SAMUEL FOOTE.
"One Foote, a player," is Walpole's contemptuous reference to him who
was otherwise designated as the "British Aristophanes." But, as often
happens, the player was as good a man by birth, and at least as witty
a man by nature, as he who despised him. His father was a Cornish
gentleman, and an M.P.; his mother a daughter of Sir Edmund Goodere,
Bart., through whom Foote called cousins with the ducal family of
Rutland. A lineal successor of this baronet followed Mrs. Clive, as
Walpole's tenant at Little Strawberry Hill, and Horace called him "a
goose."
Young Sam Foote, born at Truro, in 1720, became a pupil at the
Worcester Grammar School. His kinsfolk on the maternal side used
to invite him to dinner on the Sundays, and the observant, but not
too grateful guest, kept the Monday school hilarious and idle, by
imitations of his hospitable relatives. The applause he received,
helped to make Foote, ultimately, both famous and infamous.
Later in life, he entered Worcester College, Oxford, and quitted both
with the honours likely to be reaped by so clever a student. Having
made fun of the authorities, made a fool of the provost, and made the
city turn up the eye of astonishment at his audacity in dress, and
way of living, he "retired," an undergraduate, to his father's house.
There, by successfully mimicking a couple of justices, who were his
father's guests, he was considered likely to have an especial call
to the Bar. He entered at the Temple, and while resident there, a
catastrophe occurred in his family. His mother had two brothers;
Sir John Goodere and Captain Samuel Goodere. The baronet was a
bachelor, and the captain in the royal navy, being anxious to enjoy
the estate, strangled his elder brother on board his own ship, the
_Ruby_. The assassin was executed. Shortly after, Cooke introduced
his finely-dressed friend Foote, at a club in Covent Garden, as "Mr.
Foote, the nephew of the gentleman who was lately hung in chains for
murdering his brother!"
Foote succeeded as ill at the Temple as at Oxford; and his
necessities, we are told, drove him on the stage. As, when those
necessities were relieved, he preferred buying a diamond ring, or
new lace for his coat, to purchasing a pair of stockings, we may
fairly conclude that the stage was a more likely place wherein he
might succeed than the back benches of a court of law. Indeed, he did
not live to make, but to break, fortunes. Of these he "got through"
three, and realised the motto on his carriage, "_Iterum, iterum,
iterumque_."
His connection with those great amateur actors, the Delavals, was
of use to him, for it afforded him practice, and readier access to
the stage, where, as a regular player, he first appeared at the
Haymarket, on the 6th of February 1744, as Othello, "dressed after
the manner of the country." He failed; yet "he perfectly knew what
the author meant," says Macklin. Others, again, describe his Moor
as a masterpiece of burlesque, only inferior in its extravagance
and nonsense to his Hamlet, which I do not think he ever attempted.
His Pierre and Shylock were failures, and even his Lord Foppington,
played in his first season, indicated that Cibber was not to depart
with the hope that he was likely to have in Foote an able successor.
Nevertheless, it is difficult to assign Foote's position exactly.
According to Davies, he was despicable in all parts, but those he
wrote for himself; and Colman says he was jealous of every other
actor, and cared little how any dramas but his own were represented.
Wilkinson ascribes to him a peculiar excellence.
In Dublin, 1744-45, he was well received, and drew a few good
houses; and thence came to Drury Lane. He played the fine
gentlemen,--Foppington, Sir Novelty Fashion, Sir Courtly Nice,
Sir Harry Wildair; with Bayes, and Dick; Tinsel, and the Younger
Loveless, in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Scornful Lady;" but he could
not reach the height of Cibber, Booth, or Wilks. He had the defects
of all three, and nothing superior to either, but in the expression
of the eye and lip. His thickset figure, and his vulgar cast of
features, he had not yet turned to purpose. He was conscious of
a latent strength, but knew not where it lay. He had failed in
tragedy, and was pronounced unfit for comedy; and he asked, almost
despairingly, "What the deuce then _am_ I fit for?" As we find
him the next three years, 1747-49, at the Haymarket, giving his
"Diversions of the Morning," his "Tea," his "Chocolate," and his
"Auction of Pictures," it is clear that he soon discovered where his
fitness lay.
At the outset, he combined the regular drama with his
"Entertainment," Shuter, Lee, and Mrs. Hallam being with him. The
old wooden house being unlicensed, Foote got into difficulties, for
a time, but he surmounted them by perseverance. He drew the town,
morning after morning, and then night after night, with imitations
of the actors at other houses, of public characters, and even of
members of private clubs. Some of the actors retaliated, Woodward
particularly. Their only strong point was that Foote, in striving to
enrich himself, was injuring the regular drama. His Cat Concerts
did really constitute fair satire against the Italians. But people
paid, laughed, and defied law and the constables; and Foote continued
to show up Dr. Barrowby, the critic; Chevalier Taylor, the quack
oculist; Cock, the auctioneer; Orator Henley; Sir Thomas De Veil, the
Justice of the Peace; and other noted persons of the day.
How these persons were affected by the showing-up, I cannot say; but
Foote objected to being himself shown up by Woodward. Whereon Garrick
asked, "Should he dress at you in the play, how can you be alarmed
at it, or take it ill? The character, exclusive of some little
immoralities which can never be applied to you, is that of a very
smart, pleasant, conceited fellow, and a good mimic."
For a few years Foote was engaged alternately at either house, on a
sort of starring engagement, during which he produced his "Englishman
in Paris" (Buck, by Macklin;[126] Lucinda, by his clever daughter);
"Englishman Returned from Paris" (Buck, by Foote); "Taste" (Lady
Pentweazle, by Worsdale);[127] and the "Author" (Cadwallader, by
Foote). In the first two satires, was scourged the alleged folly of
sending a young fellow to travel, by way of education; but in this
instance the satire fails, for Buck, who leaves home a decided brute,
returns in an improved form as only a coxcomb. "Taste" satirised the
enthusiasm for objects of _virtú_, the gross humbug of portrait
painters, and the vanity of those who sat to them. Worsdale was
himself an artist, and a scamp. He kept, half-starved, and kicked
Letitia Pilkington, the very head of all the house of hussies,
obnoxious to such treatment. In the "Author," Foote did not so much
satirise writers, or care for improving their condition, as he did to
caricature one of his own friends, Mr. Ap Rice (or Apreece), a patron
of authors, who sat open-mouthed and silly, in the boxes, to the
delight of the audience, and mystified by the reflection of himself,
which he beheld on the stage.
In 1760, Foote brought out his "Minor" in Dublin, he playing Shift,
and Woodward, Mrs. Cole. In the summer of the same year he reproduced
it at the Haymarket, playing Shift, Smirk, and Mrs. Cole. After
occasionally acting at the two larger theatres, and creating Young
Wilding, in the "Liar," he finally went to the Haymarket, where, from
1762 to 1776, he acted almost exclusively.
In the "Minor," the author pilloried Langford, the plausible
auctioneer, Mother Douglas, a woman of very evil life, and, in
Shift, the Rev. George Whitfield, who was nobly, and with much
self-abnegation, endeavouring to amend life wherever he found it
of an evil quality. Here was Foote's weakness. He did not care for
the suppression of vice; but if he who attempted to suppress it had
a foible, or a strongly-marked characteristic, Foote laid hold of
him, and made him look like a fool or a rascal, in the eyes of a too
willing audience.
