extremely perplexed at the Latin sentences at the head of my speculations. I do not know whether I ought not to indulge them with translations of each of them:* however, I have to day taken down from the top of the stage in Drury-Lane a bit of Latin which often stands in their view, and signifies that The whole world acts the player.' It is certain that if we look all around us, and behold the different employments of mankind, you hardly see one, who is not, as the player is, in an assumed character. The lawyer who is vehement and loud in a cause wherein he knows he has not the truth of the question on his side, is a player as to the personated part, but incomparably meaner than he as to the prostitution of himself for hire, because the pleader's falsehood introduces injustice, the player feigns for no other end but to divert or instruct you. The divine, whose passions transport him to say any thing with any view but promoting the interests of true piety and religion, is a player with a still greater imputation of guilt in proportion to his depreciating a character more sacred. Consider all the different pursuits and employments of men, and you will find half their actions tend to nothing else but disguise and imposture; and all that is done which proceeds not from a man's very self, is the action of a player. For this reason it is that I make so frequent mention of the stage: it is with me a matter of the highest consideration what parts are well or ill performed, what passions or sentiments are indulged or cultivated, and con *It is scarcely necessary to observe, that in the original publication of the Spectator, the mottos were untranslated. VOL. VIII. B sequently what manners and customs are transfused from the stage to the world, which reciprocally imitate each other. As the writers of epic poems introduce shadowy persons, and represent vices and virtues under the characters of men and women; so I, who am a Spectator in the world, may perhaps sometimes make use of the names of the actors on the stage, to represent or admonish those who transact affairs in the world. When I am commending Wilkes for representing the tenderness of a husband and a father in Macbeth,' the contrition of a reformed prodigal in Harry the Fourth,' the winning emptiness of a young man of good nature and wealth in The Trip to the Jubilee,' the officiousness of an artful servant in The Fox;' when thus I celebrate Wilkes, I talk to all the world who are engaged in any of those circumstances. If I were to speak of merit neglected, misapplied, or misunderstood, might I not say, Estcourt has a great capacity? But it is not the interest of others who bear a figure on the stage that his talents were understood; it is their business to impose upon him what can not become him, or keep out of his hands any thing in which he would shine, Were one to raise a suspicion of himself in a man who passes upon the world for a fine thing in order to alarm him, one might say, if Lord Foppington were not on the stage, (Cibber acts the false pretensions to a genteel behaviour so very justly; he would in the generality of mankind have more that would admire than deride him. When we come to characters directly comical, it is not to be imagined what effect a well-regulated stage would have upon men's manners. The craft of 6 an usurer, the absurdity of a rich fool, the awkward roughness of a fellow of half courage, the ungraceful mirth of a creature of half wit, might be for ever put out of countenance by proper parts for Dogget. Johnson, by acting Corbacchio the other night, must have given all who saw him a thorough detestation of aged avarice. The petulancy of a peevish old fellow, who loves and hates he knows not why, is very excellently performed by the ingenious Mr. William Penkethman in the Fop's Fortune;' where, in the character of Don Choleric Snap Shorto de Testy, he answers no questions but to those whom he likes, and wants no account of any thing from those he approves. Mr. Penkethman is also master of as many faces in the dumb scene as can be expected from a man in the circumstances of being ready to perish out of fear and hunger; he wonders throughout the whole scene very masterly, without neglecting his victuals. If it be, as I have heard it sometimes mentioned, a great qualification for the world to follow business and pleasure too, what is it in the ingenious Mr. Penkethman to represent a sense of pleasure and pain at the same time, as you may see him do this evening? As it is certain that a stage ought to be wholly suppressed or judiciously encouraged, while there is one in the nation, men turned for regular pleasure can not employ their thoughts more usefully for the diversion of mankind, than by convincing them that it is in themselves to raise this entertainment to the greatest height. It would be a great improvement, as well as embellishment to the theatre, if dancing were more regarded, and taught to all the actors. One who has the advantage of such an agreeable girlish person as Mrs. Bicknell, joined with her capacity of imitation, could in proper gesture and motion represent all the decent characters of female life. An amiable modesty in one aspect of a dancer, and assumed confidence in another, a sudden joy in another, a falling off, with an impatience of being beheld, a return towards the audience with an unsteady resolution to approach them, and a well acted solicitude to please, would revive in the company all the fine touches of mind raised in observing all the objects of affection and passion they had before beheld. Such elegant entertainments as these would polish the town into judgment in their gratifications; and delicacy in pleasure is the first step people of condition take in reformation from vice. Mrs. Bicknell has the only capacity for this sort of dancing of any on the stage; and I dare say all who see her performance to-morrow night, (when sure the romp will do her best for her own benefit,) will be of my mind. STEELE. T No. 371. TUESDAY, MAY 6. Jamne igitur laudas quod de sapientibus unus JUV. SAT. And shall the sage* your approbation win, I SHALL Communicate to my readers the following letter for the entertainment of this day. SIR, "You know very well that our nation is more famous for that sort of men who are called whims and humourists than any other country in the world; for which reason it is observed that our English comedy excels that of all other nations in the novelty and variety of its characters. 6 Among those innumerable sets of whims which our country produces, there are none whom I have regarded with more curiosity than those who have invented any particular kind of diversion for the entertainment of themselves or their friends. My letter shall single out those who take delight in sorting a company that has something of burlesque and ridicule in its appearance. I shall make myself understood by the following example. One of the wits of the last age,† who was a man of a good estate, thought he never laid out his money better than in a jest. As he was one year at the Bath, observing that in the great confluence of fine people, there were several among them with long chins, a part of * Democritus. † Villiers, the last duke of Buckingham, |