that can be given of the talents and
imagination he displays. Talma appears to have thought, and most justly,
that the only manner in which the French tragedies can approach and
interest the heart, is by the impression which the character and the
moral tendency of the play may, upon the whole, be able to produce, not
by the force or pathos which can be thrown into any detached speeches,
or by the effect with which individual parts of the tragedy may be
given. The impression which might be created by the delivery of any
particular passage, or by the expression of any occasional sentiment, he
seems at all times to consider as of subordinate importance to the
preservation of that permanent character, whether of intense and
overpowering suffering, or wild desperation, by which he thinks the
feelings of the spectators may be most deeply and heartily interested.
Much as we admire the excellencies of the English stage, and none we are
persuaded can have an opportunity of comparing it with the acting of the
French theatre, without being more sensible of its perfections, we
think it may yet be observed, that many important objects are sacrificed
to the desire of producing _continual_ emotion,--to the practice of
making every sentiment and every word tell upon the audience, with an
effect which could not be greater, if that sentiment were the whole
object of the tragedy. We admit, most willingly, the talent and feeling
which are often so beautifully displayed in the course of the inferior
scenes; and the impression, which is so frequently produced over the
"whole assembled multitude," by the delivery of a single passage, of no
importance in itself, attests sufficiently the merits of the actors who
can thus wield at will the passions of the spectators. What we are
anxious to observe is, that the _general impression_, from the play must
be less profound, when the mind is thus distracted by a variety of
powerful feelings succeeding each other so rapidly, and when the
interest, which would naturally increase of itself as the performance
proceeds, in the history and moral tendency of the tragedy, is thus
broken, as it were, by the influence of so many transient passions. It
is very singular to observe the difference, in this respect, between the
character of an English and a Parisian audience: To the former, every
thing, as it passes, must be given with the greatest effect; no
opportunity can safely be omitted, by any one attentive to t