Anger exerts its peculiar voice in an acute, raised, and hurrying sound. The passionate character of King Lear, as it is admirably drawn by Shakspeare, abounds with the strongest instances of this kind.

Death! Confusion !

Fiery !....what quality !....why Gloster! Gloster!
I'd speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife.
Are they inform'd of this? my breath and blood!
Fiery the fiery duke ?..........................&c.

Sorrow and complaint demand a voice quite different, flexible, slow, interrupted, and modulated in a mournful tone; as in that pathetical soliloquy of cardinal Wolsey on his fall.

Farewel!....a long farewel to all my greatness!
This is the state of man!....to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope; to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him.
'The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,
And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a ripening, nips his root,
And then he falls, as I do.

We have likewise a fine example of this in the whole part of Andromache in the Distrest Mother, particularly in these lines:

I'll go, and in the anguish of my heart
Weep o'er my child......If he must die, my life
Is wrapt in his, I shall not long survive.
'Tis for his sake that I have suffered life,
Groan'd in captivity, and out-lived Hector.
Yes, my Astyanax, we'll go together!
Together to the realms of night we'll go ;
There to thy ravish'd eyes thy sire I'll show,
And point him out among the shades below.

Fear expresses itself in a low, hesitating, and abject sound. If the reader considers the following

speech of lady Macbeth, while her husband is about the murder of Duncan and his grooms, he will imagine her even affrighted with the sound of her own voice while she is speaking it.

Alas! I am afraid they have awak'd,

And 'tis not done; th' attempt, and not the deed,
Confounds us....Hark !....I laid the daggers ready,
He could not miss them..... Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done it.

Courage assumes a louder tone, as in that speech of Don Sebastian.

Here satiate all your fury;

Let fortune empty her whole quiver on me,
I have a soul that like an ample shield

Can take in all, and verge enough for more.

Pleasure dissolves into a luxurious, mild, tender, and joyous modulation; as in the following lines in Caius Marius:

Lavinia! O there's music in the name,

That soft'ning me to infant tenderness,

Makes my heart spring like the first leaps of life.

And perplexity is different from all these; grave, but not bemoaning, with an earnest, uniform sound of voice; as in that celebrated speech of Hamlet :

To be, or not to be ?....that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ach, and a thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to; 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep........
To sleep; perchance to dream! Ay, there's the rub.

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.......There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor's wrongs, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make

With his bare bodkin? Who would fardles bear,
To groan and sweat under a weary life?
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather choose those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of.

As all these varieties of voice are to be directed by the sense, so the action is to be directed by the voice, and with a beautiful propriety, as it were, to enforce it. The arm, which by a stronger figure Tully calls the orator's weapon, is to be sometimes raised and extended: and the hand, by its motion, sometimes to lead, and sometimes to follow the words as they are uttered. The stamping of the foot too has its proper expression in contention, anger, or absolute command. But the face is the epitome of the whole man, and the eyes are, as it were, the epitome of the face; for which reason, he says, the best judges among the Romans were not extremely pleased, even with Roscius himself in his mask. No part of the body, besides the face, is capable of as many changes as there are different emotions in the mind, and of expressing them all by those changes. Nor is this to be done without the freedom of the eyes; therefore Theophrastus called one, who barely rehearsed his speech with his eyes fixed, an absent

actor.

As the countenance admits of so great variety, it requires also great judgment to govern it. Not that

the form of the face is to be shifted on every occasion, lest it turn to farce and buffoonery; but it is certain, that the eyes have a wonderful power of marking the emotions of the mind, sometimes by a sted fast look, sometimes by a careless one, now by a sudden regard, then by a joyful sparkling, as the sense of the words is diversified: for action is, as it were, the speech of the features and limbs, and must therefore conform itself always to the sentiments of the soul. And it may be observed, that in all which relates to the gesture, there is a wonderful force implanted by nature; since the vulgar, the unskilful, and even the most barbarous are chiefly affected by this. None are moved by the sound of words, but those who understand the language; and the sense of many things is lost upon men of a dull apprehension but action is a kind of universal tongue; all men are subject to the same passions, and consequently know the same marks of them in others, by which they themselves express them.

:

Perhaps some of my readers may be of opinion, that the hints I have here made use of, out of Cicero, are somewhat too refined for the players on our theatre in answer to which, I venture to lay it down as a maxim, that without good sense no one can be a good player, and that he is very unfit to personate the dignity of a Roman hero, who cannot enter into the rules for pronunciation and gesture delivered by a Roman oratòr.

There is another thing which my author does not think too minute to insist on, though it is purely mechanical; and that is the right pitching of the voice. On this occasion he tells the story of Grac chus, who employed a servant with a little ivory pipe to stand behind him, and give him the right pitch as often as he wandered tou far from the proper modulation. Every voice, says Tully, has its particular medium and compass, and the sweetness of speech

consists in leading it through all the variety of tones naturally, and without touching any extreme. Therefore, says he,Leave the pipe at home, but carry the sense of this custom with you.'

WHEN I have been present in assemblies where my paper has been talked of, I have been very well pleased to hear those who could detract from the author of it observe, that the letters which are sent to the Spectator are as good, if not better than any of his works. Upon this occasion many letters of mirth are usually mentioned, which some think the Spectator writ to himself, and which others commend because they fancy he received them from his correspondents: such are those from the Valetudinarian; the inspector of the sign posts; the master of the fan exercise; with that of the hooped petticoat; that of Nicholas Hart the annual sleeper; that from Sir John Envil; that upon the London cries; with multitudes of the same nature. As I love nothing more than to mortify the ill-natured, that I may do it effectually, I must acquaint them, they have very often praised me when they did not design it, and that they have approved my writings when they thought they had derogated from them. I have heard several of these unhappy gentlemen