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    human nature as it really exists in the finer specimens , requires a class of actors widely different from what they have hitherto been accustomed to behold . With the exception of a very few , from what classes of society are the mass of actors and actresses drawn ? Are they from the refined , the educated classes ? No , on the contrary , the profession of acting is for the most part the resort of

    the needy , the vicious , and the idle . Not , the talent for acting , but the desire to act , is the common rule ,, and thus , acting , instead of being what it should be , a combination of the highest kinds of human refinement , is degraded into low and miserable mimicry . iHere and there , peculiar circumstances bring forth a rare specimen of high talent ; but the talent of a single individual is insufficient

    to embody forth a whole play , to make the illusion complete . It Las indeed been alleged , and by those who have paid much attention to theatres and acting , that the instances are very rare , in which the peculiar organization and combination of qualities requisite for a first-rate actor are found in the same individual .

    This is partly true , but then it must be remembered , that the fephere of humanity in which the instances are sought is just precisely that in which they are the least likely to be found . A ban lias been set upon actors and actresses , and they are in the mass held to be outcasts of society . By law they are vagabonds , unless they chance to be admitted to the privilege of using the slavish designation of ' His Majesty ' s servants ; ' and though those of high name and talent are endured , the mass are designated in contempt

    as ' stage-players , and * play-actors / i . e . mere mimics or mountebanks , without any pretensions to high feeling or high intellect , and the hopelessness of acquiring respect causes them to be regardless of morality , at least that morality on which the public affects to set a value . They are made Pariahs by society , and as a consequence they establish new rules of morality amongst themselves . Time was , that stage-playing was considered the direct opposite both of religion and morality , and subversive of all virtue . It might be so , but the immorality was not in the art itself , but in

    the professors of it . The public had determined that none but worthless people should be allowed to become players , and that if worthy people attempted to practise the art they should be held in no better esteem than those they mixed with . As a consequence , an art , whose immense value as a vehicle of public instruction has never yet made the fitting impression on those who might guide the public , has been left as a monopoly , wholly , or nearly so , in the hands of the worthless and inferior members of society . When the ban shall be removed , when all those who are conscious of the

    capacity shall be allowed to practise the art , and all who believe that they possess the capacity , shall be allowed to essay the practice , without losing caste , the numbers of those possessing the highest talent for it will be found very considerably increased . There can be little doubt that , for the most part , those possessing the highest

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    554 On Theatrical Refbrtn .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1833, page 554, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2620/page/42/