On Dramatic Reprefentations. 103 
her, but give way with full foul to all the fenti- 
ments of love, tendernefs, and anxiety which fhe 
utters. As the cataftrophe advances, the accumu- 
lated diftrefs and anguifh lay faft hold on my 
heart’: I fob, weep, am almoft choaked with the 
mixed emotions of pity, terror, and apprehenfion, 
and totally forget the theatre, the ators, and 
the ‘audience, © till, perhaps, my attention to 
prefent objects is recalled by the fcreams or 
fwooning of a neighbour ftill more affected 
than myfelf. Shall the cold critic now tell 
me, I am fure you do not believe Mrs. Siddons to 
be  Belvidera, and therefore you can only be 
affected in confequence of “ the reflexion that the 
* evils before you are evils to which yourfelf 
“may be expofed—you rather lament the pof- 
** fibility, than fuppofe the prefence, of mifery.” 
The identity of Belvidera is out of the queftion ; 
for who was Belvidera? and certainly my own 
liability to evils, fome of them impoffible to hap- 
pen to me, and others highly improbable, is the 
fartheft thing from my thoughts; befides, were the 
effect of a fpediacle of diftrefs dependant on this 
principle, it would be equally requifite in the real, 
as in the fictitious fcene. What I feel, is genuine 
Sympathy, fuch as by a law of my nature ever re- 
fults from the image of a fuffering fellow-creature, 
by whatfoever means fuch an image is excited. The 
more powerfully it is impreffed on my imagination, 
and the more completely it banifhes all other ideas 
' Ne either 
