Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Impression Of Reality Attending Dramatic Representations.
the senses , is called in to aid the creative power of the imagination . . ^ . Attend me next to the theatre . I go , it is acknowledged , with the full conviction that the place is Drury-iane , and that the actors are merely players , representing a fiction for their own emolument . NayI with the avowed purpose of seeing a favourite actress
, go in a particular character . The curtain draws up , and after some preparation , enters Mrs . Siddons in Belvidera . The lirst employment of my mind is to criticize her performance , and 1 admire the justness of her actions , and the unequalled expressiveness of her tones and looks . . The play proceeds , and I am made privy to a horrid plot . With this , domestic distresses are mingled , involving
the two most interesting characters in the piece . By degrees , I lose sight of Mrs . Siddons in her proper person , and only view her in the assumed shape of Belvidera . I cease to criticize her , but give way with full soul to all the sentiments of love , tenderness , and anxiety which she titters . As the catastrophe advances , the accumulated distress and anguish lay fast hold on my heart : I sob , weep , am almost choaked with the mixed emotions of pity , terror , and apprehension , and totally forget the theatre , the actors , and the audience , till , perhaps , my attention to present objects is
recalled by the screams or swooning of a neighbour still more affected than myself . Shall the cold critic now tell me , I am sure you do not believe Mrs . Siddons to be Belvidera , and therefore you can only be affected in consequence of " the reflexion that the evils " before you are evils to which yourself may be exposed—you ra-¦ " ther lament the possibility , than suppose the presence , of misery . " Tlie identity of Belvidera is out of the question ; for who was
Belvidera ? and certainly my own liability to evils , some of them im-, possible to happen to me , and others highly improbable , is the farthest thing from my thoughts ; besides , were the effect of a spectacle of distress dependant on this principle , it would be equally requisite in the real , as in the fictitious scene . What I feel , is genuine sympathsuch as by a law of my nature ever results from
y , the image of a suffering fellow-creature , by whatsoever means such an image is excited . The more powerfully it is impressed on my imagination , and the more completely it banishes all other ideas either of sense or reflection , the more perfect is its effect ; and reality has no advantage in this respect over fiction , as long as the temporary illusion produced by the latter continues- That such
an illusion should take place at the theatre , where every circumstance art can invent has been employed to favour it , cannot be thought extraordinary , after it has been shewn , that a scene of the mind ' s own cre .-ition can effect it .
And for what end , but that of deception , are such pains taken in adjusting the scenery , dresses , decorations , & c . to as near a resemblance as possible of reality ?—why might not the piece be as well read in the closet as represented on the stage , if all its effect depended on the pleasing modulation of language , prompting just reflections on life and manners ? Some effect , doubtless , is pre-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Impression Of Reality Attending Dramatic Representations.
the senses , is called in to aid the creative power of the imagination . . ^ . Attend me next to the theatre . I go , it is acknowledged , with the full conviction that the place is Drury-iane , and that the actors are merely players , representing a fiction for their own emolument . NayI with the avowed purpose of seeing a favourite actress
, go in a particular character . The curtain draws up , and after some preparation , enters Mrs . Siddons in Belvidera . The lirst employment of my mind is to criticize her performance , and 1 admire the justness of her actions , and the unequalled expressiveness of her tones and looks . . The play proceeds , and I am made privy to a horrid plot . With this , domestic distresses are mingled , involving
the two most interesting characters in the piece . By degrees , I lose sight of Mrs . Siddons in her proper person , and only view her in the assumed shape of Belvidera . I cease to criticize her , but give way with full soul to all the sentiments of love , tenderness , and anxiety which she titters . As the catastrophe advances , the accumulated distress and anguish lay fast hold on my heart : I sob , weep , am almost choaked with the mixed emotions of pity , terror , and apprehension , and totally forget the theatre , the actors , and the audience , till , perhaps , my attention to present objects is
recalled by the screams or swooning of a neighbour still more affected than myself . Shall the cold critic now tell me , I am sure you do not believe Mrs . Siddons to be Belvidera , and therefore you can only be affected in consequence of " the reflexion that the evils " before you are evils to which yourself may be exposed—you ra-¦ " ther lament the possibility , than suppose the presence , of misery . " Tlie identity of Belvidera is out of the question ; for who was
Belvidera ? and certainly my own liability to evils , some of them im-, possible to happen to me , and others highly improbable , is the farthest thing from my thoughts ; besides , were the effect of a spectacle of distress dependant on this principle , it would be equally requisite in the real , as in the fictitious scene . What I feel , is genuine sympathsuch as by a law of my nature ever results from
y , the image of a suffering fellow-creature , by whatsoever means such an image is excited . The more powerfully it is impressed on my imagination , and the more completely it banishes all other ideas either of sense or reflection , the more perfect is its effect ; and reality has no advantage in this respect over fiction , as long as the temporary illusion produced by the latter continues- That such
an illusion should take place at the theatre , where every circumstance art can invent has been employed to favour it , cannot be thought extraordinary , after it has been shewn , that a scene of the mind ' s own cre .-ition can effect it .
And for what end , but that of deception , are such pains taken in adjusting the scenery , dresses , decorations , & c . to as near a resemblance as possible of reality ?—why might not the piece be as well read in the closet as represented on the stage , if all its effect depended on the pleasing modulation of language , prompting just reflections on life and manners ? Some effect , doubtless , is pre-