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N° XLII. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18.

BARGANUM MUGIRE PUTES NEMUS,,AUT MARE TUSCUM;
TANTO CUM STREPITU LUDI SPECTANTUR, ET ARTES,
DIVITIEQUE PEREGRINE; QUIBUS OBLITUS ACTOR
CUM STETIT IN SCENA, CONCURRIT DEXTERA LEVA.
DIXIT ADHUC ALIQUID? NIL SANE. QUID PLACET ERGO?
LANA TARENTINO VIOLAS IMITATA VENENO.

HOR. EP. II. 1. 202,

IMITATED.

LOUD AS THE WOLVES, ON ORCA'S STORMY STEEP,
HOWL TO THE ROARINGS OF THE NORTHERN DEEP:
SUCH IS THE SHOUT, THE LONG-APPLAUDING NOTE,
AT QUIN'S HIGH PLUME, OR OLDFIELD'S PETTICOAT;
OR WHEN FROM COURT A BIRTH-DAY SUIT BESTOW'D,
SINKS THE LOST ACTOR IN THE TAWDRY LOAD.

BOOTH ENTERS-HARK! THE UNIVERSAL PEAL!-
BUT HAS HE SPOKEN? NOT A SYLLABLE.

WHAT SHOOK THE STAGE, AND MADE THE PEOPLE STARE?-
CATO'S LONG WIG, FLOW'R'D GOWN, AND LACQUER'D CHAIR.

POPE.

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ARISTOTLE has obferved, that upon the head make a great man, a

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 stage. 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 stage is darkened. But among all our tragic artifices, I am the most offended at thofe 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 itiff 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 greatest 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 distressed hero. As thefe fuperfluous ornaments

princefs generally receives her grandeur from thofe additional incumbrances that fall into her tail; I mean the broad fweeping train that fellows her in all her motions, and finds conftant employment for a boy who ftands behind her to open and spread it to advantage. I do not know how others are affected at this fight, but I muit confefs, my eyes are wholly taken up with the page's part; and as for the queen, I am not fo attentive to any thing the fpeaks, as to the right adjusting of her train, left it fhould 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 ipectacle, to fee a queen venting her paflion 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 ftage at the fame time, are very different; the princefs is afraid left the fhould incur the difpleasure of the king her father, or lofe the hero her lover; whilst her attendant is only concerned left the should entangle 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, ufed to make the actors reprefent them in dreffes and cloaths that were thread-bare and decayed. This artifice for moving pity, feems as ill-con

trived as that we have been speaking of to infpire us with a great idea of the perfons introduced upon the stage. In hort, 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. Another mechanical method of making great men, and adding dignity to kings and queens, is to accompany them with halberts and battle-axes. Two or three shifters of fcenes, with the two candle-fnuffers, make up a compleat 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 armies drawn up together 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 a nature should be told, not reprefented.

- Non tamen intùs

Digna geri promes in feenam: multaque tolles
Ex oculis, que mox narret facundia præfens.
HOR. ARS POET. VER. 182.

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

ROSCOMMON.

Ifhould therefore, in this particular, recommend to my countrymen the example of the French ftage, where the kings and queens always appear unattended, and leave their guards behind the fcenes. I fhould likewife be glad if we imitated the French in banishing

THE

from our ftage the noife of drums, trumpets, and huzzas; which is fometimes fo very grea, 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 those particulars which are made ufe of to raife and aggrandize the perfons of a tragedy; and fhall fhew in another paper the feveral expedients which are practifed by authors of a vulgar genius to move terror, pity, or admiration, in their hearers.

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 phrafe to express this art of impofing upon the fpectators by appearances: they call it the Fourberia della fcena-the knavery or trickish part of the drama.' But however the fhow and outside of the

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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 defcription, 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 fpeaks, more than by what he appears. Can all the trappings or equipage of a king or hero give Brutus half that pomp and majesty which he receives from a few lines in Shakespeare?

