much less is it fo in tragedy: As much as the gentleman is above the vulgar, fo much is the king or heroe above the private gentleman: If the former is expected to inaintain a certain dignity and respect adequate to his rank above the commonalty; the latter is under infinitely greater neceffity of fupporting his character by a majestic deportment, and keeping up, by a grave and fedate carriage, the high idea we have formed of his virtues and accomplishments. No lefs eminent a player than Mr. Garrick has been accus'd of not keeping up this dignity in fome of his tragedy characters. We can by no means agree with those who are for making the charge general against him, but are apt to believe that the people who do so, are influenced merely by his want of figure; and give no little proof of their own incapacity of being ftruck by things of much greater confequence. His Macbeth and Richard, we take to bemafter-pieces in this kind; and many of his other characters are kept up at leaft with fo much dignity, that a candid fpectator will not think him cenfurable in this respect; but there are fome in which he is evidently wanting. In Pierre, perhaps, we fhou'd not fee this defect in him, if we had not an unlucky comparison at hand, with that player in the fame part, who cɛrtainly excells all the world in this peculiar article. When Jaffeir mentions honefty as a virtue that is not fit for this world, Mr. Garrick forgets the dignity of his character to give into a fhrewdness and feverity very natural to him, and in general very becoming, when he anfwers him, Why, powerful villainy first fet it up Cut-throats rewards: each man wou'd kill his brother Himself! none wou'd be paid or hang'd for murther : Honefty! 'twas a cheat invented first To bind the hands of bold deserving rogues, That fools and cowards night fit fafe in power, And lord it uncontrol'd above their betters. We are pleased with the force and strength he gives to the fatire in this fpeech, the keenness of which has never been fo great in any other mouth; but we are vext to find the dignity of the character quite forgot in the speaking it. There is the fame defect in his playing Lear, and that from the fame caufe. It is not that Mr. Garrick is not equal to the tafk of keeping up the dignity of a king or a heroe; we find by the inftances first cited that he is; but he gives way to thoughts of another kind in fo great a degree, that he frequently lofes this part of his character. It is the fame natural turn to be fevere, that robs us of the king in Lear, which before funk the heroe in Pierre, as this gentleman plays it. Shakespear has put fome of the keeneft things he ever wrote into the mouth of this enrag'd monarch, and this player gives them a peculiar ftrength and fharpnefs in the expreffion; but then the king is not found in the fa tyrift, tyrift, they are rather sharp things deliver❜d as any other character of the play might have faid them. Even in the mad fcenes, we know from another player's manner of conducting them, that the majefty of the monarch may be kept up amidst the wildeft fallies of the frantic lunatic; but furely the best friends of Mr. Garrick will not difpute with us, that in this whole part of the play, he looks as like a mad any thing else, as a mad king. Shakespear has every where kept up Lear's remembrance of his regal ftate even in his utmost ravings; he introduces him with the ornaments of royalty about him, tho' made of weeds and straw, and makes him remember that he is every inch a king: But 'tis Shakespear only, not the actor in this cafe that does it : even when this player fays, When I do ftare, fee how the fubject quakes. I pardon that man's life- What was the caufe? Adultery-Thou shalt not die! Die for adultery! No; the wren goes to't, and the fmall gilded fly engenders in my fight. Let copulation thrive: For Glofter's baftard fon was kinder to his father, than were my daughters got i'the lawful bed. To't, Luxury, pell mell, for I want foldiers.. The judicious obferver, tho' pleafed with the juft emphafis laid on the words, tho' charm'd with the fpirit with which they are fpoken, yet cannot but obferve, that they are not deliver'd with a kingly majefty: They feem rather the flights of a man whofe madnefs made him fancy himself a monarch, than of one who ever really was fo. I. 2 We We mention this foible of this, in most things, inimitable performer, principally for the fake of the growing fet of players, who feem to think him the ftandard of perfection in every thing. People's faults are much more eafily imitated than their beauties, and this is one which those who are fond of being thought like Mr. Garrick are moft apt to fall into. If they wou'd form themselves on the judgment of others, let them to the life, fpirit, and vivacity of Mr. Garrick, join an imitation as nearly as they can of the dignity of Mr. Quin. We fhall not be thought partial to this gentleman, we hope, if we fay that no man at prefent equals him, or perhaps ever did in this great article of the player's profeffion. How eafily do we perceive in him, even in this very scene of Lear, that it is a king who rails! With what a majefty as well as fharpness, with what an awful feverity does he cry out, See how yon Juftice rails on that fimple thief. Shake 'em together, and the first that drops out, thief or juftice, is a villain-Thou haft feen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar; and the man ran away from the cur: There thou mightst behold the great image of authority-A dog's obey'd in office. Thou rafcal beadle, hold thy heavy hand why doft thou lash that ftrumpet? Thou hotly lufts to enjoy her in that very kind for which thou whip'ft her. Do, do--The judge that fentenc'd her has been before hand with thee. We We may obferve that in these parts it is moft difficult of all others to keep up a true dignity and in which, with the utmoft advantages, it appears leaft ftriking. If we wou'd fee it in a higher light, let us observe this player in the part in which we have obferv'd one of the greatest actors in the world to fail in this respect, that of Pierre: with what a majefty of deportment does he introduce that character on the ftage, cenfuring himself with a noble feverity for not becoming the aver ger of an injured people; with what an air of true dignity does he tell Jaffier, I am a rogue as well as they, A fine gay bold-fac'd villain as thou fee'st me; I fteal from no man, wou'd not cut a throat Yet, Jaffer, for all this I am a villain ! I 3 |