BARTON BOOTH.
At this period it was evident that the stage was about to lose its
greatest tragedian since the death of Betterton. Booth was stricken
past recovery, and all the mirth caused by the "Beggar's Opera" could
not make his own peculiar public forget him. Scarcely eight and
thirty years had elapsed since the time when, in 1690, a handsome,
well-bred lad, whose age did not then amount to two lustres, sought
admission into Westminster School. Dr. Busby thought him too young;
but young Barton Booth was the son of a gentleman, was of the
family of Booth, Earl of Warrington, and was a remarkably clever
and attractive boy. The Doctor, whose acting had been commended by
Charles I., perhaps thought of the school-plays, and recognised in
little Barton the promise of a lover in Terence's comedies. At all
events, he admitted the applicant.
Barton Booth, a younger son of a Lancashire sire, was destined
for Holy Orders. He was a fine elocutionist, and he took to
Latin as readily as Erasmus; but then he had Nicholas Rowe for a
school-fellow; and, one day, was cast for Pamphilus in the "Andria."
Luckily, or unluckily, he played this prototype of young Bevil in
Steele's "Conscious Lovers" with such ease, perfection, and charming
intelligence, that the old dormitory shook with plaudits. The shouts
of approbation changed the whole purpose of his sire; they deprived
the church of a graceful clergyman, and gave to the stage one of the
most celebrated of our actors.
He was but seventeen, when his brilliant folly led him to run away
from home, and tempt fortune, by playing Oroonoko, in Dublin. The
Irish audiences confirmed the judgment of the Westminster critics,
and the intelligent lad moved the hands of the men and the hearts
of the women, without a check, during a glorious three years of
probation. And yet he narrowly escaped failure, through a ridiculous
accident, when, in 1698, he made his _début_ as Oroonoko. It was a
sultry night in June. While waiting to go on, before his last scene,
he inadvertently wiped his darkened face, and the lamp-black thereon
came off in streaks. On entering on the stage, unconscious of the
countenance he presented, he was saluted with a roar of laughter,
and became much confused. The generous laughers then sustained him
by loud applause. But Booth was disturbed by this accident, and to
obviate its repetition, he went on, the next night, in a crape mask,
made by an actress to fit close to his face. Unfortunately, in the
first scene the mask slipped, and the new audience were as hilarious
as the old. "I looked like a magpie," said Barton; "but they
lamp-blacked me for the rest of the night, and I was flayed before I
could get it off again." The mishap of the first night did not affect
his triumph; this was so complete that Ashbury, the "master," made
him a present of five guineas; bright forerunners of the fifty that
were to be placed in his hands by delighted Bolingbroke.
The hitherto penniless player was now fairly on the first step of
the ascent it was his to accomplish. When he subsequently passed
through Lancashire to London, in 1701, his fame had gone before him;
he reached the capital with his manly beauty to gain him additional
favour, with a heavy purse, and a steady conviction of even better
fortune to come. With such a personage, his hitherto angry kinsmen
were, of course, reconciled forthwith.
One morning early in that year, 1701, he might have been seen leaving
Lord Fitzharding's rooms at St. James's, with Bowman, the player, and
making his way to Betterton's house in Great Russell Street. From the
lord in waiting to Prince George of Denmark, he carries a letter of
recommendation to the father of the stage; and generous old Thomas,
jealous of no rival, depreciator of no talent, gave the stranger a
hearty welcome; heard his story, asked for a taste of his quality,
imparted good counsel, took him into training, and ultimately brought
him out at Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1701, as Maximus, in Rochester's
"Valentinian." Betterton played Ætius, and Mrs. Barry, Lucina. These
two alone were enough to daunt so young an actor; but Booth was not
vain enough to be too modest, and the public at once hailed in him a
new charmer. His ease, grace, fire, and the peculiar harmony of his
voice, altogether distinct from that of Betterton's, created a great
impression. "Booth with the silver tongue" gained the epithet before
Barry was born. Westminster subsequently celebrated him in one of her
school prologues:--
"Old Roscius to our Booth must bow,
'Twas then but art, 'tis nature now,"
and the district was proud of both players; of the young one of
gentle blood, educated in St. Peter's College, and of the old one,
the royal cook's son, who was christened in St. Margaret's, August
12,[125] 1635.
At first, Booth was thought of as a promising undergraduate of the
buskin, and he had faults to amend. He confessed to Cibber that "he
had been for some time too frank a lover of the bottle;" but, having
the tipsyness of Powell ever before him as a terrible warning, he
made a resolution of maintaining a sobriety of character, from which
he never departed. Cibber pronounces this to be "an uncommon act
of philosophy in a young man;" but he adds, that "in his fame and
fortune he afterwards enjoyed the reward and benefit."
For a few years, then, Booth had arduous work to go through, and
every sort of "business" to play. The House in the Fields, too,
suffered from the tumblers, dancers, and sagacious animals, added to
the ordinary and well-acted plays at the House in the Lane. Leisure
he had also amid all his labour, to pay successful suit to a young
lady, the daughter of a Norfolk baronet, Sir William Barkham, whom
he married in 1704. The lady died childless six years later. Till
this last period--that, too, of the death of Betterton--Booth may be
said to have been in his minority as an actor, or, as Cibber puts it,
"only in the promise of that reputation," which he soon after happily
arrived at. Not that when that was gained he deemed himself perfect.
The longest life, he used to say, was not long enough to enable an
actor to be _perfect_ in his art.
Previous to 1710 he had created many new characters; among others,
Dick, in the "Confederacy;" and he had played the Ghost in "Hamlet,"
with such extraordinary power, such a supernatural effect, so solemn,
so majestic, and so affecting, that it was only second in attraction
to the Dane of Betterton. But Pyrrhus and Cato were yet to come.
Meanwhile, soon after his wife's death, he played Captain Worthy,
in the "Fair Quaker of Deal," to the Dorcas Zeal of Miss Santlow,
destined to be his second wife--but not just yet.
The two great characters created by him, between the year when he
played with Miss Santlow in Charles Shadwell's comedy, and that
in which he married her, were Pyrrhus, in the "Distressed Mother"
(1712), and "Cato" (1713). Within the limits stated, Booth kept
household with poor Susan Mountfort, the daughter of the abler
actress of that name. At such arrangements society took small
objection, and beyond the fact, there was nothing to carp at in
Barton's home. The latter was broken up, however--the lady being
in fault--in 1718, when Booth, who had been the faithful steward
of Susan's savings, consigned to her £3200, which were speedily
squandered by her next "friend," Mr. Minshull. The hapless young
creature became insane; in which condition it is credibly asserted
that she one night went through the part of Ophelia, with a
melancholy wildness which rendered many of her hearers almost as
distraught as herself; soon after which she died. Meanwhile, her more
faithful friend, the acknowledged successor of Betterton, achieved
his two greatest triumphs--in characters originally represented by
him--Pyrrhus and Cato. Those who have experienced the affliction of
seeing or reading the "Distressed Mother," may remember that the
heaviest part in that heavy play is that of Pyrrhus. But in acting
it, Booth set the Orestes of less careful Powell in the shade. "His
entrance," says Victor, "his walking and mounting to the throne, his
sitting down, his manner of giving audience to the ambassador,[126]
his rising from the throne, his descending and leaving the
stage--though circumstances of a very common character in theatrical
performances, yet were executed by him with a grandeur not to be
described."
But it is with "Cato" that Booth is identified. Fortunate it
was for him that the play Addison had kept so long in his desk
was not printed, according to Pope's advice, for readers only.
Fortunate, too, was the actor in the political coincidences of
the time. Marlborough, now a Whig, had asked to be appointed
"commander-in-chief for life." Harley, Bolingbroke, and the other
Tories, described this as an attempt to establish a perpetual
dictatorship. The action and the sentiment of "Cato" are antagonistic
to such an attempt, and the play had a present political, as well
as a great dramatic interest. Common consent gave the part of the
philosopher of Utica to Booth; Addison named young Ryan, son of
a Westminster tailor, as Marcus, and the young fellow justified
the nomination. Wilks, Cibber, and Mrs. Oldfield filled the other
principal parts. Addison surrendered all claim to profit, and on the
evening of April 14, 1713, there was excitement and expectation on
both sides of the curtain.
Booth really surpassed himself; his dignity, pathos, energy, were
all worthy of Betterton, and yet were in nowise after the old
actor's manner. The latter was forgotten on this night, and Booth
occupied exclusively the public eye, ear, and heart. The public
judgment answered to the public feeling. The Tories applauded
every line in favour of popular liberty, and the Whigs sent forth
responsive peals to show that they, too, were advocates of popular
freedom.[127] The pit was in a whirlwind of delicious agitation, and
the Tory occupants of the boxes were so affected by the acting of
Booth, that Bolingbroke, when the play was over, sent for the now
greatest actor of the day, and presented him with a purse containing
fifty guineas, the contributions of gentlemen who had experienced
the greatest delight at the energy with which he had resisted a
perpetual dictatorship, and maintained the cause of public liberty!
The managers paid the actor a similar pecuniary compliment, and for
five-and-thirty[128] consecutive nights "Cato" filled Drury Lane, and
swelled the triumph of Barton Booth. There was no longer anything
sad in the old exclamation of Steele--"Ye gods! what a part would
Betterton make of Cato!" The managers, Wilks, Cibber, and Dogget,
were as satisfied as the public, for the share of profit to each
at the end of this eventful season amounted to £1350! When Booth
and his fellow-actors, after the close of the London season, went
to Oxford to play "Cato," before a learned and critical audience,
"our house was in a manner invested, and entrance demanded by twelve
o'clock at noon, and, before one, it was not wide enough for many who
came too late for places. The same crowds continued for three days
together (an uncommon curiosity in that place), and the death of Cato
triumphed over the injuries of Cæsar everywhere. At our taking leave,
we had the thanks of the Vice-Chancellor, 'for the decency and order
observed by our whole society;' an honour," adds Cibber, proudly,
"which had not always been paid on the same occasion." Four hundred
and fifty pounds clear profit were shared by the managers, who gave
the actors double pay, and sent a contribution of fifty pounds
towards the repairs of St. Mary's Church.
