The Sun.
London, England, 1811-10-17 00:00:00

tso7? SUY.

. • . .
Mr: EDITOR,--On looktag over aottiO OM papers,
found one which was Written in the Year 1746,
and_ as I observe. that yob take particular notice of
the actors of the present d ty; I conceive that your
Readers may wish to know something of their pre-
decessurs, and have tl.erefore sent you the follow-
ing letter, which appears to be 'characteris'ed by
good "sense an&candour, and is the more intere,ting
as coming from an Actual witness of the talents
vsliich he describes. What he says of actors, besides,
ttiatiOnal and' literal. If I should discover any
g more among my old stores which May 'afford
amusement to your Readets, I 'shalt have pleasure
in submitting it to them.
OLD CORRE.§PONDEST.

".One of the Managers resolved this winter to
take a step, which, it he had knOwn or understood
his true interest, he would have taken long ago,--
That was, to engage all the principal actors to play
in ,one house. The only thing that could possibly
prevent him from doing this before, was the high
salaries at which they rated themselves ; and in my
:opinion. not unreasonably : For while the -revenues
'of the stage are merely an *fair of private etriolu-
mem, I do not see why the, eminent players
.should
be condemned for endeavouring to Share in the large
profits arising from the company they bring ,toge-
ther.. However, Rich has,noW come up to their
prices ; and has by: this means got Quin, Garrick,
Mr s.'Ciliber, and Mrs. Pritchard to the mew house.
The consequence has tmen, that the stage was ne-
ver, my-memory, so fashionable; not even in the
time of Mrs. Oldfizld's higlieSt fame. A good taste
both of acting and of plays themselves, is much more
gcueral than lever expented to have seen it ; and
those who are skilled in such matter's tell me, that
Rich. will he a greater piner this- 'season than has
been known for these many years; and that, too,
without the assstance of a'single dancer. In.short,
lie- has put the Opera out of countenance, and
even endangered the empire of Whisk itself.
" I remember, when you and "were last in town
together, some years ago, we were eternally repin-
ing at the wreti fed
,Condition of the stage. Csoin
W 49 then at the head of his fraternity ; but a very
ditferent man from what heis at present, and merely
a 024 copy of Booth; With all his motitning'and pa.
gealory, but without his musical elocution, or his
.dignity. Wiletimnime or emulation has had the
greatest hand in improving him, I know not ;: brit
vertaiii it is, that he is improved beyond what ybu
w ill really imagine. He has gut much more variety
and much more spirit. Be was always a tolerably
just speaker, but then he was hardly anything Inure;
he recited rather than acted. In this, Indeed, he
resembled his predecessor Booth ; and in my opt-
Mon he still retains too much of the dimp rotundity
Of his proirunciation,•ano the furttlat deliberate sway
of tits motion. But I have lately seen Linn do some

things ist:3!ragedy more in charaeter, and eithgreat
er strength and passiort than I everterneruber Bootl
I have no ie, .heen him do any thing in comedy
but feisteif, Where I assure sou he %anis nothing,
atid has tiredly thing too much.
• " for Garrick, he has given me. so many new
ideas in aitittng, that I am not sure you will .under-
+nand what I now vs site to, on, till you b`iVe seen
lie had no master, and it was better fur him
thathe had none; fur by that means he escaped the
drudgery of copying his • meter from any other:
player, whieh hardly ever succeeds well ; beceose
faults are more easily,arnitated thin excellencies.—
He ij 'wit so good a teener as Quin, hut a better
player ;' and though, when you tire much at leisure
to attend, he dues not satisfy your ear so well, yet
in srrcng touches he affects your passions. mere.
He dries not in later tragedies apeear to half a lie ad-
vantage as in Shakespeare ;• probably because our
modern poets abound more in description and des
clamation, and have fewer of those strokes of, pas-
sion, which are astonishing and yet natural. His
action 'is art excellent comment _upon Shakespeare;
and with all the pains which yon have taken with
yotsr favourite author, yo do, not understand him so
well, as'if you knew the aupplemental,lights which
'Garrick throws upon him. fie sometimes puts rue
iii mind of what the wits of the last riga used to say
of Benerton, and what our neighbour old Mr. Le--
So gravely brings out in company; that he was born
to kit what Shakesperre.was born to write : yet I
fancy there must be a good deal of difference be-
tween them ; and though Garrick cannot have so
much of that sedate masculine dignity, yet I question
whether even .Betterton was so terrible or so mov-
ing.
" Mrs. Cibber's province is tragedy; • and there .1
think She is incomorably the best actress I ever
Save : more elegant and engaging than Mr 4. Porter,
and much more passionate than Mrs. Oldtield. Site
excels in the softer distresses of tragedy : but there
are some very sOrited charatters in which she has
at least bes, as Much admired; Mrs. hate:hard
perhaps you remember, before she, had greatly dis-
tinguished herself. She is one of the Jestest and
niost graceful speakera I ever heard ; and if she has
not so much passionate expression as Mrs. Cibber,
yet she Flays rather truer; so as never to .offend
you. Sue excels in comedy as well as in tragedy.
" I have often wished that a little care had been
taken by the Legislature to hatlf our playets ptii upon
a beuer footing, both with respect to their private
lituation, and with respect to the public. la for-
mer times, when plays were a mere holiday gam-
but in the King's household, and players pretty,
nearly upon the same e,tablishinent with the liing's
fool or jester; their legal character was proper
ecough. But now that they are become ministers.
of the most rational entertainment to a whole nation,
free and mighty 'nation, who, pay them for their
services, methinks theysnonld be looked on as
'cut or servants of the public, and as vested with a
public trust, rather than as instruments of private
pleasure. By this means we should have a Mach
bettet chance than at present, to leave the Theatre
vile possessed with the virtuous and magtianituoes
ttentituetits of the Poet, without an allay to that plea-
sure, from reiltisaing on the despicable characters of
the per,ollo who had impaired it. Fur men esteem
theimelves in proportion to the character whiCh they
hear in the world; and player, who knows that
the law ut hiScouotry reckons hifiladevica4la man,
COOVersant in a gracelessfunct hivemuch less
security,from a eracelessconduct, than tine who lima
name, and a due 'degree of dignity, rising troth the
very employment which
_,he professes acn~;iti; his

`,

thtititrYtnen. .1"ou will here be ready, knew, .tb
reply, ,that there .1s noihing in ihe present altuation
of players, which hinders them fron-i des,' I. itti;
charatier of men of honour imd reptite; and you
have Betterloa and Mills rea:ly to produs.e as proohi
of it.- I allow it, and I ktiiiw no objection, why
some of the prevent players should hot star.d in the
same favOurable light ; and I Mil told they do
But I speak of their general character atid situalien;
which, you. moitown, Is• not the most conducive to
their standing in such a
`i At the same time the I am tkic itialous. for
the raising Of their public name in the world, t
must own that I think the public has sortie dernandi
upon them,
,w they 'are nbt at preset* in it way
ot,discharging, RI would have flick income such,
as may support a gentleman but I h-e tit) reason
why their reVenues should be large!' than that of
many an honourable merchant, and Of manly a Cvniq
thy senate)." ", ,