AN ESSAY on ACTING: In which will be consider'd The Mimical Behaviour OF A Certain fashionable faulty ACTOR, AND THE Laudableness of such unmannerly, as well as inhumane Proceedings. To which will be added, A short CRITICISM On His acting MACBETH.
—So have I seen a Pygmie strut,
Mouth and rant, in a Giant's Robe.
Tom Thumb.
—Oh! Macbeth has murder'd G—k.
Shakespear.
LONDON:
Printed for W. BICKERTON, at the
Gazette,
in the
Temple Exchange,
near the
Inner Temple Gate, Fleet-street.
M, DCC, XLIV. [Price Six-pence.]
AN ESSAY ON ACTING, &c.
AS I have a long Time (twenty Years, or more) made the STAGE, and ACTING, my
Study
and
Entertainment,
I look upon myself, and indeed am thought by my Intimates, a proper Person to
animadvert upon,
or
approve, the Errors
and the
Excellencies
of the Theatre; and as there can be no better Opportunity offer itself than
now,
when the Town is running after their
little fashionable Actor,
in a Character of which he is, properly speaking, the
Anticlimax
of, or rather the
Antipode
of
Shakespear;
I will endeavour in the following Dissection of our
Puppet Heroe,
to convince my dear
Country Men
and
Country Women,
that they are madly following an
Ignis fatuus,
or
Will of the Whisp,
which they take for
real substantial Light,
and which I shall prove to be only the
Rush-light of Genius,
the
Idol of Fashion,
and an
Air-drawn Favourite
of the
Imagination.
HOW are we degenerated in Taste!
Oh how chang'd! how fallen!
Milton
's Paradise Lost.
That our Theatre shall be crowded with Nobility, Ladies and Gentry, to see
Macbeth Burlesqu'd,
or
Be—g—k'd,
which are synonimous, when they might read Mr.
Theobald's Edition of him,
without throwing away their Money, mispending their Time, ruining their Taste, or running the Hazard of catching a violent Cold, for a mere
Non-entity:
However, that I may not seem to be prejudic'd against Mr.
G—k,
as I really am not, for I admire him, for thus boldly daring to deceive and cheat three Parts of the Nation; I shall, having now crack'd the
Shell
of
my Spleen
against the Town, come to the
Kernel
of
Reason,
and present 'em this
little sweet Nut
of theirs,
worm-eaten
to the
Sight, imbitter'd
to their
Taste,
and
abhorr'd
to their
Imaginations,
as
Shakespear
terms it.
IN order to do this, I shall present my Readers with the following short
Treatise
upon ACTING, which will shew 'em what ACTING
ought to be,
and what the present
Favourite
in Question
is not.
A Short TREATISE UPON ACTING. By which The PLAYERS may be
Instructed,
and the TOWN
Undeceiv'd.
That I may convince the World, that the
Publick Good,
and no
Private Animosity,
has extracted the following Treatise from its Author. I shall first give an ample and clear
Definition
of
ACTING,
and make the
Natural, Metaphysical,
and
Consequential
Deductions, that will immediately elicite the
Right
from the
Wrong,
and shew my Designs are merely
Scientifical,
and not
Subservient
to
Pique
and
partial Prejudice.
ACTING is an
Entertainment of the Stage,
which by calling in the Aid and Assistance of
Articulation, Corporeal Motion,
and
Occular Expression, imitates, assumes,
or
puts on
the various
mental
and
bodily Emotions
arising from the various Humours, Virtues and Vices, incident to human Nature.
THERE are
Two
different Kinds of Exhibitions,
viz.
TRAGEDY and COMEDY; the
first
fixes her Empire on the
Passions,
and the more exalted
Contractions
and
Dilations
of the Heart; the
last,
tho' not inferior
(quotidem Science)
holds her Rule over the less enobled Qualities and Districts of human Nature, which are call'd the
Humours:
Now in some Cases,
Passions
are
Humours,
and
Humours Passions;
for the Revenges of an
Alexander
and a
Haberdasher,
may have the same
Fountain,
and differ only in their
Currents,
and tho' the one
(Alexander)
cannot content himself but with the total Subversion of his Enemy's Kingdom, and the other
(the Haberdasher)
is satisfy'd with rolling his Antagonist in the Kennel; yet, still it is
Revenge,
the Mind of one is equally affected in Proportion to the other, and all the Difference lies in the different Ways of
satisfying their common Passion.
