gesturer, himself silent, to accompany words used by another. Livius
Andronicus, being hoarse, obtained permission to have his part sung by
another actor while he continued to make the gestures, and he did
so with much greater effect than before, as Livy, the historian,
explains, because he was not impeded by the exertion of the voice;
but the correct explanation probably is, because his attention was
directed to ideas, not mere words.

GESTURES OF ACTORS.

To look at the performance of a play through thick glass or with
closed ears has much the same absurd effect that is produced by
also stopping the ears while at a ball and watching the apparently
objectless capering of the dancers, without the aid of musical
accompaniment. Diderot, in his _Lettre sur les sourds muets_, gives
his experience as follows:

"I used frequently to attend the theater and I knew by heart most
of our good plays. Whenever I wished to criticise the movements and
gestures of the actors I went to the third tier of boxes, for the
further I was from them the better I was situated for this purpose.
As soon as the curtain rose, and the moment came when the other
spectators disposed themselves to listen, I put my fingers into my
ears, not without causing some surprise among those who surrounded me,
who, not understanding, almost regarded me as a crazy man who had
come to the play only not to hear it. I was very little embarrassed by
their comments, however, and obstinately kept my ears closed as long
as the action and gestures of the players seemed to me to accord with
the discourse which I recollected. I listened only when I failed to
see the appropriateness of the gestures.. There are few actors capable
of sustaining such a test, and the details into which I could enter
would be mortifying to most of them."

It will be noticed that Diderot made this test with regard to the
appropriate gestural representation of plays that he knew by heart,
but if he had been entirely without any knowledge of the plot, the
difficulty in his comprehending it from gestures alone would have been
enormously increased. When many admirers of Ristori, who were wholly
unacquainted with the language in which her words were delivered,
declared that her gesture and expression were so perfect that they
understood every sentence, it is to be doubted if they would have been
so delighted if they had not been thoroughly familiar with the plots
of Queen Elizabeth and Mary Stu