 and though his observations were undoubtedly very
judicious, he himself could not help wondering that some of them had always
escaped his notice, though he had been an assiduous frequenter of the playhouse.
»The two players in question, (said he) have, in your own opinion, a
considerable share of merit in the characters of comic life; and as to the
manners of the great personages in tragedy, and the operation of the grand
passions of the soul, I apprehend, they may be variously represented, according
to the various complexion and cultivation of different men. A Spaniard, for
example, though impelled by the same passion, will express it very differently
from a Frenchman; and what is looked upon as graceful vivacity and address by
the one, would be considered as impertinence and foppery by the other: nay, so
opposite is your common deportment from that of some other nations, that one of
your own countrymen, in the relation of his travels, observes that the Persians
even of this age, when they see any man perform unnecessary gestures, say he is
either a fool or a Frenchman. The standard of demeanour being thus unsettled, a
Turk, a Moor, an Indian, or inhabitant of any country, whose customs and dress
are widely different from ours, may in his sentiments, possess all the dignity
of the human heart, and be inspired by the noblest passion that animates the
soul, and yet excite the laughter rather than the respect of an European
spectator.
    When I first beheld your famous Parisian stage-heroine, in one of her
principal parts, her attitudes seemed so violent, and she tossed her arms around
with such extravagance, that she put me in mind of a windmill under the
agitation of a hard gale; while her voice and features exhibited the lively
representation of an English scold. The action of your favourite male-performer
was, in my opinion, equally unnatural; he appeared with the affected airs of a
dancing-master; at the most pathetic junctures of his fate, he lifted up his
hands above his head, like a tumbler going to vault, and spoke as if his throat
had been obstructed by an hair-brush; yet, when I compared their manners with
those of the people before whom they performed, and made allowance for that
exaggeration which obtains on all theatres, I was insensibly reconciled to their
method of performance, and could distinguish abundance of merit beneath that
oddity of appearance.«
    The chevalier perceiving Peregrine a little irritated at what he had said,
asked pardon for the liberty he had taken, in censuring the English players,