The church, of which Booth was intended to be a minister, added
its approbation, through Dr. Smalridge, Dean of Carlisle, who was
present at the performance in Oxford. "I heartily wish all discourses
from the pulpit were as instructive and edifying, as pathetic and
affecting, as that which the audience was then entertained with
from the stage." This is a reproach to church-preachers at the
cost of a compliment to Booth; and old Compton, ex-dragoon, and
now dying Bishop of London, would not have relished it. Some of
the metropolitan pulpits were, no doubt, less "entertaining" than
the stage, but many of them were held to good purpose; and, as for
the Nonconformist chapels, of which Smalridge knew nothing--there
enthusiastic Pomfret and Matthew Clarke were drawing as great crowds
as Booth; Bradbury, that cheerful-minded patriarch of the Dissenters,
was even more entertaining; while Neale was pathetic and earnest
in Aldersgate Street; and John Gale, affecting and zealous, amid
his eager hearers in Barbican. There is no greater mistake than in
supposing that at this time the whole London world was engaged in
resorting exclusively to the theatres, and especially to behold Booth
in Cato.
The grandeur of this piece has become somewhat dulled, but it
contains more true sayings constantly quoted than any other English
work, save Gray's Elegy. It has been translated into French, Italian,
Latin, and Russian, and has been played in Italy and in the Jesuits'
College at St. Omer. Pope adorned it with a prologue; Dr. Garth
trimmed it with an epilogue; dozens of poets wrote testimonial
verses; tippling Eusden gave it his solemn sanction, while Dennis,
with some "horseplay raillery," but with irrefutable argument,
inexorably proved that, despite beauties of diction, it is one of
the most absurd, inconsistent, and unnatural plays ever conceived by
poet. But, Johnson remarks truly, "as we love better to be pleased
than to be taught, Cato is read, and the critic is neglected."
[Illustration: (Barton Booth.)]
Booth reaped no brighter triumph than in this character, in which
he has had worthy, but never equally able successors. Boheme was
respectable in it; Quin imposing, and generally successful; Sheridan,
conventional, but grandly eloquent; Mossop, heavy; Walker, a
failure; Digges, stagy; Kemble, next to the original; Pope, "mouthy;"
Cooke, altogether out of his line; Wright, weak; Young, traditional
but effective; and Vandenhoff, classically correct and statuesque.
In Cato, the name of Booth stands supreme; in _that_, the kinsman of
the Earls of Warrington was never equalled. It was his good fortune,
too, not to be admired less because of the affection for Betterton in
the hearts of surviving admirers. This is manifest from the lines of
Pope:--
"On Avon's bank where flow'rs eternal blow,
If I but ask,--if any weed can grow?--
One tragic sentence if I dare deride,
Which Betterton's grave action dignified,
Or well-mouth'd Booth with emphasis proclaims
(Though but perhaps a muster-roll of names),
How will our fathers rise up in a rage,
And swear all shame is lost in George's age."
The performance of Cato raised Booth to fortune as well as to fame;
and through Bolingbroke he was appointed to a share in the profits
of the management of Drury Lane, with Cibber, Wilks, and Dogget.
The last-named, thereupon, retired in disgust, with compensation;
and Cibber hints that Booth owed his promotion as much to his Tory
sentiments as to his merits in acting Cato. The new partner had
to pay £600 for his share of the stock property, "which was to be
paid by such sums as should arise from half his profits of acting,
till the whole was discharged." This incumbrance upon his share he
discharged out of the income he received in the first year of his
joint management.
His fame, however, by this time had culminated. He sustained it well,
but he cannot be said to have increased it. No other such a creation
as Cato fell to his lot. Young and Thomson could not serve him as
Addison and opportunity had done, and if he can be said to have won
additional laurels after Cato, it was in the season of 1722-23, when
he played Young Bevil, in Steele's "Conscious Lovers," with a success
which belied the assertion that he was inefficient in genteel comedy.
The season of 1725-26 was also one of his most brilliant.
Meanwhile, a success off the stage secured him as much happiness as,
on it, he had acquired wealth and reputation. The home he had kept
with Susan Mountfort was broken up. In the course of this "intimate
alliance of strict friendship," as the moral euphuists called it,
Booth had acted with remarkable generosity towards the lady. In the
year 1714 they bought several tickets in the State Lottery, and
agreed to share equally whatever fortune might ensue. Booth gained
nothing; the lady won a prize of £5000, and kept it. His friends
counselled him to claim half the sum, but he laughingly remarked that
there had never been any but a verbal agreement on the matter; and
since the result had been fortunate for his friend, she should enjoy
it all.
A truer friend he found in Miss Santlow, the "Santlow famed for
dance," of Gay. From the _ballet_ she had passed to the dignity of
an actress, and Booth had been enamoured of her "poetry of motion"
before he had played Worthy to her Dorcas Zeal. He described her,
with all due ardour, in an _Ode on Mira, dancing_,--as resembling
Venus in shape, air, mien, and eyes, and striking a whole theatre
with love, when alone she filled the spacious scene. Thus was Miss
Santlow in the popular Cato's eyes:--
"Whether her easy body bend,
Or her fair bosom heave with sighs,
Whether her graceful arms extend,
Or gently fall, or slowly rise,
Or returning, or advancing;
Swimming round, or side-long glancing;
Gods, how divine an air
Harmonious gesture gives the fair."
Her grace of motion effected more than eloquence, at least so Booth
thought, who thus sang the nymph in her more accelerated steps to
conquest:--
"But now the flying fingers strike the lyre,
The sprightly notes the nymph inspire.
She whirls around! she bounds! she springs!
As if Jove's messenger had lent her wings.
Such Daphne was....
Such were her lovely limbs, so flushed her charming face!
So round her neck! her eyes so fair!
So rose her swelling chest! so flow'd her amber hair!
While her swift feet outstript the wind,
And left the enamour'd God of Day behind."
Now, this goddess became to Booth one of the truest, most charming,
and most unselfish of mortal wives.[129] But see of what perilous
stuff _she_ was made who enraptured the generally unruffled poet
Thomson almost as much as she did Barton Booth. For _her_ smiles,
Marlborough had given what he least cared to part with--gold. Craggs,
the Secretary of State, albeit a barber's son, had made her spouse,
in all but name, and their daughter was mother of the first Lord St.
Germans, and, by a second marriage, of the first Marquis of Abercorn.
The Santlow blood thus danced itself into very excellent company;
but the aristocracy gave good blood to the stage, as well as took
gay blood from it. Contemporary with Booth and Mrs. Santlow were the
sisters, frolic Mrs. Bicknell and Mrs. Younger. They were nearly
related to Keith, Earl Marshal of Scotland. Their father had served
in Flanders under King William, "perhaps," says Mr. Carruthers, in
his _Life of Pope_, "rode by the side of Steele, whence Steele's
interest in Mrs. Bicknell, whom he praises in the _Tatler_ and
_Spectator_." Mrs. Younger, in middle age, married John, brother of
the seventh Earl of Winchelsea.
When Miss Santlow left the ballet for comedy, it was accounted one
of the lucky incidents in the fortune of Drury. Dorcas Zeal, in the
"Fair Quaker of Deal," was the first original part in which Miss
Santlow appeared. Cibber says, somewhat equivocally, "that she was
then in the full bloom of what beauty she might pretend to," and
he, not very logically, adds, that her reception as an actress was,
perhaps, owing to the admiration she had excited as a dancer. The
part was suited to her figure and capacity. "The gentle softness
of her voice, the composed innocence of her aspect, the modesty of
her dress, the reserved decency of her gesture, and the simplicity
of the sentiments that naturally fell from her, made her seem the
amiable maid she represented."
Many admirers, however, regretted that she had abandoned the
ballet for the drama. They mourned as if Terpsichore herself had
been on earth to charm mankind, and had gone never to return. They
remembered, longed for, and now longed in vain for, that sight which
used to set a whole audience half distraught with delight, when
in the very ecstasy of her dance, Santlow contrived to loosen her
clustering auburn hair, and letting it fall about such a neck and
shoulders as Praxiteles could more readily imagine than imitate,
danced on, the locks flying in the air, and half a dozen hearts at
the end of every one of them.
The union of Booth and Miss Santlow was as productive of happiness
as that of Betterton and Miss Saunderson. Indeed, with some few
exceptions, the marriages of English players have been generally
so. As much, perhaps, can hardly be said of the alliances of French
actors. Molière had but a miserable time of it with Mademoiselle
Béjart; but he revenged himself by producing domestic incidents
of a stormy and aggravating nature, on the stage. The _status_
of the French players was even lower, in one respect, than that
of their English brethren. The French ecclesiastical law did not
allow of marrying or giving in marriage amongst actors. They were
excommunicated, by the mere fact that they were stage-players. The
Church refused them the Sacrament of Marriage, and a loving couple
who desired to be honestly wed, were driven into lying. It was their
habit to retire from their profession, get married as individuals who
had no vocation, and the honeymoon over, to return again to the stage
and their impatient public. The Church was aware of the subterfuge,
and did its utmost to establish the concubinage of parties thus
united; but civil law and royal influence invariably declared that
these marriages were valid, seeing that the contracting parties were
not excommunicated actors when the ceremony was performed, whatever
they may have been a month before, or a month after.
No such difficulties as these had to be encountered by Booth and Miss
Santlow; and the former lost no opportunity to render justice to the
excellence of his wife. This actor's leisure was a learned leisure.
Once, in his poetic vein, when turning an ode of his favourite
_Horace_ into English, he went into an original digression on the
becomingness of a married life, and the peculiar felicity it had
brought to himself. Thus sang the Benedict when the union was a few
brief years old:--
"Happy the hour when first our souls were joined!
The social virtues and the cheerful mind
Have ever crowned our days, beguiled our pain;
Strangers to discord and her clamorous train.
Connubial friendship, hail! but haste away,
The lark and nightingale reproach thy stay;
From splendid theatres to rural scenes,
Joyous retire! so bounteous Heav'n ordains.
There we may dwell in peace.
There bless the rising morn, and flow'ry field,
Charm'd with the guiltless sports the woods and waters yield."