The "Minor" failed in Dublin, very much to the credit of an Irish
audience, if they condemned it on the ground of its grossness and
immorality. To the credit of English society, there was strong
protest made against it here; and also in Scotland--in and out of
the pulpit; but the theatres were full whenever it was represented,
nevertheless! The injury it effected must have been incalculable, for
the wit was on a par with the blasphemy; but when Saving Grace and
the work of the Holy Ghost are employed to raise a laugh of derision,
the edification of the hearers is as little to be expected as it was
hoped or cared for by the author. Foote, nevertheless, protested that
in this piece, which brought back the coarseness of Aphra Behn, with
a deeper irreligious tint, he meant no offence against the pious, but
only against hypocrites. He was merely driven to that excuse. It is
one, I think, that cannot be accepted, for Foote was not a truthful
man. When he was taxed with ridiculing the Duchess of Kingston as
Kitty Crocodile, in the "Trip to Calais," he assured Lord Hertford,
the Chamberlain, that he had no idea that the allusions in that
piece could apply to the duchess; and when he failed in procuring a
license to play it, he had the impudence to assert, as the grounds
of failure, that he had refused to put Lord Hertford's son on the
box-keeper's free list--or as a more improbable story has it, to make
the young gentleman box-keeper; and--hence, denial of the license!
Lady Llanover, in a note in her _Memoirs of Mrs. Delaney_, roundly
asserts that when Foote had completed his caricature of the duchess,
"he informed her of it, in the hopes of extorting a large bribe for
its suppression;" but from this assertion I dissent; though it is not
improbable, as Walpole has recorded, that the duchess offered him a
bribe "just as if he had been a member of parliament!"
Foote's fourteen years' of summer seasons at the Haymarket, formed an
era of their own. There had never been anything resembling it, nor
has anything like it succeeded. In his first year, 1762, he produced
the "Orators." "There is a madness for oratorys," writes Walpole,
alluding to Macklin's school, and Foote's lectures. In the satire on
public speakers, Foote caricatured Faulkner, the Irish publisher; a
fact which Chesterfield was the first to joyfully proclaim to the
victim, whose infirmity--he had but one leg--should have saved him
from what otherwise may have been due to his conceit, if personal
caricature be justifiable at all.
In the "Mayor of Garratt," the more general caricature of a
class--the Sneaks and the Bruins, has been more lastingly popular;
the individual, however, is included in Matthew Mug, aimed at the
Duke of Newcastle.
In the "Patron," the general satire was levelled at the enthusiasm
of antiquaries, men capable of falling in love with a lady, because
her nose resembled that of the bust of the Empress Poppoea. The
individual pilloried in this piece was Lord Melcombe, under the form
of Sir Thomas Lofty, played by Foote; who also laughed at the English
Nabob of that day, in Sir Peter Pepperpot, acted by him, in the same
piece. Foote considered this his best play; but in this, as in all
his pieces, with much original wit, there was rank, though judicious
plagiarism, from the stores of other writers.
In the "Commissary," Foote, as Zachary Fungus, aimed his shafts at
the gentility of the vulgar; hitting Dr. Arne, personally, in the
character of Dr. Catgut. In 1766, Foote met with the accident which
reduced him to the condition of one-legged George Faulkner, whom he
held up to ridicule in the "Orators," and he did not play;[128] but
in 1767 he opened the Haymarket Theatre, after reconstructing the
interior. He wrote no new piece; but he had the Barrys for a few
nights, and brought out that burlesque-tragedy, the "Tailors," which
was said to have been left anonymously at Dodsley's shop, and which
kept its vitality down to the days of John Reeve. The fault of this
piece is not in having tailors instead of persons of consequence in a
burlesque, but--that the tailors talk seriously, and like people of
consequence, well brought up.
His great success in 1768, was with his "Devil on Two Sticks," by
which he cleared between three and four thousand pounds--a golden
harvest, of which scarcely a grain was left at the close of the year.
The satire here is generally laid against medical quackery, in the
person of Dr. Last, by Weston; but Foote, as the Devil in disguise,
took upon him the burthen of individual caricature. As Dr. Squib,
he rendered ridiculous Dr. Brocklesby; and as the President of a
College of Physicians, he exposed to derision Sir William Browne, who
had taken an active part in a professional controversy, now without
interest. Sir William's wig, coat, contracted eye firmly holding an
eye-glass, and his remarkably upright figure, were all there; but the
caricaturist had forgotten Sir William's special characteristic--his
muff, which the good-tempered doctor sent to Foote, to make the
figure complete!
[Illustration: (Samuel Foote)]
In 1769, Foote produced nothing new of his own; but the general
business was good, and Sheridan drew good houses in tragedy, both
this season and the next, though Foote described him as "dwindled
down into a mere _Cock and Bottle_ Chelsea Pensioner." In 1770,
Foote, in his "Lame Lover," in which he acted Sir Luke Limp
(Vandermere and Weston played Serjeant and Jack Circuit), made a
miss in aiming at "those maggots of the law, who breed in the rotten
parts of it." In the following year, the groundwork of his expected
annual play, was the ungallant conduct of Mr. Walter Long to Miss
Linley, afterwards Mrs. R. B. Sheridan. In the "Maid of Bath," Long
is severely handled under the name of Flint, and Bath society is
roughly illustrated. The taste, in using a private domestic story
for such a purpose, is questionable. The satire, however, did not
kill Long, who lived till 1807, and bequeathed then, to the already
wealthiest heiress in England, Miss Tilney, daughter of Sir James
Tilney, Bart., nearly a quarter of a million of money. It was
this heiress's hard fate to marry a more worthless personage than he
who only wooed and was false to the Maid of Bath; and the small wreck
of her fortune is now being saved--or lost amid the breakers and
breakwaters of the Court of Chancery.
Foote, characterising himself as a "popularity-monger," produced
in the course of his next season the "Nabob," in which he made a
combined charge on antiquaries and Anglo-East Indians generally,
in the person of Sir Matthew Mite, in which was involved the
individual caricature of General Richard Smith, whose father had
been a cheesemonger. Some irascible Anglo-Indians called at Foote's
house in Suffolk Street, behind the theatre, to administer personal
chastisement; but he bore himself with such tact, convinced them so
conclusively that he had not had Smith in his mind, and persuaded
them, by reading the play, that it was only naughty old Indians
generally against whom he wrote, that they who came to horsewhip
remained to dine, and make a night of it. The piece was afterwards
supported by the _good_ old ladies, to show their antagonism to
Anglo-Indian naughtiness.
Foote's "Nabob" afforded Walpole an excuse for withdrawing his name
from the Society of Antiquaries. In the play, Mite is made an F.S.A.;
and reads a foolish address to the Society, on Whittington and his
Cat. This was in ridicule of Pegge, who had touched on the subject of
the illustrious lad, but who was "gravelled" by the then inexplicable
_Cat_. Walpole, affecting to see that Pegge and Foote had rendered
the Society for ever ridiculous, took his name off the books; but
not on that account. The true ground was that, in his own words:--"I
heard that they intended printing some more foolish notes against my
Richard III."
