On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    mimicry is acting , and who at times may be promoted to the lackey honour of being a candle-bearer to ' Majesty' itself . ' Who are to be our audience ? ' I answer , ' The great body of the working classes , —the mechanics . ' Did I hear aright , ' exclaims Sylvester Daggerwood again , c Ay , sir , you did ; the mechanics

    must be your future audience , if your acting be true to nature , and will bear the test of unhackneyed native criticism . I tell you again , sir , the mechanics are your audience ; they possess no artificial feelings , they are as God made them , and such is not the case with the audience you have been accustomed to play before , half of whom have been insolent aristocrats , and the other half

    sycophants , with scarce an original idea amongst them . The ipechanics , I tell you , are your audience , if you possess genius ; and if you possess it not , get yourself forthwith transformed into a parasite for the tables of the great , for verily we need you not . No , sir , prescriptive " respectability" must cease , and to suit us

    you may as well forget at once four-fifths of your parts , and begin anew . The nobility of nature is in league against the mock ^ ability of art . ' / But mechanics , uneducated mechanics ! they cannot comprehend good acting !* * Stop , sir ! good acting is the true representation of human passions , and human passions existed ere school education commenced . You must

    unlearn your stage tricks , and trust to nature alone . The minds of the mechanics are undebauched by the monkeyings of affectation , aud they are fit for the operation of the teacher / * But , ' exclaims an affected actress , * am I to play before greasy , unwashed men of occupation ? Am I to be looked on by such vulgar people ? ' ' Why not , lady ? there is less real coarseness in

    them than in the tribes who at present haunt the boxes . They will look earnestly , but they will not look lasciviously . Their minds may be pure , though their externals be uncouth ; and it is with you to show your power in civilizing them , in humanizing them , in refining them . Try your skill ; it is a fair field for your exertions . It is said that of old ^ Love wrought a marvel upon the

    citizens of Abdera . Try , then , the effect of your beauty and winning accents in modern times ; but be that which you seem , or your playing will be but mimicry . If you are not beneficent in spirit , the lines of your face will be marked with hypocrisy when you put on the appearance of it , and your power will vanish before the instinctive perception of the untutored . Wear the smile of the heart , and not the smile of the cheek , or you will fail

    to call up gracious smiles from the hearts of others . Be unbending in spirit to the assaults of vice , for the mock frown which knits the brow to ape the semblance of virtue , carries no earnest conviction with it . Think not of selfish joy , be not absorbed in the malignant wish to mortify a rival artist , or an ugly fiend will peep forth , mocking all your efforts . Think not of self , think pnl y of the impression you have to make on a large number of

    Untitled Article

    618 Ou Theatrical Reform .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1833, page 618, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2622/page/34/