Page:The portrait of Mr. W. H (IA portraitofmrwh01wild).pdf/70

 for a moment, a creative artist, and touch by his mere presence and personality those springs of terror and of pity to which tragedy appeals. This full recognition of the actor's art, and of the actor's power, was one of the things that distinguished the Romantic from the Classical Drama, and one of the things, consequently, that we owed to Shakespeare, who, fortunate in much, was fortunate also in this, that he was able to find Richard Burbage and to fashion Willie Hughes.

With what pleasure he dwelt upon Willie Hughes’ influence over his audience—the “gazers” as he calls them; with what charm of fancy did he analyse the whole art! Even in the “Lover’s Complaint” he speaks of his acting, and tells us that he was of a nature so impressionable to the quality of dramatic situations that he could assume all “strange forms”—

“Of burning blushes, or of weeping water, Or swooning paleness”:

explaining his meaning more fully later on where he tells us how Willie Hughes was able to deceive others by his wonderful power to—