In 1773, Foote produced his Puppet-show-droll, "Piety in Pattens, or
the Handsome Housemaid." In this he committed a mistake, not unlike
that he had committed in the "Minor," by taking unworthy means to
a certain end. In a dull and occasionally indecent introductory
address, he professed to have chosen puppets for his actors, because
the contemporary players were marked by inability. This was said to
a densely crowded house, while Garrick and Barry were still at the
head of their profession! In the piece itself, played by excellently
contrived puppets, Foote intended to ridicule sentimental comedy,
by professedly playing one, showing "how a maiden of low degree, by
the mere effects of morality and virtue, raised herself to riches
and honours." The sentiment here involved is, of course, made fun
of; but, in fact, the author failed to render it ridiculous, for
the housemaid declines the riches and honours which she might have
taken as the rewards of her morality and virtue. There ensued a riot,
and some damage, after which Foote resorted to the novel process of
resting the approbation of his piece, on a show of hands; but though
there was a majority in his favour, the piece was not permanently
successful. The author found compensation in his "Bankrupt," which
was chiefly aimed at a speculating Baronet, but generally at all who
were concerned in cheating their creditors. In 1774 a better, but
a more cruel piece of wit, was produced by "Foote, the celebrated
buffoon," as Walpole had called him the year before. This was the
"Cozeners." Mrs. Grieve, the woman who had extorted money, on
pledge of procuring government appointments, and who had not only
deceived Charles Fox, by pretending to be able to marry him to an
heiress, but had lent him money rather than miss his chariot from
her door, was fair game, and was well exposed, in Mrs. Fleecem. This
was delicate ground, however, for Foote, who was very generally
accused of having earned an annuity from Sir Francis Delaval, by
bringing about a marriage between Sir Francis and the widow Lady
Nassau Powlett, who had been a very intimate friend of Foote's. The
cruelty of the satire lay in the character of Mrs. Simony, in which
the vices of the once fashionable and lately hanged preacher, Dodd,
were transferred to his then living widow.[129] It was an insult
to that poor woman, and a brutality against the Rev. Richard Dodd,
brother of the criminal, and the estimable Vicar of Camberwell. The
ridicule of Lord Chesterfield's advice to his son is in far better
taste. But Foote was now beginning to lose spirit, and he produced
only one more piece, the "Capuchin," in which he played O'Donovan, in
1776. This piece was merely an alteration of the unlicensed "Trip
to Calais," in which Foote had gibbetted the Duchess of Kingston. In
the "Capuchin," he more rudely treated her Grace's Chaplain, Jackson,
under the name of Viper; but the farce had small merit, and the only
thing in connection with it, deserving of record is, that Jackson,
while on trial for treason, in the time of the Irish Rebellion,
destroyed himself.
Such are the dramatic works of the English satirist, to compare whom
with Aristophanes is an injustice to the Athenian, whose works Plato
admired; and even St. Chrysostom kept them under his pillow! In the
eleven extant comedies, of the fifty-four written by Aristophanes,
we find the inequality of the distribution of riches pointed at in
"Plutus;" in the "Clouds" the poet is in jest, not in earnest, in
denouncing vice; in the "Frogs" we have a humorous review of both
Euripides and Æschylus; in the "Knights," a satire against Cleon,
which is unequalled for fun and effect. The "Inhabitants of Acharnæ"
is a "screaming farce" chiefly in favour of peace-makers. The "Wasps"
caricatures the Athenian disposition to go to law. The "Birds" is
made a vehicle to convince the audience of the necessity of a change
in the government. "Peace," in which the heroine, so-called, never
utters a word, was written to bring about the much-desired end of
the Peloponnesian war. The "Female Orators" exposes the absurdity
of women desiring to be beyond their vocation. The "Feast of Ceres"
demonstrates that the women can both say and act to the purpose when
called upon; and this is more seriously shown in "Lysistrata." All
these, however, are original, plot and wit are the poet's own (which
is far from being the case with Foote); and the chief end seems to be
the public good, and not the satirising of particular individuals.
Aristophanes, however, goes in this latter direction, even farther
than Foote; his abuse of Socrates, a great and good reformer, is not
palliated by the wit which accompanies it; a daring wit, which was
carried to such excess that the downfall of the old comedy ensued,
and Alcibiades forbade that any living person should be thenceforth
attacked by name upon the stage.
The descriptions of Aristophanes are true, however coarse they may
be. He was a patriot and philosopher as well as a poet, and fearless
in attacking every obstruction to the well-being and improvement
of society. Foote laughed at individuals, denied the personality,
and cared nothing at all as to who might be the better or the worse
for his sarcasm. It has been said that the satire of Aristophanes
killed Socrates. It really did so no more than that of Foote killed
Whitfield. In this one respect the two men _are_ alike.
Such exhibition of character as Foote made was described by Johnson,
as a _vice_; and he, like Churchill, denied the actor's powers. The
former maintained that Foote was never like the person he assumed
to be, but only unlike Foote; and that he failed altogether, except
with marked characteristics. He was as a painter who can portray a
wen; and if a man hopped on one leg, Foote could do that to the life.
Foote himself acknowledged that he pursued folly, and not vices, but
he never mimicked in others the follies which were the most strongly
marked in himself; such as extravagance in dress. He did not aim
at improvement of character; his motives in this respect were of
the very lowest: "Who the devil!" he said, "will give money to be
told Mr. Such-a-one is wiser and better than himself.... Demolish a
conspicuous character, and sink him below our level ... _there_ we
are pleased, there we chuckle and grin, and toss the half-crown on
the counter." Now, bad examples which lower our standard of right and
wrong do infinite harm. At this sinking of men below our level, the
Archbishop of Dublin has glanced, when he says: "For _one_ who is
corrupted by becoming as bad as a bad example, there are ten that are
debased by becoming _content_ with being better."
If there was little honesty in Foote's method of dealing with human
weaknesses, so was there small courage in the spirit of the satirist.
He could annoy Garrick by saying that his puppets would not be so
large as life, "not larger in fact than Mr. Garrick," and could
mimic him as refusing to engage Punch and his wife,--Mr. and Mrs.
Barry,--for he could do so with impunity. But, Barry, six feet high,
he never assailed, and he was deterred from bringing Johnson on the
stage, by a threat from the latter that he would break every bone in
his body.
Johnson, personally, disliked Foote, yet was forced into admiration
by Foote's wonderful powers of wit and laughter-compelling humour.
Johnson, probably, was trying to excuse himself when he said that
if the grave Betterton had come into the room where Foote was, the
latter would have driven him from it by his broad-faced, obstreperous
mirth. But Foote's conversational powers and wide knowledge, which
charmed Fox, would have charmed Betterton too, and I do not think
either could have been like Johnson's imaginary hostler, who,
encountering Foote in a stable, thought him a comic fellow, but
parted from him without a feeling of respect. Johnson thought less of
Foote's conversation than Fox did; he described it as between wit and
buffoonery, but admitted that Foote was a "fine fellow in his way,"
and he hoped somebody would write his life with diligence. Walpole
tersely described him as "a Merry Andrew, but no fool." So the black
boy thought, who hated the small beer which Foote (who sneered at
Garrick for having been a wine merchant) at one time brewed and sold,
through a partner. The boy was so delighted with Foote's wit, as he
waited on him at dinner, that he declared, in the kitchen, he could
drink his bad beer for ever, and would certainly never complain of it
again.
