The Player therefore, nay, and the Orator too, ought to form in his Mind a very strong Idea of the Subject of his Paffion, and then the Paffion it felf will not fail to follow, rife into the Eyes, and affect both the Senfe and Underftanding of the Spectators with the fame Tendernefs. The Performance of this is exprefs'd in Shakespear's Hamlet adinirably well, and should be often confider'd by our young Players.

Ham. Is it not monftruous that the Player here,
But in a Fiction, in a Dream of Paffion,
Could force his Soul fo to his whole Conceit,
That from her working all his Vifage warm'd,
Tears in his Eyes, Distraction in his Afpect;
A broken Voice, and his whole Function fuiting
With Forms to bis Conceit? And all for nothing!
For HECUBA!

What's HECUBA to him, or be to HECUBA, That he fhould weep for her? What wou'd be do

Had be the Motive, and the Cue for Paffion That I have? He would drown the Stage with Tears

And cleave the general Ear with horrid Speech; Make mad the Guilty, and appal the Free Confound the Ignorant, and amaze indeed The very Faculty of Eyes and Ears.

This fhews, that our Shakespear had a juft Notion of Acting, whatever his Performance was; for in thefe few Lines is contain'd almost

all

all that can be faid of Action, Looks and Gefture. Here we find the Soul forc'd fo to his whole Conceit, &c. The first place is the fixing this in the Soul, to engage that throughly in the Paffion, and then from her Working will his Vifage warm, his Eyes flow with Tears, and Distractions fpread over all his Face; nay, then will his Voice be broken, and every Faculty of his Body be agreeable to this ftrong Emotion of the Soul. Tho in the firft feven Lines he seems to have expreffed all the Duties of a Player in a great Paffion; yet in the following feven he derives a yet ftronger Action when the Object of Grief is real; which juftifies what the Ancients practis'd in heightning their Theatrical Sorrow, by fixing the Mind on real Objects; or by working your self up by a ftrong Imagination, that you are the very Perfon and in the very fame Circumstances, which will make the Cafe fo very much your own, that you will not want Fire in Anger, nor need not fear Tears in Grief: And then you affecting the Audience, for Paffions are wonderfully convey'd from one Perfon's Eyes to another's; the Tears of one melting the Heart of the other, by a very visible Sympathy between their Imaginations and Afpects.

You must lift up or caft down your Eyes, according as the Nature of the Things you speak of: Thus if of Heaven, your Eyes naturally are lifted up; if of Earth, or Hell, or any thing terrestrial, they are as naturally caft down.

F 4

Your

Your Eyes muft alfo be directed according to the Paffions, as to deject them on things of Difgrace, and which you are afham'd of ; and raise them on things of Honour, which you can glory in with Confidence and Reputation. In Swearing, or taking a folemn Oath, or Atteftation of any thing, to the Verity of what you fay, you turn your Eyes, and in the fame Acti on lift up your Hand to the thing you fwear by, or atteft.

Your Eye-brows must neither be immoveable, nor always in Motion; nor muft they both be rais'd on every thing that is fpoken with Eager nefs and Confent, and much lefs must one be rais'd, and the other caft down; but generally they must remain in the fame Pofture and Equality, which they have by Nature, allowing them their due Motion, when the Paffions require it; that is, to contract themselves, and frown in Sorrow to smooth and dilate themselves in Joy to hang down in Humility, &c. ↑

The Mouth muft never be writh'd, nor the Lips bit or lick'd, which are all ungenteel and unmannerly Actions, and yet what fome are frequently guilty of; yet in fome Efforts or Starts of Paflion, the Lips have their fhare of Action, but this more on the Stage, than in any other public Speaking, either in the Pulpit, or at the Bar; because the Stage is or ought to be an Imitation of Nature in thofe Actions and Difcourfes, which are produc'd betwixt Man and Man by any Paffion, or on any Business, which

can

can afford Action; for all other has in reality nothing to do with the Scene.

Tho to fhrug up the Shoulders be no Gesture allow'd in Oratory, yet on the Stage the Character of the Perfon, and the Subject of his Dif courfe, may render it proper enough; tho I confess, it seems more adapted to Comedy, than Tragedy, where all fhould be great and folemn, and with which the graveft of the Orators Acti ons will agree. I have read of a pleasant Method, that Demofthenes took to cure himself of this Vice of Action, for he at firft was mightily given to it; he us'd to exercise himself in declaiming in a narrow and ftreight Place, with a Dagger hung juft over his Shoulders, fo that as often as he fhrugg'd them up, the Point, by pricking his Shoulders, put him in mind of his Error: which in time remov'd the Defect.

Others thrust out the Belly, and throw back the Head, both Geftures unbecoming and inde

cent.

We come now to the Hands, which as they are the chief Inftruments of Action, varying themselves as many ways, as they are capable of expreffing things, fo is it a difficult matter to give fuch Rules as are without Exception. Thofe Natural Significations of particular Geftures, and what I fhall here add, will, I hope, be fome Light to the young Actor in this particular. Firft, I would have him look back to what I have faid of the Action of the Hands, as to their Expreffion of Accufation, Deprecation, Threats,

Threats, Defire, &c. and to weigh well what those Actions are, and in what manner expreffed; and then confidering how large a fhare thofe Actions have in all manner of Discourse, he will find that his Hands need never be idle, or employed in an infignificant or unbeautiful Gesture,

In the Beginning of a folemn Speech, or Oration, as in that of Anthony on the Death of Cafar, or of Brutus, on the fame Occafion, there is no Gesture at least of any Confideration, unless it begin abruptly, as O! JurITER, Ob! Heav'ns! is this to be born? the very Ships then in our Eyes, which I preferv'd, &c. extending here his Hands firft to Heav'n; and then to the Ships. In all regular Geftures of the Hands, they ought perfectly to correfpond with one another, as in ftarting in a Maze, on a fudden Fright, as Hamlet in the Scene betwixt him and his Mother, on the Appearance of his Father's Ghoft

Save me, and hover o'er me with your Wing's, You Heavenly Guards!

This is fpoke with Arms and Hands extended, and exprefling his Concern, as well as his Eyes, and whole Face. If an Action comes to be used by only one Hand, that must be by the Right, it being indecent to make a Gesture with the Left alone; except you should fay any such thing as,

Rather