But neither the married nor the professional life of Booth was
destined to be of long continuance. His health began to give way
before he was forty. The managers hoped they had found a fair
substitute for him in the actor Elrington. Tom Elrington subsequently
became so great a favourite with the Dublin audience that they
remembered his Bajazet as preferable to that of Barry or Mossop, on
the ground that in that character his voice could be heard beyond the
Blind Quay, whereas that of the other-named actors was not audible
outside the house! Elrington had none of the scholar-like training
of Booth. He was originally apprentice to an upholsterer in Covent
Garden, was wont to attend plays unknown to his master, and to act
in them privately, and with equal lack of sanction. His master was
a vivacious Frenchman, who, one day, came upon him as, under the
instruction of Chetwood, he was studying a part in some stilted and
ranting tragedy. The stage-struck apprentice, in his agitation, sewed
his book up inside the cushion, on which he was at work, "while he
and Chetwood exchanged many a desponding look, and every stitch
went to both their hearts." The offenders escaped detection; but
on another occasion the Frenchman came upon his apprentice as he
was enacting the Ghost in "Hamlet," when he laid the spirit, with
irresistible effect of his good right arm. Elrington was, from the
beginning, a sort of "copper Booth." His first appearance on the
stage, at Drury Lane, in 1709, was in Oroonoko, the character in
which Booth had made his _coup d'essai_ in Dublin. He was ambitious,
too, and had influential support. When Cibber refused to allow him
to play Torrismond, while Elrington was yet young, a noble friend of
the actor asked the manager to assign cause for the refusal. Colley
was not at a loss. "It is not with us as with you, my Lord," said he;
"your Lordship is sensible that there is no difficulty in filling
places at court, you cannot be at a loss for persons to act their
part there; but I assure you, it is quite otherwise in our theatrical
world. If we should invest people with characters they should be
unable to support, we should be undone."
Elrington, after a few years of success in Dublin, boldly attempted
to take rank in London with Booth himself. He began the attempt in
his favourite part of Bajazet, Booth playing Tamerlane. The latter,
we are told by Victor, "being in full force, and perhaps animated
by a spirit of emulation towards the new Bajazet, exerted all his
powers; and Elrington owned to his friends that, never having felt
the force of such an actor, he was not aware that it was in the power
of mortal to soar so much above him and shrink him into nothing."
Booth was quite satisfied with his own success, for he complimented
Elrington on his, adding that his Bajazet was ten times as good
as that of Mills, who had pretensions to play the character. The
compliment was not ill-deserved, for Elrington possessed many of
the natural and some of the acquired qualifications of Booth, whom
perhaps he equalled in Oroonoko. He undoubtedly excelled Mills in
Zanga, of which the latter was the original representative. After
Dr. Young had seen Elrington play it, he went round, shook him
cordially by the hand, thanked him heartily, and declared he had
never seen the part done such justice to as by him; "acknowledging,
with some regret," says Dr. Lewis, "that Mills did but growl and
mouth the character." Such was the actor who became for a time
Booth's "double," and might have become his rival. During the illness
of the latter, in 1728-29, Elrington, we are told, was the principal
support of tragedy in Drury Lane. At that time, says Davies, "the
managers were so well convinced of his importance to them, that they
offered him his own conditions, if he would engage with them for a
term of years." Elrington replied, "I am truly sensible of the value
of your offer, but in Ireland I am so well rewarded for my services
that I cannot think of leaving it on any consideration. There is not
a gentleman's house to which I am not a welcome visitor."
Booth has been called indolent, but he was never so when in health,
and before a fitting audience. On one thin night, indeed, he was
enacting Othello rather languidly, but he suddenly began to exert
himself to the utmost, in the great scene of the third act. On
coming off the stage, he was asked the cause of this sudden effort.
"I saw an Oxford man in the pit," he answered, "for whose judgment
I had more respect than for that of the rest of the audience;" and
he played the Moor to that one but efficient judge. Some causes
of languor may, perhaps, be traced to the too warm patronage he
received, or rather friendship, at the hands of the nobility. It
was no uncommon thing for "a carriage and six" to be in waiting for
him--the equipage of some court friend--which conveyed him, in what
was then considered the brief period of three hours to Windsor, and
back again the next day in time for play or rehearsal. This agitated
sort of life seriously affected his health; and on one occasion his
recovery was despaired of. But the public favourite was restored to
the town; and learned Mattaire celebrated the event in a Latin ode,
in which he did honour to the memory of Betterton, and the living and
invigorated genius of Booth. That genius was not so perfect as that
of his great predecessor. When able to go to the theatre, though not
yet able to perform, he saw Wilks play two of his parts,--Jaffier and
Hastings,--and heard the applause which was awarded to his efforts;
and the sound was ungrateful to the ears of the philosophical and
unimpassioned Cato. But Jaffier was one of his triumphs; and he
whose tenderness, pity, and terror had touched the hearts of a whole
audience, was painfully affected at the triumph of another, though
achieved by different means.
One of the secrets of his own success, lay, undoubtedly, in his
education, feeling, and judgment. It may be readily seen from
Aaron Hill's rather elaborate criticism, that he was an actor who
made "points;" "he could soften and slide over, with an elegant
negligence, the improprieties of a part he acted; while, on the
contrary, he could dwell with energy upon the beauties, as if he
exerted a latent spirit, which he kept back for such an occasion,
that he might alarm, awaken, and transport, in those places only
which were worthy of his best exertions." This was really to depend
on "points;" and was, perhaps, a defect in a player of whom it has
been said, that he had learning to understand perfectly what it was
his part to speak, and judgment to know how it agreed or disagreed
with his character. The following, by Hill, is as graphic as anything
in Cibber:--"Booth had a talent at discovering the passions, where
they lay hid in some celebrated parts, by the injudicious practice
of other actors; when he had discovered, he soon grew able to
express them; and his secret of attaining this great lesson of the
theatre, was an adaptation of his look to his voice, by which artful
imitation of nature, the variations in the sounds of his words gave
propriety to every change in his countenance. So that it was Mr.
Booth's peculiar felicity to be heard and seen the same; whether as
the pleased, the grieved, the pitying, the reproachful, or the angry.
One would be almost tempted to borrow the aid of a very bold figure,
and to express this excellency the more significantly, by permission
to affirm, that _the Blind might have seen him in his voice, and the
Deaf have heard him in his visage_."
In his later years, says a critic, "his merit as an actor was
unrivalled, and even so extraordinary, as to be almost beyond the
reach of envy." His Othello, Cato, and his Polydore, in the "Orphan,"
in which he was never equalled, were long the theme of admiration
to his survivors, as were in a less degree his sorrowing and not
roaring Lear, his manly yet not blustering Hotspur. Dickey Brass and
Dorimant, Wildair and Sir Charles Easy,[130] Pinchwife, Manley, and
Young Bevil, were among the best of his essays in comedy,--where,
however, he was surpassed by Wilks. "But then, I believe," says a
critic, "no one will say he did not appear the fine gentleman in the
character of Bevil, in the 'Conscious Lovers.' It is said that he
_once_ played Falstaff in the presence of Queen Anne, 'to the delight
of the whole audience.'"
Aaron Hill, curiously statistical, states, that by the peculiar
delivery of certain sentiments in Cato, Booth was always sure
of obtaining from eighteen to twenty rounds of applause during
the evening,--marks of approval, both of matter and manner. Like
Betterton, he abounded in feeling. There was nothing of the stolidity
of "Punch" in either of them. Betterton is said to have sometimes
turned as "white as his neck-cloth," on seeing his father's ghost;
while Booth, when playing the ghost to Betterton's Hamlet, was
once so horror-stricken at his distraught aspect, as to be too
disconcerted to proceed, for a while, in his part. Either actor,
however, knew how far to safely yield themselves to feeling. Judgment
was always within call; the head ready to control the heart, however
wildly it might be impelled by the latter. Baron, the French actor,
did not know better than they, that while rules may teach the actor
not to raise his arms above his head, he will do well to break the
rule, if passion carry him that way. "Passion," as Baron remarked,
"knows more than art."
I have noticed the report that Booth and Wilks were jealous of each
other; I think there was more of emulation than of envy between
them. Booth could make sacrifices in favour of young actors as
unreservedly as Betterton. I find, even when he was in possession,
as it was called, of all the leading parts, that he as often played
Laertes, or even Horatio, as the Ghost or Hamlet. His Laertes was
wonderfully fine, and in a great actor's hands, may be made, in the
fifth act, at least, equal with the princely Dane himself. Again,
although his Othello was one of his grandest impersonations, he would
take Cassio, in order to give an aspirant a chance of triumph in the
Moor. In "Macbeth," Booth played, one night, the hero of the piece;
on another, Banquo; and on a third, the little part of Lennox. He was
quite content that Cibber should play Wolsey, while he captivated
the audience by enacting the King. His Henry was a mixture of frank
humour, dignity, and sternness. Theophilus Cibber says enough to
convince us that Booth, in the King, could be familiar without being
vulgar, and that his anger was of the quality that excites terror.
He pronounced the four words, "Go thy ways, Kate," with such a happy
emphasis as to win admiration and applause: and "when he said, 'Now,
to breakfast with what appetite you may,' his expression was rapid
and vehement, and his look tremendous."
The credit attached to the acting of inferior parts by leading
players was shared with Booth by Wilks and Cibber. Of the latter,
his son says, that "though justly esteemed the first comedian of his
time, and superior to all we have since beheld, he has played several
parts, to keep up the spirit of some comedies, which you will now
scarcely find one player in twenty who will not reject as beneath his
Mock-Excellence."
Booth _could_, after all, perhaps, occasionally be languid without
the excuse of illness. He would play his best to a single man in the
pit whom he recognised as a playgoer, and a judge of acting; but to
an unappreciating audience he could exhibit an almost contemptuous
disinclination to exert himself. On one occasion of this sort he was
made painfully sensible of his mistake, and a note was addressed to
him from the stage-box, the purport of which was to know whether
he was acting for his own diversion or in the service and for the
entertainment of the public?
On another occasion, with a thin house, and a cold audience, he was
languidly going through one of his usually grandest impersonations,
namely, Pyrrhus. At his very dullest scene he started into the utmost
brilliancy and effectiveness. His eye had just previously detected
in the pit a gentleman, named Stanyan, the friend of Addison and
Steele, and the correspondent of the Earl of Manchester. Stanyan was
an accomplished man and a judicious critic. Booth played to him with
the utmost care and corresponding success. "No, no!" he exclaimed, as
he passed behind the scenes, radiant with the effect he had produced,
"I will not have it said at Button's, that Barton Booth is losing his
powers!"
Some indolence was excusable, however, in actors who ordinarily
laboured as Booth did. As an instance of the toil which they had to
endure for the sake of applause, I will notice that in the season of
1712-13, when Booth studied, played, and triumphed in Cato, he within
not many weeks studied and performed five original and very varied
characters, Cato being the last of a roll, which included Arviragus,
in the "Successful Pirate;" Captain Stanworth, in the "Female
Advocates;" Captain Wildish, in "Humours of the Army;" Cinna, in an
adaptation of Corneille's play, and finally, Cato.
