_On the Acting of Plays at School_.
Though the acting of plays at schools has been universally supposed a
very useful practice, it has of late years been much laid aside. The
advantages arising from it have not been judged equal to the
inconveniencies; and the speaking of single speeches, or the acting of
single scenes, has been generally substituted in its stead. Indeed when
we consider the leading principle and prevailing sentiments of most
plays, we shall not wonder that they are not always thought to be the
most suitable employment for youth at school; nor, when we reflect on
the long interruption to the common school-exercises, which the
preparation for a play must necessarily occasion, shall we think it
consistent with the general improvement:--But, to wave every objection
from prudence or morality, it may be confidently affirmed, that the
acting of a play is not so conducive to improvement in elocution, as the
speaking of single speeches.
In the first place, the acting of plays is of all kinds of delivery the
most difficult; and therefore cannot be the most suitable exercise for
boys at school. In the next place, a dramatic performance requires so
much attention to the deportment of the body, so varied an expression of
the passions, and so strict an adherence to character, that elocution is
in danger of being neglected: Besides, exact propriety of action, and a
nice discrimination of the passions, however essential on the stage, are
but of a secondary importance in a school. It is plain, open, distinct,
and forcible pronunciation which school-boys should aim at; and not that
quick transition from one passion to another, that archness of look, and
that _jeu de theatre_, as it is called, so essential to a tolerable
dramatic exhibition, and which actors themselves can scarcely arrive at.
In short, it is speaking rather than acting which school-boys should be
taught, while the performance of plays is calculated to teach them
acting rather than speaking.
But there is a contrary extreme into which many teachers are apt to run,
and that is, to condemn every thing which is vehement and forcible as
_theatrical_. It is an old trick to depreciate what we can not attain,
and calling a spirited pronunciation _theatrical_, is but an artful
method of hiding an utter inability of speaking with force and energy.
But though school-boys ought not to be taught those nice touches which
form the greatest difficulties in the profession of an actor, they
should not be too much restrained from an exertion of voice, so
necessary to strengthening the organs of sound, because they may
sometimes be too loud and vociferous. Perhaps nine out of ten, instead
of too much confidence, and too violent a manner of speaking, which
these teachers seem so much to dread, have as Dr. Johnson calls it, a
frigid equality, a stupid languor, and a torpid apathy. These must be
roused by something strong and excessive, or they will never rise even
to mediocrity; while the few who have a tendency to rant, are very
easily reclaimed; and ought to be treated in pronunciation and action,
as Quintillion advises to do in composition; that is, we should rather
allow of an exuberance, than, by too much correctness, check the vigour
and luxuriancy of nature.
[Illustration: PLATE IV.]
Though school-boys, therefore, ought not to be taught the finesses of
acting, they should as much as possible be accustomed to speak such
speeches as require a full, open, animated pronunciation: for which
purpose, they should be confined chiefly to orations, odes, and such
single speeches of plays, as are in the declamatory and vehement style.
But as there are many scenes of plays, which are justly reckoned among
the finest compositions of the language, some of these may be adopted
among the upper class of boys, and those more particularly who have the
best deportment: for action in scenes will be found much more difficult
than in single speeches. And here it will be necessary to give some
additional instructions respecting action, as a speaker who delivers
himself singly to an auditory, and one who addresses another speaker in
view of an auditory, are under very different predicaments. The first
has only one object to address, the last has two:--For if a speaker on
the stage were to address the person he speaks to, without any regard to
the point of view in which he stands with respect to the audience, he
would be apt to turn his back on them, and to place himself in such
positions as would be highly ungraceful and disgusting. When a scene,
therefore, is represented, it is necessary that the two personages who
speak should form a sort of picture, and place themselves in a position
agreeable to the laws of perspective. In order to do this, it will be
necessary that each of them should stand obliquely, and chiefly make use
of one hand: that is, supposing the stage or platform where they stand,
to be a quadrangle, each speaker should respectively face that corner of
it next to the audience, and use that hand and rest upon that leg which
is next to the person he speaks to, and which is farthest from the
audience. This disposition is absolutely necessary to form any thing
like a picturesque grouping of objects, and without it, that is, if both
speakers use the right hand, and stand exactly fronting each other, the
impropriety will be palpable, and the spectacle disgusting.
