Imiter l’action du tigre Charles Gildon, Aaron Hill et Henry V de Shakespeare

Charles Gildon (1665-1724) and Aaron Hill (1685-1750) use lines from Shakespeare’s Henry V to explain how an actor is to produce a passion. Gildon treats the ‘tiger’ speech as an inspirational image, while Hill reads it as a vindication of his own Cartesian acting methodology. In so doing, these writers show, first, the importance of Henry V (and not just Hamlet) as a source of advice to the players; and second, this play’s role in an international debate on the passions.