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ple, who were no dull Obfervers.

"The

Citizens of Antioch (fays he) are most inge"nious, and much addicted to the Stage, and "fo given to remark what is faid and done, "that no Paffage efcapes them; seeing, there"fore, on a Time a little fhort Fellow enter, "and act Hector, they cry'd out with one Voice, "This is Aftyanax, but where is Hector? An"other time, a great tall long Fellow acting "Capaneus, attempting to fcale the Walls of "Thebes, they told him, he might mount the "Walls without a Ladder; at another Time a big and corpulent Dancer endeavouring to rife "high, we have need, cry'd they, to underprop the Stage, &c.

A Player, therefore, fhould be of an active, pliant and compacted Body, which may be improv'd by learning to dance, fence and vault. With thefe Qualities and Qualifications, and a thorough Knowledge of what I have written, he may juftly be allow'd a complete Player. But before I put an End to this Discourse, I fhall give an Inftance or two of Affectation and Overacting from Lucian." I once (fays he) faw a "Dancer (or Actor, for in his Senfe they are "the fame) who tho before of a good Reputation for his Art, I know not by what mifchance, difgrac'd himfelf by Over-Action."For being to reprefent Ajax distracted after his being vanquifh'd by Ulyffes, he acted not a Madness, but was himfelf diftemper'd. For he rent the Garment of one of thofe, wha

« stamp❜d

"ftamp'd in Iron Shoes, and fnatching 'a Cor net from one of the Fidlers, ftruck Ulyffes, "who ftood by infulting on his Victory, fuch ແ a Blow on his Head, that if his Helmet had “ not fav'd him, and born off the Violence of "the Stroke, he had perished, and fal'n proftrate " at his Feet.

"Tho the whole Theatre of Spectators, as "mad as Ajax, ftampt, fhouted, and fhook their 66 Cloaths; for the Rout and Ideots, who knew not Decorum, nor were able to distinguish "falfe Action from true, took this as a great Expreffion of Fury, and the better bred and more understanding, tho they blufh'd at what "was done, yet fhew'd not their Diflike, as "much as by their Silence, but colour'd the "Actor's Folly by their Commendations, tho

c

they faw not the Madness of Ajax acted, but "that of the Reprefenter. So that not yet " contented, the Gentleman play'da Prank much more ridiculous; for defcending into the Pit, "he fat down betwixt two, who had been "Confuls, who were much afraid of themselves, " left this frantic Actor fhould take one of them "for a Sheep. Which Paffage fome extoll'd, "others derided; others fufpected, that his O"ver-Imitation had caft him into a real Mad

nefs. Others report, that after he came to "himfelf, he was fo afham'd of what he had ❝ done, that upon the true Apprehenfion of his "Diftemper, he fell fick for Grief, and plainly profefs'd it. For thofe of his Faction defiring

2

«him

" him to act Ajax over again to them, When I "come next on the Stage, faid he; in the mean "time, 'tis enough for me once to have plaid the "Madman. But his chief Difcontent fprung «from an Antagonist or Anti-Actor, who repre "fented Ajax raving fo gracefully and difcreet"ly, that he gain'd a great Applaufe.

Tho, I fear, I may have tir'd you with all thefe Rules and Obfervations, which immediately relate to the Actors; yet I cannot conclude without faying fomething of our Theatrical Dancing and Mufick, as being by Ariftotle himfelf allow'd part or an Appendix of the Stage. Under the last Head of Mufic, I fhall prefume to say something of Opera's, which have of late been dangerous Rivals of the Drama, tho clogg'd with many adventitious or accidental Abfurdities more, than the very Opera confider'd in it felf contains, tho those are so very many and very vifible, that they exclude it from the rational Di verfions.

I am fenfible, that what I am going to fay may look like a Condemnation of my own Pra&tice, when I had the Management of the House, and that is in regard of good Dancing. Yet confidering, that I was oblig'd, on Account of Self-Defence, to enter into thofe Measures, I hope what I fay here cannot be look❜d on as a Deviation from my own Principle; or if it be, may be allow'd to alter my Opinion in things of this Nature, when we find great Divines do the fame every Day in Matters of far greater Importance.

I

I

I know very well, that in this I fhall run against the Stream of the Town, I mean of those, who generally make up the Audience; but then I confider, that I am an old Man, and have contracted fuch a Value for the Drama, by fo long a Converfation with it, that I would willingly leave for a Legacy to my Succeffors, a Stage freed from thofe intolerable Burthens, under which it groans at prefent by the Depravity of the Taste of the Audience, which as it has rifen in Dignity has (Lam afraid) fal'n in Purity and Judgment.

About an hundred Years ago, there were about five or fix Play-houses at a Time in this Town, tho at that Time much less extended and populous, than at prefent, all frequented and full, and the Players got Eftates, tho the Stage was yet in its Infancy, rude and uncultivated, without Art in the Poet, or in the Decorations, and fupported by the Lower Sort of People, and yet thefe LOWER SORT OF PEOPLE discover'd a natural Simplicity and good Tafte, when they were pleas'd and diverted with a Drama fo naked, and unaffifted by any foreign Advantage.

But in our Times (forgive fo bold a Truth) the People of Figure, who in Reafon might have been expected to be the Guardians and Supporters of the noblest and most rational DIVERSION, that the Wit of Man can invent, which at once inftructs and tranfports the Soul, were the firft, nay, I may fay, the only People, who confpir'd its Ruin, by prodigal Subfcriptions for

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Squeak

Squeaking Italians, and cap'ring Monfieurs; and the more infamoufly to diftinguish their poor and mean Diverfions from thofe more noble of the Public, they would have no Play at all mingled with them, left the World should think, that they pay'd any Deference to Poetry, Wit, and Senfe; or that their Satisfaction and Delight reach'd farther, than their Eyes and Ears. But what was yet worse, their Taste was fo far funk, that they were pleas'd with what shock'd a nice Ear, and what could not divert a curious Eye. For first, the best of French Dancers are without Variety; their Steps, their Pofture, their Rifings are perpetually the fame UNMEAN ING Motion; a French Dancer being at best but a graceful Mover, full of a brisk and fenfeless Activity, unworthy the Eye of a Man of Sense, who can take no Pleasure worth attending, in which the Mind has not a confiderable Share.

Were our modern Dancers like the Mimes and Pantomimes of the Romans, (tho even those grew into Efteem in the Wain and Corruption of that Empire) our Dotage on them might have been thought more excufable; fince one of them, as I have fhewn from Lucian, by the Variety of his Motions and Gefticulations, would reprefent a whole Hiftory, with all the different Perfons concerned in it fo plainly and evidently, that every body, that faw him, perfectly understood what he meant.