153 PLAYERS. DR. JOHNSON had thought more upon the subject of acting than might be generally supposed. Talking of it one day to Mr. Kemble, he said, "Are you, Sir, one of those enthusiasts who believe yourself transformed into the very character you represent?" Upon Mr. Kemble's answering that he had never felt so strong a persuasion himself; "To be sure not, Sir (said Johnson); the thing is impossible. And if Garrick really believed himself to be that monster Richard the Third, he deserved to be hanged every time he performed it." He gave the following as his opinion upon the merits of some of the principal performers whom he remembered to have seen upon the stage: "Mrs. Porter, in the vehemence of rage, and Mrs. Clive in the sprightliness of humour, I have never seen equalled. What Clive did best, she did better than Garrick; but could not do half so many things well; she was a better romp than any I ever saw in nature." Mrs. Pritchard being mentioned, he said, "Her playing was quite mechanical. It is wonderful how little mind she had. Sir, she had never read the tragedy of Macbeth all through. She no more thought of the play out of which her part was taken, than a shoemaker thinks of the skin out of which the piece of leather, of which he is making a pair of shoes, is cut. Pritchard, in common life, was a vulgar idiot; she would talk of her gownd; but, when she appeared upon the stage, seemed to be inspired by gentility and understanding." He thought Colley Cibber ignorant of the principles of his art. "Colley Cibber (said he) once consulted me as to one of his birth-day Odes, a long time before it was wanted. I objected very freely to several passages. Cibber lost patience, and would not read his Ode to an end. When we had done with criticism, we walked over to Richardson's, the author of Clarissa,' and I wondered to find Richardson displeased that I did not treat Cibber with more respect.' Now, Sir, to talk of respect for a player!" (smiling disdainfully).-BosWELL. "There, Sir, you are always heretical; you never will allow merit to a player."-JOHNSON. "Merit, Sir; what merit? Do you respect a rope-dancer, or a ballad-singer?"-B. "No, Sir; but we respect a great player, as a man who can conceive lofty sentiments, and can express them gracefully."-J. "What, Sir, a fellow who claps a hump on his back, and a lump on his leg, and cries, I am Richard the Third? Nay, Sir, a ballad-singer is a higher man, for he does two things; he repeats and he sings; there is both recitation and musick in his performance: the player only recites."-B. "My dear Sir! you may turn any thing into ridicule. I allow that a player of farce is not entitled to respect; he does a little thing: but he who can represent exalted characters, and touch the noblest passions, has very respectable powers; and mankind have agreed in admiring great talents for the stage. We must consider, too, that a great player does what very few are capable of doing; his art is a very rare faculty. Who can repeat Hamlet's soliloquy,' To be, or not to be,' as Garrick does it?"-J. "Any body may. Jemmy there (a boy about eight years old, who was in the room) will do it as well in a week."-B. " No, no, Sir; and as a proof of the merit of great acting, and of the value which mankind set upon it, Garrick has got a hundred thousand pounds."-J. "Is getting a hundred thousand pounds a proof of excellence? That has been done by a scoundrel commissary. Garrick was no declaimer; there was not one of his own scene-shifters who could not have spoken To be, or not to be,' better than he did; yet he was the only actor I ever saw whom I could call a master both in tragedy and comedy; though I liked him best in comedy. A true conception of character, and natural expression of it, were his distinguishing excellencies." Having expatiated with his usual force and eloquence on Garrick's extraordinary eminence as an actor, he concluded with this compliment to his social talents: "And after all, I thought him less to be envied on the stage than at the head of a table." MUSICK. JOHNSON once, in a musical party, desired to have Let Ambition fire thy Mind' played over again, and appeared to give a patient attention to it; though he owned that he was very insensible to the power of musick. "I told him (says Mr. Boswell), that it affected me to such a degree, as often to agitate my nerves painfully, producing in my mind alternate sensations of pathetic dejection, so that I was ready to shed tears; and of daring resolution, so that I was inclined to rush into the thickest part of the battle." "Sir (said he), I should never hear it, if it made me such a fool." Another time, after having talked slightingly of musick, he was observed to listen very attentively while Miss Thrale played on the harpsichord, and with eagerness he called to her, "Why don't you dash away like Burney?" Burney upon this said to him, "I believe, Sir, Dr. we shall make a musician of you at last." Johnson with candid complacency replied, "Sir, I shall be glad to have a new sense given to me." Mr. Langton and Johnson having gone to see a Freemason's funeral procession at Rochester, and some solemn musick being played on French horns, he said, "This is the first time that I have ever been affected by musical sounds; adding that the impression made upon him was of a melancholy kind." Mr. Langton said, that this effect was a fine one.-JOHNSON. "Yes, if it softens the mind so as to prepare it for the reception of salutary feelings, it may be good; but inasmuch as it is melancholy per se it is bad." Talking of sounds, a gentleman in the company said there was no beauty in a simple sound, but only in an harmonious composition of sounds. Mr. Boswell differed from this opinion, and mentioned the soft and sweet sound of a fine woman's voice. JOHNSON. "No, Sir, if a serpent or a toad uttered it, you would think it ugly."-BosWELL. So you would think, Sir, were a beautiful tune to be uttered by one of those animals." -J. "No, Sir, it would be admired. We have seen fine fiddlers whom we liked as little as toads" (laughing). |