Her pure and eloquent Blood Spoke in her Cheeks, and fo diftinctly wrought, A ADVERTISEMENT. young Gentlewoman of about Nineteen Years of Age (bred in the Family of a Perfon of Quality lately deceafed) who Paints the finest Flefb-colour, wants a Place, and is to be heard of at the House of Minheer Grotesque a Dutch Painter in Barbican. N. B. She is also well skilled in the Drapery-part, and puts on Hoods, and mixes Ribbons fo as to fuit the Colours of the Face with great Art and Success. N° 42. Wednesday, April 18. Garganum mugire putes nemus aut mare Tufcum; R Hor. Ep. 1. 1. 2. v. 202. IMITATED. Loud as the Wolves, on Orcas' formy Steep, What book the Stage, and made the People ftare? A POPE RISTOTLE has obferved, That ordinary Writers in Tragedy endeavour to raise Terror and Pity in their Audience, not by proper Sentiments and Expreffions, but by the Dreffes and Decorations of the Stage. VOL. I. There H N° 42. There is something of this kind very ridiculous in the Englife 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 Tragick Artifices, I am the most offended at those which are made ufe of to infpire us with magnificent Ideas of the Perfons that fpeak. 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 Sole 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 stiff and steady all the while he speaks: and notwithstanding any Anxieties which he pretends for his Mistress, 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 Lunatick, than a diftreffed Hero. As thefe fuperfluous Ornaments upon the Head make a great Man, a Princess generally receives her Grandeur from those additional Incumbrances that fall into her Tail: I mean the broad fweeping Train that follows her in all her Motions, and finds conftant Employment for a Boy who ftands behind her to open and fpread it to Advantage. I do not know how others are affected at this Sight, but I must 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 speaks, as to the right adjufting of her Train, left it fhould chance to trip up her Heels, or incommode her, as fhe walks to and fro upon the Stage. It is, in my Opinion, a very odd Spectacle, 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 the fhould incur the Difpleasure of the King her Father, or lofe the Hero her Lover, whilft her Attendant is only concerned left the should entangle her Feet in her Petticoat. WE WE are told, That an ancient Tragick Poet, to move the Pity of his Audience for his exiled Kings and diftreffed Heroes, ufed to make the Actors represent them in Dreffes and Clothes that were thread-bare and decayed. This Artifice for moving Pity, feems as ill-contrived, as that we have been fpeaking of to infpire us with a great Idea of the Perfons introduced upon the Stage. In fhort, I would have our Conceptions raifed by the Dignity of Thought and Sublimity 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 Scenes, with the two Candle-fnuffers, make up a complete Body of Guards upon the English Stage; and by the Addition of a few Porters dreffed in red Coats, can represent above a dozen Legions. I have fometimes feen a couple of Armies drawn up together upon the Stage, 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 thoufand Soldiers are fighting in a Room of forty or fifty Yards in Compafs. Incidents of fuch a nature should be told, not represented. Non tamen intus Digna geri promes in fcenam: multaque tolles Hor. Ars Poet. v. 182. Yet there are things improper for a Scene, ROSCOMMON. I fhould 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. I fhould likewise be glad if we imitated the French in banishing from our Stage the Noife of Drums, Trumpets, and Huzza's ; which is fometimes fo very great, that when there is a H 2 Battle Battle in the Hay-Market Theatre, one may hear it as far as Charing-Crofs. I have here only touched upon those Particulars which are made ufe of to raise and aggrandize the Perfons of a Tragedy; and fhall fhew in another Paper the feveral Expedients which are practised by Authors of a vulgar Genius to move Terror, Pity, or Admiration, in their Hearers. THE Tailor and the Painter often contribute to the Succefs of a Tragedy more than the Poet. Scenes affect ordinary Minds as much as Speeches; and our Actors are very fenfible, that a well-dreffed Play has fometimes brought them as full Audiences, as a well-written one. The Italians have a very good Phrafe to exprefs this Art of impofing upon the Spectators by Appearances: they call it the Fourberia della Scena, The Knavery or trickih Part of the Drama. But however the Show and Outfide of the Tragedy may work upon the Vulgar, the more understanding Part of the Audience immediately fee thro' it and defpife 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 Squadrons and Battalions, or engaged in the Confufion of a Fight. Our Minds fhould be opened to great Conceptions, and inflamed with glorious Sentiments, 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 Majefty which he receives from a few Lines in ShakeSpear? C Thursday, N° 43. Thursday, April 19. Ha tibi erunt artes; pacifque imponere morem, Virg. Æn. 6. v. 853- T HERE are Crowds of Men, whose great Misfor tune it is that they were not bound to Mechanick Arts or Trades; it being abfolutely neceflary for them to be led by fome continual Task or Employment. These are fuch as we commonly call dull Fellows; Perfons, who for want of fomething to do, out of 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 Society of this Order of Men, refiding at Oxford. SIR, Oxford, April 13, 1711, Four o'clock in the Morning. N 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 car⚫ried on in fuch Affemblies. I fhall, therefore, for the Good of Mankind (which, I truft, you and I are equally concerned for) propose an Inftitution of that Nature for Example fake. I must confefs the Defign and Tranfactions of too many Clubs are trifling, and manifeftly of no confequence to the Nation or Publick Weal: Thofe I'll give · you H 3 |