Were
the player debarred the use of speech, and obliged to act to the eyes
only of the audience, this mimicry might be a necessary conveyance
of his meaning; but when he is at liberty to signify his ideas by
language, nothing can be more trivial, forced, unnatural, and antic,
than this mummery. Not that I would exclude from the representation
the graces of action, without which the choicest sentiments,
clothed in the most exquisite expression, would appear unanimated
and insipid; but these are as different from this ridiculous
burlesque, as is the demeanour of a Tully in the rostrum, from
the tricks of a Jack-pudding on a mountebank's stage. And, for the
truth of what I allege, I appeal to the observation of any person
who has considered the elegance of attitude and propriety of gesture,
as they are universally acknowledged in the real characters of
life. Indeed, I have known a Gascon, whose limbs were eloquent as
his tongue: he never mentioned the word sleep without reclining
his head upon his hand; when he had occasion to talk of a horse, he
always started up and trotted across the room, except when he was
so situated that he could not stir without incommoding the company,
and in that case he contented himself with neighing aloud.
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