But now to the Application▪ and Design in Hand. If an Actor, and a
favourite
Actor, in assuming these different Characters with the
same Passions,
shall unskilfully differ only in
Dress,
and not in
Execution;
and supposing him right in
One,
and of Consequence absolutely ridiculous in the
Other.
Shall this Actor, I say, in Spite of
Reason, Physicks,
and
common Observation,
be caress'd, applauded, admir'd? But to illustrate it more by Example.—Suppose the
Murder
of
Duncan,
and the
Breaking a Urinal
shall affect the Player in the same Manner, and the only Difference is the
blue Apron
and
lac'd Coat,
shall we be
chill'd
at the
Murderer,
and
roar
at the
Tobacconist?
Fie for Shame!—As the
One
must be absolutely the Reverse of Right, I think the Publick, for so gross an Imposition, should drive
both
off the Stage. When
Drugger
becomes
Macbeth,
and
Macbeth Drugger,
I feel for the Manes of the
Immortal Shakespear,
and
Inimitable Ben;
I bemoan the
Taste
of my Country, and I would have the
Buffoon
sacrific'd to appease the
Muses,
and restore to us a true
Dramatick Taste,
by such an examplary Piece of Justice. I shall now, as relative to my my present Subject, describe in what Manner the two abovemention'd Characters
ought
to be
mentally
and
corporeally
Agitated, under the different Circumstances of the
Dagger,
and
Urinal;
and by that shall more fully delineate what is meant by
Passions
and
Humours.
When
Abel Drugger
has broke the
Urinal,
he is
mentally absorb'd
with the different Ideas of the
invaluable
Price of the
Urinal,
and the Punishment that may be inflicted in Consequence of a Curiosity, no way appertaining or belonging to the Business he came about. Now, if this, as it certainly
is,
the Situation of his Mind, How are the different Members of the Body to be agitated? Why Thus,—His
Eyes
must be revers'd from the Object he is most intimidated with, and by dropping his
Lip
at the some Time
to
the Object, it throws a trembling
Languor
upon every
Muscle,
and by declining the right Part of the Head
towards
the
Urinal,
it casts the most
comic Terror
and
Shame
over all the
upper
Part of the Body, that can be imagin'd; and to make the
lower
Part equally ridiculous, his
Toes
must be
inverted
from the
Heel,
and by
holding
his
Breath,
he will unavoidably give himself a
Tremor
in the
Knees,
and if his
Fingers,
at the same Time, seem
convuls'd,
it finishes the compleatest low Picture of
Grotesque Terror
that can be imagin'd by a
Dutch
Painter.—Let this be compar'd with the
modern Copies,
and then let the Town judge.—Now to
Macbeth.
—When the
Murder
of
Duncan
is committed, from an immediate
Consciousness
of the Fact, his
Ambition
is
ingulph'd
at that Instant, by the Horror of the Deed; his
Faculties
are intensely rivited to the
Murder
alone, without having the least Consolation of the
consequential Advantages,
to comfort him in that Exigency. He should at that Time, be a
moving Statue,
or indeed a
petrify'd Man;
his Eyes must
Speak,
and his
Tongue
be
metaphorically Silent;
his
Ears
must be
sensible
of
imaginary
Noises, and
deaf
to the
present
and
audible
Voice of his Wife; his
Attitudes
must be
quick
and
permanent;
his Voice
articulately trembling,
and
confusedly intelligible;
the Murderer should be seen in
every Limb,
and yet every
Member,
at that Instant, should seem
separated
from his
Body,
and his
Body
from his
Soul:
This is the Picture of a compleat
Regicide,
and as at that Time the
Orb below should be hush as death;
I hope I shall not be thought
minutely circumstantial,
if I should advise a
real
Genius to wear
Cork Heels
to his Shoes, as in this Scene he should seem to
tread on Air,
and I promise him he will soon discover the great Benefit of this (however seeming
trifling) Piece of Advice.
THE only Way to arrive at
great Excellency
in
Characters
of
Humour,
is to be very conversant with
Human Nature,
that is the noblest and best Study, by this Way you will more accurately discover the
Workings of Spirit
(or what other Physical Terms you please to call it) upon the different
Modifications
of
Matter.
