TALMA ON THE ACTOR'S ART. 1 



MR. IRVING, in his preface to this remarkable essay, calls it * a 

 kind of vade-mecum of the actor's calling, written by one of 

 themselves, and by an artist universally recognised as a competent 

 expositor ; ' a permanent embodiment of the principles of our 

 art.' We may then start with every confidence that we have 

 here a true explanation of the manner in which a great actor 

 works. Let us listen to his words. ' Every actor,' says Talma, 

 ' ought to be his own tutor. If he has not in himself the 

 necessary faculties for expressing the passions and painting 

 characters, all the lessons in the world cannot give them to him. 

 The faculty of creating is born with us ; but if the actor possesses 

 it the counsel of persons of taste may then guide him ; and as 

 there is in the art of reciting verse a part in some degree 

 mechanical, the lessons of an actor profoundly versed in his art 

 may save him much study and time.' Here, we take it, is the 

 truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth as to dramatic 

 teaching. A man may be taught to speak and move well and 

 suitably ; then, if he has genius, he may in twenty years teach 

 himself to act, and during the process he may be much helped 

 by the counsel of persons of taste. And how is he to know 

 whether he has the necessary genius ? Talma answers, ( sensi- 

 bility ' and < intelligence ' are the two faculties pre-eminently 

 required, but under the general heading of sensibility he includes 

 much. He puts almost contemptuously on one side c the faculty 

 which an actor possesses of being moved himself and of affecting, 

 his being so far as to imprint on his features, and especially on 

 his voice, that expression and those accents of sorrow which 

 awake sympathy and extort tears.' No doubt the actor must 



1 Review of Talma on the Actor's Art : with preface by Henry Irving. 

 From the Saturday Review. 



