Salmagundi; or, The whim-whams and opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, esq. [pseud.] and others. By William Irving, James Kirke Paulding and Washington Irving. Printed from the original ed., with a preface and notes by Evert A. Duyckinck.

130 SALMAGUNDI.
my peering, perceive by his features that he was pleased with
anything.-except himself. His hat was twitched a little on one
side, as much as to say, " demme, I'm your sorts I" he was sucking the end of a little stick; he was a "gemman" from head
to foot; but as to his face, there was no more expression in it
than in the face of a Chinese lady on a tea-cup. On Cooper's
giving one of his gunpowder explosions of passion, I exclaimed,
"fine, very fine I" "Pardon me," said my friend'Sbidlikens,
"this is damnable!-the gesture, my dear sir-only look at the
gesture! how horrible! do you not observe that the actor slaps
his forehead, whereas, the passion not having arrived at the
proper height, he should only have slapped his-pocket-flap?
-this figure of rhetoric is a most important stage-trick, and the
proper management of it is what peculiarly distinguishes the
great actor from the mere plodding mechanical buffoon. Different degrees of passion require different slaps, which we critics
have reduced to a perfect manual, improving upon the principle
adopted by Frederic of Prussia, by deciding that an actor, like
a soldier, is a mere machine; as thus-the actor, for a minor
burst of passion, merely slaps his pocket-hole; good!-for a
major burst, he slaps his breast; very good!-but for a burst
maximus, he whacks away at his forehead, like a brave fellow;
this is excellent!-nothing can be finer than an exit, slapping
the forehead from one end of the stage to the other." " Except,"
replied I, " one of those slaps on the breast, which I have sometimes admired in some of our fat heroes and heroines, which
make their whole body shake and quiver like a pyramid of
jelly."
The Philadelphian had listened to this conversation with profound attention, and appeared delighted with'Sbidlikens'
mechanical strictures;'twas natural enough in a man who