86 LITERATURE AND DRAMA 



rather to the intellect or to the aesthetic sense of their hearers 

 than to their moral emotions. If they were to mix with actors 

 on familiar terms they would soon learn the playwright's art ; 

 for the actor knows what will succeed upon the stage. An actor 

 calls a part well written when the words and situations are such 

 as enable him powerfully to express strong feelings. He will, 

 if permitted, cut out every line which does not help him in this, 

 his art, and for stage purposes he is right. Charm of style, 

 beauty of metre, wisdom of thought, novelty of character, in- 

 genuity of plot, poetry of conception, all these things may be 

 added to a play with much advantage ; but they will not insure 

 success either singly or all together. A play which does not 

 move an audience, as neither intellectual nor artistic pleasure 

 ever can move them, must fail upon the stage. 



Professor Bell's notes show what he felt when a Siddons 

 acted a Katharine. He was a man of hard intellect, whose dry 

 legal labours still guide shrewd lawyers. He was a man*of 

 learning and taste ; but when seeing a great actress in a great 

 play, no ingenious theories, no verbal emendations, n philo- 

 sophical reflections, no analytical remarks occur to him. He 

 records his emotion, and, as far as he can, how that emotion was 

 produced. He may be taken as representing an ideal audience 

 that which does not comment, but responds to author and to 

 actor. 