No doubt Booth was finest when put upon his mettle. In May 1726, for
instance, Giffard from Dublin appeared at Drury Lane, as the Prince
of Wales, in "Henry IV." The debutant was known to be an admirer
of the Hotspur of roaring Elrington. The Percy was one of Booth's
most perfect exhibitions; and, ill as he was on the night he was to
play it to Giffard's Harry, he protested that he would surprise the
new comer, and the house too; and he played with such grace, fire,
and energy, that the audience were beside themselves with ecstasy,
and the new actor was profuse at the side-scenes, and even out of
hearing of Booth, in acknowledgment of the great master and his
superiority over every living competitor.
Betterton cared little if his audience was select, provided it also
was judicious; Booth, however, loved a full house, though he could
play his best to a solitary, but competent, individual in the pit.
He confessed that he considered profit after fame, and thought that
large audiences tended to the increase of both. The intercourse
between audience and actor was, in his time, more intimate and
familiar than it is now. Thus we see Booth entering a coffee-house in
Bow Street, one morning after he had played Varanes, on the preceding
night. The gentlemen present, all playgoers, as naturally as they
were coffee-house frequenters, cluster round him, and acknowledge
the pleasure they had enjoyed in witnessing him act. These pleasant
morning critics only venture to blame him for allowing such unmeaning
stuff as the pantomime of "Perseus and Andromeda" to follow the
classical tragedy and mar its impression. But the ballet-pantomime
draws great houses, and is therefore a less indignity in Booth's eye,
than half empty benches. It was not the business of managers, he
said, to be wise to empty boxes. "There were many more spectators,"
he said, "than men of taste and judgment; and if by the artifice of
a pantomime they could entice a greater number to partake of a good
play than could be drawn without it, he could not see any great harm
in it; and that, as those pieces were performed after the play, they
were no interruption to it." In short, he held pantomimes to be rank
nonsense, which might be rendered useful, after the fashion of his
explanation.
His retirement from the stage may be laid to the importunity of Mr.
Theobald, who urged him to act in a play, for a moment attributed
to Shakspeare, the "Double Falsehood." Booth struggled through
the part of Julio, for a week, in the season of 1727-28, and then
withdrew, utterly cast down, and in his forty-sixth year. Broxham,
Friend, Colebatch, and Mead came with their canes, perukes, pills,
and proposals, and failing to restore him, they sent him away from
London. The sick player and his wife wandered from town to Bath,
from the unavailing springs there to Ostend, thence to Antwerp, and
on to Holland, to consult Boerhaave, who could only tell the invalid
that in England a man should never leave off his winter clothing
till midsummer-day, and that he should resume it the day after.
From Holland the sad couple came home to Hampstead, and ultimately
back to London, where fever, jaundice, and other maladies attacked
Booth with intermitting severity. Here, in May 1733, a quack doctor
persuaded him that if he would take "crude mercury" it would not only
prevent the return of his fever but effectually cure him of all his
complaints. As we are gravely informed that, within five days the
poor victim "took within two ounces of two pounds weight of mercury,"
we are not surprised to hear that at the end of that time Booth
was _in extremis_, and that Sir Hans Sloane was at his bedside to
accelerate, as it would seem, the catastrophe.
To peruse what followed is like reading the details of an
assassination. As if the two pounds, minus two ounces, of mercury
were not enough, poor Booth was bled profusely at the jugular, his
feet were plastered, and his scalp was blistered; he was assailed
in various ways by cathartics, and mocked, I may so call it, by
emulsions; the _Daily Post_ announced that he lay a-dying at his
house in Hart Street, other notices pronounced him moribund in
Charles Street; but he was alive on the morning of the 10th of May
1733, when a triad of prescriptions being applied against him, Cato
at length happily succumbed. But the surgeons would not let the
dead actor rest; they opened his body, and dived into its recesses,
and called things by strong names, and avoided technicalities; and,
after declaring everything to be very much worse than the state of
Denmark, as briefly described by _Hamlet_, Alexander Small, the
especial examiner, signing the report, added a postscript thereto,
implying that "There was no fault in any part of his body, but what
is here mentioned." Poor fellow! We are told that he recovered from
his fever, but that he died of the jaundice, helped, I think, by the
treatment.
A few days subsequently the body was privately interred in Cowley
Church, near Uxbridge, where he occasionally resided. A few old
friends, and some dearer than friends, accompanied him to the grave.
His will was as a kiss on either cheek of his beautiful widow, and
a slap on both cheeks of sundry of his relations. To the former he
left everything he had possessed, and for the very best of reasons.
"As I have been," he says, "a man much known and talked of, my not
leaving legacies to my relations may give occasion to censorious
people to reflect upon my conduct in this latter act of my life;
therefore, I think it necessary to declare that I have considered
my circumstances, and finding, upon a strict examination, that all
I am now possessed of does not amount to two-thirds of the fortune
my wife brought me on the day of our marriage, together with the
yearly additions and advantages since arising from her laborious
employment on the stage during twelve years past, I thought myself
bound by honesty, honour, and gratitude, due to her constant
affection, not to give away any part of the remainder of her fortune
at my death, having already bestowed, in free gifts, upon my sister,
Barbara Rogers, upwards of thirteen hundred pounds, _out of my
wife's substance_, and full four hundred pounds of her money on my
undeserving brother, George Booth (besides the gifts they received
before my marriage), and all those benefits were conferred on my said
brother and sister, from time to time, at the earnest solicitation of
my wife, who was perpetually entreating me to continue the allowance
I gave my relations before my marriage. The inhuman return that has
been made my wife for these obligations, by my sister, I forbear to
mention." This was justice without vengeance, and worthy of the sage,
of whom Booth was the most finished representative. The generosity
of Hester Santlow, too, has been fittingly preserved in the will; the
whole of which, moreover, is a social illustration of the times.
In Westminster, "Barton Street" keeps up the actor's name; and
"Cowley Street" the remembrance of his proprietorship of a country
estate near Uxbridge. To pass through the former street is like
being transported to the times of Queen Anne. It is a quaint old
locality, very little changed since the period in which Barton built
it. No great stretch of imagination is required to fancy the original
Pyrrhus and Cato gliding along the shady side, with a smile on his
lips and a certain fire in his eye. He is thinking of Miss Santlow!
* * * * *
With Booth slowly dying, and Mrs. Oldfield often too ill to act,
the prospects of Drury began to wane in 1728-29. Elrington could
not supply the place of the former; nor Mrs. Porter and Mrs. Horton
combined, that of the latter. Cibber carefully instructed his son
Theophilus in the part of Pistol, which became his one great part,
and the appearance of Miss Raftor as Dorinda, in Dryden's version of
the "Tempest," on the 2nd of January 1729, marks the first step in
the bright and unchequered career of one who is better remembered as
Kitty Clive, of whom, more hereafter.[131] She was not able to save
Cibber's pastoral comedy, "Love in a Riddle," from condemnation
by an audience who had the ill-manners, as it was considered, to
hiss, despite a royal presence in the house. As the new names rose
the old ones fell off, and Congreve and Steele--the first rich and
a gentleman, the second needy, but a gentleman, too--died in 1729,
leaving no one but Cibber fit to compete with them in comedy. Musical
pieces, such as the "Village Opera" and the "Lover's Opera," born of
Gay's success, brought no such golden results to their authors or the
house, which was still happy in retaining Wilks.
On the other hand, in the Fields, where ballad-opera had been a mine
of wealth to astonished managers, classical tragedy took the lead,
with Quin leading in everything, and growing in favour with a town
whose applause could no longer be claimed by Booth. But classical
tragedy reaped no golden harvests. Barford's "Virgin Queen" lives but
in a line of Pope to Arbuthnot. The "Themistocles" (Quin) of young
Madden, whom Ireland ought to remember as one of her benefactors
who was no mere politician, lived but for a few nights.[132] Mrs.
Heywood succeeded as ill with her romantic tragedy, "Frederick,
Duke of Brunswick," which was five acts of flattery to the House of
Hanover, some of whose members yawned over it ungratefully. But the
"Beggar's Opera" could always fill the house whether Miss Cantrell
warbled Polly, with the old cast, or children played all the parts--a
foolish novelty, not unattractive. Hawker, an actor, vainly tried to
rival Gay, with a serio-comic opera, the "Wedding," and Gay himself
was doomed to suffer disappointment; for the authorities suppressed
his "Polly," a vapid continuation of the fortunes of Macheath and
the lady, and thereby drove almost to the disaffection of which he
was accused, not only Gay, but his patrons, the Duke and Duchess of
Queensberry, who punished the Court by absenting themselves from its
pleasures and duties. The poet, who desired nothing but the joys of
a quiet life, a good table, and a suit of blue and silver, all which
he enjoyed beneath the ducal roof, happiest of mercer's apprentices,
found compensation in publishing his work by subscription, whereby he
realised so large a sum as to satisfy his utmost wishes.
Drury Lane was not fortunate in any of its new pieces in the season
of 1729-30. It was, perhaps, unfortunate that Mrs. Oldfield, by her
recommendation, and by her acting, obtained even partial success for
a comedy, by the Rev. James Miller, the "Humours of Oxford." This
satirical piece brought the author into trouble with his University,
at some of whose members it was aimed, and it did not tend to raise
him in the estimation of his congregation in Conduit Street.
The tragedy of "Timoleon" was ruined[133] by the zeal of the
author's friends, who crowded the house, and as loudly applauded
the candle-snuffers and furniture as they did Mills or Mrs. Porter.
Martyn, the author, had been a linen-draper, but his epitaph in
Lewisham Churchyard describes him as "one of the best bred men
in England." He was certainly well connected, but he exhibited
more efficiency in colonising Georgia than in writing poetry. His
"Timoleon" had neither beauty of style, nor incident.
This season, too, saw the first dramatic attempt of Thomson, in
"Sophonisba." Lee's tragedy of that name used to drown the female
part of the house in tears; but Thomson's could not stir even his
own friends to enthusiasm. They rose from the full-dress rehearsals
to which they were invited, dulled in sense rather than touched
or elevated. Thomson's play is far less tender than Lee's; his
Sophonisba (the last character originally played by Mrs. Oldfield),
more stern and patriotic, and less loving. The author himself
described her as a "female Cato," and in the Epilogue not too
delicately indicated that if the audience would only applaud a native
poet,
"Then other Shakspeares yet may rouse the stage,
And other Otways melt another age."
"Sophonisba," which Thomson was not afraid to set above the heroine
of Corneille, abounds in platitudes, and it was fatal to Cibber, who,
never tolerable in tragedy, was fairly hissed out of the character
of Scipio, which he surrendered to a promising player, Williams. The
latter was violently hissed also on the first night of his acting
Scipio, he bore so close a resemblance to his predecessor. Mrs.