Foote had so little moral courage, and was so thin-skinned, that
attacks upon him in the newspapers caused him exquisite pain, and he
stooped so far to the Duchess of Kingston as to offer to suppress his
"Trip to Calais," if she would put a stop to the assaults made on
him through the press. The notorious lady, who was tried for bigamy,
called him the "descendant of a Merry Andrew," and Foote informed
her that though his good mother had lived to fourscore, she had never
been married _but once_. Something, however, is to be said for this
well-abused person. She did not marry the Duke of Kingston till the
Ecclesiastical Court had broken her marriage with Lord Hervey. The
House of Lords reversed the decree of the Ecclesiastical Court, after
the lady had married a second time, and it was this reversal of an
old judgment which exposed her to the penalties of bigamy. When these
facts are remembered, half the jokes against Foote's adversary fall
to the ground.
Neither the claims of friendship nor a sense of courtesy could
restrain Foote from a brutal jest when opportunity offered to make
one. He had no more intimate friend than Charles Holland, who was
at Drury Lane, from 1755 to 1769; and whose father was a baker, at
Chiswick. Foote attended the funeral there, and on his return to
town, he gaily remarked that he "had seen Holland shoved into the
family oven!" As for his courtesy, it was on a par with his sense of
friendship and fellowship. When down at Stratford, on the occasion
of the Shakspeare Jubilee, Garrick's success embittered Foote's
naturally bitter spirit. A well-dressed gentleman there, civilly
spoke to him on the proceedings. "Has Warwickshire, sir," said Foote,
"the advantage of having produced you as well as Shakspeare?" "Sir,"
replied the gentleman, "I come from Essex." "Ah!" rejoined Foote,
remembering that county was famous for calves, "from Essex! Who drove
you?"
The better samples of Foote's wit are to be found in his own comic
pieces. In his "Lame Lover," how admirable is Mr. Sergeant Circuit's
remark when his wife asks for money, and protests she must have it,
as her honour is in pawn! "How a century will alter the meaning of
words!" cries the Sergeant. "Formerly, chastity was the honour of
women, and good faith and integrity the honour of men; but now, a
lady who ruins her family by punctually paying her losses at play,
and a gentleman who kills his best friend in a ridiculous quarrel,
are your only tip-top people of honour! Well, let them go on! It
brings grist to our mill; for while both sexes stick firm to their
honour, we shall never want business either at Doctors' Commons or
the Old Bailey!" Again, in the "Nabob," a hard hit is made at the
bold profligacy of the period, in the words of Touchet (Baddeley) to
Sir Matthew Mite (Foote), both of whom had been talking of hanging,
or worse, hereafter, to the bribe-taking members of an election
club;--"That's right, stick to that! for though the Christian Club
may have some fears of the gallows, they don't value damnation a
farthing!"
Some of Foote's apologists have almost worshipped him as the reformer
of abuses, the scourge of hypocrites, and the terror of evil-doers.
But Foote does not seem to have been moved by any higher principle
than gain. If Mrs. Salmon had a Chamber of Horrors, the more murders
that were committed, the better she was pleased, for the more she
made by the crime. Foote endeavoured to crush Whitfield by personal
ridicule; but Whitfield was a far more useful man in his very
wicked generation than Foote, who did not denounce the wickedness,
but mimicked the peculiarities of the reformer. "There is hardly a
public man in England," says Davies, "who has not entered Mr. Foote's
theatre with an aching heart, under the apprehension of seeing
himself laughed at."
Foote certainly read the pieces offered him for presentation. He
kept Reed's "Register Office" for months, and thought so well of
it as to turn its Mrs. Snarewell into Mrs. Cole, in his "Minor."
That was little compared with his stealing a whole farce from
Murphy; and the last was nothing compared with his return for the
hospitality bountifully afforded him by Lord Melcombe, at his
villa, at Hammersmith. Foote there studied the peculiarities of
his good-natured host, and then produced him on the stage, in the
character of the Patron!
Foote, again, read old pieces, with a purpose, quite as attentively
as he did new. When he produced his "Liar," in 1762, he professed to
have taken it from Lopez de Vega, that is, from the original source
from which Corneille took his "Menteur." From the latter, Steele
took his "Lying Lover," and a comparison of the language of the two
pieces will show that Foote plundered Steele, and hoped to escape
by acknowledging obligations to an older author, whom he could not
read. There is least of plagiarism in the "Mayor of Garratt," yet
even there Foote is detected in borrowing from "Epsom Wells," but
with judgment. If he was a picker-up of unconnected trifles, he
chose only those of value, and he polished and reset them with tact
and taste. He has done this in the "Commissary," in which there is a
theft from "Injured Love," in a joke which Hook stole, in his turn,
from the "Commissary," to enliven his "Killing no Murder."
Except in ceasing to mimic Whitfield on the stage, after the death of
that religious reformer, I can scarcely find a trait of delicacy in
Foote's character. He seems to have been as unscrupulous in act, as
he was cruel in his wit. One may forgive him, however, for his remark
to John Rich, who had been addressing him curtly, as "_Mister_."
Perceiving that Foote was vexed, Rich apologised, by saying, "I
sometimes forget my own name." "I am astonished you could forget your
own name," said Foote, "though I know very well that you are not able
to write it!"
Foote, who spared nobody, was angry with Dr. Johnson for saying that
he was an infidel, as a dog was an infidel; he had never thought of
the matter. "_I_, who have added sixteen new characters to the drama
of my country!" said Foote. When he left hospitable General Smith's
house, after a longer sojourn than usual, Foote's only comment was:
"I can't miss his likeness now, after such a good sitting." When
Digges first appeared in Cato, we are told that Foote occupied a
place in the pit, and raising his voice above the sound of the
welcome given to the new actor, exclaimed, "He looks like a Roman
chimney-sweeper on May-day." That Foote "deserved to be kicked out of
the house for his cruelty," is a suggestion of Peake's, in which all
men will concur. But did he deserve it? Chronology tends to disprove
this story. Foote played for the last time on the 30th of July 1777.
His name does not appear in the bills after that day. Digges made his
first appearance in London, as Cato, on the 14th of the following
August, and if Foote went into the pit on that occasion, his envy and
malevolence must have supplied him with the energy of which he had
been deprived by paralysis and other infirmities.
Foote's vanity was as great as his cruelty. To indulging in the
former he owed the loss of his leg. Being on a visit to Lord
Mexborough, where the Duke of York and other noble guests were
present, Foote foolishly boasted of his horsemanship; being invited
to join the hunt the next day, he was ashamed to refuse, and at
the very first burst the boaster was thrown, and his leg broken in
two places. Even when his leg was amputated, he was helped, by the
incident, to an unworthy thought, namely, that he would now be able
to mimic the one-legged George Faulkner, of Dublin, to the life!
This, however, may have been said out of courage.
He bore, with fortitude, a visitation which gained for him a licence
to open the Haymarket, from the 15th of May to the 15th of September.
It opened his way to fortune; and though what O'Keefe says may be
true, that it was pitiable to see him leaning against the wall of his
stage dressing-room, while his servant dressed his cork leg, to suit
the character in which his master was to appear, I can well believe
what O'Keefe adds, that "he looked sorrowful, but instantly resuming
all his high comic humour and mirth, he hobbled forward, entered the
scene, and gave the audience what they expected, their plenty of
laugh and delight."