No XLIII. THURSDAY, APRIL 19.

BE TIBI ERUNT ARTES; PACISQUE IMPONERE MOREM,
FARCERE SUBJECTIS, ET DEBELLARE SUPERBOS.

VIRG. EN. v1. 853

BE THESE THY ARTS; TO BID CONTENTION CEASE,
CHAIN UP STERN WAR, AND GIVE THE NATIONS PEACE;
O'ER SUBJECT LANDS EXTEND THY GENTLE SWAY,
AND TEACH WITH IRON ROD THE HAUGHTY TO OBEY.

HERE are crowds of men, whofe great misfortune it is that they were not bound to mechanic arts or trades; it being abfolutely necessary for

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them to be led by fome continual talk or employment. Thefe are fuch as we commonly call dull fellows; perfons, who for want of fomething to do, out of a certain

a certain vacancy of thought, rather than curiofity, are ever meddling with things for which they are unfit. I cannot give you a notion of them better than by prefenting you with a letter from a gentleman, who belongs to a fociety of this order of men, efiding at Oxford.

SIR,

I must let you know likewise, good Sir, that we look upon a certain northern prince's march, in conjunction with in fidels, to be palpably againft our goodwill and liking, and, for all Monfieur Palmquist, a most dangerous innovation; and we are by no means yet fure, that fone people are not at the bottom OXFORD, APRIL 13, 1711, on't. At least, my own private letters leave room for a politician, well verfed in matters of this nature, to fu

FOUR O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING.

IN fome of your late speculations, I

find fome sketches towards an hiftory of clubs; but you feem to me to fhew them in fomewhat too ludicrous a light. I have well weighed that matter, and think that the most important negotiations may best be carried on in fuch af femblies. I fhall, therefore, for the good of mankind, (which, I truit, you and I are equally concerned for) propose an inftitution of that nature for example fake.

I must confess the defign and tranfactions of too many clubs are trifling, and manifeftly of no confequence to the nation or public weal: thofe I will give you up. But you must do me then the juftice to own, that nothing can be more weful or laudable, than the scheme we go upon. To avoid nicknames and witficilms, we call ourselves The Hebdomadal Meeting: our prefident continues for a year at least, and fometimes four or five; we are all grave, ferious, defigning men, in our way; we think it our duty, as far as in us lies, to take care the constitution receives no harm Ne quid detriment: Res capiat publica To cenfure doctrines or facts, perfons or things, which we do not like; to fettle the nation at home, and to carry on the war abroad, where and in what manner we fee fit. If other people are not of our opinion, we cannot help that. It were better they were. Moreover, we now and then condefcend to direct, in fome measure, the little affairs of our own university.

Verily, Mr. Spectator, we are much offended at the act for importing French wines: a bottle or two of good folid edifying port at honett George's made a night chearful, and threw off referve, But this plaguy French claret will not only coft us more money, but do us lefs good: had we been aware of it, before it had gone too far, I muft tell you, we would have petitioned to be heard upon that fubject. But let that país.

fpect as much, as a penetrating friend of

mine tells me.

We think we have at laft done the bufinefs with the malecontents in Hungary, and fhall clap up a peace there.

What the neutrality army is to do, or what the army in Flanders, and what two or three other princes, is not yet fully determined among us: and we wait im patiently for the coming-in of the next Dyer, who, you must know, is our authentic intelligence, our Ariftotle in politics. And it is indeed but fit there should be fome dernier resort, the abfolute decider of all controverfies.

We were lately informed, that the gallant trained-bands had patrolled all night long about the streets of London: we indeed could not imagine any occa fion for it, we gueffed not a tittle on't aforehand, we were in nothing of the fecret; and that city-tradefmen, or their apprentices, fhould do duty, or work, during the holidays, we thought ablolutely impoffible. But Dyer being po fitive in it, and fome letters from other people, who had talked with fome who had it from thofe who fhould know, giving fome countenance to it, the chairman reported from the committee, appointed to examine into that affair, that it was poffible there might be fomething in it. I have much more to fay to you, but my two good friends and neighbours, Dominick and Slyboots, are just come in, and the coffee's ready. I am, in the mean time, Mr. Spectator, your admirer and humble fervant,

ABRAHAM FROTH.