Oldfield, alone, made a sensation, especially in the delivery of the
line,
"Not one base word of Carthage--on thy soul!"
Her grandeur of action, her stern expression, and her powerful tone
of voice, elicited the most enthusiastic applause. Exactly two months
later, on the 28th of April 1730, she acted Lady Brute, and therewith
suddenly terminated her thirty years of service, dying exactly six
months after illness compelled her to withdraw.
Before noticing more fully the career of Mrs. Oldfield, let me record
here, that on the night she played Lady Brute in the "Provoked Wife,"
the part of Mademoiselle was acted by Charlotte Charke, the wife of
a good singer, but a worthless man, and the youngest child of Colley
Cibber.[134] There seems to have been a touch of insanity, certainly
there was no power of self-control in this poor woman. From her
childhood she had been wild, wayward, and rebellious; self-taught
as a boy might be, and with nothing feminine in her character or
pursuits. With self-assertion, too, she was weak enough to be won
by a knave with a sweet voice, whose cruel treatment drove his
intractable wife to the stage, where she failed to profit by her fine
opportunities.
The corresponding season at Lincoln's Inn Fields was the usual one
of an unfashionable house; but Quin, Ryan, Walker, and Boheme were
actors who made way against Wilks, Cibber, Mills, and Bridgewater.
No new piece of any value was produced; the only incidents worth
recording being the playing of Macheath by Quin, for his benefit: and
the sudden death of Spiller, stricken by apoplexy, as he was playing
in the "Rape of Proserpine." He was inimitable in old men, though he
himself was young; but whatever he played, he so identified himself
with his character that Spiller disappeared from the eyes and the
thoughts of an audience, unconsciously deluded by the artist.
As the town grew, so also did theatres increase; that in Goodman's
Fields, and the little house in the Haymarket, were open this season.
At the former Giffard and his wife led in tragedy and comedy; but
the company was generally weak. Not so the authors who wrote for the
house. First among them was Fielding, a young fellow of three and
twenty; bred to the law, but driven to the drama by the inability
of his father, the General, to supply him with funds. His first
play, "Love in Several Masques," was acted at Drury Lane in 1728;
his second, and a better, the "Temple Beau," was played at Goodman's
Fields.
Ralph, who had been a schoolmaster in Philadelphia, and came to
England to thrive by political, satirical, or dramatic writings, and
to live for ever in the abuse lavished on him by Pope, supplied a
ballad-opera, the "Fashionable Lady," which was _intended_ to rival
the "Beggar's Opera." To Macheath-Walker is ascribed a tragedy, the
"Fate of Villany;" and Mottley, the disappointed candidate for place,
and the compiler of _Joe Miller's Jests_--Miller being a better joker
than he was an actor--wrote for this house his "Widow Bewitched," the
last and poorest of his contributions to the stage.
For the Haymarket, Fielding wrote the only piece which has come down
to our times, his immortal burlesque-tragedy of "Tom Thumb," in which
the weakness and bombast of late or contemporary writers are copied
with wonderful effect. Young suffered severely by this;--and the
"Oh, Huncamunca! Huncamunca, oh!" was a dart at the "Oh, Sophonisba!
Sophonisba, oh!" of Jamie Thomson. Of the other pieces I need not
disturb the dust. Let me rather, contemplating that of Mrs. Oldfield,
glance at the career of that great actress, who living knew no rival,
and in her peculiar line has never been excelled.
[Illustration: Mr. Garrick as Abel Drugger.]
FOOTNOTES:
[125] Malone says "August 11."
[126] "Giving his answer to the ambassador."--_Victor._
[127] Dr. Doran exactly reverses the state of the case. Dr. Johnson
says: "The Whigs applauded every line in which liberty was mentioned,
as a satire on the Tories; and the Tories echoed every clap, to show
that the satire was unfelt."
[128] Wrong. Victor in his Memoirs of Booth says five-and-twenty
nights: but this also is incorrect. On May 9, 1713, "Cato" is
announced to be played for the twentieth time, and on May 10, for
Mrs. Rogers' benefit, "The Funeral" is in the bill. Cibber says
"Cato" was acted every day for a month, Mondays excepted.
[129] Bellchambers, in his Notes to "Cibber," is very severe on this
marriage. "In the year 1719, Mr. Booth, who seems to have been a
libertine and a sensualist, gave his hand to Miss Santlow, a strumpet
of condition"--and then follow some very strong remarks on Booth and
his wife.
[130] These four characters were certainly not among Booth's best.
Wildair and Sir Charles Easy were Wilks' parts, and indeed I cannot
find that Booth ever played any of the four.
[131] Chetwood states that her first character was Ismenes, a page,
in "Mithridates," in which she sang with extraordinary success.
Genest supposes this to have been in November 1728.
[132] Acted nine times.
[133] It was acted fourteen times--a great success in those days.
[134] Charlotte Charke says in her _Autobiography_ that this was her
first appearance, but it was really her second.
INDEX.
Actor, profession of, in Greece and Rome, 2, 3.
Actors and clergy in collision, 13;
playing under forged licence, 13;
authors, 185;
Dennis' abuse of, 361.
Actors' famous "Points," 155.
Actresses, introduction of, 28;
pre-restoration English, 66.
Addison, Joseph, part author of the "Tender Husband," 294;
his "Rosamond," 301;
his "Cato," 329;
his "Drummer," 339.
Aldridge, Mrs., 148.
Alleyn, Edward, 31, 43, 48.
"Amboyna," 28.
Angel, 65, 70.
Anne, queen of James I., an actress, 24.
Anne, Princess, as Lemandra, 94.
Apothecaries' Hall the site of an early theatre, 16.
Arbuthnot, part author of "Three Hours after Marriage," 342.
Arrest of players, 15.
Arrowsmith, dramatist, 207.
Arsinoe, first opera after the Italian fashion, 295.
Aston, Anthony, his criticisms of Betterton, 131;
of Mrs. Barry, 152, 154, 156;
his appearance at Lincoln's Inn Fields, 369.
Audience on the stage forbidden, 289.
Audiences of the seventeenth century, 246.
Baker, Thomas, dramatist, 275.
Bale, Bishop, 14.
Bancroft, Archbishop, 25.
Bancroft, John, dramatist, 208.
Bankes, John, dramatist, 234.
Bankside, theatres on the, 32.
Barford, Richard, dramatist, 421.
Baron, the French actor, 134.
Barry, Mrs. Elizabeth, 121, 148, 190;
account of her life, 149-161;
tutored by Lord Rochester, 151;
as Isabella in "Mustapha," 151;
as Alcmena, 123;
as Calista, 131, 154;
as Monimia, 152, 156;
her industry, 153;
as Belvidera, 153;
as Cassandra, 153;
as Lady Brute, 154;
as Zara, 154;
as Clarissa, 154;
as Isabella in the "Fatal Marriage," 154;
as Queen Elizabeth, 156;
in free comedy, 156;
and Mrs. Boutell, 157;
and Lord Rochester and Etheridge, 158, 159;
her last appearance, 159;
the first player to have a benefit, 160;
her death, 160;
her portrait by Kneller, 160.
Barton Street, Westminster, 143.
Bateman, actor, 64.
Baxter, actor, 64.
Bear Garden, 32.
Beckingham, dramatist, 350, 363.
Beeston, actor, 64.
"Beggar's Opera," 386;
its famous run, 388.
Behn, Mrs. Aphra, 238;
her indecency, 239.
Bell, actor, 64.
Benefits, performers', first devised for Mrs. Barry, 160.
Benfield, actor, 26.
Betterton, father of the actor, 53, 117.
Betterton, Mrs. (see also Mrs. Saunderson), 94;
instructs the Princesses Mary and Anne, 94;
in her old age, 113;
pensioned by Queen Anne, 95.
Betterton, Thomas, 53, 57, 58, 65, 191, 297, 310, 311, 314;
account of his life, 109-135;
as Hamlet, 109, 111, 131;
tutored in Hamlet by Davenant, 112;
his famous benefit, 114, 312;
as Melantius, 114;
his death, 116, 314;
as Bosola, 119;
in "Mustapha," 120;
as Colonel Jolly, 121;
his modesty, 121;
in the "Provoked Wife," 121;
as Jupiter, 123;
his friendship with Dryden and Tillotson, 124;
and Pope, 126;
as Othello, 128, 129;
as Castalio, 128;
his portrait by Kneller and Pope, 128;
as Bassanio, 129;
as Horatio, 129;
patronised by royalty, 130;
licence granted to him by William III., 130;
adversely criticised by Aston, 131;
Cibber's praise of, 132, 133;
as Brutus, 133;
his salary, 133;
the _Tatler_ on Betterton, 134;
as an author, 185;
helps Booth, 394.
Betterton, William, 25, 70.
Bicknell, Mrs., 404;
death of, 373.
Bird, Theophilus, 64;
accident to, 96.
Bishopsgate Street, theatre at an inn, 31.
Blackfriars' theatre, 16, 22;
its history, 30, 42.
Blagden, actor, 64, 65.
Boar's Head, the, without Aldgate, 15.
Boheme, Anthony, 356, 400;
marries Mrs. Seymour, 374;
as Herod, 375.
_Book of Sports_, the, 29.
Booth, Barton, 283, 315;
as Maximus, 129, 394;
recognised by Betterton as his successor, 129, 178;
leading actor at Drury Lane, 312;
in "Elfrid," 312;
as Pyrrhus, 321, 396;
as Cato, 329, 396, 397;
made a manager, 330, 401;
as Hastings, 331;
his marriage, 358;
as Cleombrotus, 359;
as Alonzo, 365;
as Young Bevil, 370, 402;
as Hotspur, 379, 415;
his illness, 381;
as Julio, 386, 417;
his last season, 386;
his last appearance, 386;
account of his life, 391-420;
as Pamphilus, 392;
his _début_ as Oroonoko, 392;
and Betterton, 394;
as Captain Worthy, 395;
as the Ghost in "Hamlet," 395;
keeps house with Susan Mountfort, 396;
as Tamerlane, 408;
his sense of appreciation, 409;
Aaron Hill's criticism of him, 410, 411;
his great parts, 411, 412;
his feeling, 412;
as Laertes, 413;
as Henry VIII., 413;
finest when on his mettle, 414, 416;
his powers of application, 415;
his love of fame, 416;
his retirement, 417;
his death, 418;
his will, 418.
Boothby, Mrs., dramatist, 237.
Boutel, Mrs., 64, 82.
Bowen, William, 163;
converted by Collier's "Short View," 174;
killed by Quin, 174, 349;
his original characters, 350.
