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"this Dancer perfonate fo lively, that tho he "knew nothing of what was fung, being half "a Grecian, yet he understood all. Being "therefore to return to his Country after this "Entertainment of Nero's, and bid ask what "he would and it should be granted, reply'd, "give me the Dancer, and you will infinitely please me. Nero asking him of what ufe he "would be to him? My Neighbour Barbarians (faid he) are of different Languages, nor is "it eafy for me to find Interpreters for them; "this Fellow, therefore, as often as I have need, "fhall expound to me by his Gestures. So clear and intelligible were his Actions and Gestures, and fo derived from the Nature of the thing reprefented; which is a Proof, that there are certain Natural Significations of the Motions of the Hands, and other Members of the Body, which are obvious to the Understanding of all fenfible Men of all Nations. If thofe which I have given you from my Jefuit be not, yet I am very fure, that many of them are explain'd by him, which will be plain to a ferious Confiderer.

Gesture has therefore this Advantage above mere Speaking, that by this we're only underftood by thofe of our own Language, but by Action and Gesture (I mean juft and regular Action) we make our Thoughts and Paffions intelligible to all Nations and Tongues. 'Tis, as I have obferv'd from Quintilian, the common Speech of all Mankind, which strikes our Un

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derstanding by our Eyes, as effectually, as Speaking does by the Ears; nay, perhaps, makes the more effectual Impreffion, that Senfe being the most vivacious and touching, according to Horace, as I find him in my Lord Rofcommon's Verfion;

But what we hear moves lefs, than what we fee Spectators only have their Eyes to trust, &c.

I think I have already affign'd a tolerable Reafon why Movement and Action fhould teach us fo fenfibly; nay, the very Reprefentation of them in Painting often strikes our Paffions, and makes Impreffions on our Minds more ftrong and vivid, than all the Force of Words. The chief Work is certainly done by Speech in most other ways of public Difcourfe, either at the Bar, or in the Pulpit; where the Weight of the Reason and the Proof are firft and moft to be confider'd: But on the Stage, where the Paffions are chiefly in View, the best Speaking, deftitute of Action and Gesture (the Life of all Speaking) proves but a heavy, dull, and dead Difcourfe.

This, in fome measure, will likewife reach all things deliver'd in Public, fince I find Pliny the younger talking of People in his Days reciting of their Speeches, or Poems, by either reading them themselves, or by having them read by others, tells us, that this reading them was a very great Difadvantage to the Excellence of their Performance either way, leffening both

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their Eloquence and Character, fince the principal Helps of Pronunciation, the Eyes and the Hands, could not perform their Office, being otherwife employ'd to read, and not adorn the Utterance with their proper Motions; infomuch that it was no manner of wonder, that the Attention of the Audience grew languid, on fo unactive an Entertainment. On the contrary, when any Difcourfe receives Force and Life, not only from the Propriety and Graces of Speaking agreeable to the Subject, but from a proper Action and Gesture for it, it is truly touching, penetrating, transporting; it has a Soul, it has Life, it has Vigour and Energy not to be refifted. For then the Player, the Preacher, or Pleader, holds his Audience by the Eyes, as well as Ears, and engroffes their Attention by a double Force. This feems to be well represented in fome Words of Cicero to Cacilius, a young Orator, on his firft Caufe, who would needs undertake the Action against Verres, in Oppofition to Hortenfius. After he has fhown his Incapacity in many Points to accufe Verres, both in Ability, and in not being free from a Sufpicion of a fhare in the Guilt, he comes at laft to the Power and Art of his Adverfary Hortenfius- Reflect, (fays he) confider again and again what you are going to do! for there feems to me to be fome Danger not only of his oppreffing thee with his Words; even of his confounding and dazling the Eyes of thy Understanding with his GESTURE, and the MoTION of his Body, and fo entirely drive thee from

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thy Defign, and all thy Thoughts. The fame Cicero, in his Books of Oratory, tells us, that Craffus pleading against Brutus, deliver'd his Words with fuch an Accent and fuch a Gesture, that he perfectly confounded the later, and put him out of Countenance, fixing his Eyes ftedfaftly on him, and addreffing all his Action up to him, as if he would devour him with a Look and a Word.

But to make these Motions of the Face and Hands eafily understood, that is, ufeful in the moving the Paffions of the Auditors, or rather Spectators, they must be properly adapted to the thing you fpeak of, your Thoughts and Defign; and always refembling the Paffion you would exprefs or excite. Thus you must never speak of mournful things with a gay and. brisk Look, nor affirm any thing with the Action of Denial; for that would make what you fay of no manner of Authority or Credit; you would gain neither Belief nor Admiration. You muft alfo have a peculiar Care of avoiding all manner of Affectation in your Action and Gesture, for that's most commonly ridiculous and odious, unless where the Actor is to exprefs fome Affectation in the Character he reprefents, as in Melantha in Marriage Ala-mude, and Millamant in the Way of the World. But even then that very Affectation nuft be unaffected, as thofe two Parts were admirably acted by Mrs. Montfort and Mrs. Bracegirdle. But your Action muft appear purely Natural, as the genuine Offspring

of the things you exprefs, and the Passion, that moves you to speak in that manner.

In fine, our Player, Pleader, or Preacher, must have that nice Address in the Management of his Gestures, that there may be nothing in all the various Motions and Difpofitions of his Body, which may be offenfive to the Eye of the Spectator; as well as nothing grating and disobliging to the Ears of his Auditors, in his Pronunciation; else will his Perfon be lefs agreeable, and his Speech lefs efficacious to both, by wanting all that Grace, Virtue, and Power, it would otherwife obtain.

'Tis true, it must be confefs'd, that the Art of Gesture seems more difficult to be obtain'd, than the Art of Speaking; becaufe a Man's own Ear may be judge of the Voice, and its feveral Variations, but cannot fee his Face at all, and the Motion of the other Parts of the Body, but very imperfectly. Demofthenes, as I have faid, to make a true Judgment how far his Face and Limbs mov'd and kept to the Rules of good Action and Gefture, fet before him a large Looking-Glafs fufficient to reprefent the whole Body at one View, to direct him in diftinguishing betwixt Right and Wrong, decent and indecent Actions; but yet, tho this might not be unufeful, it lies under this Difadvantage, that it represents on the Right what is on the Left, and on the contrary, on the Left what is on the Right Hand; fo that when you make a Motion with your Right-Hand, the Reflection makes it

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