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ON OUR THEATRES.

MADEMOISELLE CLAIRON,' a celebrated actress at Paris, seems to me the most perfect female figure I have ever seen upon any stage. Not perhaps that nature has been more liberal of personal beauty to her, than some to be seen upon our theatres at home. There are actresses here who have as much of what connoisseurs call statuary grace, by which is meant elegance unconnected with motion, as she; but they all fall infinitely short of her, when the soul comes to give expression to the limbs, and animates every feature.

Her first appearance is excessively engaging: she never comes in staring round upon the company, as if she intended to count the benefits of the house, or at least to see, as well as be seen. Her eyes are always, at first, intently fixed upon the persons of the drama, and she lifts them, by degrees, with enchanting diffidence, upon the spectators. Her first speech, or at least the first part of it, is delivered with scarcely any motion of the arm; her hands and her tongue never set out together; but the one prepares us for the other. She sometimes begins with a mute, eloquent attitude; but never goes forward all at once with hands, eyes, head, and voice. This observation, though it may appear of no importance, should certainly be adverted to; nor do I see any one performer (Garrick only excepted) among us, that is not, in this particular, apt to offend. By this simple beginning she gives herself

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But he who is in battle slain
Can never rise and fight again.

The truth, however, is, that these four lines appeared in the 1746 edition of Newbery's Art of Poetry,' with which of course Goldsmith could not have had anything to do, he being then but eighteen years old, and still in Ireland. In 1750 the above four lines appeared as a quotation in Ray's History of the Rebellion,' p. 48.—ED.

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1 Garrick, whose authority in stage criticism ought to carry some weight, professed the highest admiration of the professional talents of this accomplished actress, the Siddons of the French stage. Voltaire also celebrated her in a poetical epistle addressed to her in 1765.—B. She retired from the stage in 1765, and died 1803.-ED.

a power of rising in the passion of the scene. As she proceeds, every gesture, every look, acquires new violence, till at last, transported, she fills the whole vehemence of the part, and all the idea of the poet.

Her hands are not alternately stretched out, and then drawn in again, as with the singing women at Sadler's Wells: they are employed with graceful variety, and every moment please with new and unexpected eloquence. Add to this, that their motion is generally from the shoulder; she never flourishes her hands while the upper part of her arm is motionless, nor has she the ridiculous appearance as if her elbows were pinned to her hips.

But, of all the cautions to be given our rising actresses, I would particularly recommend it to them never to take notice of the audience upon any occasion whatsoever; let the spectators applaud never so loudly, their praises should pass, except at the end of the epilogue, with seeming inattention. I can never pardon a lady on the stage, who, when she draws the admiration of the whole audience, turns about to make them a low curtsy for their applause. Such a figure no longer continues Belvidera, but at once drops into Mrs. Cibber. Suppose a sober tradesman, who once a-year takes his shilling's worth at Drury Lane, in order to be delighted with the figure of a queen-the queen of Sheba, for instance, or any other queen-this honest man has no other idea of the great but from their superior pride and impertinence: suppose such a man placed among the spectators, the first figure that presents on the stage is the queen herself, curtsying and cringing to all the company, how can he fancy her the haughty favourite of King Solomon the Wise, who appears actually more submissive than the wife of his bosom? We are all tradesmen of a nicer relish in this respect, and such conduct must disgust every spectator who loves to have the illusion of nature strong upon him.

Yet, while I recommend to our actresses a skilful atten

1 See Cradock's Epilogue to 'She Stoops to Conquer,' p. 291.-ED. 2 The wife of Theophilus Cibber, the actor, and sister of Dr. Arne, the composer. She played leading parts with Garrick, and was called "the nightingale of the stage." Nevertheless, Dr. Johnson thought her overrated as an actress. She died in 1766.-ED.

tion to gesture, I would not have them study it in the looking-glass. This, without some precaution, will render their action formal; by too great an intimacy with this, they become stiff and affected. People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy after. I remember to have known a notable performer of the other sex, who made great use of this flattering monitor, and yet was one of the stiffest figures I ever saw. I am told his apartment was hung round with looking-glass, that he might see his person twenty times reflected upon entering the room; and I will make bold to say, he saw twenty very ugly fellows whenever he did so.1

A LETTER FROM MR. VOLTAIRE TO MR. TIRIOT.