Among the fairest of Foote's sayings was the reply to Mr. Howard's
intimation that he was about to publish a second edition of his
_Thoughts and Maxims_. "Ay! second thoughts are best." Fair, too,
was his retort on the person who alluded to his "game leg." "Make
no allusion to my weakest part! Did I ever attack your head?" Then
Garrick once took as a compliment, that his bust had been placed
by Foote in the private room of the latter. "You are not afraid, I
see, to trust me near your gold and banknotes." "No," retorted the
humorist, "you have no hands!"
Foote was sometimes beaten with his own weapons. After he had
leased the Edinburgh Theatre from Ross, for three years, at five
hundred guineas a year, a dispute arose, followed by a lawsuit, in
which Foote was defeated. The Scottish agent for the vanquishing
side, called on Foote, in London, with his bill of costs, which the
actor had to defray. The _amari aliquid_ having been got through,
the player remarked that he supposed the agent was about to return
to Edinburgh, like most of his countrymen, in the cheapest form
possible. "Ay, ay," replied the agent, drily, tapping the pocket in
which he had put the cash, "I shall travel--_on foot_!" Foote himself
is described as looking rueful at the joke. Again, Churchill only
said of him that he was in self-conceit an actor, and straightway
Foote, who lived by degrading others, was "outrageously offended."
Foote wrote a prose lampoon on Churchill and Lloyd, but did not
publish it. Churchill, the bruiser, was not a safe man for Foote to
attack, and the actor was fain to be satisfied with calling him the
"clumsy curate of Clapham."
Foote took Wilkinson to Dublin in 1757, where they appeared as
instructor and pupil, in one of Foote's entertainments, called a
"Tea." Wilkinson imitated Luke Sparks as Old Capulet; convulsed the
house, instead of being "stoned," as Mrs. Woffington expected, with
his imitation of the two Dublin favourites, Margaret herself and
Barry, in "Macbeth," and, emboldened by the applause, he imitated
Foote in his own presence. Foote's audacity was tripped up by
the suddenness of the action; and he looked foolish,--wishing to
appear pleased with the audience, but not knowing how to play that
difficult part. Subsequently, however, Foote called on Wilkinson,
and threatened him with the duel, or chastisement, if he ever dared
take further liberties with him on the stage. Wilkinson laughed at
the impotently-angry ruffian, and all his brother actors laughed
with him. The malignity of Foote found satisfaction in his writing
the part of Shift, in the "Minor" (as it was first represented, in
Dublin), as a satire on Wilkinson; and he knowingly misrepresented
Wilkinson's origin, in order to bring him into contempt.
[Illustration: (Tate Wilkinson)]
There is no doubt that Foote loved some of those he jested at. He
heard of Sir Francis Delaval's death, with tears; but he smiled
through them, when he was told that the surgeons intended to examine
the baronet's head. He remarked that it was useless; he had known the
head for nearly a quarter of a century, and had never been able to
find anything in it! But the wit's testimony to character is never
to be taken without reserve. "Why does he come among us," he said
of Lord Loughborough. "He is not only dull himself but the cause of
dulness in others!" This is certainly not true, for this Scottish
lawyer was remarkable in society for his hilarity, critical powers,
and his store of epigrams and anecdotes. Lord Loughborough, moreover,
merited the respect of Foote, as an old champion of the stage. When
he was Mr. Wedderburn, and represented Dunfermline, in the General
Assembly of Scotland, he resisted the motion for an act to prohibit
the presence of either lay or clerical members of the Church, at
dramatic representations. The Assembly had just before been shaken
by the fact that the clergy had been to witness Home's "Douglas,"
and it had smiled grimly at the palliative plea of one offender,
"that he had ensconced himself in a corner, and had hid his face in
a handkerchief to _avoid scandal_!" Wedderburn opposed the motion in
one of the best speeches which he ever delivered in Scotland, and
which ended with these words: "Be contented with the laws which your
wise and pious ancestors have handed down to you for the conservation
of discipline and morals. Already have you driven from your body
its brightest ornament, who might have continued to inculcate the
precepts of the Gospel from the pulpit, as well as embodying them
in character and action. Is it, indeed, forbidden to show us the
kingdom of heaven by a parable? In all the sermons produced by the
united genius of the Church of Scotland, I challenge you to produce
anything more pure in morality, or more touching in eloquence, than
the exclamation of Lady Randolph:--
"'Sincerity!
Thou first of virtues, let no mortal leave
Thy onward path, although the earth should gape,
And from the gulf of hell, destruction cry
To take dissimulation's winding way.'"
Johnson rightly _pooh-poohed_ this passage. Foote was admirable in
impromptu. When he once saw a sweep on a blood-horse, he remarked:
"There goes Warburton on Shakspeare!" When he heard that the
Rockingham cabinet was fatigued to death and at its wit's end, he
exclaimed, that it could not have been the length of the journey
which had tired it! Again, when Lord Caermarthen, at a party, told
him his handkerchief was hanging from his pocket, Foote replaced
it, with a "Thank you, my lord; you know the company better than
I." How much better does Foote appear thus, than when we find him
coarsely joking on Lord Kelly's nose, while that lord was hospitably
entertaining him, or sneering at Garrick for showing respect to
Shakspeare, by a "jubilee."
After all, the enemies he had provoked killed him. His fire and his
physical powers were decaying when some of those enemies combined to
accuse him of an enormous crime.[130] He did not fly, like guilty
Isaac Bickerstaffe, under similar circumstances, but manfully met
the charge, and proved his innocence. The anxiety, however, finished
him. He had an attack of paralysis, played for the last time on
the 30th of July 1777, in his "Maid of Bath," and after shifting
restlessly from place to place, died on the 21st of October, at
Dover. A few months previously, he had made over the Haymarket
Theatre to Colman, for a life annuity of £1600, of which Foote lived
but to receive one half-year's dividend. At the age of fifty-six,
he thus passed away--an emaciated old man--and on Monday, the 27th
of October, he was carried, by torchlight, to the cloisters of
Westminster Abbey, whither Betterton, Barry, Mrs. Cibber, and others
of the brotherhood of players, had been carried before him.
The Haymarket season of that year indicated a new era, for in
1777, Edwin, as Hardcastle,[131] Miss Farren, as Miss Hardcastle,
Henderson, as Shylock, and Digges, in Cato, made their first
appearance in London. The old Garrick period--save in some noble
relics (Macklin, the noblest of them all)--was clearly passing away.
What the dramatic poets produced from the period of Garrick's
withdrawal to the end of the century will be best seen by a reference
to the Supplement, which I append to this volume.
SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER XXII.
LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL DRAMATIC PIECES PRODUCED AT THE PATENT
THEATRES, FROM THE RETIREMENT OF GARRICK TO THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH
CENTURY:--
1776-77.--_Drury Lane._
"Trip to Scarborough" (altered by Sheridan from Vanbrugh). Miss
Hoyden, Mrs. Abington.
"School for Scandal" (Sheridan). Sir Peter Teazle, King; Charles
Surface, Smith; Lady Teazle, Mrs. Abington.
1776-77.--_Covent Garden._
"Caractacus" (Mason). Caractacus, Clarke; Evelina, Mrs. Hartley.
"Know Your Own Mind" (Murphy). Millamour, Lewis; Lady Bell, Mrs.
Mattocks.
