1800.] 
red Louis dors. The Abbé was high- 
minded, and, being conflantly at Verfailles, 
carefully avoided every thing that might 
lead to the difcovery of his embarraffment. 
‘The bufy drones, which buz about the 
{phere of royal {plendour, however whif. 
pered the fecrét to the queen, who, on the 
fame evening, at the Ducheffe de Polignac’ s, 
engaged the Abbé ina party at tric trac, 
her favourite game, in which the contrived 
in a fhort time to /o/e the fum which her 
partner wanted: then, {milingly, fhe rofe 
trom the table, and relinquifhed the game, 
while the aftonifhed Abbé was Icft in ad- 
miration. 
eas 
ACCOUNT of IFFLAND, the CELE- 
BRATED. GERMAN ACTOR. 
HE talents of the great actor Iffland 
are now fo much a topic of conver- 
fation, in Germany, that it will perhaps 
not smproper to attempt difplaying 
his dramatic character, as drawn trom fe- 
veral of his parts. 
The character of a man, as far as it: 
fhews itfelf by his external appearance, 
is one of the chief objeéts of {cenical ftudy. 
Much obfervation and 4 continual appli- 
cation are required, to feize and retain the 
diftinétive marks by which the one or 
other trait of the charaéter is precifely 
marked and exprefied. But it is not 
enough to know exactly, and to reprefent 
traly, this diftinctive mark, for inftance, 
the peculiar character of avarice ; every 
thing which tends to mark the contrary 
of it, beneficenceand benevolence mutt like: 
wife be known, in order to avoid it.. This 
feparation of every thing foreign to the 
exhibition of the character is the bigheft 
degree of art; and the characteriftic merit 
of Titland’s performance. He is always 
what he ought to be; no trait in the 7- 
negar-monger, one of his favourite parts, 
betrays the man of breeding; no jeft in 
Sheva, the honeft Jew, is contrary to the 
character of a Jew. He knows perfectly 
how to exprefs this character of the perfon 
by his very port and carriage. Before he 
utters a word or flirs a hand, the.Jew ap- 
pears in Sheva ; the hero in Piccolomini; 
the honeft tradefman in Dominique; and 
the courtier in the Father of the Fa- 
mily. But as no aétor can ever entirely 
difown his individual charaéter, it follows, 
that his true greatnels is vifible within a 
certain compais, as far as his individual 
character coincides with the charafter of 
his part. It is chiefly the temper of the 
artilt, which determines the extent of his 
art. Iffland’s art feems to extend to all 
thofe chara&ters which lie in the middle, 
Monrury Mas: No, 62: 
Account of Iffiand. 
44 
perhaps, fiom fear of difpleafing the fpectas 
tor, too much accuftomed to profe, that he 
between the choleric and the higheft de- 
gree of the phlegmatic character, whether 
they are modified by rougbnefs or educa- 
tion, prudence or ftupidity, goodnefs, or 
bafenefs ; all thofe, ou the contrary, which 
from the choleric afcend to the fanguine, 
feem to throw in his way new difficulties, 
and find fome oppofition in his individual 
character. It may be, that in thefe cafes 
precifely the aétor is moft fenfible of his 
{kill; but I {peak of the effect it produces 
upon the fpeétator. 
The proper {phere of Ifflarid’s art is the 
generalizing the reprefentation of nature. 
fis expreffion has general truth, though 
he remains ftill matter of the individual 
copy. His Vinegar-monger is not copied 
after one cr the other man of that trade, 
but reprefents the whole clafs. The jefts 
may be confidered either /eparately or ina 
fuite, as a whole confifting of feveral parts, 
which refer toeach other. As for the 
latter manner of confidering them, tlie 
whole may be regarded as a great tom- 
pound picture, in which the aéts and 
{cenes conftitute peculiar groups, which 
by the feveral moments of reprefentation, 
in peculiar fcenes, diftinguifh themfelves 
into fingle figures. As in a picture all 
muft be properly difpofed to produce a 
whole, a general impreffion ; fo it muft be 
Jikewife in dramatic reprefentations. They 
muft, like pi€tures, have their chief and fe= 
condary groupsand figures, without whiclt 
they would appear as a mixture of uncon- 
neéted fingle traits, jumbled together with- 
out defign. It is gerierally agreed that Iff- 
Jand’s reptefentation refembles fuch well: 
arranged pictures, If we compare the whole 
of a performance with language, we fhall 
find, that it is likewife fufceptible of two 
kinds of ftyle ; it éithér follows, with exaét 
truth, the fenfe of what is to be reprefented, 
omitting nothing nor adding any thing fu- 
perfluous, and fo refembles a well-arranged 
{peech in profe ; of it may, like language, 
be raifed to a peculiar obje& of art which, 
fuiting the fenfe in general, the fenfe of 
the fingle parts is made fubordinate to the 
pofition of the words and the metre. This 
latter ftyle has reigned till now on the 
Frenchtheatre ; and the bad reputation it 
has fallen into, mult principally be attri- 
buted to the bad ufe the French made 
of it, by emplcying it every whete, in 
comedy, as in tragedy. Ifland has 
deferved well of the German ftage by 
drawing the public’s attention to the — 
value of this ftyle in proper places, for in- 
fiance, in his Pygmahon. But it, per= 
G haps 
