My Brain is burst, Debate and Reafon quench'd, The Storm is up, and my hot bleeding Heart, Splits with the Rack.

I have heard this Speech fpoke in a Rage that run the Actor out of Breath; but Mrs. Barry, when she talked of her hot bleeding Heart, feem'd to feel a Fever within, which by Debate and Reason she would quench. This was not done in a ranting Air, but as if he were ftruggling with her Paffions, and trying to get the Mastery of them: A peculiar Smile fhe had, which made her look the most genteely malicious Person that can be imagined, when the meets Statira and infults her thus,

I hope your Majesty will give me Leave, To wait you to the Grove, where you would grieve,

Where like the Turtle, you the Lofs will moan Of that dear Mate, and murmur all alone.

Then with what a Softnefs did fhe look and fpeak, taking Alexander by the Hand, faying,

now-for a laft Look,

And that the Memory of Roxana's Wrongs
May be for ever printed in your Mind.

In the following Scene Roxana's Character. rifes ; no Rage, no Revenge, nor even the Fear of Syfigambis, who was fufpected to aim at her and the Infant's Destruction, could make her admit a Thought against the King's Life; nay, the Indignation fhe is in with Cafander for tempting her, joined with his profered Love, is fo great, that he is forced to defift, footh her

E 2

Fury,

Fury, and contrive the getting Statira into her Power, whom Roxana is fuppofed to kill with unrelenting Hate.

I must take notice, that tho' Roxana had just before, with fuch Malice murder'd an innocent Perfon, because better beloved than herself; yet after Statira is dead, and Roxana is following Alexander on her Knees, Mrs. Barry made this Complaint in fo pathetick a manner, as drew Tears from the greatest part of the Audience.

O! fpeak not fuch harsh Words, my Royal

Master:

But take, dear Sir, O! take me into Grace;
By the dear Babe the Burden of my Womb,
That weighs me down when I would follow fafter.
My Knees are weary, and my Force is spent,
O! do not frown, but clear that angry Brow;
Your Eyes will blaft me, and your Words are
Bolts

That strike me dead; the little Wretch I bear,
Leaps frighted at your Wrath, and dies within me,

Mrs. Barry, in all Characters of Greatness, had a Presence of elevated Dignity, her Mien and Motion fuperb, and gracefully majestick; her Voice full, clear and ftrong, fo that no Violence of Paffion could be too much for her: And when Distress or Tenderness poffefs'd her, fhe fubfided into the most affecting Melody and Softnefs. In the Art of exciting Pity, he had a Power beyond all the Actreffes I have yet feen, or what your Imagination can conceive. Of the former of these two great Excellencies, fhe gave the most delightful Proofs in almost all the Heroic Plays of Dryden and Lee; and of the latter, in the fofter Paffions of Otway's Monimia and

Bel

Belvidera, in the Tragedies of The Orphan and Venice Preferved: In Scenes of Anger, Defiance or Refentment, while fhe was impetuous and terrible, she poured out the Sentiment with an enchanting Harmony; and it was this particular Excellence for which Dryden made her the before mentioned Complement, upon her acting Caffandra in his Cleomenes. But I am apt to think his Partiality for that Character may have tempted his Judgment to let it pass for her Mafter-piece; when he could not but know, there were feveral other Characters in which her Action might have given her a fairer pretence to the Praise he has bestow'd on her for Caffandra; for, in no part of that, is there the least Ground for Compaflion, as in Monimia; nor equal caufe for Admiration, as in the nobler Love of Cleopatra, or the turbulent and tempeftuous Jealoufy of Roxana. 'Twas in thefe Lights I thought Mrs. Barry fhone with a much brighter Excellence than in Caffandra. She was the first Person whofe Merit was diftinguifh'd by the Indulgence of having an annual Benefitplay, which was granted to her alone, if I miftake not, first in King James's Time, and which became not common to other Actors, till after the Death of King William's Confort Queen Mary. This great Actrefs died of a Fever towards the End of Queen Anne's Reign. Perhaps you may recollect the Year by an Expression that fell from her in blank Verfe, in her last Hours, when fhe was delirious, viz.

Ha, ha; and fo they make us Lords, by Dozens!

Mr.

Mr. EDWARD KYNASTON's Character:

ΤΗ

'HO', as I have before observed, Women were not admitted to the Stage till the Reftoration, yet it could not be fo fuddenly fupplied with them, but that there was still a Neceffity to put the handsomeft young Men into Petticoats; which Kynafton was then faid to have worn with Succefs; particularly in the Part of Evadne, in the Maid's Tragedy, Arthiope in the Unfortunate Lovers, the Princefs in the Mad Lover, Ifmenia in the Maid in the Mill, Aglaura, &c. being Parts fo greatly moving Compaffion, that it has been difputed among the Judicious, whether any Woman could have more fenfibly touched the Paffions. This calls to my mind a ridiculous Distress that arose from these Sort of Shifts, which the Stage was then put to. -The King coming a little before his ufual Time to a Tragedy, found the Actors not ready to begin, when his Majefty not chufing to have as much patience as his good Subjects, fent to them, to know the Meaning of it; upon which the Master of the Company came to the Box, and rightly judging, that the best Excufe for their Default, would be the true one, fairly told his Majefty, that the Queen was not fhav'd yet : The King, whofe good Humour lov'd to laugh at a Jeft, as well as to make one, accepted the Excufe, which ferved to divert him, till the male Queen had his Face fmooth'd. In a word, Kynaston at that time was fo beautiful a Youth, that the Ladies of Quality prided themselves in taking

taking him with them in their Coaches to Hydepark, in his theatrical Habit, after the Play; which in those days they might have fufficient time to do, because Plays then, were us❜d to begin at four a-Clock, the Hour that People of the fame Rank are now going to Dinner. This Truth I had confirmed from his own Mouth, in his advanced Age. Indeed to the last of him, his Handfomenefs was little abated; even at paft fixty, his Teeth were all found, white and even, as one would wish to fee in a beautiful young Woman of twenty. He had fomething of a formal Gravity in his Mien, which was attributed to the ftately Step he had been fo early confined to, in a female decency. But that, in Characters of Superiority had its proper Graces; it misbecame him not in the part of Leon, in Fletcher's Rule a Wife, and Have a Wife, which he executed with a determined Manlinefs, and honest Authority, well worth the best Actor's Imitation. He had a piercing Eye, and in Characters of heroic Life, a quick imperious Vivacity in his Tone of Voice, that painted the Tyrant truly terrible. There were two Plays of Dryden in which he fhone with uncommon Luftre; in Aurenge-Zebe he play'd Morat, and in Don Sebaftian, Muley Moloch; in both thefe parts, he had a fierce, Lion like Majesty in his Port and Utterance, that gave the Auditors a kind of trembling Admiration!

Here I cannot help taking notice of a modeft Miftake, which I thought the late Mr. Booth committed in' his acting the part of Morat : There are in this Character fo many Sentiments of avow'd Barbarity, Infolence and Vain-glory, that they blaze even to a ludicrous Luftre; and, doubtlefs the Author intended thofe to make his Spectators