1777-78.--_Drury Lane._
"Battle of Hastings" (Cumberland). Edgar Atheling, Henderson; Edwina,
Mrs. Yates.
1777-78.--_Covent Garden._
"Percy" (Hannah More). Percy, Lewis; Douglas, Wroughton; Edwina, Mrs.
Barry.
"Alfred" (Home). Alfred, Lewis; Ethelswida, Mrs. Barry.
"Poor Vulcan" (Dibdin). Vulcan, Quick; Venus, Miss Brown.
1778-79.--_Drury Lane._
"Camp" (Tickell, falsely attributed to Sheridan).
"Fathers, or the Good-natured Man" (newly-discovered Comedy, by
Fielding). Sir George Boncour, King.
"Law of Lombardy" (Jephson). Paladore, Smith; Bireno, Henderson;
Princess, Miss Young.
"Who's the Dupe" (Mrs. Cowley). Gradus, King; Doyley, Parsons;
Elizabeth, Mrs. Brereton.
1778-79.--_Covent Garden._
"Buthred" (Anon.). Buthred, Wroughton; Rena, Mrs. Hartley.
"Touchstone, or Harlequin Traveller" (a speaking Pantomime).
Harlequin, Lee Lewes.
"Calypso" (Masque, by Cumberland). Telemachus, Mrs. Kennedy; Calypso,
Miss Brown.
"Fatal Falsehood" (Hannah More). Rivers, Lewis; Julia, Mrs. Hartley.
1779-80.--_Drury Lane._
"Critic" (Sheridan). Sir Fretful, Parsons; Puff, King; Tilburina,
Miss Pope.
"Times" (Mrs. Griffith). Lady Mary Woodley, Mrs. Abington.
"Zoraida" (Hodson). Zoraida, Mrs. Yates.
1779-80.--_Covent Garden._
"Mirror, or Harlequin Everywhere" (Burletta-Pantomime, by Dibdin).
Harlequin, Bates.
"Widow of Delphi" (Cumberland).
"Deaf Lover" (Pilon). Meadows, Lee Lewes.
"Belle's Stratagem" (Mrs. Cowley). Doricourt, Lewis; Laetitia Hardy,
Miss Younge.
1780-81.--_Drury Lane._
"Generous Impostor" (O'Beirne, afterwards Bishop of Meath). Sir Harry
Glenville, Palmer; Mrs. Courtly, Mrs. Baddeley.
"Lord of the Manor" (Burgoyne). Trumore, Vernon; Moll Flagon, Suett.
"Royal Suppliants" (Dr. Delap). Acamas, Smith; Dejanira, Mrs.
Crawford.
"Dissipation" (Andrews). Lord Rentless, Palmer; Lady Rentless, Mrs.
Abington.
1780-81.-_-Covent Garden._
"Tom Thumb" (Fielding's piece turned into an opera, by O'Hara). Tom,
Edwin; Arthur, Quick; Dolalolla, Miss Catley.
"Siege of Sinope" (Mrs. Brooke). Pharnaces, Henderson; Thamyris, Mrs.
Yates.
"Man of the World" (Macklin). Sir Pertinax, Macklin; Egerton, Lewis;
Lady Rodolpha Lumbercourt, Miss Younge.
1781-82.--_Drury Lane._
"Fair Circassian" (Pratt,--Courtney Melmoth). Omar, Bensley; Hamet,
Smith; Fair Circassian, Miss Farren.
1781-82.--_Covent Garden._
"Duplicity" (Holcroft). Sir Harry Portland, Lewis; Melissa, Mrs.
Inchbald.
"Count of Narbonne" (Jephson). Count, Wroughton; Countess, Miss
Younge.
"Which is the Man" (Mrs. Cowley). Lord Sparkle, Lee Lewes;
Fitzherbert, Henderson; Lady Bell Bloomer, Miss Younge.
"Walloons" (Cumberland). Father Sullivan, Henderson.
1782-83.--_Drury Lane._
"Fatal Interview" (Hull). Montague, Smith; Mrs. Montague, Mrs.
Siddons.
"School for Vanity" (Pratt). Onslow, Brereton; Ophelia Wyndham, Miss
Farren.
1782-83.--_Covent Garden._
"Castle of Andalusia" (O'Keefe). Spado, Quick; Lorenza, Signora
Sestini.
"Philodamus" (T. Bentley). Philodamus, Henderson.
"Rosina" (Mrs. Brooke). Belville, Bannister; Rosina, Miss Harper.
"Mysterious Husband" (Cumberland). Lord Davenant, Henderson; Sir
Edmund, Yates; Lady Davenant, Miss Younge.
"Bold Stroke for a Husband" (Mrs. Cowley). Julio, Lewis; Olivia, Mrs.
Mattocks.
1783-84.--_Drury Lane._
"Reparation" (Andrews). Lord Hectic, Dodd; Lady Betty Wormwood, Miss
Pope.
"Lord Russell" (Rev. Dr. Stratford).
1783-84.--_Covent Garden._
"Poor Soldier" (O'Keefe). Patrick, Mrs. Kennedy; Dermot, Johnstone;
Bagatelle, Wewitzer; Norah, Mrs. Bannister.
"More Ways than One" (Mrs. Cowley). Bellair, Lewis; Arabella, Mrs.
Stephen Kemble.
"Robin Hood" (Mac Nally). Robin, Bannister; Clorinda, Mrs. Martyr.
1784-85.--_Drury Lane._
"The Carmelite" (Cumberland). Montgomerie, Kemble; St. Valori, Smith;
Matilda, Mrs. Siddons.
"Natural Son" (Cumberland). Blushenly, Palmer; Lady Paragon, Miss
Farren.
1784-85.--_Covent Garden._
"Fontainebleau; or, Our Way in France" (O'Keefe). Lackland, Lewis.
"Follies of a Day" (Holcroft, from Beaumarchais). Figaro, Holcroft;
Almaviva, Lewis; Susanna, Miss Younge.
1785-86.--_Drury Lane._
"Heiress" (Burgoyne). Sir Clement Flint, King; Alscrip, Parsons; Lady
Emily Gayville, Miss Farren.
"Captives" (Dr. Delap). Everallin, Kemble; Malvina, Mrs. Siddons.
1785-86.--_Covent Garden._
"Omai." Grand spectacle, by O'Keefe.
1786-87.--_Drury Lane._
"Richard Coeur de Lion" (Burgoyne). Richard, Kemble; Antonio, Miss
Romanzini; Matilda, Mrs. Jordan; Laurette, Mrs. Crouch.
"School for Greybeards" (Mrs. Cowley). Alexis and Gaspar (the
Greybeards), King and Parsons; Seraphina, Miss Farren.
"Seduction" (Holcroft). Lord and Lady Morden, Kemble and Mrs.
Siddons.[132]
"Julia" (Jephson). Mentevole, Kemble; Julia, Mrs. Siddons.
1786-87.--_Covent Garden._
"Richard Coeur de Lion" (Mac Nally). Blondel, Johnstone; Queen
Berengaria, Mrs. Billington.
"He Would be a Soldier" (Pilon). Caleb, Edwin; Charlotte, Mrs. Pope.
"Eloisa" (Reynolds). St. Preux, Pope; Eloisa, Miss Brunton.
"Such Things Are" (Mrs. Inchbald). Elvirus, Holman; Lady Tremor, Mrs.
Mattocks.