You may obferve the turn of their minds tends only to novelty, and not fatisfaction in any thing. It would be difappointment to them, to come to certainty in any thing, for that would gravel them, and put an end to their inquiries, which dull fellows do not make for information, but for exercise. I do not know but this may be a very

good

good way of accounting for what we frequently fee, to wit, that dull fellows prove very good men of bufinefs. Bufinefs relieves them from their own natural heaviness, by furnishing them with what to do; whereas bufinefs to mercurial men, is an interruption from their real existence and happinefs. Though the dull part of mankind are harmless in their amusements, it were to be with. ed they had no vacant time, because they ufually undertake fomething that makes their wants confpicuous, by their manner of fupplying them. You fhall feldom find a dull fellow of good education, but (if he happens to have any leifure upon his hands) will turn his head to one of those two amusements, for all fools of eminence, politics, or poetry. The former of thefe arts is the study of all dull people in general; but when dulnefs is lodged in a perfon of a quick animal life, it generally exerts itfelf in poetry. One might here mention a few military writers, who give great entertainment to the age, by reafon that the ftupidity of their heads is quickened by the alacrity of their hearts. This conftitution in a dull fellow, gives vigour to nonfenfe, and makes the puddle boil, which would otherwise stagnate. The British Prince, that celebrated poem, which was written in the reign of King Charles the Second, and defervedly called by the wits of that age incomparable, was the effect

of fuch an unhappy genius as we are fpeaking of. From among many other diftichs, no lefs to be quoted on this account, I cannot but recite the two following lines;

A painted ve&t Prince Voltager had on, Which from a naked Pict his grandfire,won. Here if the poet had not been vivacious, as well as ftupid, he could not,-in the warmth and hurry of nonfenfe, have been capable of forgetting that neither Prince Voltager, nor his grandfather, could ftrip a naked man of his doublet; but a fool of a colder constitution would have ftaid to have flea'd the Pict, and made buff of his fkin, for the wearing of the conqueror.

To bring thefe obfervations to fome ufeful purpose of life, what I would propofe fhould be, that we imitated thofe wife nations, wherein every man learns fome handicraft-work. Would it not employ a beau prettily enough, if, inftead of eternally playing with a fnuff box, he spent fome part of his time in making one? Such a method as this would very much conduce to the public emolument, by making every man living good for fomething, for there would then be no member of human fociety, but would have fome little pretenfions for fome degree in it; like him who came to Will's Coffee-houfe upon the merit of having writ a pofy of a ring.

N° XLIV. FRIDAY, APRIL 20.

TU, QUID EGO ET POPULUS MECUM DESIDERET, AUDI.
HOR. ARS POET. VER. 153.

NOW HEAR WHAT EV'RY AUDITOR EXPECTS.

ROSCOMMON.

R

AMONG the feveral artifices which firt. A spectre has very often faved

are put in practice by the poets to fill the minds of an audience with terror, the first place is due to thunder and lightning, which are often made ufe of at the defcending of a god, or the rifing of a ghoft; at the vanishing of a devil, or the death of a tyrant. I have known a bell introduced into feveral tragedies with good effect; and have feen the whole affembly in a very great alarm all the while it has been ringing. But there is nothing which delights and terrifies our English theatre fo much as a ghost, especially when he appears in a bloody

a play, though he has done nothing but ftalked across the stage, or rofe through a cleft of it, and funk again without fpeaking one word. There may be a proper feafon for thefe feveral terrors; and when they only come in as aids and affiftances to the poct, they are not only to be excufed, but to be applauded. Thus the founding of the clock in Venice Preferved, makes the hearts of the whole audience quake; and conveys a ftronger terror to the mind than it is poflible for words to do. The appearance of the ghoft in Hamlet is a

mafter-piece

master-piece in it's kind, and wrought up with all the circumftances that can create either attention or horror. The mind of the reader is wonderfully prepared for his reception by the difcourfes that precede it: his dumb behaviour at his firft entrance ftrikes the imagination very strongly; but every time he enters, be is still more terrifying. Who can read the speech with which young Hamlet accofts him, without trembling.

