CHAPTER X.

OF NOTATION OF GESTURE.

The want of a method of notation one cause of the neglect of the art of gesture-Why more neglected by orators than by actors-Invention of notation of gesture attended by many difficulties—Analogy to musical notation-General description of gesture in words affords but inadequate ideas of it-Particular description altogether tediousThe want of some means of recording the gesture of the ancient orators to be lamented-The same to be said of our own great Orators and players-Portraits do not adequately supply this want—Origin of this attempt to produce a notation of gesture-Conjectures as to the manner in which were delivered certain passages of Cicero, Demosthenes, and Gracchus, which are remarked as having derived much of their effect from fine action—This art may be of use to the historical painterMore so to the actor-The want of such an art the subject of frequent complaint-Examples from Betterton-Lloyd-Sheridan.

CHAPTER X.

Of Notation of Gesture.

ONE of the reasons which may be assigned for the neglect of cultivating the art of gesture, is the want of a copious and simple language for expressing its different modifications with brevity and perspicuity. Some modern authors speak of the hope or possibility of supplying this want. The ancient

'S'il étoit possible de tracer les figures des gestes sur le papier, comme on présente nettement dans des exemples les figures des pensées et des mots, vous verriez qu'il n'existe pas un seule affection de l'ame, ni par conséquent une seule figure dans le discours à laquelle ne réponde un geste particulier. Quant aux régles pour se former au geste, peu d'auteurs ont entrepris de les présenter avec un certain détail: après avoir exposé quelques principes généraux, ils se sont arrêtés là; et par cette conduit ils semblent avoir fait l'aveu de leur impuissance pour traiter avec succès, et dans toute son étendue, cette partie si essentielle de l'action oratoire. Est-il étonnant qu'ils aient senti d'avance toutes les difficultés de leur entreprise, et qu'ils aient cédé à l'embarras de l'effectuer? le geste est comme le jeu de la physionomie, susceptible d'autant de nuances que les passions ont de dégrés de chaleur ou de mouvemens opposés; pour l'assujettir à des régles de détail, il faudroit pouvoir embrasser toutes les diverses modifications du cœur humain, et encore, après avoir fait cette opération sur un seul individu, il faudroit la répéter sour tous; car chaque homme ayant sa manière de sentir, il deviendroit nécessaire d'établir des régles particulières pour chaque individu, ce qui est impracticable et au-dessus des forces humaines. On a donc eu raison de se borner, en traitant du geste, à des principes généraux, et d'abandonner les régles de détail au gout particulier de chaque individu et à l'influence de ses émotions personelles. Dubroca l'Art de Lire à haute Voix. Leçon 25.

M. Dubroca expresses the difficulty of forming a system of gesture with sufficient force. But in the latter observations he has failed to perceive, that in the various gestures of different men, there is sufficient similarity to give ground for the general classification, and naming of gestures.

2 Action is a sort of language which perhaps one time or other may come to be taught

systems or classes of gesture do not appear to have related to this view.' This desideratum operates with more sensible effect against the improvement of the orator, than that of the player. The orator obtains his chief estimation from his ingenuity and force of reasoning, and therefore he applies with the vigour of his ability principally to composition; delivery among us has not yet obtained the estimation due to its importance, and if at all, it is imperfectly and partially studied. But the player must exert himself in all the art of delivery, because

by a kind of grammar rules; but at present it is only got by rote, and imitation. Hogarth, Analysis of Beauty, p. 139.

3 Mr. Engel speaks of Lessing, a German author, who had proposed to write upon the art of gesture, this he considers evidently most difficult, as appears by his expressions.

Au passage cité de Lessing... je puis en opposer un autre tiré d'un de ses ouvrages antérieurs, qui prouve de la manière la plus convaincante qu'il a été persuadé de la possibilité de former un art du geste; qu'il doit même en avoir esquissé le plan. Idées sur le Geste. Lettre 1.

4 In the same letter Engel says, Lessing was to call his work Eloquence du Geste, and laments his early death, which prevented its execution; he says of him, qu'il même en avoit déjà redigé le plan, si non sur le papier, du moins dans sa tête (car Lessing n'a jamais promis une chose dont l'exécution lui paroissoit douteuse), ne devoit pas envisager comme impossible l'exécution d'un pareil ouvrage.

5 The ancients possessed, no doubt, a regular system of gesture, of which nothing more than the names of different divisions or classes has reached us. For these names and their use we are obliged to Athenæus. The class of gesture suited to comedy was called Cordax, the class suited to tragedy Eumelia, and that suited to satire Sicinnis, from the inventor Sicinnus a barbarian. Bathyllus from these three classes formed a fourth suited to the pantomime. which he called the Italic.

Τῶτον τὸν Βάθυλλον φησὶν Αρισόνικος καὶ Πυλάδης * ἐςὶ καὶ σύγγραμμα περὶ ὀρχήσεως, τὴν Ιταλικὴν ὄρχησιν συςήσασθαι ἐκ τῆς κωμικῆς ἢ ἐκαλεῖτο Κόρδαξ· καὶ τῆς τραγικῆς ἢ ἐκαλεῖτο Ἐμμέλεια· καὶ τῆς σατυρικῆς ἢ ἐλέγετο Σίκιννις. . Σίκιννός τις βάρβαρος. Athen. Deip. l. i. p. 20.

ῆς ἑυρητής

This system of gesture appears to have been accommodated to the music of dramatic performances alone, and we do not read of any particular system of gesture belonging to oratory. The orators we know borrowed from the theatre, but did not use such licentious gesture.

his fame and fortune depend solely on this art. He obtains instructions therefore, the best in his power; he hears and attends to the traditions of the green-room relative to the deportment of the great players who had been celebrated before his time; he listens to the advice of his seniors, he imitates his superiors, he struggles against his own imperfections and awk-. wardness, and all this for cogent reasons, because if he does not conquer them, he will be laughed at, and sink in reputation and in fortune. To all this he adds his own private study and meditation, and after a few years he improves and advances in his profession. His first failures only cause him to redouble his efforts; and almost the dullest of men, if they persevere, arrive on the stage at last to some degree of useful and respectable talent. The orator in our country has no person to instruct him in gesture, he sees few models, which are worthy of imitation; if he has a taste for the theatre, and if he attempt to borrow from it, he runs the hazard of introducing indecorous gesture; and if he should fail in his ideas and execution at his first setting out, he generally relinquishes his ambitious attempts in disgust, and falls into some restrained and habitual gestures, or into the torpor of absolute inaction. The orators, whether of the bar, the senate, or the pulpit, from their literary habits and their knowledge of the value of delivery, as celebrated in those classical authors so familiar to them in our country, it is to be presumed,

Histrio si paullum se movit extra numerum, aut si versus pronuntiatus est syllaba una brevior, aut longior, exsibilatur et exploditur. Cic. Parad. 3, 2.

The same disgrace would happen to an actor in modern times if he violated accent or pronunciation: our gesture not being so strictly regulated as that of the ancients, which kept exact time with the music, a greater degree of latitude is allowed in this respect: but still absurdity or awkwardness do not pass uncensured.

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