Would the Painter produce a perfect Piece to the World, let him
Copy from the Life,
let Nature herself sit to the Artist: Wou'd a Player perform equally excellent in
his
Profession, let him be introduc'd into the World, be conversant with
Humours
of every Kind, digest 'em in his
Mind,
let 'em be cherish'd by the
genial Warmth
of his
Conception, transplanted into the fair Garden
of his
Judgment,
there let 'em
ripen to Perfection,
and become
his own. Hic Labor! Hoc Opus!
The late celebrated Mr.
Dogget,
before he perform'd the Character of
Ben,
in
Love for Love,
took Lodgings in
Wapping,
and
gather'd thence
a
Nosegay
for the whole Town: Another Comedian
now living,
tho' not upon the Stage (it being so replete with greater Geniuses) has been observ'd constantly to attend the
'Change
for
Weeks together,
before he exhibited one of
Shakespear
's most inimitable and
difficult
Characters, and so far succeeded by his
great Attention
and
Observation
of the
Manners, Dress,
and
Behaviour
of a
particular Tribe of People,
that the
Judgment, Application,
and
extraordinary Pains
he took to divert the Publick
rationally,
was amply return'd with crowded Theatres, and
unequall'd Applauses;
nay, to so
great a Degree
did they shew their Approbation to this
Pains-taking Genius,
that he is at present more known by the Name of the
Character he perform'd,
than by
his own.
I shall not enter into the Reasons why he is at present excluded Theatre, but shall only, as an Advocate for the Publick, say that I wish for
their
Sake, that there were many such Actors as him upon
both
Theatres.
I have, in as concise a Manner as possible, given my Sentiments of
Acting,
by
Example
and
Precept;
but there will very soon be publish d a more compleat and expanded
Treatise upon
ACTING, with an accurate
Description
of each
Humour
and
Passion,
their
Sources
and
Effects;
by which the
Players
may be taught to renounce their
Errors,
and the
Town
its Judgment of
Acting
and
Actors.
—
Here Ends the Essay upon Acting.
Some
Critical OBSERVATIONS
upon the Character of
MACBETH,
as it is at present
Attempted
at the
Theatre-Royal
in
Drury-Lane.
THE following Critque is design'd as a Supplementary Appendix to the foregoing
Essay on
ACTING, and as that was not so
full
and
investigating,
as my Imagination had at first form'd it, I shall in this short
Survey of Heroism in Miniature,
still have my Eye upon the
Essay on
ACTING, and at the same Time convince the Publick, that they have
insensibly
been
misguided
by
Fashion,
and that they have in
the Dark run-a-ground
their
Reputation
on the
Sandy Banks
of
Error:
But I shall now fix a
Lanthorn
at the
Poop
of their
Misconceptions,
they shall
see their Distress,
I will set my
Hand
to the
Pump
of
Conviction,
clear the Vessel from
sixteen Feet Water
of
Anti-Taste,
keep it from
foundering,
hoist up the
Flag
of
Criticism,
and once more
pilot
their
Understandings
into the
Harbour
of
True Judgment:
But Metaphor apart, what is the
Character
of
Macbeth?
He is an experienc'd General, crown'd with Conquest,
innately Ambitious,
and religiously Humane, spurr'd on by
metaphysical
Prophecies, and the
unconquerable Pride
of his
Wife,
to a Deed,
horrid
in
itself,
and
repugnant
to his Nature; but as it is the
Ladder
to the
swelling Act of the Imperial Theme,
his
Milk
soon becomes
Gall,
imbitters his whole Disposition, and the Consequence is the
Murder
of
Duncan,
the
taking off
of
Banquo,
and his own
Coronation.
Thus stands
Macbeth.
Now to our Inferences.
Valour
and
Ambition,
the two Grand
Characteristicks
of
Macbeth,
form in the
Mind's Eye
a Person of
near six Feet High, corpulently Graceful,
a
round Visage,
a
large hazel Eye, aquiline Nose, prominent Chest,
and a
well-calv'd Leg,
rather inclin'd to that which is call'd an
Irish Leg;
this, I say, would be the
Painter's
Choice, was he to give us the
Macbeth
of
his Imagination;
I mention this only to prove that Mr.
