, though he had been an assiduous frequenter of the
playhouse. "The player in question," said he, "has, in your own opinion,
considerable share of merit in the characters of comic life; and as to
the manners of the great personages in tragedy, and the operation of
the grand passions of the soul, I apprehend they may be variously
represented, according to the various complexion and cultivation of
different men, A Spaniard, for example, though impelled by the same
passion, will express it very differently from a Frenchman; and what
is looked upon as graceful vivacity and address by the one, would be
considered as impertinence and foppery by the other; nay, so opposite is
your common deportment from that of some other nations, that one of
our own countrymen, in the relation of his travels, observes, that the
Persians even of this age, when they see any man perform unnecessary
gestures, says he is either a fool or Frenchman. The standard of
demeanour being thus unsettled, a Turk, a Moor, an Indian, or inhabitant
of my country whose customs and dress are widely different from ours,
may, in his sentiments, possess all the dignity of the human heart,
and be inspired by the noblest passion that animates the soul, and yet
excite the laughter rather than the respect of an European spectator.

"When I first beheld your famous Parisian stage heroine in one of her
principal parts, her attitudes seemed so violent, and she tossed
her arms around with such extravagance, that she put me in mind of
a windmill under the agitation of a hard gale; while her voice and
features exhibited the lively representation of an English scold. The
action of your favourite male performer was, in my opinion, equally
unnatural: he appeared with the affected airs of a dancing-master; at
the most pathetic junctures of his fate he lifted up his hands above his
head, like a tumbler going to vault, and spoke as if his throat had
been obstructed by a hair-brush: yet, when I compared their manners with
those of the people before whom they performed, and made allowance
for that exaggeration which obtains on all theatres, I was insensibly
reconciled to their method of performance, and I could distinguish
abundance of merit beneath that oddity of appearance."

The chevalier, perceiving Peregrine a little irritated at what he had
said, asked pardon for the liberty he had taken in censuring the English
players; assuring him that he had an infinite veneration for the