542 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sentation or in oratory. M. Le Bargy regards the emotions of the 

 theater as very much like those of real life. When we are sin- 

 cerely moved on our own account, we nevertheless remain critic 

 and judge ; and only in exceptional circumstances, when the pas- 

 sions are very strong and absorbing, do we lose the critical sense. 

 Madame Bartet finds the thesis of Diderot so far correct that an 

 excess of emotion may restrain the actor and paralyze his re- 

 sources. He must not be dominated by his emotion, but must 

 control it. But to be in emotion while one controls it implies no 

 contradiction ; one can duplicate himself in the theater the same 

 as in life. In the highest anger one has within himself something 

 that says, " I am in too great passion, I am going too far, I must 

 not say that." Yet sometimes, notwithstanding that inner voice, 

 we do not stop in time. The same, in substance, exists in the 

 theater. We watch, we judge we duplicate ourselves. 



Regarding the exact nature of this duplication, Madame Bartet 

 says that during the period of preparation she feels the person- 

 ality of her part taking possession of her till it substitutes itself 

 for her own as to all the interests of common life ; in the scene the 

 doubling is very clear, but under control : " I am all the time see- 

 ing and hearing myself ; I attend my play. I duplicate myself 

 enough to hear the sound and intonations of my words, the suc- 

 cession of my attitudes, movements, and gestures, but not so far 

 that I cease to appropriate them to myself. The duplication is 

 intensified when, instead of playing, I read." The forgetting of 

 personality varies with the nature of the parts and with numerous 

 other circumstances. M. Truffier relates that once he was obliged 

 to play two characters in farce in the evening after the sudden 

 death of his infant son. He played the first piece automatically, 

 but gradually warmed up to the situation, until his second 

 character took possession of him, putting aside the father's grief. 

 It did not extinguish it, but remanded it to a secondary position. 

 Many like observations are known in science, but this is of spe- 

 cial interest, because I got it at first hand. Exceptional circum- 

 stances are evidently required for the actor to forget his person- 

 ality wholly. It is an ideal which some pursue but not one in a 

 hundred reaches. We may remark that when the actor incar- 

 nates the personage within himself, he ceases to duplicate him- 

 self, but becomes another the personage. The doubling occurs 

 only when the incarnation is incomplete. Furthermore, the rela- 

 tions between the rival personalities are not fixed once for all, 

 but probably vary from day to day, and with the parts. Then 

 the characters of the actors, their moods, and their relations with 

 the audience have much to do with the matter. Madame Bartet 

 says that she communicates directly with the audience, and feels 

 very distinctly whether it is in sympathy with her or opposed to 