G—k
is not form'd in the least,
externally,
no more than
internally,
for that Character, and tho' there are many Figures in the World would become it very well, tho' not exactly co-incident with my Description, yet the nearer they approach to it, they will the better
look Ambition, Heroism,
and
Murder.
Mr.
G—k,
could he
Speak
the
Part,
is well form'd for
Fleance,
or one of the
Infant Shadows
in the Cauldron Scene, but for the Manager to impose
him
upon the Town for a
Macbeth,
and to refuse taking
another Comedian
into his House, is such an Example of
Ignorance
and
Impudence,
that is not to be
paralell'd
but by his own
unparalell'd
Behaviour.—Mr.
G—k
's Dress is very faulty too,
his
Coat should be
Banquo
's, and
Banquo
's his, and for this Reason;
Red
and
Gold
suits the Dignity of
Macbeth,
and at the same Time implies, a more
principal
and
exalted
Character, without derogating, or taking from the Rank of
Banquo
in
Red
and
Silver,
who
titularly
bears an
equal
Station as
Commander,
tho'
militarily
bears an
inferior
Proportion as
Man:
This Distinction is very nice, and perhaps may not glare upon common Readers, as defin'd here, but was this Decorum nicely preserv'd, the Eyes of all, from the
Critick
to the
Groundling
(as
Shakespear
calls 'em) would immediately convey to the Mind the several Degrees and minute Distinctions of the Character, from the Colour and Trimmings of his Apparel:—I shall leave it to the Consideration of the Publick, whether or no a
Tye Wig
is more eligible than a
Major,
or a
plain Hat,
than a
lac'd one,
for my own Part, I say,
No.
SO much for
Dress
and
Figure;
now I shall proceed to the more difficult and physical Parts of the Character, and shall consider the
Action, Speaking
and
Conception
of our
modern Heroe.
THE first Words of the Part,—
So foul and fair a Day I have not seen,
in my Opinion are spoke wrong;
Mackbeth
before his Entrance has been in a great Storm of Rain, Thunder, &c. Now as the Audience have been appriz'd of this, by the three▪ Witches, he should very
emphatically
describe the quick Transition from being
wet to the Skin,
to being almost instantaneously
dry'd again:
Tho' I can't convey in Writing the Manner how it
should
be spoke, yet every Reader may comprehend how it
ought
to be spoke, and know that in the Manner it is
now
spoke, the Sentiment is
languid, unintelligible,
and
undescriptive.
I shall now examine the most remarkable Scene in the whole Play, which is that of the
Air-drawn Dagger.
This I shall make appear he has mistook from the Beginning to the End.—
Macbeth,
as a Preparation for this Vision, is so prepossess'd, from his Humanity, with the Horror of the Deed, which by his more prevailing Ambition he is incited to, and for the Perpetration of which, he lies under a promissary Injunction to his Lady, that his Mind being torn by these different and confus'd Ideas, his Senses fail, and present that
fatal Agent
of his Cruelty,—the
Dagger,
to him:—Now in this visionary Horror, he should not rivet his Eyes to an
imaginary
Object, as if it
really
was there, but should shew an
unsettled Motion
in his Eye, like one not quite awak'd from some disordering Dream; his
Hands
and
Fingers
should not be
immoveable,
but
restless,
and endeavouring to disperse the Cloud that over shadows his optick Ray, and bedims his Intellects; here would be Confusion, Disorder, and Agony!
Come let me clutch thee!
is not to be done by
one
Motion only, but by several
successive Catches
at it, first with one Hand, and then with the other, preserving the same Motion, at the same Time, with his Feet, like a Man, who out of his Depth, and half drowned in his Struggles,
catches
at
Air
for
Substance:
This would make the Spectator's Blood run cold, and he would almost feel the Agonies of the Murderer himself. I have spoke of the Scene following the Murder, in my
Essay on Acting,
and shall only say, that the
Daggers
are near an Inch and half too long, in Proportion to the Heighth of the Murderer. The Night-Gown, he appears in, after the Murder, ought to be a
Red Damask,
and not the fripperyflower'd one of a
Foppington;
but when
Taste
is wanting in
Trifles,
and
Judgment
in
Essentials,
how can we hope to see the THEATRE flourish? I must make a Remark upon him in the
Banquet Scene,
which is the most glaring Absurdity that ever was committed by an Actor: When
Banquo
's Ghost gets Possession of
Macbeth
's Chair, and the latter, frighted at his Appearance, by Words and Actions, says,
Which of you have done this?