1787-88.--_Drury Lane._
"New Peerage; or, Our Eyes may Deceive Us" (Harriet Lee). Lady
Charlotte Courtly, Miss Farren.
"Fate of Sparta" (Mrs. Cowley). Cleombrotus, Kemble; Chelonice, Mrs.
Siddons.
"Love in the East" (Cobb). Warnford, Kelly; Ormellina, Mrs. Crouch.
"The Regent" (B. Greatheed). Manuel, Kemble; Dianora, Mrs. Siddons.
1787-88.--_Covent Garden._
"The Farmer" (O'Keefe). Jemmy Jumps, Edwin; Molly Maybush, Mrs.
Martyr.
"Ton; or, the Follies of Fashion" (Lady Wallace). Lord Bonton,
Wewitzer; Lady Bonton, Mrs. Mattocks.
"Animal Magnetism" (Mrs. Inchbald). Doctor, Quick; Constance, Mrs.
Wells.
1788-89.--_Drury Lane._
"Impostors" (Cumberland). Lord Janus, Palmer; Eleanor, Mrs. Jordan.
"Mary, Queen of Scots" (Hon. John St. John). Norfolk, Kemble; Queen
Mary, Mrs. Siddons; Queen Elizabeth, Mrs. Ward.
"False Appearances" (General Conway). Marquis, Kemble; Cælia, Mrs.
Kemble.
1788-89.--_Covent Garden._
"Highland Reel" (O'Keefe). Shelty, Edwin; Moggy, Miss Fontenelle.
"Child of Nature" (Mrs. Inchbald). Almanza, Farren; Amanthis, Miss
Brunton.
"The Toy, or Hampton Court Frolics" (O'Keefe). Alibi, Quick; Lady
Jane, Miss Brunton.
"Dramatist" (Reynolds). Vapid, Lewis; Ennui, Edwin; Willoughby,
Macready; Louisa Courtney, Miss Brunton.
1789-90.--_Drury Lane._
"Marcella" (Hayley). Hernandez, Kemble; Marcella, Mrs. Powell.
"Haunted Tower" (Cobb). Lord William, Kelly; Lewis, Suett; Lady
Elinor, Mrs. Crouch.
"Love in Many Masks" (Kemble, from Aphra Behn). Willmore, Kemble;
Valeria, Mrs. Kemble; Helena, Mrs. Jordan.
1789-90.--_Covent Garden._
"Marcella" (Hayley). Hernandez, Harley; Marcella, Mrs. Pope.
"Eudora" (Hayley). Raymond, Holman; Eudora, Mrs. Pope.
"Widow of Malabar" (Marianna Starke). Indamora, Miss Brunton.
1790-91.--_Drury Lane._
"Better Late than Never" (Reynolds and Andrews). Saville, Kemble;
Flurry, Dodd; Augusta, Mrs. Jordan.
"Siege of Belgrade" (Cobb). Seraskier, Kelly; Peter, Dignum;
Katharine, Mrs. Crouch.
1790-91.--_Covent Garden._
"School for Arrogance" (Holcroft). Sheepy, Munden; Lady Peckham, Mrs.
Mattocks.
"Two Strings to Your Bow" (Jephson). Lazarillo, Munden; Ferdinand,
Macready; Clara, Mrs. Harlowe.
"Woodman" (the Rev. Bate Dudley). Wilford, Incledon.
"Modern Antiques" (O'Keefe). Cockletop, Quick; Frank, Munden.
"Lorenzo" (Merry). Lorenzo, Holman; Zoriana, Miss Brunton (afterwards
Mrs. Merry).
"Wild Oats" (O'Keefe). Rover, Lewis; Ephraim Smooth, Munden; Lady
Amaranth, Mrs. Pope.
1791-92.--_Drury Lane Company at the King's Theatre, Haymarket._
"Huniades" (Hannah Brand). Huniades, Kemble; Agmunda, by the
authoress, her first appearance on any stage.
"Fugitive" (Richardson). Young Manly, Palmer; Lord Dartford, Dodd;
Mrs. Larron, Miss Pope.
"Dido" (Hoare). Æneas, Mrs. Crouch; Dido, Madame Mara.
1791-92.--_Covent Garden._
"Notoriety" (Reynolds). Nominal, Lewis; Sophia, Mrs. Wells.
"Road to Ruin" (Holcroft). Goldfinch, Lewis; Old Dornton, Munden;
Sophia, Mrs. Merry.
"Irishman in London" (Macready). Murtoch Delaney, Johnstone;
Colloony, Macready; Cubba, Mrs. Fawcett.
1792-93.--_Drury Lane at Haymarket Opera; except on Tuesdays and
Saturdays, then at the Haymarket Theatre._
"The Prize" (Hoare). Lenitive, Bannister, jun.; Caroline, Signora
Storace.
"Rival Sisters" (Murphy). Theseus, Palmer; Ariadne and Phædra, Mrs.
Siddons and Mrs. Powell.
"False Colours" (Morris). Sir Paul Panick, King.
1792-93.--_Covent Garden._
"Columbus" (Morton). Columbus, Pope; Cora, Mrs. Pope.
"Every One has his Fault" (Inchbald). Harmony, Munden; Lady E. Irwin,
Mrs. Pope.
"Sprigs of Laurel" (O'Keefe). Nipperkin, Munden.
1793-94.--_Drury Lane, under Colman, at the Haymarket._
"Mountaineers" (Colman). Octavian, Kemble; Floranthe, Mrs. Goodall
(was first acted in the summer of 1793, before the company went to
Drury Lane in September).[133]
"Children in the Wood" (Morton). Walter, Bannister, jun.
"Lodoiska" (Kemble). Lovinski, Palmer; Lodoiska, Mrs. Crouch.
1794.--_Drury Lane; in the new House built by Holland._
"The Jew" (Cumberland). Sheva, Bannister, jun.; Eliza Ratcliffe, Miss
Farren.
1793-94.--_Covent Garden._
"Siege of Berwick" (Jerningham). Seaton, Pope; Ethelberta, Mrs. Pope.
"Love's Frailties" (Holcroft). Sir Gregory Oldwort, Quick.
"Travellers in Switzerland" (Bate Dudley). Dorimond, Johnstone; Sir
Leinster M'Laughlin, Rock.
"Siege of Meaux" (Pye). St. Pol, Pope; Matilda, Mrs. Pope.[134]
1794-95.--_Drury Lane._
"Emilia Galotti" (from Lessing, by Thompson).[135] Appiani, C.
Kemble; Orsina, Mrs. Siddons.
"Wedding Day" (Mrs. Inchbald). Young Contest, C. Kemble; Sir Adam,
King; Lady Contest, Mrs. Jordan.
"Wheel of Fortune" (Cumberland). Penruddock, Kemble; Henry Woodville,
C. Kemble; Emily Tempest, Miss Farren.
"Adopted Child" (Birch). Michael, Bannister, jun.; Nell, Mrs. Bland.
"First Love" (Cumberland). Billy Bustler, Suett; Sabina Rosny, Mrs.
Jordan.
1794-95.--_Covent Garden._
"The Rage" (Reynolds). Darnley, Holman; Clara, Mrs. Mountain.
"Town before You" (Mrs. Cowley). Tippy, Lewis; Fancourt, Fawcett;
Mrs. Fancourt, Mrs. Mattocks.