HOR. Look, my Lord, it comes!
HAM. Angels and minifters of grace de-

fend us!

Be thou a fpirit of health, or goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from heav'n, or blafts from hell;

Be thy events wicked or charitable;
Thou com`ft in fuch a questionable shape,
That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee Hamlet,
King, Father, Royal Dane. Oh! answer me,
Let me not burft in ignorance; but tell
Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearfed in death,
Have burst their cearments? Why the fe-
pulchre,

Wherein we faw thee quietly inurn'd,
Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws
To caft thee up again? What may this mean?
That thou dead coarfe again in complete steel
Revifit' thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous?"

I do not therefore find fault with the artifices above-mentioned when they are introduced with kill, and accompanied by proportionable fentiments and expreffions in the writing.

For the moving of pity, our principal machine is the handkerchief; and indeed, in our common tragedies, we fhould not know very often that the perfons are in diftrefs by any thing they fay, if they did not from time to time apply their handkerchiefs to their eyes. Far be it from me to think of banishing this inftrument of forrow from the ftage; I know a tragedy could not fubfift withcut it: all that I would contend for, is to keep it from being mifapplied. In a word, I would have the actor's tongue fympathize with his eyes.

hand and a girl in the other. This too had a very good effect. A third poet, being refolved to out-write all his predeceffors, a few years ago introduced three children with great fuccefs: and as I am informed, a young gentleman, who is fully determined to break the moft obdurate hearts, has a tragedy by him, where the first person that appears upon the ftage is an afflicted widow in her mourning-weeds, with half a dozen fatherless children attending her, like thofe that ufually hang about the figure of Charity. Thus feveral incidents, that are beautiful in a good writer, become ridiculous by falling into the hands of a bad one.

A difconfolate mother, with a child in her hand, has frequently drawn compaffion from the audience, and has therefore gained a place in feveral tragedies. A modern writer, that obferved how this had took in other plays, being refolved to double the diftrefs, and melt his audience twice as much as thofe before him had done, brought a princefs upon the ftage with a little boy in one

But among all our methods of moving pity or terror, there is none fo abfurd and barbarous, and what more expofes us to the contempt and ridicule of our, neighbours, than that dreadful butchering of one another, which is so very frequent upon the English stage. To delight in feeing men ftabbed, poifoned, racked, or impaled, is certainly the fign of a cruel temper: and as this is often practifed before the British audience, feveral French critics, who think these are grateful fpectacles to us, take occafion from them to reprefent us as a people that delight in blood. It is indeed very odd, to fee our ftage ftrowed with carcafes in the laft fcene of a tragedy; and to obferve in the wardrobe of the playhouse feveral daggers, poniards, wheels, bowls for poifon, and many other inftruments of death. Murders and executions are always tranfacted behind the scenes in the French theatre; which in general is very agreeable to the manners of a polite and civilized people: but as there are no exceptions to this rule on the French stage, it leads them into abfurdities almoft as ridiculous as that which falls under our prefent cenfure. I remember in the famous play of Corneille, written upon the fubject of the Horatii and Curiatii; the fierce young hero who had overcome the Curiatii one after another, inftead of being congratulated by his fifter for his victory, being upbraided by her for having flain her lover, in the height of his paffion and refentment kills her. If any thing could extenuate fo brutal an action, it would be the doing of it on a fudden, before the fentiments of nature, reafon, or manhood, could take place in him. However, to avoid public bloodfhed, as foon as his passion

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