The
despair of a great man, who falls a victim to the infernal practices
of a subtle traitor who enjoyed his confidence, this English Aesopus
represents, by beating his own forehead, and beating like a bull;
and, indeed, in almost all his most interesting scenes, performs
such strange shakings of the head, and other antic gesticulations,
that when I first saw him act, I imagined the poor man laboured
under the paralytical disorder, which is known by the name of St.
Vitus's dance. In short, he seems to be a stranger to the more
refined sensations of the soul, consequently his expression is of
the vulgar kind, and he must often sink under the idea of the poet;
so that he has recourse to such violence of affected agitation, as
imposes upon the undiscerning spectator; but to the eye of taste,
evinces him a mere player of that class whom your admired Shakespeare
justly compares to Nature's journeyman tearing a passion to rags.
Yet this man, in spite of all these absurdities, is an admirable
Falstaff, exhibits the character of the eighth Henry to the life,
is reasonably applauded in the Plain Dealer, excels in the part
of Sir John Brute, and would be equal to many humorous situations
in low comedy, which his pride will not allow him to undertake.
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