eminent inftance of an actor who is very far from having any thing of the ridiculous turn of the fribbles of the age, in his real character, who yet is able to reprefent them inimitably to us upon the stage; nor is it neceffary for a man to be a favage in his nature, in order to his playing with great juftness and expreffion the Jew of Venice. Why therefore (he will conclude) may the case not stand with love, just as it does with the other paffions? and why may not an actor or an actress, without being susceptible of all the foibles of that paffion, reprefent very fairly, very faithfully, and very expreffively, all its tranfports? The man who is capable of arguing in this ftrain, may be affur'd that he has never been in love himself, and probably has never had an opportunity of feeing two people who were fo: when fuch a man has obtain'd a true notion of love from experience, he will be sensible that whatever may be the cafe in regard to the other paffions, the expreffion of this peculiar one is not to be had from art. Whatever attempts the bef actress in the world, who has it not from nature, can make to catch the genuine address, the affecting air and deportment of the truly enamour'd maid, they will be always as different from nature, as the cold pretences of a common creature whom a man purchases for the night, are from the paffionate tenderness of a woman who really loves him. It is at beft but very imperfectly that the player counterfeits the other paffions, when he does not really and naturally give himself up to them; but they are all lefs imperfectly copied by him, from what he fees in others, than love can be. G A A man will but very badly imitate the tone of voice of a perfon in a rage, if his own blood is perfectly cool and calm at the time; but he may take in other affiftances, and borrow from nature fome of the other figns by which that paffion generally manifefts itself; and nothing is more certain, than that feveral of the modern actors, in fome of their best parts, have this trick of deceiving the eyes of their audience, when they have not merit enough in the character to please their ears. The player in this cafe faves himself, by addressing his art to one of the fenfes, when he is fenfible he cannot do his bufinefs by the other. But this refource is wholly loft in love: when that is the paffion to be reprefented, the player can more deceive the eyes than he can the other fenfes of his audience, if nature has not given him a foul form'd to receive the paffion. The truth of this principle may be evinc'd without giving the objector the trouble of much reflection: nay, we fhall perhaps be led, whether we will or not, merely by obferving facts, to acknowledge, that an actor and an actress who play together a scene where the two characters they reprefent are defperately in love with one another, can never execute their parts with any degree of perfection, if they do not really feel in their own hearts, at least for that inftant, all the tenderness, all the tranfports for one another, that the perfons they reprefent are endowed with by the poet. In effect, if it were not neceffary in order to the doing juftice to fuch a scene, that the performers mutually feel the fentiments for each other which the poet describes in their feveral parts, at least for the moment while they are playing them, why why is it that we fee an actress appear so very different from herself when the plays fuch a part, and has the man fhe really loves for her pretended admirer; and when fhe plays the fame part without this advantage? or why is it that we see the very best of our actors, and thofe in particular who, under proper circumftances, fucceed beft of all in love-fcenes, yet make nothing of it when the character to whom they are to pay their addresses is given to fome female performer, who, from her age or figure, is wholly incapable of charming them? If it is not fufficiently evident from this, that not only a man must be capable of, and form'd for love, in his private character, but muft even be capable of taking it up occafionally, in order to play the part of a lover well, we may yet add a third queftion, Why is it that a tender lovescene, tho' ever fo well apply'd on both fides, is yet perfectly cold and infipid to us, when the person who reprefents the lover, is a woman in the habit of the other fex? Is it not evidently from the perfuafion we are under, that the tenderness that character expreffes, is all affected and forced, from the natural impoffibility of one woman's feeling for another all that paflion which he is to reprefent to us in the scene? If we would know the reason, why it is poffible for the player to borrow the appearances of the other paffions, without being naturally poffeffed of them; and yet impoffible for him, unlefs he can love himself, to copy, with any degree of fuccefs, the transports of that tender affection of the foul, we may venture to propose the following conjecture on the fubject. The other affections of the heart paint themfelves no otherwife on the face than by making an alteration in fome of its traces; but love, (and the fame may in fome measure be faid of joy) has the evident privilege of giving new graces, new beauties to the countenance; and of concealing, or even, for the time, amending its defects. Tho' a player, therefore, is able to represent to us a tolerably perfect image at leaft, of any other paffion, without, in reality, fubmitting himself to its government; yet it does not follow, that he can by the fame means imitate, even tho' it were but imperfectly, the joyous intoxication of Love, without his being truly affected by it himself. It would be expecting impoffibilities to require, that in every tender fcene that is to be represented on the stage, the two perfons who perform'd the enamour'd parts fhould always be, in reality, in love with one another: as to this we only know, that when this is the cafe, we have the advantage of feeing the scene much better play'd than it can be under any other circumftances; but we are to wifh, in general, that both performers could always take up the paffion, for the moment their parts require them; and that, if it be only affumed for the occafion, it may appear as ftrongly as poffible they will never make even the lightest impreffion upon us, if they have not at least a natural inclination for the paffion in itself, whatever they may have for the person whom chance has thrown into their way for the present imaginary object of it. It is as impoffible for us to make a perfon, on whom youth, beauty, and accomplishments in woman have no power in real life, to borrow the extafies, the tranfporting frenzy, and all the gay delights that attend that paffion from what he fees fees in others, as to make the dark and melancholy night exprefs the brightness of the finest day. CHA P. V. Which is a corollary to the foregoing Chapter. SIN INCE a natural difpofition to love and tenderness is a neceffary requifite for playing the character of a lover to advantage, it is very evident that no actor ought to attempt parts of this kind, if he be paft that period of his age in which loving would be proper in real life. The remembering our paft impreffions will never prove fufficient for our expreffing them as if prefent: 'tis in vain, on this occafion, that we call back what we once were in our thoughts, when the warmth and activity of our blood gave the paffions a command over us that we now no longer acknowledge. Thefe ideas, when our juices are become cold and frozen, fcarce able to creep along their paffages, feem but the remenbrance of a pleafant dream; and can never awaken in us again thofe foft tranfports that were our happiness while they were in their perfection. In order to their producing this effect upon us, it is neceffary that the objects of our paflion appear to us fuch as they did at that time; but how is this poffible, when we have no longer the fame eyes to view them with? It is the unlucky circumftance of human life, on this occafion, that the more we lose the right of being difficult to please, the nicer we become on that head; and as we deferve lefs, we expect more. |