"
Peregrine having eyed the critic some minutes, "I fancy," said he,
"your praise must be ironical, because, in the very two situations
you mention, I think I have seen that player outherod Herod, or,
in other words, exceed all his other extravagances. The intention
of the author is, that the Moor should communicate to his confidant
a piece of information contained in a few lines, which, doubtless,
ought to be repeated with an air of eagerness and satisfaction,
not with the ridiculous grimace of a monkey, to which, methought,
his action bore an intimate resemblance, in uttering this plain
sentence:--
----He took it up:
But scarce was it unfolded to his sight,
When he, as if an arrow pierc'd his eye,
Started, and trembling dropp'd it on the ground.
"In pronouncing the first two words, this egregious actor stoops
down, and seems to take up something from the stage, then proceeding
to repeat what follows, mimics the manner of unfolding a letter;
when he mentions the simile of an arrow piercing the eye, he darts
his forefinger towards that organ.
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