In Defence of Actors

Photo of Hugh Keays-Byrne (Toecutter)

I offer the following, sent to me some years past by one Dr. Joyce Woodward – late of Fulham current of Cairns...

The older I get the better I was... Toecutter

In Defence of Actors, by William Hazlitt - Actors have been accused, as a profession, of being extravagant and dissipated. While they are said to be so, as a piece of common cant, they are likely to continue so. With respect to the extravagance of actors, as a traditional character, it is not to be wondered at. They live from hand to mouth: they plunge from want into luxury; they have no means of making money breed, and all professions that do not live by turning money into money, or have not a certainty of accumulating it in the end by parsimoney, spend it. Uncertain of the future, they make sure of the present moment. This is not unwise. Chilled with poverty, steeped in contempt, they sometimes pass into the sunshine of fortune, and are lifted to the very pinnacle of public favour; yet even there they cannot calculate on the continuance of success. With respect to the habit of convivial indulgence, an actor, to be a good one, must have a great spirit of enjoyment in himself - strong impulses, strong passions, and a strong sense of pleasure: for it is his business to imitate the passions, to communicate pleasure to others. A man of genius is not a machine. The negleted actor may be excused if he drinks oblivion of his disappointments; the successful one if he quaffs the appluase of the world in draughts of nectar. There is no path so steep as that of fame: no labour so hard as the pursuit of excellence. If there is any tendency to dissipation beyond this in the profession of the player, it is owing to the prejudices entertained against them. Players are only not so respectable as a profession as they might be, because their profession is not respected as it ought to be. (William Hazlitt, 1778-1830)

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