e tell
you, that all the Othellos, Hamlets, Hotspurs, Mackbeths, and Brutus's,
whom you may have seen since his time have fallen far short of him: This
still would give you no idea of his particular excellence. Let us see
then what a particular comparison may do! whether that may yet draw him
nearer to you?

You have seen a Hamlet perhaps, who, on the first appearance of his
father's spirit, has thrown himself into all the straining vociferation
requisite to express rage and fury, and the house has thundered with
applause; tho' the misguided actor was all the while (as Shakespear
terms it) tearing a passion into rags--am the more bold to offer you
this particular instance, because the late Mr. Addison, while I sate by
him, to see this scene acted, made the same observation, asking me with
some surprize, if I thought Hamlet should be in so violent a passion
with the Ghost, which though it might have astonished, it had not
provok'd him? for you may observe that in this beautiful speech, the
passion never rises beyond an almost breathless astonishment, or an
impatience, limited by filial reverence, to enquire into the suspected
wrongs that may have rais'd him from his peaceful tomb! and a desire
to know what a spirit so seemingly distress, might wish or enjoin a
sorrowful son to execute towards his future quiet in the grave? this was
the light into which Betterton threw this scene; which he open'd with
a pause of mute amazement! then rising slowly, to a solemn, trembling
voice, he made the Ghost equally terrible to the spectator, as to
himself! and in the descriptive part of the natural emotions which the
ghastly vision gave him, the boldness of his expostulation was still
governed by decency, manly, but not braving; his voice never rising into
that seeming outrage, or wild defiance of what he naturally rever'd. But
alas! to preserve this medium, between mouthing, and meaning too little,
to keep the attention more pleasingly awake, by a tempered spirit, than
by meer vehemence of voice, is of all the master-strokes of an actor the
most difficult to reach. In this none yet have equall'd Betterton. But
I am unwilling to shew his superiority only by recounting the errors
of those, who now cannot answer to them; let their farther failings
therefore be forgotten! or rather shall I in some measure excuse them?
for I am not yet sure, that they might not be as much owing to the false
judgment of the spectator, as the actor. While t