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[Voltaire's History.'-Toleration.-Geneva.- La Pucelle,' &c.]

DEAR SIR,

Monrion, near Lausanne,
March 26, 1757.

Of all the praises you are pleased to bestow on my triflingEssay on General History,'' I can acquiesce only in those which you mention of my impartiality, of my love of truth, and of my zeal for the happiness of society. All my life has been spent in contributing to spread a spirit of philosophy and toleration, and such a spirit now seems to characterize the age. This glorious spirit, which animates every enlightened mind, has begun to diffuse itself in this country, where first my valetudinary constitution, and now the charms of tranquillity, keep me. It is no small example of the progress of human reason, that my History has been printed at Geneva with

1 Said to have been Thomas Sheridan, father of the author of the 'School for Scandal.'-ED.

2 Goldsmith had previously, August, 1757, written an article on this history in the Monthly Review: see it in the Criticisms, in our vol. iv.— ED.

public approbation, in which I have characterized Calvin as a man of a disposition as much more villainous as his understanding was more enlightened than that of the rest of mankind. The death of Servetus appears still abominable. The Dutch blush when they recollect their cruelty to Barnevelt. I know not whether the English yet find any remorse for theirs to Byng. The attempt and the tortures of Damien1 have been objected to me as incongruous with my character of the present age. Almost every man of any figure in the literary world has demanded, Is this the nation which you have described as superior to others in wisdom? To this I answer (as I well may) that some men are of characters very different from that of their country, or the times they live in. A poor madman, of the dregs of the people, is not a model from which to characterize his country. But, on the other hand, Chatel and Ravillac were possessed with an epidemic fury, the spirit of public fanaticism turned their heads; and even so far was the age infected, that I have by me an apology for the behaviour of John Chatel, printed during the trial of this unhappy, but deluded creature. It is quite otherwise at present; Damien's attempt has been looked upon with indignation not only by France, but by all Europe.

In the little romantic country in which I reside, lying along the banks of the Genevan lake, we turn with horror from enormities like these. We act here as they ought to act at Paris; we live with tranquillity; we cultivate learning without divisions or envy. Tavernier observes that the prospect of Lausanne, from the Genevan lake, resembles that of Constantinople; but what pleases me more than a prospect is, the love for the arts which inspires the generality of its inhabitants.

You have not been deceived when it was told you that 'Zara,' the 'Prodigal Son,'' and other plays, have been represented here as well as they could have been in Paris; yet, let not this surprise you, they neither know, nor speak any other language here than that of France. Al

1 See 'The Traveller,' line last but two.-ED.

2 Two of Voltaire's own plays, the first being a version of Shakespeare's 'Othello.'-ED.

and we

most all the families are of French extraction; have as much taste here as in any part of the world.

We have not here that low ridiculous history of the war in 1741, which they have printed at Paris with my name; nor the pretended Porte feuille, where there are scarce three sentences of mine; nor that infamous rhapsody, intituled, 'The Maid of Orleans,' replete with lines the most low and stupid that ever escaped from ignorance, and with insolencies the most atrocious that ever impudence had courage to avow. We must own that there have lately been many enormities committed at Paris, with both the dagger and the pen. I console myself at being distant from my friends, in finding myself removed from such enormities as these; and I must pity that amiable country which can thus produce monsters."

VOLTAIRE.2

1 Notwithstanding Voltaire's denial, and even denunciation of it, as here, La Pucelle,' somewhat altered to be sure, continues to be given in the works of Voltaire.-ED.

2 This letter is in the Panthéon Littéraire edition of Voltaire's corre. spondence, and is dated as here.-ED.

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