Have this advantage; and among the women 'tis indeed the peculiar happiness of a few only, whom nature has been more than ordinarily kind

to.

It is allow'd that there are some women who have this peculiar advantage; but to make the accident useful to us, we muft enquire how an actress who is approaching toward the time of life when he will want it, is to know whether fhe is poffefs'd of it or not; fhe is not to trust to her own eyes about it, they will be partial to her: every actress, if this were allow'd to be the test, would claim the privilege; 'tis the eyes of the audience that fhe is to refolve this question by. This is a glafs that will never deceive her; upon a fair and impartial examination in this, fhe will timely fee that the flower of her youth is faded, and that thofe charms which us'd to make every thing. fhe faid or did pleafe, are gone: this is a melancholy truth, but 'tis a useful one; and if fhe has the mortification from hence to find that fhe is no more young, the will be taught by it, however, to escape the making her felf ridiculous, by attempting to appear fo when it is no longer poffible the fhould fucceed.

CHAP. IV.

Of the Characters of Footmen and Chambermaids on the Stage.

N order to fucceed in fome of the subordinate

actress be in the prime of life, or bloom of youth and beauty; in many it is even effential that she

be paft her prime, while in others it is indeed equally neceffary either that he be very young, or that the appear to be fo: the laft of thefe is the more proper, where the author has thrown into the mouths of these characters converfations too bold and familiar, or carrying too little refpect to the perfons in whofe fervice they are, or where the imprudent advice they give to the yourg ladies they attend can have no excufe, but that it comes from a rash, unthinking, and giddy

creature.

A real girlifhnefs in the advifer, in this cafe, is a neceffary qualification for the rendering the fcene natural: on the other hand, where the waiting gentlewoman, in order to favour the lovers, takes certain fteps herfelf which are not quite reconcileable to the strict rules of modefty, a pretended youth will be more proper for her purpofe than a real one; the less the actress has of the real girl in her countenance, the more the indecent liberties fhe fuffers will entertain the audience.

It is allow'd then that a chambermaid is not always expected to have an air of youth and bloom; but there is another indifpenfible quality which she must never be without, that is, an extreme volubility of tongue; if any actress attempts thefe characters without this advantage, fhe will lofe herself with every judicious perfon of the audience, and will never be able to give the true grace and fpirit to her part.

There is another requifite as necessary to the chambermaid as this volubility of tongue; this is an arch and cunning look, with a world of difcernment, and occafional fecrecy in it; when an audience obferves in a waiting gentlewoman a fimple and unmeaning face, or an openness

and

and ingenuous ferenity in her countenance, they expect to find in her character the fimplicity of a Foible, not the addrefs and cunning of a Kitty Pry, or an intriguing chambermaid.

As neceffary as a cunning look and a ready volubility of tongue are to the chambermaid, fo effential are a cringing humility, an attentive obfervance, and an agility of body, to the footman. The best judges of comedy tell us, that in every scene of it every perfon fhould be in motion; they speak this only figuratively of the genteeler characters, but it is literally true of footmen; when they have a part in the scenes, it is effential to their characters that they find means to employ our eyes as well as our understandings continually about them. It will naturally follow from this principle, that the perfons who perform these characters ought to be of fuch a figure as is fitted for running and skipping about; and a clumsy figure in the character of a footman, must be as abfurd as a ftuttering voice in a chattering chambermaid.

The English ftage is perhaps at this time as happy in characters of this kind as any theatre ever was; there is not a requifite on the female part that is not found in its utmost perfection in Mrs. Green; nor in the other, but is as eminent in Mr. Woodward.

We do not forget that Mrs. Clive has fucceeded to admiration in a great number of parts of this kind, and that even Mrs. Woffington has made a very pretty Phillis; but the nicer obfervers will find too much felf-fufficiency and an unnatural freedom with her betters, in the former of thefe ladies in fuch characters; and an eafy indolence and polite deportment in the latter, which, as H 4

neither

neither of them will ever be able to shake off, will always be great obftacles to their merit in thefe parts, and the want of which will always fet Mrs. Green above them both, tho' her real excellence in them were much less than that of either.

We are to allow no little merit in the footmens characters to Mr. Yates; he has long pleas'd us in them, and long may do fo; a requifite affurance is not wanting in either this player nor his rival in these characters; perhaps it would be a point not easily determined which of them has the most of it; but the greater fund of underftanding that feems to be in Mr. Woodward, and his figure, fo much better proportioned to that neceffary agility we have mentioned, will always, we imagine, give him a fuperiority.

The End of the FIRST PART.

THE

THE

ACTO R.

PART the SECOND.

Of thofe Affiftances which Players ought to receive from Art.

I

T will evidently appear from the obfervations deliver'd in the first part of this treatise,

that there are but few perfons who are proper to appear on the ftage; and that even out of thefe, it is a yet much fmaller number who are calculated for performing the principal characters. This is a truth which the greater part of those perfons who determine to make the ftage their profeffion fcarce ever trouble themselves with reflecting on. Many of those who determine on this way of life, ought no more to conceive it poffible that they can entertain us in it, than a fat fellow wheezing at every step with an asthma, that he could win the prize in a foot-race; yet they offer themfelves blindly and boldly to the managers, and they find managers who as blindly and as boldly receive them. H 5

Not