hat talents
shall we say will infallibly form an actor? This, I confess, is one of
Nature's secrets, too deep for me to dive into. Let us content
ourselves, therefore, with affirming, that Genius, which Nature only
gives, only can complete him. This genius then was so strong in
Betterton, that it shone out in every speech and motion of him. Yet
voice and person are such necessary supporters to it, that, by the
multitude, they have been preferred to genius itself, or at least often
mistaken for it. Betterton had a voice of that kind which gave more
spirit to terror than to the softer passions; of more strength than
melody. The rage and jealousy of Othello became him better than the
sighs and tenderness of Castalio: for though in Castalio he only
excelled others, in Othello he excelled himself, which you will easily
believe, when you consider, that, in spite of his complexion, Othello
has more natural beauties than the best actor can find in all the
magazine of poetry, to animate his power and delight his judgment with.

The person of this excellent actor was suitable to his voice, more manly
than sweet, not exceeding the middle stature, inclining to the
corpulent; of a serious and penetrating aspect; his limbs nearer the
athletic than the delicate proportion; yet however formed, there arose
from the harmony of the whole a commanding mein of majesty, which the
fairer faced, or as Shakspeare calls them, the curled darlings of his
time, ever wanted something to be equal masters of. There was some years
ago to be had, almost in every print-shop, a mezzotinto, from Kneller,
extremely like him.

In all I have said of Betterton, I confine myself to the time of his
strength, and highest power in action, that you may make allowances from
what he was able to execute at fifty, to what you might have seen of him
at past seventy: for though to the last he was without his equal, he
might not then be equal to his former self; yet so far was he from being
ever overtaken, that for many years after his decease, I seldom saw any
of his parts in Shakspeare supplied by others, but it drew from me the
lamentation of Ophelia upon Hamlet's being unlike what she had seen him.

Ah! wo is me!
T' have seen what I _have_ seen, see what I see!

The last part this great master of his profession acted was Melantius,
in the Maid's Tragedy, for his own benefit, when being suddenly seized
by the gout, he submitted