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The Performance Practice of Acting: The Eighteenth Century Part II: The Hands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

Dene Barnett
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Extract

Actors used the hands much more in the eighteenth century than is customary today. In this part we present general rules which were designed to ensure that the hands were used both elegantly and expressively. Later sections will deal with the use of the hands to externalize a particular passion being represented, such as fear, love and so on.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , October 1977 , pp. 1 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1977

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References

Notes

1. The research on which these reports are based was funded by the Australian Research Grants Committee and by the Flinders University of South Australia.

I wish to acknowledge the contribution made to this research by Jeanette Massy-Westropp.

2. We are indebted to the following libraries for microfilms of some of the sources used here: Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Paris; Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; The British Library, London; The New York Public Library, New York; The State Library of South Australia, Adelaide; Theatermuseum, früher Clara Ziegler-Stiftung, Munich; Universiteitsbibliotheek, Amsterdam; Yale University Library, New Haven.

3. The French and Italian translations are by Jeanette Massy-Westropp.

4. This passage is used by Austin in Chironomia:… p. 380, footnote 6.

5. Pickering, Roger, Reflections upon Theatrical Expression in Tragedy. (London, 1755), p. 44.Google Scholar

6. op. cit.

7. See Goethe's letter to Zelter of 3rd May, 1816 in Goethes Werke, Weimar, 1887–1919, Abt.4, Bd. 27.

8. See Goethes Werke, Weimar 1887–1919, Abt. 1, Bd. 35, Tag-und Jahres-Hefte, 1803.

9. Cibber, Theophilous, The Life and Character of that Excellent Actor, Barton Booth Esq. (London, 1753), p. 51.Google Scholar

10. de Lairesse, Gerard, Het groot Schilderboek. (Amsterdam, 1707).Google Scholar Also translated into German and English.

11. In this passage Wilkes is using a translation of Quintilian.