Bowman, 122, 142.
Bowman, Mrs., as Lady Fancyful, 121;
adopted by the Bettertons, 121.
Boyer, Abel, dramatist, 212.
Boyle, Charles, dramatist, 287.
"Boys" superseded by women, 67.
"Boys" in Rhodes's company, 67.
Bracegirdle, Mrs. Anne, 162, 166, 169;
as the Page in "The Orphan," 152;
as Millamant, 167;
as Statira, 167;
her high private character, 167, 168;
and Lord Burlington, 169;
attempted to be carried off by Hill, 171;
opposed by Mrs. Oldfield, 302.
Bradshaw, Mrs., 315;
her marriage, 332.
Brady, Nicholas, dramatist, 234.
Brett, Colonel, patentee, 306;
sells his share, 311.
Bristol, George, Earl of, 190.
Brown, Tom, on Mrs. Barry, 159.
Buckingham, Duke of, 187.
Bull, the, in Bishopsgate Street, 31.
Bullock, Christopher, his "Woman's a Riddle," 343;
his "Perjuror," 351;
as Bardach, 363;
his death, 369.
Bullock, Mrs., as Mrs. Mincemode, 380.
Bullock, William, 178, 180.
Burbage, James, 16.
Burbage, Richard, 22, 26.
Burnaby, Charles, dramatist, 278.
Burt, 48, 64;
in female characters, 70;
as Cicero, 70.
Busby, Dr., an amateur actor, 45.
Cademan, 143;
accident to, 143.
Cambridge, plays at, 11, 16, 24, 52.
Cantrell, Miss, as Polly Peachum, 421.
Carey, Henry, Viscount Falkland, 193.
Carlell, Sir Ludovick, 200.
Carlisle, James, 163;
killed at Aghrun, 173;
an author, 186.
Carrol, Mrs. (afterwards Mrs. Centlivre), 123.
Cartwright, Rev. Wm., dramatist, 45.
Cartwright, actor, 64;
his bequest to Dulwich College, 97;
great as Falstaff, 97.
Caryll, Earl of, 190.
Castlemaine, Lady, 249, 250.
"Cato," by Addison, 329, 397.
Centlivre, Mrs., 124, 243, 369, 385;
her "Busy Body," 311;
her "Wonder," 330, 331;
her "Bold Stroke for a Wife," 351.
Champmeslé, La, the French actress, 161.
Charke, Charlotte, daughter of Colley Cibber, 424.
Charles I. and the stage, 29.
Charles II. and Dryden, 228;
at the theatre (see chap. xii.).
Charleton, actor, 64.
Children of the Chapel Royal performing before royalty, 10.
Children of the Revels, 23.
Church employs the stage in early times, 7.
Cibber, Colley, quoted: on Kynaston, 72;
on Nokes, 75;
on Betterton, 132, 133;
on Underhill, 139;
on Anthony Leigh, 144;
on Mrs. Barry, 153, 154;
on Mrs. Mountfort, 163;
on the wearing of vizard-masks, 265;
on theatrical dissensions, 307;
on the success of the United Companies, 317;
on the critics, 319;
on Estcourt, 325.
Cibber, Colley, 302, 319;
as the Chaplain in "The Orphan," praised by Goodman, 103;
and Betterton, 130;
as Sir Gentle's Servant, 163;
as Sigismond, 163;
and his wig, 266;
his comedies, 280;
his "Careless Husband" an attempt at greater decency, 292;
Wilks and Dogget, 318;
his famous play "The Nonjuror," 345, 346-349;
his "Refusal," 366;
as Achoreus, 378;
his share of "The Provoked Husband," 386;
in the law courts, 387;
his "Love in a Riddle," 421;
hissed as Scipio, 423.
Cibber, Mrs., the elder, 178, 180.
Cibber, Theophilus, his first appearance, 366;
as Pistol, 366, 420;
his first wife, 379.
Clerical actors, 10;
auditors, 268.
Clive, Kitty, 420.
Clun, 64;
superior to Mohun as Iago, 70;
as Subtle, 70;
his tragic death, 70.
Cockburn, Mrs., dramatist, 241.
Cockpit, the, in Drury Lane, 57, 59.
Coleman, Mrs. Edward, early actress, 67.
Collier, Jeremy, his "Short View" converts Bowen, 174;
attacks the indecency of the stage, 225.
Collier, W., M.P., patentee of Drury Lane, 312, 315, 316.
Company of Players, Richard III. first English prince to employ
them, 9.
Condell, 26.
Congreve, 223, 225, 226, 233, 273;
and Mrs. Bracegirdle, 168;
and Voltaire, 214;
his sarcasm on Cibber, 294;
his death, 421.
Cooke, G. F., 401.
Corey, John, 277.
Corey, Mrs., 64, 82;
mimics Lady Harvey, 259.
Corye, John, dramatist, 207.
Covent Garden Theatre, different buildings, 62.
Cowley, Abraham, dramatist, 216.
Cowley Street, Westminster, 420.
Cox, Richard, 52.
Crauford, David, dramatist, 212.
Cromwell, Lady Mary, 250.
Cromwell's buffooneries, 55.
Cross Keys, Gracechurch Street, 31.
Crowne, John, dramatist, 219, 222;
his death, 233.
Curtain Road, 33.
---- Theatre, the, 33.
Davenant, 57, 221, 232;
his company, 61, 65;
his improvements of Shakspeare's plays, 2, 19.
Davenport, Mrs., 65;
as Roxalana, 68, 91;
entrapped by a mock marriage by the Earl of Oxford, 92.
Davies, Mrs., 65, 92;
Charles II.'s mistress, 93.
Davys, Mrs., authoress, 341.
Decrees regarding players, 14, 21, 46, 47.
Dennis, 216, 234, 277, 291, 361;
his "Appius and Virginius," 311;
the inventor of stage thunder, 311;
his "Invader of his Country," 358.
Dering, Charles, duel with Vaughan on the stage, 261.
Digges, 401.
Dixon, actor, 65.
Dogget, 163, 176;
as Shylock, 176;
his original parts, 176;
a manager of Drury Lane, 176;
his Coat and Badge, 177;
as an author, 186;
the first "star," 272;
as Moneytrap, 300;
his care in dressing his parts, 300;
Cibber and Wilks, 318;
gives up management, 330, 401.
Dorset Garden, Duke's Theatre in, 61.
Drake, Dr., 210.
Dramatists, list of, 183, 184, 213, 214.
Drury Lane Theatre, 60;
the various theatres, 62;
burnt, 140;
united with the Haymarket, 305;
its waning prospects, 381.
Dryden, John, 221, 224, 227-229, 232;
his "Amboyna," 28;
his friendship with Betterton, 124;
his assault upon Shakspeare, 219.
Duelling in the theatre, 261.
Duffett, Thomas, dramatist, 209.
Duke, actor, 64.
Duke's Theatre, 61.
Dunstable, early theatre at, 7.
Durfey, Thomas, 234, 330;
in his decline, 284;
his "Prophets," 311.
Eastland, Mrs., 64.
Eccleston, actor, 26.
Egleton, "Baron," 373.
Elizabeth, a sharp censor, 16;
stage used to attack, 17, 18.
Elrington, Tom, in "Oroonoko," 341, 407, 408;
a substitute for Booth, 407;
as Bajazet, 407;
plays against Booth, 408;
principal tragedian at Drury Lane, 409.
_Encore_ introduced at the Haymarket, 315.
Estcourt, Richard, his youthful adventures, 284;
as Dominic, 295;
"the true Serjeant Kite," 302, 325;
his career, 324-326;
becomes a wine merchant, 326;
his death, 326.
Etherege, Sir John, 202-207.
Eugene, Prince, and Mrs. Centlivre, 320.
Evans, Miss, a dancer, 272.
Evelyn at the theatre, 251, 257;
on licentious plays, 255.
Falkland, Viscount, 193.
Fane, Sir Francis, 201.
Farquhar, Captain George, 234, 281;
his "Recruiting Officer," 297;
his death, 304.
Farren, William, mentioned, 97.
Fenton, Elijah, his treatment by Cibber, 374;
success of his "Mariamne," 374.
Fenton, Lavinia, her first appearance, 384;
as Polly Peachum, 388;
and the Duke of Bolton, 389.
Field, Nathaniel, the actor, 26.
Fielding, Henry, 425;
his "Tom Thumb," 353, 426.
Filmer, Dr., 210.
Flecnoe, 229.
Floid, actor, 65, 70.
Folkes, Martin, marries Mrs. Bradshaw, 332.
Footmen admitted free to gallery, 267.
Fortune Theatre, Playhouse Yard, 31.
Foster, actor, 40.
French actors and actresses in Blackfriars, 65;
pelted off the stage, 66.
French Company, a, at Lincoln's Inn, 357.
Frowde, Philip, dramatist, 383.
Fryer, Peg, an actress eighty-five years old, 364.
"Gammer Gurton's Needle," 16.
Garrick, David, 125, 133, 169.
Gay, John, 342;
his first piece, 329;
his "What D'ye Call It?" 334;
his "Captives," 376;
the "Beggar's Opera," 386, 388;
his "Polly" forbidden, 422.
Geoffrey, an early manager, 7.
Gibbs, Mrs., 65.
Giffard as Prince of Wales in "Henry IV.", 415.
Gildon, Charles, 220, 285.
Gillow, actor, 163.
Globe Alley, 32.
Globe Theatre, 32, 33.
Gloucester, Richard, Duke of, 9.
Goffe, an actor, 54.
Goodman, Cardell ("Scum"), 64;
as Julius Cæsar, 101;
as Alexander, 101;
his rascalities, 102, 103;
his prophecy regarding Cibber, 103.
Goodman's Fields Theatre, 425.
Gosson, Stephen, 19, 37.
Gough, actor, 26.
Gould, Robert, dramatist, 209.
Gracechurch Street Theatre in an inn, 31.
Griffin, Benjamin, his young days, 338;
an author, 364.
Griffin, Captain, 64, 142, 275.
Grindal, Archbishop, 20.
Guilman, actor, 40.
Gwyn, Madam, 87.
Gwyn, Nell, 64, 79, 82, 251;
her birth, 83;
her first appearance as Crydaria, 84;
her lovers, 85;
as Almahide, 87;
her sons, 87;
her extravagance, 88;
her death, 89.
Haines, Joseph, 64, 104;
at Drury Lane, 105;
as Sparkish, 105;
his practical jokes, 105, 107;
as Captain Bluff, 107;
as Roger in "Æsop," 107;
as Tom Errand, 107;
his misconduct on the stage, 107;
his death, 108.
