he purpose of having it understood that what we are
to say of Master Payne is to be subject to these deductions, and that in
the praise which it is but just to bestow upon him, we exclude all idea
of external resemblance to the characters. Of the mental powers, the
informing spirit, the genius, the feeling which he now discloses, and
the rich promise they afford of future greatness--of these it is, we
profess to speak: further we cannot go without insincerity, untruth, and
manifest absurdity.

As might have been expected from Master Payne's limited means of stage
instruction, he several times discovered want of judgment. In the speech
in which Norval tells his story, he trespassed on propriety in his
efforts to throw an air of martial ardor into his expressions; by
suddenly changing the key and raising the tone of his voice, and
speaking with increased rapidity the words that more immediately related
to fighting, erecting them into a kind of _alto relievo_ above the level
of the rest; particularly in "I had heard of battles," &c. "We fought
and conquered," &c. all which is a narrative that should be delivered
with humility, and a strict avoidance of any thing like vainglory, or
egotism, studiously softening down, with modest air, those details of
his own prowess which the author has _necessarily_ given to the
character.

Had Master Payne had a Hough to instruct him, or a Cooke for his model,
he would have escaped the error into which he fell in that part of the
fourth act in which Norval describes the hermit who instructed him: he
would have known that acting what he narrates is highly improper--indeed
absurd; as it is acting in the first person, and speaking in the third
at one and the same time. While he repeated the words

----Cut the figures of the marshall'd hosts,
Described the motions, and explain'd the use
Of the deep column, and the lengthened line,
The square, the crescent, and the phalanx firm,

Master Payne cut those figures, and described the square and the
crescent with his hands--a great error! A better lesson cannot be
offered to a young actor on this subject than may be found in the novel
of Peregrine Pickle, in which doctor Smollet ridicules Quin the player
for acting narrative in Zanga.

Master Payne would find it his interest to avoid as much as may be, long
declamatory speeches, till his organs are enlarged and confirmed. But in
those parts in which Douglas discloses his lofty spirit,