, preferable to all the noise and violence the most boisterous player cou'd employ in it.

Vehemence in an actor when ill placed, or when carry'd beyond the circumftances of the character he reprefents, or beyond truth or probability, will always be ridiculous: 'Tis only the common herd of an audience who are ready to fay,that provided the player affects them strongly, 'tis no matter whether that be done justly or not; but the fevereft judge will allow that as an

abfolute

abfolute perfection is not easy to be arriv'd at in thofe parts of a character, where the author means that the performer fhou'd exert this quality, it is much better that he shou'd run beyond the goal than fall fhort of it.

The first intent of all playing is to affect and move the audience, and in all theatrical performances, 'tis an invariable rule that the coldest representation is the most defective. The principal thing the actor has to obferve, when the circumstances of his part make it necessary that he fhou'd be vehement, is that he does not strain his voice, fo as to render it incapable of carrying him thro' the rest of the piece. We fhould with great juftice laugh at the man engaged in a race, who fhou'd throw out his legs to their utmost speed at the setting out, and by that means render'd them incapable of carrying him to the end of the course.

There are fome peculiar characters on the English ftage, and thofe of the very firft confequence, in which a caution of this kind is very neceffary to the actor; we may number among the principal of these, Pierre in Venice Preferv'd, Richard the Third, Othello, and Oreftes.

Our players conduct themselves very differently on this occafion; and run into the two contrary faults, fome of ranting themselves hoarfe in the firft fcenes, fo as to be incapable of speaking the fucceeding and finer parts of the character in fuch a manner as to be heard; and others of faving themselves for these most interesting paffages at the expence of being cold, infipid and contemptible in all the reft. In the character of Oreftes, in the Diftreffed Mother, there is one capital fcene in which the player is to exert his

utmoft

utmost power, and which requires him to be in a condition far from tir'd, when he enters on it. We cannot but think however that Mr. Ryan, tho' excellent in this peculiar fcene of that play, ought to be reminded, that this is only a small part of the character of that heroe, and that we purchase his excellence in it at too dear a rate, when he is fo very tame as he has lately been in the preceding fcenes of the play, in order to the faving himself for this. 'Tis not many nights fince we faw him in this character, when awhole audience beheld him contemptible throughout the whole of his principal fcene with Hermione; in which he was quite cool, and philofophic, while fhe was cunningly working him up to madness by every art that woman cou'd use; by promises, by threats, by foothing his paffion, and by confeffing a dread of her own frailty in regard to his rival. To all this he anfwer'd with all the calmness imaginable, with a soft accent and fmooth weak voice.

Madam, your love has made him criminal.
You fhall have vengeance, I'll have vengeance too.
-Firft let me tear him piece-meal-He shall die.
-He dies by me-Have you a foe,

And fhall I let him live? my rival too?
E'er yon meridian fun declines, he dies.

We cannot but know that the poet meant thefe expreffions fhou'd give us an idea of rage and fiercenefs in the fpeaker; and that there ought to have been a ftrong conflict expreffed in the character between love, revenge, and honour, and vifible in his air, his countenance, and his whole deportment, while the princefs thus work'd him to

her

her purpose, tho' at the expence of his honour; but we faw nothing of all this. How great a figure might a player make in fuch a scene, who had fufficient feeling and expreffion about him, and who dar'd to employ them; and how contemptible muft the coldness and infenfibility of the performer, who is tame and patient under all this, appear to us, notwithstanding that we know he is referving himself for fomething great that is to come? Nay 'tis even the worfe for it, as our knowing this to be the reason of the unnatural defect we fee, carries us forward to the fucceeding fcenes, and hurts that appearance of reality which is the greatest of all the beauties in a theatrical representation.

We remember the time when Mr. Garrick, thro' a difdain of the meannefs of this fort of artifice, ran into the other extreme in many parallel cafes; when he always run himself so out of voice in fome of the firft fcenes in the character of Pierre in Venice Preferv'd, that he cou'd not even be heard when he came afterwards to that great scene in which he reproaches the fenate: And when in Richard he cry'd out to Richmond, Richard is hoarfe with calling thee to battle, the audience was fo fenfible of the truth of the expreffion, that they cou'd fcarce diftinguish the founds that convey'd it to them. But to the honour of this inimitable player, he has now fallen into fo happy a method of moderating his fire in the beginnings of these characters, in order to the preferving himself intelligible to their end, that he might be fet up as an example to the performer we have juft nam'd, had not we an opportunity of recommending the yet more masterly address of the veteran of the other house in