e them? We never were at a royal
levee--but we have been at the pains to ask several persons who have
been, whether any king, or prince, or peer spoke there, as Mr. Kemble or
as Mr. Holman, or Mr. Pope after him, speak in Hamlet, Richard, Macbeth,
&c. and the uniform answer has been that the great men at court speak
just like all gentlemen in private society. As to public orators, we can
say that Mr. Kemble and his disciples occupy one third, or at least one
fourth more time in delivering any given number of words than ever the
stately William Pitt in his most slow and solemn exordiums. Yet this
they call speaking naturally--imitating the conduct of men.

We do not allude to proper _pauses_, in the duration of which the actor
may be allowed some little license--and an extension of which is
frequently a beauty. Thus when _Balthazar_ informs _Romeo_ of _Juliet's_
death, Mr. Cooper maintained a pause of great length with the most
felicitous effect. He stood overwhelmed, stupified, and bereft of speech
with horror and astonishment, then said

"Is it even so?--then I defy you stars!"

and paused again. Here like a great artist he filled up the picture of
which Shakspeare only gave the outlines: but when, afterwards he
expostulated with the apothecary, we could see no reason why he should
deliver out the lines syllable by syllable like drops of blood
reluctantly given from the heart.

Art--thou--so--bare--and--full--of--wretchedness
And--fear'st--to--die?

To us the last appeared as ludicrous as the former was beautiful and
affecting. But, "in the name of all the gods at once," why this? Though
Mr. Wood sometimes falls into this error, a few of the first lines of
his Jaffier smacked of it wofully. We should find no apprehension of
laying any sum upon it, if the thing could possibly be ascertained, that
in pronouncing the words

Not hear me! by my sufferings but you shall!
My lord--my lord! I'm not that abject wretch
You think me.

he occupied full double the time that Barry did, or even the late
Hodgkinson, whose good fortune it was not to have studied, or seen, or
drawn one drop of his professional sap from the great root of these
abuses. It is said by some of Mr. Kemble's advocates that he speaks in
that manner from necessity--that he does it to nurse his voice in the
beginning, which else would flag before the end of a long performance.
If this were a sufficient excuse for Mr. K. we should