warm and paffionate Parts of a Tragedy, are always the most taking with the Audience; for which Reason we often fee the Players pronouncing, in all the Violence of Action, feveral Parts of the Tragedy which the Author writ with great Temper, and defigned that they fhould have been fo acted. I have feen Powell very often raise himself a loud Clap by this Artifice. The Poets that were acquainted with this Secret, have given frequent Occafion for fuch Emotions in the Actor, by adding Vehemence to Words where there was no Paffion, or inflaming a real Paffion into Fuftian. This hath filled the Mouths of our Heroes with Bombaft; and given them fuch Sentiments, as proceed rather from a Swelling than a Greatness of Mind. Unnatural Exclamations, Curfes, Vows, Blafphemies, a Defiance of Mankind, and an Outraging of the Gods, frequently pass upon the Audience for tow'ring Thoughts, and have accordingly met with infinite Applause.

I fhall here add a Remark, which I am afraid our Tragick Writers may make an ill ufe of. As our Heroes are generally Lovers, their Swelling and Bluftring upon the Stage very much re

com

commends them to the fair Part of their Audience. The Ladies are wonderfully pleased to see a Man infulting Kings, or affronting the Gods, in one Scene, and throwing himself at the Feet of his Miftrefs in another. Let him behave himfelf infolently towards the Men, and abjectly towards the Fair one, and it is ten to one but he proves a Favourite of the Boxes. Dryden and Lee, in feveral of their Tragedies, have practifed this Secret with good Success.

BUT to fhew how a Rant pleases beyond the moft juft and natural Thought that is not pronounced with Vehemence, I would defire the Reader, when he fees the Tragedy of Oedipus, to obferve how quietly the Hero is difmiffed at the End of the third Act, after having pronounced the following Lines, in which the Thought is very natural, and apt to move Compaffion.

To you, good Gods, I make my laft Appeal;
Or clear my Virtues, or my Crimes reveal.
If in the Maze of Fate I blindly run,
And backward trod thofe Paths I fought to fhun;
Impute my Errors to your own Decree
My Hands are guilty, but my Heart is free.

VOL. II.

B

Let

Let us then obferve with what Thunder-claps of Applause he leaves the Stage, after the Impieties and Execrations at the End of the fourth A&t; and you will wonder to fee an Audience fo cursed and so pleased at the same time.

O that as oft I have at Athens feen,

[Where, by the way, there was no
Stage till many Years after Oedipus.]

The Stage arife, and the big Clouds descend;
So now, in very Deed, I might behold
This pondrous Globe, and all yon Marble Roof,
Meet like the Hands of Jove, and crush Mankind:
For all the Elements, &c.

ADVERTISEMENT.

Having fpoken of Mr. Powell, as fometimes raifing himself Applause from the ill Tafte of an Audience; I must do him the Juftice to own, that he is excellently formed for a Tragedian, and, when he pleases, deferves the Admiration of the best Judges; as I doubt not but he will in the Conqueft of Mexico, which is acted for his own Benefit to-morrow Night.

C

Fuef

C

Tuesday, April 17.

-Tu non inventa reperta es. Ovid.

OMPASSION for the Gentleman who writes the following Letter, should not prevail upon me to fall upon the Fair Sex, if it were not that I find they are frequently Fairer than they ought to be. Such Impoftures are not to be tolerated in Civil Society; and I think his Misfortune ought to be made publick, as a Warning for other Men always to examine into what they admire.

SIR,

Son of general Knowledge, I make
UPPOSING you to be a Per-

my Application to you on a very par-
ticular Occafion. I have a great Mind
to be rid of my Wife, and hope, when
you confider my Cafe, you will be of
Opinion I have very juft Pretenfions to
a Divorce. I am a mere Man of the

B 2

'Town,

'Town, and have very little Improvement, but what I have got from Plays. In remember in The Silent Woman, the Learned Dr. Gutberd, or Dr. Otter (I forget which) makes one of the Caufes of Separation to be Error Perfone, when a Man marries a Woman, and finds her not to be the fame Wo• man whom he intended to marry, but • another. If that be Law, it is, I pre fume, exactly my Cafe. For you are to know, Mr. SPECTATOR, that there are Women who do not let their Husbands fee their Faces till they are * married.

NOT to keep you in fufpence, I mean plainly, that Part of the Sex who paint. They are fome of them fo exquifitely skilful this Way, that give them but a tolerable Pair of Eyes to fet up with, and they will make Bofom, Lips, Cheeks and Eyebrows, by their own Induftry. As for my Dear, never Man was fo inamoured as I was of her fair Forehead, Neck and Arms, as well as the bright Jett of her Hair; but to my great Aftonishment, I find they were all the Effect of Art: Her Skin is fo tarnifhed with this Practice, that when she first • wakes