Hancock, actor, 64.
Harris (the great actor of that name), 64, 65, 137;
as Romeo, 113;
a rival to Betterton, 120;
as Henry V., 136;
as Wolsey, 136;
his portrait by Hailes, 136.
Harris, Joseph (actor and author), 186.
Hart, Charles, 47, 64, 86, 87;
as the Duchess in Shirley's "Cardinal," 68;
as Othello, 68;
as Alexander, 69;
as Brutus, 69;
as Cataline, 69;
as Amintor, 69;
as Manly, 69;
his retirement, 69;
his bearing on the stage, 69;
his death, 69;
Haines's practical joke on Hart, 106.
Harvey, Lady, and Mrs. Corey, 259.
Hatton, Lord, 54.
Hawker, dramatist, 421.
Hawkins, licensed to train children of the revels, 23.
Haymarket, Vanbrugh's theatre in the, 297.
Haymarket Theatre opened, 378.
Haywood, Mrs., dramatist, 367, 421;
as an actress, 373.
Hemings, 26.
Henslowe, money-lender and manager, 31.
Herbert, Sir Henry, Master of the Revels, 119.
Higden, Henry, a jovial dramatist, 209.
Higgins, a posture-master, 314.
Higgons, Bevil, dramatist, 277.
Hill, Aaron, 340, 368, 376;
account of, 312-14.
Hill, Captain Richard, murders Mountfort, 170.
Hippisley, 388.
"Histrio-Mastix," 42.
Hodgson, actor, 163.
Holden, Mrs., 65;
her unfortunate blunder, 95.
Holywell Lane, Shoreditch, "The Theatre" in, 33.
Hope, the, a playhouse, 32.
Hopkins, Charles, dramatist, 211.
Horden, Hildebrand, 178;
killed in a brawl, 179.
Horton, Mrs., 336;
as Isabella, 365.
Howard, Edward, dramatist, 196, 197.
Howard, James, dramatist, 197, 199.
Howard, Sir Robert, dramatist, 198.
Hughes, actor, 64.
Hughes, John, dramatist, 361;
his "Siege of Damascus," 361, 362.
Hughes, Mrs. Margaret, 64;
suggested to have been the first actress, 67;
wooed by Prince Rupert, 78.
Inns, theatres at, 15, 31.
Jacob, Sir Hildebrand, dramatist, 372.
James I. a patron of the stage, 23, 25.
James, Mrs., 64.
Jennings, Mrs., 65.
Jevon, Thomas, as Jobson, 143;
as Lycurgus, 143;
his silly buffoonery, 143;
his one play, 185.
Johnson, Benjamin, 178;
a great actor, 180.
Johnson, Charles, dramatist, 328, 352.
Keen, Theophilus, his death, 352.
Kemble, Charles, allusion to, 277.
Kemble, J. P., 401.
Kendall, licensed to train children of the revels, 23.
Killigrew, Thomas, 61;
his patent, 62;
his death, 62;
his company, 64;
the first to employ actresses for all female characters, 67.
Killigrew, Sir William, author, 195.
Kirkham, licensed to train children of the revels, 23.
Knight, Joseph, his edition of the _Roscius Anglicanus_, 63 _n_,
66 _n_.
Knipp, Mrs., 64, 80.
Kynaston, 57, 64, 65;
as Olympia, 71;
in "The Silent Woman," 71;
a ladies' favourite, 71;
thrashed by order of Sedley, 71;
as Leon, 72;
as Henry IV., 73;
his death, 74;
as Boabdelin, 87.
Lacy, John, 64;
instructor of Nell Gwyn, 84;
a great Falstaff, 97;
the original Teague, 97;
as Bayes, 97;
as Captain Otter, 98;
his quarrel with Hon. Edward Howard, 98;
his posthumous comedy, 99.
Lansdowne, Lord, 194;
his "Jew of Venice," 276.
Leanard, John, dramatist, 208.
Lee, Mrs., actress, 148.
Lee, Nat, 221, 232;
tries his fortune as an actor, 142;
his death, 233.
Leicester, Earl of, 23;
his players, 16.
Leigh, Anthony, 144;
as Dominique, 144.
Leveridge, Dick, 272;
as Pyramus, 343.
Lewis, David, dramatist, 384.
Licensed players, 9, 26, 41.
Lilliston, 65.
Lincoln's Inn Fields, theatres in, 61, 62, 337.
Little Rose Theatre, 32.
Long, Mrs., actress, 65.
Lovel, actor, 65.
Lowen, actor, 26, 49.
Lyddoll, 64.
MacSwiney, 273 _note_, 315, 316;
takes the Haymarket Theatre, 302, 306, 309.
Madden, Dr. Samuel, dramatist, 421.
Maidwell, L., dramatist, 209.
Mallory, Christopher, punished, 41.
Manley, Mrs., dramatist, 240.
Manning, Francis, dramatist, 285.
Marshall, Anne, 64, 81, 82;
said to have been the first actress, 67.
Marshall, Rebecca, 65, 81;
as Dorothea, 82;
as Queen of Sicily, 82;
and Sir Hugh Middleton, 262.
Marshall, Stephen, the Presbyterian, father of the actresses, 81.
Martyn, Benjamin, dramatist, 422.
Medbourne, Matthew, 65, 144;
his death, 145;
an author, 185.
Middleton, the dramatist, imprisoned, 26, 27.
Middleton, Sir Hugh, and Rebecca Marshall, 262.
Miller, Rev. James, dramatist, 422.
Mills, John, 178;
his character as an actor, 180;
his original characters, 180;
as Zanga, 365.
Milward, William, his first appearance, 378.
Miracle-plays, 7.
Mitchell, Joseph, dramatist, 368.
Mohun, Major, 48, 64, 69, 99;
as Iago, 70;
his portrait, 100;
as Maximin, 100;
as Clytus, 100;
his versatility, 100;
his modesty, 100.
Mohun, Lord, concerned in Mountfort's murder, 170.
Moore, Master, 40.
Moore, Sir Thomas, his "Mangora," 351.
Moralities, 7, 9.
Moseley, 65, 70.
Mossop, 400.
Motteux, Peter Anthony, 210;
his disgraceful death, 210.
Mottley, John, dramatist, 364-67, 425.
Mountfort, Mrs. (see also Mrs. Verbruggen), 162, 275;
described by Colley Cibber, 163;
in "The Western Lass," 164;
as Bayes, 165;
as Melantha, 165;
her original characters, 166;
her death, 166, 286.
Mountfort, Susan, 356, 357;
lives with Booth, 396;
as Ophelia, 396;
her insanity, 396;
success in the lottery, 402.
Mountfort, William, 163, 169;
his powers of mimicry, 170;
his murder, 170-72;
an author, 185.
Mysteries and Miracle Plays, 7, 8.
Newcastle, Duke of, 187, 188.
Nokes, James, 65, 74, 144;
as Nurse in "Caius Marius" and "Fatal Jealousy," 75;
as Sir Arthur Addel, 77;
before Charles II., 77.
Nokes, Robert, 65.
"Nonjuror," Cibber's, 345, 346-349.
Norris, 65, 163;
as Dicky in "Constant Couple," 175;
his original characters, 176;
his death, 176.
Odell, Thomas, dramatist, 367.
Odingsell, Gabriel, an unfortunate dramatist, 379, 380.
Oldfield, Mrs. Anne, 166, 178, 286, 320, 366, 379;
as Lady Betty Modish, 293;
as Biddy Tipkin, 295;
and Mrs. Bracegirdle, 302;
as Marcia, 329;
as Jane Shore, 331;
as Violante, 332;
as Lady Jane Grey, 334;
as Maria in the "Nonjuror," 347;
as Celonis, 359;
as Indiana, 370;
as Cydene, 376;
as Sophonisba, 423;
her last part, 424.
Oldmixon, John, dramatist, 212, 287;
operas, 63.
Opera, introduction of, after the Italian manner, 295.
Orrery, Lord, 191, 192, 283.
Otway, 232;
tries his fortune on the stage, 142;
his assault on Shakspeare, 219;
his death, 233.
Owenson, a comic Tamerlane, 282.
Oxford, Earl of, 92.
Oxford, plays at, 45.
Pack, 178, 343;
his original characters, 181;
as Thisbe, 343;
his retirement, 369.
Pantomimes, 319, 377.
Paris Garden, 32.
Patents--(1574), 21;
Killigrew's, 61;
Davenant's, 61;
value of, 306.
Payne licensed to train children of the revels, 23.
Payne, Nevil, 208.
Peer, William, 163;
as the Apothecary and as the speaker of the prologue in "Hamlet,"
175;
his death, 175, 330.
Pepys, Samuel, 71, 78, 79, 80, 82, 86, 111, 112, 119, 120, 137, 246,
247, 248, 249, 252, 254, 264;
his low opinion of Shakspeare, 221.
Percival, Mrs., see Mrs. Verbruggen.
Philips, Ambrose, 368;
success of his "Distressed Mother," 321;
his "Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester," 371.
Philips, Mrs., dramatist, 238.
"Phoenix," the, 60.
Pinkethman, 163;
an incorrigible "gagger," 177;
as Harlequin, 178;
his good fortune, 178;
his death, 377.
Piran Round, 34.
Pix, Mrs., dramatist, 186, 242.
Playhouse Yard, 31.
Playhouses and Bear Garden presented as a nuisance, 181.
Pollard, 49.
Pope, Alexander, actor, 401.
Pope Alexander, on Betterton, 119;
and Ambrose Philips, 323;
part author of "Three Hours after Marriage," 342.
Pordage, Samuel, dramatist, 208.
Porter, Tom, 201.
Porter, Mrs., 316;
as Hermione, 321;
as Lucia in "Cato," 329;
as Alicia, 331;
as Isabella, 342;
as Lady Woodvil, 347;
as Volumnia, 359;
as Leonora, 365.
Powell, George, 305, 315;
imprisoned for deserting Betterton's company, 131;
his dresser's _contretemps_, 131;
as Falstaff, 141;
his original parts, 141;
as Worthy, 142;
Oroonoko taken from him, 172;
as Orestes, 172;
an author, 186;
striking a gentleman, 307;
his death, 336;
injured by Sandford on the stage, 349.
Price, actor, 65.
Price, Mrs., her curious marriage, 104.
Prices of admission, 140, 306.
"Provoked Husband," by Vanbrugh and Cibber, 386.
Prynne's "Histrio-Mastix," 42.
