Giv❜n with a worthlefs pledge, thou fince haft ftol'n: So I reftore it back to thee again; Swearing by all thofe pow'rs which thou haft violated, Never from this curs'd hour to hold communion, If we would fee the power of art to hide the deficiencies of nature in regard to this performer in a yet ftronger light, let us recollect him in King Lear. We are apt to believe that the want of figure never appear'd fo glaringly in Mr. Garrick as in this character. It must be acknowledg'd that to look at him only, he appears rather a Gomez or a Fondlewife than a British monarch: but who ever recollected this when they heard him fay to his unnatural daughter, Blafts upon thee. Th'untented woundings of a father's curfe That I'll resume the fhape which thou doft think If there be any thing that comes in competition with the unluckinefs of this excellent player's figure in this character, it is the appearance he made in his new habit for Othello. We are us'd to see the greatest majesty imaginable express'd through throughout that whole part; and tho' the joke was fomewhat prematurely delivered to the public, we must acknowledge that the appearance he made in that tramontane drefs made us rather expect to see a tea-kettle in his hand, than to hear the thundering fpeeches Shakespear has thrown into that character, come out of his mouth. Tho' we acknowlege that Mr. Garrick did well to part with this character to a man whose figure feems more adequate to our ideas of a heroe; yet we cannot but obferve at the fame time, that when he perform'd it, he no fooner spoke than we forgot every thing we faw, to give attention to what we heard; and that notwithstanding his naturally contemptible figure, no man ever fill'd a stage with more majesty than he, in those speeches in the third act, where he expreffes all the rage and anguish mix'd together that words perhaps are capable of defcribing. Ha! falfe to me! I swear 'tis better to be much abus'd, What fenfe had I of her ftolen hours of luft ; He that is robb'd, not wanting what is ftolen, Pride, pomp, and circumftance of glorious war: Farewel! Othello's occupation's gone. REFLECTIONS Naturally arifing from the Subject of the first Book. REFLECTION I. Thofe Actors who appear in fubordinate Characters can no more fucceed without a good Understanding, Senfibility, and Fire; than those who play the principal Parts. ΤΗ HE hopes of receiving those warm, general, and repeated applaufes, fo earnestly defir'd by the writers of theatrical pieces, as well as by the performers in them, is by many underftood to be reftrain'd to those parts alone which make the capital figure in the piece, and to those performers only who are employ'd to play them. The amiable actress, they obferve, who gives fo many affecting graces to the tears and lamentations of Monimia; or by an amazing contraft reprefents as naturally the perplexity and irrefolution of a lady Brute, never fail'd to have as many lovers as there were men of the audience; and the rival charmer of the other house, whofe perfon is more friking than perhaps the best acting in the world ever was, or ever will be, is fure that a whole audience are impatient and eager till fhe enters on the ftage, and never fee her leave it but they curfe the poet who made her part in the the fcene fo fhort: there are however, among the clafs of under actreffes, fome whofe envious difpofition, impatient under the neglect of what they perfuade themselves are equal merits and equal charms in their own perfons; and to comfort themselves under the misfortune of not being in the fame degree the idols of the public, tell the world that the Cibbers and the Woffingtons of the age would never have become the objects of fuch univerfal adoration, if it had not been their fortune to have early appear'd in the capital parts of fome of the best of our plays; where the character they reprefented was too amiable not to interest every body in its favour, and where they had opportunities of fhewing themselves under all the advantages that drefs and the utmost art could give them. They infift upon it, that the best actor in the world would lose much of the applause his real merit deferves, if always condemn'd to play fubordinate characters: and that an actress, tho' form'd ever so perfectly to please and to charm, will always lofe a confiderable fhare of the natural effect of her beauty, when the principal concerns of the play, or the interefts of the capital characters, do not all fall in with or depend upon the part the acts. To do juftice to the modern players we must allow, that as there are fome among them who perform the parts of kings and princes, who would appear to much more advantage in the characters of footmen and bailiff's followers; as witness my lords of Westmoreland and Mortimer, with fifty others of the nature with good King Duncan; fo there are others who perform fo decently in their under characters, that we are apt to wish them in those people's places. Let us, however, examine examine ftrictly into the merit of the cause, and we shall generally find that the opinion the lower players entertain of their being fet in an ill light by acting the less important characters, is fo very abfurd, that people who are not overburthened with merit, have in that very caft of parts the only means of fhining. When Mr. Foot play'd Othello at the Haymarket, for the benefit of the very ill-treated Mr. Macklin, there was a perfon among the under actors, who had been inftructed by that masterly judge of fpeaking, to pronounce about fix lines fenfibly, that never had been pronounced fo before; and who acquir'd more applaufe by it than he had ever done in his whole life, tho' he had frequently appeared at fome of the motley theatres above mention'd, in the characters of King Richard, Bajazet, Torismond, and my Lord Townley. The perfon we hint at was one York; his part in Othello was that of Montano, who engages with and is wounded by Caffio. 'Tis the great reproach of our managers, that they efteem parts, not from the nature of them, but their quantity; and a long part or a short one are always underftood as fynonimous terms for a good and a bad one. In confequence of this, Montano, whofe part in the whole does not much exceed a dozen lines, had been always us'd to be play'd at the theatres by a perfon fomewhat above the degree of a scene-shifter, and what he spoke had been always laugh'd at accordingly: the audience were on this occafion furpriz'd, on Othello's afking. this perfon the cause of a quarrel, for which he very feverely reprimanded him, to hear him E anfwer |