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"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"

— Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

Author

Smollett, Tobias (1721-1777)

Work Title

The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle

Place of Publication

London

Publisher

Printed for the author

Date

1751

Metaphor

"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"

Metaphor in Context

The rest of the company proceeded to the arsenal, which having viewed, together with some remarkable churches, they, in their return, went to the comedy, and saw the Cid of Corneille tolerably well represented. In consequence of this entertainment, the discourse at supper turned upon dramatic performances; and all the objections of Mons. de Scudery to the piece they had seen acted, together with the decision of the French academy, were canvassed and discussed. The knight was a man of letters and taste, and particularly well acquainted with the state of the English stage; so that when the painter boldly pronounced sentence against the French manner of acting, on the strength of having frequented a Covent-Garden club of criticks, and been often admitted by virtue of an order, into the pit; a comparison immediately ensued, not between the authors, but the actors of both nations, to whom the chevalier and Peregrine were no strangers. Our hero, like a good Englishman, made no scruple of giving the preference to the performers of his own country, who, he alledged, obeyed the genuine impulses of nature, in exhibiting the passions of the human mind; and entered so warmly into the spirit of their several parts, that they often fancied themselves the very heroes they represented. Whereas, [Page 137] the action of the Parisian players, even in their most interesting characters, was generally such an extravagance in voice and gesture, as is no where to be observed but on the stage. To illustrate this assertion, he availed himself of his talent, and mimicked the manner and voice of all the principal performers, male and female, belonging to the French comedy; to the admiration of the chevalier, who having complimented him upon this surprising modulation, begged leave to dissent in some particulars from the opinion he had avowed. "That you have good actors in England, (said he) it would be unjust and absurd in me to deny; your theatre is adorned by one woman, whose sensibility and sweetness of voice is such as I have never observed on any other stage; she has, besides, an elegance of person and expression of features, that wonderfully adapt her for the most engaging characters of your best plays; and I must freely own that I have been as highly delighted, and as deeply affected, by a Monimia and Belvidera at London, as ever I was by a Cornelia and Cleopatra at Paris. You can, moreover, boast of several comic actors who are perfect masters of buffoonery and grimace; though, to be free with you, I think, in these qualifications you are excelled by the players of Amsterdam: neither are you destitute of those, who, with a good deal of cultivation, might acquire some degree of excellence in the representation of tragic characters: but I shall never cease to wonder that the English, who are certainly a sensible and discerning people should be so much infatuated, as to applaud and caress with the most extravagant approbation, not to say adoration and regard, one or two gracioso's, who, I will be [Page 138] bold to say, would scarce be able to earn their bread by their talents, on any other theatre under the sun. I have seen one of these, in the celebrated part of Richard the third, which, I believe, is not a character of ridicule, sollicit and triumph in the laugh of the audience, during the best part of a scene in which the author has represented that prince as an object of abhorrence. I have observed the same person in the character of Hamlet, shake his fist with all the demonstrations of wrath at his mistress, for no evident cause, and behave like a ruffian to his own mother. Shocked at such want of dignity and decorum in a prince, who seemed the favourite of the people, I condemned the genius that produced him, but, upon a second perusal of the play, transferred my censure to the actor, who, in my opinion, had egregiously mistaken the meaning of the poet. At a juncture, when his whole soul ought to be alarmed with terror and amazement, and all his attention engrossed by the dreadful object in view, I mean that of his friend whom he had murthered; he expresses no passion but that of indignation against a drinking glass, which he violently dashes in pieces on the floor, as if he had perceived a spider in his wine; nay, while his eyes are fixed upon the ground, he starts at the image of a dagger which he pretends to see above his head, as if the pavement was a looking-glass that represented it by reflexion: and at one time, I saw him walk a-cross the stage, and lend an inferior character a box on the ear, after he had with great wrath pronounced "Take thou that," or some equivalent exclamation, at the other end of the scene. He represents the grief of an hero, by the tears and manner of a whining [Page 139] school-boy, and perverts the genteel deportment of a gentleman, into the idle buffoonery of a miserable tobacconist; his whole art is no other than a succession of frantic vociferation, such as I have heard in the cells of Bedlam, a slowness, hesitation and oppression of speech, as if he was troubled with an asthma, convulsive startings, and a ductility of features, suited to the most extravagant transitions. In a word, he is blessed with a distinct voice, and a great share of vivacity; but in point of feeling, judgment, and grace, is, in my opinion, altogether defective. Not to mention his impropriety in dress, which is so absurd, that he acts the part of a youthful prince, in the habit of an undertaker, and exhibits the gay, fashionable Lothario, in the appearance of a mountebank. I beg pardon for treating this darling of the English with so little ceremony; and to convince you of my candour, frankly confess, that notwithstanding all I have said, he is qualified to make a considerable figure in the low characters of humour, which are so much relished by a London audience, if he could be prevailed upon to abate of that monstrous burlesque, which is an outrage against nature and common sense. As for his competitor in fame, with an equal share of capacity, he is inferior to him in personal agility, sprightliness and voice. His utterance is a continual sing song, like the chanting of vespers, and his action resembles that of heaving ballast into the hold of a ship. In his outward deportment, he seems to have confounded the ideas of dignity and insolence of mien, acts the crafty, cool, designing Crookback, as a loud, shallow, blustering Hector; in the character of the mild patriot Brutus, loses all temper and decorum; [Page 140] nay, so ridiculous is the behaviour of him and Cassius at their interview, that setting foot to foot, and grinning at each other, with the aspect of two coblers enraged, they thrust their left sides together, with repeated shocks, that the hilts of their swords may clash for the entertainment of the audience; as if they were a couple of Merry Andrews, endeavouring to raise the laugh of the vulgar, on some scaffold at Bartholomew Fair. The despair of a great man who falls a sacrifice to the infernal practices of a subtle traitor, that enjoyed his confidence, this English Æsopus represents, by beating his own forehead, and bellowing 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 that 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 meer player of that class whom your admired Shakespear justly compares to nature's journeymen 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 [Page 141] his pride will not allow him to undertake. I should not have been so severe upon these rivals, had not I seen them extolled by their partizans, with the most ridiculous and fulsome manifestation of praise, even in those very circumstances wherein (as I have observed) they chiefly failed."