Meaning the Murder of
Banquo;
here the Actor should address himself to the
Guests,
and not keep a
fix'd Eye
upon the
Ghost;
he should turn his Head
from Banquo,
and say, to the Lords at Supper,
Which of you have done this?
For to speak to the
plural
Number, and look at the
singular (Banquo
only) is most absurd and ridiculous. Then at the
second
Appearance of the Ghost, at the Words,
Dare me to the Desart with thy Sword, Macbeth
should draw his Sword, and put himself in a Posture of Defence; and when he comes to,
Hence horrid Shadow!
he should make a home Thrust at him, recover himself upon the
Ghost
's moving, and keep passing at him till he has got him quite out of the Room: The Manner it has been done
heretofore,
which is keeping the Hand upon the Sword, and following him out, is not so natural and effecting, as the Way I propose; and if any Objection is made, that
Macbeth
should know, that
Ghosts
are not
vulnerable,
I answer,
Macbeth
's Horror confounds him, and his Actions must denote the
Non Compos.
Here I must take Notice of an Omission in the Part of
Banquo;
when he appears at the Banquet, he ought to rise in a
Red Cloak,
as he was seen to cross the Stage in one, immediately before his Murder; this would throw a great Solemnity upon the Figure of
Banquo,
and preserve the Decorum of the Stage.—I must likewise observe, that in
Shakespear
's Time, the Actors wore their own Hair, and now, from the present Fashion of wearing Wigs, some Speeches are become absurd, such, for Instance, is this of
Macbeth, Never shake thy Goary Locks at me;
when at the same Time the Ghost is seen in a
Tye Wig:
If I might be allow'd to propose an Alteration (with all imaginable Deference to the immortal
Shakespear)
in order to avoid this Blunder, I would have the Actor say,
Never shake thy Goary
TYE
at me;
if the Word
Wig
is thought more Poetical, it will be equally good, as they are both Monosyllables.
AS I have not yet left the
Banquet Scene,
I must observe that the
Attitude G—k
stands in, at the second Appearance of the Ghost, is absolutely wrong:
Macbeth
here should
sink
into
himself,
or rather, if I may be allow'd the Expression,
hide
himself behind
himself;
or to illustrate it more by Example,
Si parvis comporere, &c.
he should imitate the contracting Power of a
Snail,
preserving at the
same Time a slow awful manly
folding up of his Faculties, and as his
Body
gathers up gradually at the Vision▪ his
Mind
should keep the same Time, and denote its strong Workings and Convulsions▪ at his
Eyes;
the Glass of Wine in his Hand should not be dash'd upon the Ground, but it should fall
gently
from him, and he should not discover the least Consciousness of having such a Vehicle in his Hand, his Memory being quite lost in the present Guilt and Horror of his Imagination.
The Banquet
itself, which is suppos'd to be a
Regal
one, should not be compos'd of a few
Apples, Oranges,
and such like Trash, but of
hot
costly
Viands,
and large Pyramids of
wet Sweetmeats,
and
Savoy Biscuits;
this would cast an inconceiveable Grandeur upon the Scene, and add greatly to the Horror of the Ghost.—
Macbeth
says,
To Night we hold a
SOLEMN
Supper, Sir;
which
Solemnity
should be preserv'd, by having several
Bishops
and
inferior Clergy
at the Table, and of Consequence the
supernatural
Appearance of
Banquo,
would strike with double Force on the Minds of the Audience, by their
Spiritual
Presence. I could shew that this Play is even deficient in every
little Decoration,
but this one gross Blunder will suffice to give us an Idea of all the rest.
AS my Criticisms upon the three first Acts of
Macbeth
have been more full and extended than I at first design'd 'em, I shall reserve my Observations upon the two last, for another
Sixpenny
Pamphlet, to which I shall subjoin a Criticism upon
Colombine Courtezan,
which I shall examine critically, Scene by Scene, and lay open the Imperfections of that Piece, discernable to the meanest Capacity, and shall prove, by undeniable
Conclusions,
drawn from known
Postulata,
that the
worst
Play that ever
Shakespear
wrote, is greatly preferable to the whole Performance of
Colombine Courtezan.