Queen's Theatre, the, 297.
Quin, James, 341, 357, 400;
kills Bowen, 174, 175 _note_, 349;
his first appearance, 334;
as Hotspur, Tamerlane, Morat, Mark Antony, and Scipio, 350;
as Sir Walter Raleigh, 357;
as Henry IV. of France, 363;
his progress, 366;
as Macheath, 424.
Raftor, Miss (afterwards Mrs. Clive), her first appearance as
Dorinda, 420.
"Ralph Roister Doister," 10.
Ralph, James, 425.
Ravenscroft, Edward, dramatist, 219, 222.
Rawlins, Tom, dramatist, 208.
Reakstraw, actor, killed on the stage, 374.
Red Bull, Clerkenwell, 31.
Reeves, actor, 64.
Reeves, Mrs., actress, 64.
"Rehearsal, The," 188.
Revet, Ned, dramatist, 207.
Rhodes, the prompter, 53, 117;
receives a licence from Monk, 57.
Rhodes, Richard, the author, 207.
Rich, Christopher, 62, 273 _note_;
driven from Drury Lane by Collier, 312;
his patent restored, 337.
Rich, John, 338;
opens Lincoln's Inn Fields, 337;
as Harlequin, 345;
founds the Christmas pantomime, 377.
Richard III. first royal patron of stage in England, 9.
Richards, actor, 65.
Riots, 260.
Robinson, Will, actor, 26;
killed in action, 48;
an accomplished "actress," 68.
Rochester, Wilmot, Earl of, 190.
Rogers, Mrs., as Amanda, 142;
her death, 356;
her characters, 357.
"Rogues and Vagabonds," 21.
Rose Alley, 32.
Rose Theatre, 32, 33.
Rowe, Nicholas, 305;
his "Tamerlane," 281;
his "Fair Penitent," 286, 288;
his "Jane Shore," 330, 331;
his "Lady Jane Grey," 335;
his Prologue to the "Nonjuror," 347.
Rupert, Prince, and Mrs. Hughes, 78.
Russell Court Chapel, proceeds of "Hamlet" given to, 299.
Rutter, Mrs., 64.
Ryan as Marcus in "Cato," 329;
chosen by Addison for the part, 397.
Rymer, Thomas, 215;
on Shakspeare, 215.
St. John Street, Clerkenwell, 31.
St. Katherine, early drama, 7.
Salisbury Court Theatre, 61.
Sandford, 65, 145;
as Banquo's Ghost to Smith's Banquo, 145;
famous for his villains, 145, 146;
nearly kills Powell on the stage, 349.
Sandford, dramatist, 378.
Santlow, Hester (Mrs. Booth), 298;
as the Eunuch in "Valentinian," 314;
as Dorcas Zeal, 314, 404;
her marriage, 358, 403;
Booth's ode to her, 403.
Saunders, dramatist, 209.
Saunders, Mrs., her retirement, 366.
Saunderson, Mrs. (afterwards Mrs. Betterton), 65;
as Ianthe, 68;
as Ophelia, 109, 112.
Savage, Richard, his first play, 345;
his attempt at acting, 372.
Scott, Thomas, dramatist, 210.
Scudamore, 138, 178;
a Jacobite agent, 138;
marries a fortune, 138.
Sedley, Sir Charles, 202-7, 251, 252;
mimicked by Kynaston, 71.
Settle, Elkanah, 233, 316.
Sewell, Dr., dramatist, 357.
Seymour, Mrs., marries Boheme, 374;
as Mariamne, 375.
Shadwell, Thomas, 219, 222, 229, 233.
Shakspeare, Charles, 63.
Shakspeare, W., acting in his own comedy of "As you Like it," 64;
"improvements" on him, 219, 289;
the Chandos portrait, 155.
Shakspeare's plays more frequently acted in 1703-4, 289.
Shaucks, actor, 26.
Shatterel, 48.
Shatterel, Robert, 64.
Shatterel, William, 64.
Sheridan, R. B., borrowing from Wycherley, 223;
on the old comedies, 226.
Sheridan, Thomas, 400.
Shipman, 208.
Shirley, actor, 64.
Shirley, James, dramatist, 222.
Skipwith, Sir Thomas, patentee, 306.
Slingsby, Lady Mary, 148;
her death, 148.
Smith, William, actor, 65;
as Banquo, 145;
as Sir Fopling Flutter and Pierre, Chamont and Scandal, 147;
as Cyaxares, 147;
his death, 147;
the reason of his retirement, 147.
Smith, Edmund ("Captain Rag"), 303.
Smythe, James Moore, dramatist, 381, 382, 383.
South, on the wickedness of theatres, 271.
Southerne, Thomas, dramatist, 234;
his "Spartan Dame," 359;
his last play, 380.
Spiller, James, his wonderful acting of an old man, 344;
as Mat o' the Mint, 388;
his sudden death, 425.
Stage, condition of, at end of seventeenth century, 181, 273;
at beginning of eighteenth century, 274.
Stage denounced by the clergy, 13, 19, 20, 26, 37, 38.
"Stage Plays: A Short Treatise against," 38.
Stapylton, Sir Robert, dramatist, 196.
Starring, first instance of, 272.
Steele, Sir Richard, 278;
his comedy of "The Funeral," 278;
his _Christian Hero_, 279;
his "Lying Lover," 289;
his "Tender Husband," 294;
made a partner in the Drury Lane patent, 333, 334;
on Addison's "Drummer," 340;
his name struck out of the patent, 360, 361;
his "Conscious Lovers," 370;
his creditors' actions against his partners, 387;
his death, 421.
Still, Bishop, 17.
Stone, Miss, actress, 369.
Strolling players, 6, 9, 14, 21, 24, 123.
Sturmy, John, dramatist, 369.
Suppression of the theatres, 49-52.
Sutton, preacher at St. Mary Overy's, 26.
Swan Theatre, 33.
Swanston, a Presbyterian player, 48.
Symcott, Margaret, said to be Nell Gwyn's real name, 91.
Tate, Nahum, 220, 234;
his assault on "Coriolanus," 358.
Taverner, 311, 344, 351.
Taylor, Joseph, actor, 48, 57.
Tennis Court Theatre, 61.
"Theatre, The," 33.
Theatres, one of the earliest, 7.
Theatres, two only licensed in London, 61.
Theobald, Lewis, 311, 341;
his "Richard II.," 363.
Thomson, James, his first dramatic attempt, "Sophonisba," 423.
Thurmond, actor, 178, 181.
Tillotson, Archbishop, his friendship with Betterton, 124.
Tofts, Mrs., singer, 296.
Tooley, actor, 26.
Tothill Street, Westminster, 116.
Townsend, actor, 40.
Trotter, Miss (see Mrs. Cockburn).
Tuke, Sir Samuel, 195.
Turbulent audiences, 259.
Udal, Nicholas, 10.
Underhill, Cave, 138;
as the Gravedigger, 139, 140;
as Don Quixote and Lolpoop, 139;
as Sir Sampson Legend, 139.
Underwood, actor, 26.
Union of the two companies in 1682, 62, 162.
Union ordered by Lord Chamberlain, 1708, 305.
Unlicensed plays and houses, 24.
Uphill, Mrs., 64.
Vanbrugh, Sir John, 230, 386;
his theatre in the Haymarket, 297;
as manager, 297;
his indecency, 299;
his "Confederacy," 300;
lets his theatre to MacSwiney, 302, 309.
Vandenhoff, 401.
Verbruggen, 163, 172, 178;
as Oroonoko, 172, 173;
as Bajazet, 173;
as Altamont, 173;
as Sullen, 173.
Verbruggen, Mrs., 162, 275;
described by Colley Cibber, 163;
in "The Western Lass," 164;
as Bayes, 165;
as Melantha, 165;
her original characters, 166;
her death, 166, 286.
Verjuice, Mrs., 64.
Vizard masks, 265.
Voltaire, "The Relapse" attributed to, 231.
Walker, Thomas, actor, 369, 401, 425;
as Macheath, 388.
Walker, William, dramatist, 212.
Walpole, Sir Robert, and the "Beggar's Opera," 389.
Warren (a dresser), his amusing accident on the stage, 131.
Warwick Inn, Holborn, 15.
Weaver, 64.
Webster, Benjamin, mentioned, 145.
Welsted, Leonard, dramatist, 381.
West, Richard, his "Hecuba" condemned unheard, 380.
Whitaker, William, dramatist, 209.
Whitefriars' Theatre, 30.
Wilks, Robert, 178, 275;
as Sir Charles Easy, 294;
as Plume, 298;
as Archer, 304;
Wilks, Cibber, and Dogget, 318;
as Juba, 329;
as Dumont, 331;
as Don Felix, 332;
as Carlos, 365;
as Sir Harry Wildair, 378;
as Antony, 379.
Williams, Bishop, 25, 29.
Williams, as Scipio, 423.
Wilson, John, dramatist, 209.
Wintersel, 64, 101;
as Slender, 101.
Wiseman, Mrs. Jane, authoress, 282.
Wither, George, his "Hallelujah," 254.
Wright, 401.
Wycherley, William, 222;
borrowed from, by Sheridan, 223;
his death, 234.
York, Duke of, his company, 61.
Yorke, Sir John, 24, 41.
Young, an early actor, 65.
Young, C. M., 401.
Young, Dr. Edward, 354, 385;
his "Busiris," 353;
his "Revenge," 365.
Younger, Mrs., 298, 404;
in the "Dissembled Wanton," 382.
END OF VOL. I.
PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
The oe ligature has been replaced by 'oe' or 'OE'.
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within
the text and consultation of external sources.
Except for those changes noted below, misspelling by the author,
and inconsistent or archaic usage, has been retained. For example,
a while, awhile; playhouse, play-house; coffee house, coffee-house;
inuendo; intrusted.
See the Note at the front of the book: This etext is derived from #216
of the 300 copies printed. The duplicates of the portraits have been
removed.
p. 19 'twenty three' replaced by 'twenty-three'.
p. 44 'dénoûment' replaced by 'dénouement'.
p. 155 'dis tu' replaced by 'dis-tu'.
p. 200 'mâitre' replaced by 'maître'.
p. 304 'Farqhuar' replaced by 'Farquhar'.
p. 327 'had attend' replaced by 'had attended'.
p. 345 'incontestible' replaced by 'incontestable'.
p. 369 'couple' replaced by 'couples'.
p. 392 'debut' replaced by 'début'.
INDEX:
Kirkham: 'Revels' replaced by 'the revels'.
Payne: 'revels' replaced by 'the revels'.