Alexander Pope on Acting

“A long, exact, and serious comedy; In every scene some moral let it teach, And, if it can, at once both please and preach.”

“Your scene precariously subsists too long, On French translation and Italian song. Dare to have sense yourselves; assert the stage; Be justly warm'd with your own native rage.”

“To wake the soul by tender strokes of art, To raise the genius, and to mend the heart; To make mankind, in conscious virtue bold, Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold— For this the tragic Muse first trod the stage.”