I am very sensible what Difficulties and Prejudices I have to surmount in such an Undertaking; but as I have the Reputation of my Country at Heart, I am resolv'd to prosecute my laudable Intentions with indefatigable Care, and unwearied Diligence.
IN short, to sum up the Whole of my present Observations upon this Head, as I profess the strictest Adherence to Truth, despise Flattery, and am incapable of Fear, I will venture to affirm, there is not one pleasure-giving Scene throughout the whole Play of
Macbeth,
as it is now acted: But as I will ever do Justice to Merit, I must own I felt some Pleasure at seeing Mr.
Mills
's
Green Ribbon and Star,
in the Character of
Duncan;
the unexpected Introduction of the
Scotch Order
was an agreeable Novelty, and discover'd great Fancy in the Actor; therefore I could not refrain from giving it
here
a deserved Commendation, and it shall always meet with my Approbation in the
Theatre.
I think I cannot better finish a Criticism on
Macbeth,
than with a succinct Description of the Talents and Capacity of its Author.
Shakespear
was a Writer not to be confin'd by
Rule;
he had a
despotick Power
over all Nature;
Laws
would be an
Infringement
of his
Prerogative;
his
scepter'd Pen
wav'd Controul over every
Passion
and
Humour;
his
Royal Word
was not only
Absolute,
but
Creative; Ideas, Language,
and
Sentiment
were his
Slaves,
they were
chain'd
to the
Triumphal Car
of his
Genius;
and when he made his
Entry
into the
Temple of Fame,
all
Parnassus
rung with
Acclamations;
the
Muses
sung his
Conquests,
crown'd him with never-fading
Laurels,
and pronounc'd him
Immortal.
AMEN.
Here ends the Criticism on
Macbeth.
I shall at once convince the World of my Impartiality with Regard to Mr.
G—k,
by allowing him all the Merit that
Mimickry
can give him, which, to be sure, is very pleasant over a Bottle, tho' despicable on the Stage.—But how his being a good
Mimick
should entitle him to be a
great Actor,
I can't so easily comprehend; the
Punch
of a
Puppet Shew,
and the
Heroe
of a
Theatre,
are as different in their Characters as the Materials they are each compos'd of. But how can he answer it to Conscience, and his fellow Creatures, his endeavouring, by modulating his Organs of Speech and Action, to those of other Actors, to render them contemptible, by such a visible Exposure of their Infirmities? 'Tis
wicked,
'tis
unjust,
'tis
inhumane!
and the People who are diverted by it, and applaud him for it, are
barbarous, unciviliz'd,
and
unfeeling.
A
Pick-pocket
is less culpable than a
Mimick:
Suppose, for Instance, an Actor of either Theatre, coming out of the Play-House, has his Pocket pick'd of Ten or a Dozen Shillings, in the
Piazza,
or in
Catherine-street;
Care, Oeconomy and his Business, makes the Loss easy: But if the same Actor is made ridiculous, and looses the
Means
of replenishing his aforesaid pick'd-pocket, the
Mimick
that deprives him of ever having his Pocket
pick'd
again, either in the
Piazza,
or
Catharine-street,
is the Pick-pocket himself. I believe
Mimickry
was never thought of before in this Light; therefore let it be
consider'd,
let it be
condemn'd.
Besides, as a farther Confirmation of the
Unlaudableness
of such Proceedings, I am told the very
mimick'd
Actors themselves are not very easy under this Treatment, and are resolv'd never to be reconcil'd to any future
Analysis
of their
Looks, Tones,
or
Gestures.
AS I am now oblig'd (for want of Room) to curb the
Impetuosity of my Pen,
and stop its
critical Carears,
I shall in a very short Time lay before the Publick, another Pamphlet, with some more additional Remarks upon the same Subject, which will be a
proper Appendix
to the
Essay on Acting;
and call'd
An Essay on the common Sewers,
vulgarly stil'd
Common Shores,
in which will be consider'd the
Use
and
Abuse
of
Bumfodder,
with some curious Observations upon the
present State of Politicks, both at Home and Abroad.
FINIS.