It need scarcely be noted, that the speaker in a scene uses that hand
which is next the audience, he ought likewise to poize his body upon the
same leg: this is almost an invariable rule in action: the hand should
act on that side only on which the body bears. Good actors and speakers
may sometimes depart from this rule, but such only will know when to do
it with propriety.
Occasion may be taken in the course of the scene to change sides. One
speaker at the end of an impassioned speech, may cross over to the place
of the other, while the latter at the same moment crosses over to the
place of the former. This, however, must be done with great care, and so
as to keep the back from being turned to the audience: But if this
transition be performed adroitly, it will have a very good effect in
varying the position of the speakers, and giving each an opportunity of
using his right hand--the most favourable to grace and expression. And
if from so humble a scene as the school, we may be permitted to raise
our observations to the senate, it might be hinted, that gentlemen on
each side of the house, while addressing the chair, can with grace and
propriety only make use of one hand; namely, that which is next to the
speaker; and it may be observed in passing, that to all the other
advantages of speaking, which are supposed to belong to one side of the
house--may be added--the graceful use of the right hand.
The better to conceive the position of two speakers in a scene, a plate
is given representing their respective attitudes; and it must be
carefully noted, that when they are not speaking; the arms must hang in
their natural place by the sides; unless what is spoken by one is of
such importance, as to excite agitation and surprize in the other. But
if we should be sparing of gesture at all times, we should be more
particularly so when we are not speaking.
From what has been laid down, it will evidently appear, how much more
difficult and complicate is the action of a scene than that of a single
speech; and, in teaching both to children, how necessary it is to adopt
as simple and easy a method as possible. The easiest method of conveying
instruction in this point, will be sufficiently difficult; and
therefore, the avoiding of aukwardness and impropriety should be more
the object of instruction, than the conveying of beauties.
There are indeed some masters who are against teaching boys any action
at all, and are for leading them in this point entirely to nature. It is
happy, however, that they do not leave that action to nature, which is
acquired by dancing; the deportment of their pupils would soon convince
them they were imposed on by the sound of words. Improved and beautiful
nature is the object of the painter's pencil, the poet's pen, and the
rhetorician's action, and not that sordid and common nature, which is
perfectly rude and uncultivated. Nature directs us to art, and art
selects and polishes the beauties of nature. It is not sufficient for an
orator, says Quintilian, that he is a man: he must be an improved and
cultivated man: he must be a man favoured by nature and fashioned by
art.
But the necessity of adopting some method of teaching action, is too
evident to need proof. Boys will infallibly contract some action; to
require them to stand stock-still while they are speaking an impassioned
speech, is not only exacting a very difficult task from them, but is, in
a great measure, checking their natural exertions. If they are left to
themselves, they will in all probability fall into very wild and
ungraceful action, which, when once formed into habit, can scarcely ever
be corrected: giving them therefore a general out-line of good action,
must be of the utmost consequence to their progress and improvement in
pronunciation.
The great use, therefore, of a system of action like the present, is,
that a boy will never be embarrassed for want of knowing what to do with
his legs and arms; nor will he bestow that attention on his action,
which ought to be directed to his pronunciation: he will always be in a
position which will not disgrace his figure; and when this gesture is
easy to him, it may serve as a ground-work to something more perfect: he
may either, by his own genius or his master's instructions, build some
other action upon it, which may in time give it additional force and
variety.
Thus, what seemed either unworthy the attention, or too difficult for
the execution of others, the author of the present publication hits
ventured to attempt. A conviction of the necessity of leaching some
system of action, and the abundant success of the present system in one
of the most respectable academies near London, has determined him to
publish it, for the use of such seminaries as make English pronunciation
a part of their discipline.
It may not be useless to observe, that boys should be classed in this,
as in every other kind of instruction, according to their abilities.
That a class should not consist of more than ten; that about eight or
ten lines of some speech, should be read first by the teacher, then by
the boy who reads best; and then by the rest in order, all having a book
of the same kind, and all reading the same portion. This portion they
must be ordered to get by heart against the next lesson; and then the
first boy must speak it, standing at some distance from the rest; in the
manner directed in the plates; the second boy must succeed him, and so
on till they have all spoken. After which another portion may be read to
them, which they must read and speak in the same manner as before. When
they have gone through a speech in this manner by portions, the two or
three first boys may be ordered, against the next lesson, to speak the
whole speech; the next lesson two or three more, and so on to the rest.
This will excite emulation, and give the teacher an opportunity of
ranking them according to their merits.