d reflection
enable him, with the aid of experience and of the intuition which genius
bestows, but which experience may in a high degree supply, to interpret,
to combine, and to supplement given materials. But in the transformation
of the conception into the represented character the actor's functions
are really creative; for here he _becomes_ the character by means which
belong to his art alone. The distinctiveness which he gives to the
character by making the principal features recognized by him in it its
groundwork--the consistency which he maintains in it between groundwork
and details--the appropriateness which he preserves in it to the course
of the action and the part borne in it by the character--all these are
of his own making, though suggested by the conception derived by him
from his materials. As to the means at his disposal, they are
essentially of two kinds only; but not all forms of the drama have
admitted of the use of both, or of both in the same completeness. All
acting includes the use of gesture, or, as it has been more
comprehensively termed, of bodily eloquence. From various points of view
its laws regulate the actor's bearing, walk and movements of face and
limbs. They teach what is aesthetically permitted and what is
aesthetically pleasing. They deduce from observation what is appropriate
to the expression of particular affections of the mind and of their
combinations, of emotions and passions, of physical and mental
conditions--joy and grief, health and sickness, waking, sleeping and
dreaming, madness, collapse and death--of particular ages of life and
temperaments, as well as of the distinctive characteristics of race,
nationality or class. While under certain conditions--as in the masked
drama--the use of bodily movement as one of the means of expression has
at times been partially restricted, there have been, or are, forms of
the drama which have altogether excluded the use of speech (such as
pantomime), or have restricted the manner of its employment (such as
opera). In the spoken drama the laws of rhetoric regulate the actor's
use of speech, but under conditions of a special nature. Like the
orator, he has to follow the laws of pronunciation, modulation, accent
and rhythm (the last in certain kinds of prose as well as in such forms
of verse as he may be called upon to reproduce). But he has also to
give his attention to the special laws of dramatic delivery, which vary
in soliloquy and dialo