N° 42. Wednesday, April 18, 1711.

Garganum mugire putes nemus aut mare Thufcum;
Tanto cum ftrepitu ludi spectantur, & artes,
Divitiæque peregrine; quibus oblitus actor
Cum ftetit in fcena, concurrit dextera leva.
Dixit adbuc aliquid? Nil fanè. Quid placet ergo?
Lana Tarentino violas imitata veneno.

HOR. 2 Ep. i. 202.

IMITATED.

Loud as the wolves on Orca's ftormy fteep,
Howl to the roarings of the northern deep:
Such is the fhout, the long applauding note,
At Quin's high plume, or Oldfield's petticoat:
Or when from court a birth-day fuit beftow'd
Sinks the loft actor in the tawdry load.
Booth enters hark! the univerfal peal!-
But has he spoken? Not a fyllable.
What fhook the stage, and made the people stare?
Cato's long wig, flow'r'd gown, and lacquer'd chair.

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RISTOTLE has obferved, that ordinary writers in Tragedy endeavour to raise terror and pity in their audience, not by proper fentiments and expreffions, but by the dreffes and decorations of the ftage. There is fomething of this kind very ridiculous in the English Theatre. When the author has a mind to terrify us, it thunders; when he would make us melancholy, the ftage is darkened. But among all

our

our Tragic artifices, I am the moft offended at those which are made ufe of to infpire us with magnificent ideas of the perfons that speak. The ordinary method of making an hero, is to clap a huge plume of feathers upon his head, which rifes fo very high, that there is often a greater length from his chin to the top of his head, than to the fole of his foot. One would believe, that we thought a great man and a tall man the fame thing. This very much embarraffes the actor, who is forced to hold his neck extremely ftiff and steady all the while he speaks; and notwithstanding any anxieties which he pretends for his miftrefs, his country, or his friends, one may fee by his action, that his greateft care and concern is to keep the plume of feathers from falling off his head. For my own part, when I fee a man uttering his complaints under fuch a mountain of feathers, I am apt to look upon him rather as an unfortunate lunatic, than a diftreffed hero. As thefe fuperfluous ornaments upon the head make a great man, a princess generally receives her grandeur from thofe additional incumbrances that fall into her tail: I mean the broad sweeping train that follows her in all her motions, and finds conftant employment for a boy who stands behind her to open and fpread it to advantage. I do not know how others are affected at this fight, but I must confefs, my eyes are wholly taken up with the page's párt; and, as for the queen, I am not fo attentive to any thing the fpeaks, as to the right adjusting of her train, lest

it should chance to trip up her heels, or incommode her, as the walks to and fro upon the stage. It is in my opinion, a very odd fpectacle, to fee a queen venting her paffion in a difordered motion, and a little boy taking care all the while that they do not ruffle the tail of her gown. The parts that the two perfons act on the stage at the fame time are very different. The princefs is afraid left she should incur the displeasure of the king her father, or lose the hero her lover, whilst her attendant is only concerned left she should intangle her feet in her petticoat.

We are told, that an ancient tragic poet, to move the pity of his audience for his exiled kings and diftreffed heroes, used to make the actors represent them in dreffes and clothes that were thread - bare and decayed. This artifice for moving pity, seems as ill contrived as that we have been speaking of to infpire us with a great idea of the perfons introduced upon the ftage. In short, I would have our conceptions raifed by the dignity of thought and fublimity of expreffion, rather than by a train of robes or a plume of feathers.

axes.

Another mechanical method of making great men, and adding dignity to kings and queens, is to accompany them with halberts and battleTwo or three fhifters of fcenes, with the two candle-fnuffers, make up a complete body of guards upon the English ftage; and by the addition of a few porters dreffed in red coats, can reprefent above a dozen legions. I have fometimes feen a couple of armics drawn up toVOL. I. gether

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gether upon the ftage, when the poet has been difpofed to do honour to his generals. It is impoffible for the reader's imagination to multiply twenty men into fuch prodigious multitudes, or to fancy that two or three hundred thousand foldiers are fighting in a room of forty or fifty yards in compafs. Incidents of fuch nature fhould be told, not reprefented.

-Non tamen intus

Digna geri promes in fcenam : multaque tolles
Ex oculis, quæ mox narret facundia præfens.

HOR. Ars Poet. ver. 182.

Yet there are things improper for a scene,
Which men of judgment only will relate.

ROSCOMMON.

I should therefore, in this particular, recommend to my countrymen the example of the French stage, where the kings and queens always appear unattended, and leave their guards behind the scenes. Ifhould likewise be glad if we imitated the French in banishing from our stage the noise of drums, trumpets, and huzzas; which is fometimes fo very great, that when there is a battle in the Haymarket theatre, one may hear it as far as Charing-Crofs.

I have here only touched upon thofe particulars which are made ufe of to raife and aggrandize the perfons of a tragedy; and shall thew in another Paper the feveral expedients which are practised by authors of a vulgar genius to move terror, pity, or admiration, in their hearers.

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The taylor and the painter often contribute to the fuccefs of a tragedy more than the poet. Scenes affect ordinary minds as much as fpeeches; and our actors are very fenfible, that a welldreffed play has fometimes brought them as full audiences as a well-written one. The Italians have a very good phrase to exprefs this art of impofing upon the fpectators by appearances; they call it the Fourberia della Scena, "The knavery, or "trickish part of the Drama." of the Drama." But however the show and outside of the tragedy may work upon the vulgar, the more understanding part of the audience immediately fee through it, and despise it.

A good poet will give the reader a more lively idea of an army or a battle in a description, than if he actually faw them drawn up in fquadrons and battalions, or engaged in the confusion of a fight. Our minds fhould be opened to great conceptions, and inflamed with glorious fentiments by what the actor speaks, more than by what he appears. Can all the trappings or equipage of a king or hero, give Brutus half that pomp and majefty which he receives from a few lines in Shakespeare?

C*.

* By ADDISON, dated it seems, from Chelsea. See N° 7.

** At Drury Lane, for the benefit of Mrs. Porter, "Love's laft Shift; or The Fool in Fafhion:" Sir Novelty, Mr. Cibber; Sir W. Wifewoud, Mr. Johnfon; Lovelefs, Mr. Wilks; Worthy, Mr. Mills; Snap, Mr. Penkethman; Sly, Mr. Bullock; Amanda, Mrs. Porter; Narciffa, Mrs. Oldfield; and Hillaria, Mrs. Bicknell. SPECT. in folio.