"to be the Murderers of the Soldiers. Anfwer, "Blafus, where haft thou thrown his Body; "the most mortal Enemies deny not Burial to "the dead Enemy: When to his Corps I have perform'd my laft Duties in Kiffes, and flow"ing with Tears, command me to be flain at "his Side, fo that these our Fellow-Soldiers may have leave to bury us. He put the Army into fuch a Ferment and Fury by this Speech, that if it had not immediately been made appear, that there was no fuch Matter, that he never had any Brother, the Soldiers would hardly have fpar'd the Lieutenant's Life; for he acted it as if it had been fome Interlude on the Stage.

There is not fo great a Pathos in the Words uttered by the Soldier, as to ftir the Army into so very great a Ferment, they must therefore receive almost their whole Force from a moft moving and pathetic Action, in which his Eyes, Hands, and Voice join'd in a moft lively Expreffion of his Mifery and of his Lofs. 'Tis true that, when an Army is tumultuous in it felf, it is no difficult matter to run them into Madness; but then it must be done by fome, who either by their foriner Interest there, had purchas'd an Opinion among them, or some one who by the Artfulness of his Addrefs fhould touch their Souls, and fo engage them to what he pleases. The later I take to be our Cafe in Vibulenus, who by the Advantage of his Skill in Action recommended himself and his fuppofi

titious

titious Cause so effectually to them, as to make the General run a great hazard of his Life for an imaginary Murder.

This has made fome of the old Orators give the fole Power and fovereign Command in Speech to Action, as I have read in fome of thofe learned Men who have treated of this Subject in English and French. And I am perfuaded, that our Parfons would move their Hearers far more, if tbey added but graceful Action to loud Speaking. This often fets off indifferent Matter, and makes a Man of little Skill in any other Part of Oratory, pafs for the moft eloquent; this, I have read, was the Cafe of Trachallus, who tho none of the best Orators of his Time for the Compofition and Writing part, yet excell'd all the Pleaders of that Age, his Appearance and Delivery was fo plaufible and pleafing. The Stateliness of his Perfon and Port, the Sparkling of his Eyes, the Majefty of his Looks, and the Beauty of his Mien; and his Voice added to thefe Qualities, which not only for Gravity and Compofedness came up to that of a Tragedian, but even excell'd any Actors, that ever yet trod the Stage, as my Author affures us from Quintilian. Philiftus, on the other hand, for want ot thefe Advantages of Utterance, loft all the Beauty and Force of his Pleadings, tho for Language and the Art of Compofition excell'd all the Greeks of his Time.

The fame Advantage of Pericles and Hortenfius, with this difference, Hortenfius afcrib'd all

the Success of his Pleadings to the Merit of the Writing, and convinc'd the World of his Error by publishing his Orations; Pericles, tho 'tis faid he had the Goddess Perfuafion on his Lips, and that he thundred and lightned in an Affembly, and made all Greece tremble when he spoke, yet would never publish any of his Orations, because their Excellency lay in the ACTION.

What I have faid here of Action in general, and the particular Examples I have given of it, is I believe fufficient to fatisfy any one, that is ftudious of Excellence on the Stage, that it ought to be his chief Aim and Application. But next to this is the Art of Speaking, in which alfo a Player ought to be perfectly skill'd; for as a learned Country-man of ours obferves

"The Operation of Speech is ftrong, not only " for the Reafon or Wit therein contained, but "by its Sound. For in all good Speech there " is a fort of Mufic, with Refpect to its Mea

fure, Time and Tune. Every well-measur'd "Sentence is proportional three ways, in all its "Parts to the Sentences, and to what it is in"tended to exprefs, and all Words that have. "Time allow'd to their Syllables, as is fuitable "to the Letters whereof they confift, and to "the Order, in which they stand in a Sentence. "Nor are Words without their Tune or Notes

even in common Talk, which together com"pose that Tune, which is proper to every Sentence, and may be prick'd down as well as any mufical Tune: only in the Tunes of

"Speech

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Speech the Notes have much less Variety, and have all a fhort Time. With Respect al"fo to Time and Measure, the Poetic is lefs "various and therefore lefs powerful, than that "of Oratory; the former being like that of a "fhort Country Song repeated to the End of the "Poem, but that of Oratory is vary'd all along, "like the Divifions, which a skilful Musician (6 runs upon a Lute.

ing

He proceeds to our former Confideration, fay"The Behaviour and Gesture is alfo of Force; as in Oratory fo in Converse, confifting of almost as many Motions, as there are "moveable Parts of the Body, all made with ic a certain agreeable Meafure between one another, and at the fame time answerable to "that of Speech, which when easy and unaf"fected is becoming.

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A Mastery in thefe two Parts is what compleats an Actor And I hope the Rules I fhall give for both will be of Ufe to fuch as have truly a Genius for this Art, the Rules of which, like thofe of Poetry, are only for those, who have a Genius, and are not perfectly to be understood by thofe, who have not.

To begin therefore with Action, the Player is to confider, that it is not every rude and undefigning Action, that is his Bufinefs, for that is what the Ignorant as well as skilful may have, nor can indeed want: But the Action of a Player is that, which is agreeable to Perfonation, or the Subject he reprefents, Now what he reprefents

is Man in his various Characters, Manners, and Paffions, and to thefe Heads he must adjust every Action; he muft perfectly exprefs the Quality and Manners of the Man, whofe Perfon he affumes, that is, he inuft know how his Manners are compounded, and from thence know the feveral Features, as I may call 'em, of his Paffions. A Patriot, a Prince, a Beggar, a Clown, &c. muft each have their Propriety, and Diftinction in Action as well as Words and Language. An Actor therefore muft vary with his Argument, that is, carry the Perfon in all his Manners and Qualities with him in every Action and Paffion; he muft transform himself into every Perfon he reprefents, fince he is to act all forts of Actions and Paffions. Sometimes he is to be a Lover, and know not only all the foft and tender Addreffes of one, but what are proper to the Character, that is in Love, whether he be a Prince or a Peafant, a hot and fiery Man or of more moderate and flegmatick Conftitution, and even the Degrees of the Paffion he is poffeffed with. Sometimes he is to reprefent a choleric, hot and jealous Man, and then he must be throughly acquainted with all the Motions and Sentiments productive of thofe Motions of the Feet, Hands, and Looks of fuch a Perfon in fuch Circumftances. Sometimes he is a Perfon all dejected and bending under the Extremities of Grief and Sorrow; which changes the whole Form and Appearance of him in the Reprefentation, as it does really in Nature. Some