the_ Capitol?--_Alas! it is overflowed with my Brother's
Blood. Or shall I retire to my House? Yet there I behold my Mother
plung'd in Misery, weeping and despairing!'

These Breaks and Turns of Passion, it seems, were so enforced by the
Eyes, Voice, and Gesture of the Speaker, that his very Enemies could not
refrain from Tears. I insist, says _Tully_, upon this the rather,
because our Orators, who are as it were Actors of the Truth it self,
have quitted this manner of speaking; and the Players, who are but the
Imitators of Truth, have taken it up.

I shall therefore pursue the Hint he has here given me, and for the
Service of the _British Stage_ I shall copy some of the Rules which this
great _Roman_ Master has laid down; yet, without confining my self
wholly to his Thoughts or Words: and to adapt this Essay the more to the
Purpose for which I intend it, instead of the Examples he has inserted
in his Discourse, out of the ancient Tragedies, I shall make use of
parallel Passages out of the most celebrated of our own.

The Design of Art is to assist Action as much as possible in the
Representation of Nature; for the Appearance of Reality is that which
moves us in all Representations, and these have always the greater
Force, the nearer they approach to Nature, and the less they shew of
Imitation.

Nature herself has assigned to every Emotion of the Soul, its peculiar
Cast of the Countenance, Tone of Voice, and Manner of Gesture; and the
whole Person, all the Features of the Face and Tones of the Voice,
answer, like Strings upon musical Instruments, to the Impressions made
on them by the Mind. Thus the Sounds of the Voice, according to the
various Touches which raise them, form themselves into an Acute or
Grave, Quick or Slow, Loud or Soft Tone. These too may be subdivided
into various kinds of Tones, as the gentle, the rough, the contracted,
the diffuse, the continued, the intermitted, the broken, abrupt,
winding, softned, or elevated. Every one of these may be employed with
Art and Judgment; and all supply the Actor, as Colours do the Painter,
with an expressive Variety.

Anger exerts its peculiar Voice in an acute, raised, and hurrying sound.
The passionate Character of _King Lear_, as it is admirably drawn by
_Shakespear_, abounds with the strongest Instances of this kind.

'--Death! Confusion!
Fiery!--what Quality?--why_ Gloster! Gloster!
I'd speak with the Duke of_ Cornwall _and his Wife.
Are the