agitated by great political interests, have, it is true, a more elevated, a more ideal language, but that this language is still that of nature. It is, therefore, this nature, noble, animated, aggrandized, but, at the same time, simple, which ought to be the constant object of the studies of the actor, as well as of the poet; and Lekain could have found in the works of even the masters of the drama, examples of this grandeur without affectation; in fact, in their master-pieces the most sublime expressions are also the most simple.

I have frequently heard persons of learning state, in society, that tragedy is not in nature; it is an idea that has been repeated without examining, till, at length, it has become a kind of maxim.

The world, occupied with other objects, has not studied sufficiently all the movements of the passions; they judge too lightly; and indifferent authors, and actors, who pay but little attention to their art, serve to accredit this error. Certainly, the manner in which they conceive and embody tragedy, the style of the one, and the acting of the other, cannot inspire any other idea. But let us examine any of the impassioned or political

characters of Corneille or Racine; how often their language is at once simple and elevated! When Voltaire is inspired by a passion, how pathetic and natural he is, in the style in which the ambi❤ tion of the poet is best displayed. It is not the negligence or the carelessness of a vulgar conversation, that we find in the beautiful scenes of those great poets. It is the naïf language, and the aggrandized but exact expression of nature itself. Let us examine, in every point of view, the exposition and the denouement of "Wenceslas," the fifth acts of "Rodogune" and "Cinna,” the part of Horatius, the scenes of Agamemnon and Achilles, the parts of Ioad, Edipus, the two Brutus, Cæsar, the parts of Phedra, Andromache, Hermione, &c.; I defy any person to give them a more true or natural form of expres sion; take away the rhyme, and all these personages would have expressed themselves in the same manner, in real life.

It is the same with some actors who have adorned the French stage, as Lekain, Mademoiselle Dumenil, Molé, and Monvel. It was only by a faithful imitation of truth and nature, that

*All French tragedies are in rhyme.

they succeeded in creating those powerful emotions in an enlightened nation, which still exist in the recollection of those who heard them. Thus, the master-pieces of the poets, and the talents of the actors, prove, incontrovertibly, that tragedy is not so far from nature as has been supposed, and that mediocrity alone has given some weight to the contrary opinion.

It must, however, be confessed, that, amongst the great actors of all countries, there are only a few who have sought after this truth. Moliere, however, and Shakspeare before him, had given excellent lessons to the comedians of their days. Moliere, in his "Impromptu du Versailles," rallies the comedians of the Hotel de Bourgogne, on the affectation and pomposity of their manner; and Shakspeare, in the play of "Hamlet," gives excellent advice to the players.

Ham. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue : but if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus; but use all gently for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say) whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance, that may give it smoothness. O; it offends me to the soul, to hear a robustious periwigpated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split

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the ears of the groundlings; who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise: I would have such a fellow whipped for o'er-doing Termagant; it out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.

1 Play. I warrant, your honour.

Ham. Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o'er-step not the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first, and now, was, and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to shew virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure. Now this, overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of which one, must, in your allowance, o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be players, that I have seen play, --and heard others praise, and that highly,—not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted, and bellowed, that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.

us.

1 Play. I hope, we have reformed that indifferently with

Ham. O, reform it altogether. And let those, that play your clowns, speak no more than is set down for them: for there be of them, that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too; though, in the mean time, some necessary question of the play be then to be

considered: that's villainous; and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready.

How happens it, then, that, notwithstanding the advice of these two great masters, and, no doubt, of that of many of their contemporaries, the false system of pompous declamation has been established on almost all the theatres in Europe, and been proclaimed as the sole type of theatrical imitation? It is, that truth in all arts is what is most difficult to find and seize. The statue of Minerva exists in the block of marble, but the chisel of Phidias alone can discover it. It is, that this faculty being given only to a very few comedians, and mediocrity having a great majority, it has laid down the law.

I may be permitted to insert here, an observation which has been suggested to me by the great events of the revolution; for the violent crises, of which I was a witness, have often served me as a study.

The man of the world, and the man of the people, so opposite in their language, have frequently the same of way expressing the great agitations of the soul; the one forgets his social manners, and the other quits his vulgar forms; one descends to nature, and the other re-mounts to

VOL. I.

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