"Mysteries of the Castle" (Andrews and Reynolds). Hilario, Lewis.
"England Preserved" (Watson). Surrey, Holman.
"Life's Vagaries" (O'Keefe). George Burgess, Fawcett; L'OEillet,
Farley; Augusta Woodbine, Miss Wallis.
"Deserted Daughter" (Holcroft). Mordent, Pope; Item, Quick; Joanna
Mordent, Miss Wallis.
"Secret Tribunal" (Boaden). Herman, Holman; Ida, Miss Wallis.
1795-96.--_Drury Lane._
"Man of Ten Thousand" (Holcroft). Dorington, Kemble; Olivia, Miss
Farren.
"Iron Chest" (Colman). Sir Edward Mortimer, Kemble; Judith, Miss De
Camp.
"Almeyda" (Miss Lee). Alonzo, Kemble; Almeyda, Mrs. Siddons.
"Mahmoud" (Hoare). Mahmoud, Kemble.
"Vortigern" (Ireland, but acted as Shakspeare's). Vortigern, Kemble;
Constantius, Bensley; Fool, King; Edmunda, Mrs. Powell; Flavia, Mrs.
Jordan.
1795-96.--_Covent Garden._
"Speculation" (Reynolds). Tanjore, Lewis; Lady Katharine Project,
Mrs. Davenport.
"Days of Yore" (Morton).[136] Voltimar, Pope; Adela, Mrs. Pope.
"Lock and Key" (Hoare). Brummagem, Munden; Fanny, Mrs. Martyr.
1796-97.--_Drury Lane._
"Conspiracy" (Jephson). Sextus, Kemble; Vitellia, Mrs. Siddons.
"The Will" (Reynolds). Veritas, R. Palmer; Albina Mandeville, Mrs.
Jordan.
1796-97.--_Covent Garden._
"Abroad and at Home" (Holman). Harcourt, Incledon.
"Cure for the Heart Ache" (Morton). Young Rapid, Lewis; Bronze,
Farley; Ellen Vortex, Mrs. Pope.
"Wives as they Were and Maids as they Are" (Inchbald). Bronzely,
Lewis; Miss Dorillon, Miss Wallis.[137]
1797-98.--_Drury Lane._
"Cheap Living" (Reynolds). Sponge, John Bannister.
"Castle Spectre" (Lewis). Osmond, Barrymore; Percy, Kemble.
"Blue Beard" (Colman). Abomelique, Palmer; Fatima, Mrs. Crouch.
"Knave or Not" (Holcroft). Monrose, Palmer; Susan, Mrs. Jordan.
"Stranger" (Kotzebue).[138] Stranger, Kemble; Mrs. Haller, Mrs.
Siddons.
1797-98.--_Covent Garden._
"False Impressions" (Cumberland). Scud, Quick.
"Secrets worth Knowing" (Morton). Undermine, Munden.
"He's much to Blame" (Holcroft).[139] Versatile, Lewis; Lady Jane,
Miss Betterton (afterwards Mrs. Glover).
"Curiosity" (by the late King of Sweden).
"Blue Devils" (Colman the Younger). Megrim, Fawcett.
1798-99.--_Drury Lane._
"Aurelio and Miranda" (Boaden). Aurelio, Kemble; Miranda, Mrs.
Siddons.
"Secret" (Morris). Lizard, jun., John Bannister; Rosa, Mrs. Jordan.
"East Indian" (Lewis). Mortimer, Kemble; Zorayda, his daughter, Mrs.
Jordan.
"Castle of Montval" (Whalley). Old Count, Kemble; Matilda, Mrs.
Powell.
"First Faults" (Miss De Camp). Fallible, C. Kemble; Tulip, Miss
Mellon.
"Pizarro" (Sheridan). Rolla, Kemble; Alonzo, C. Kemble; Cora, Mrs.
Jordan; Elvira, Mrs. Siddons.
1798-99.--_Covent Garden._
"Lovers' Vows" (Inchbald). Frederick, Pope; Amelia, Mrs. H. Johnston.
"Ramah Droog" (Cobb). Sidney, Incledon.
"Jew and the Doctor" (T. Dibdin). Abednego, Fawcett.
"Laugh When You Can" (Reynolds). Gossamer, Lewis.
"Votary of Wealth" (Holman). Leonard, Pope; Julia, Mrs. Pope.
"Five Thousand a Year" (T. Dibdin). Fervid, Lewis; Maria, Miss
Betterton.
"Birthday" (T. Dibdin). Captain Bertram, Munden.
"Fortune's Frolic" (Allingham). Robin Roughead, Fawcett.
1799-1800.--_Drury Lane._
"Adelaide" (Pye). Richard, Kemble; Adelaide, Mrs. Siddons.
"Of Age To-Morrow" (T. Dibdin). Frederick, John Bannister.
"De Montfort" (Joanna Baillie). De Montfort, Kemble; Jane, Mrs.
Siddons.
"Indiscretion" (Hoare). Maxim, King; Julia, Mrs. Jordan.
"Antonio" (Godwin). Antonio, Kemble; Helena, Mrs. Siddons.
1799-1800.--_Covent Garden._
"Management" (Reynolds). Mist, Fawcett; Mrs. Dazzle, Mrs. Davenport.
"Turnpike Gate" (Knight). Crack, Munden.
"Joanna" (Cumberland, from Kotzebue). Joanna, Mrs. Pope.
"Speed the Plough" (Morton). Bob Handy, Fawcett.
"Paul and Virginia" (Cobb;--music by Mazzinghi). Paul, Incledon;
Virginia, Mrs. H. Johnston.[140]
In the next chapter, we will examine something of the progress of the
stage, as indicated by the above records.
[Illustration: Mrs. Yates as Mandane.]
FOOTNOTES:
[126] Macklin was the original Buck; but when Foote produced the
farce, during his own engagement, he played the part himself.
[127] During the period here referred to, Foote played the part.
[128] He certainly played during this summer, but probably only for a
short period.
[129] This is very inaccurate. "The Cozeners" was produced in 1774,
and Dodd was not hanged till 1777.
[130] Jackson who, as "Curtius," threatened Garrick.--_Doran MS._
[131] Edwin made his first appearance in London in 1776, as Flaw, in
"The Cozeners."
[132] Should be Miss Farren.
[133] There is a slight confusion here. The company opened at the
Haymarket in September. They did not go to Drury Lane till April.
[134] Boaden's "Fontainville Forest" might be added.
[135] I do not think this was Thompson's translation.
[136] Should be Cumberland.
[137] Reynold's "Fortune's Fool" might be added.
[138] Translated by Thompson.
[139] Genest says "attributed to Holcroft, but really written by
Fenwick."
[140] Mrs. Inchbald's "Wise Man of the East" might be added.
INDEX.
Abington, Mrs., 186, 242.
Actors as volunteers in the '45, 97.
Actors at court, 132.
Aristophanes, Foote often compared to, 384.
Arne, Miss (Mrs. Cibber), 51;
as Psyche, 269;
as Venus, 269.
Arne, Dr., 269.
Arnould, Sophie, 317.
Ashbury, Dublin Patentee, 101.
Aston, Anthony, in Edinburgh, 193.
Aungier Street Theatre, Dublin, 103.
Authors, list of, with their plays from 1776 to 1800, 398-406.
Bannister, John, first to discard Garrick's mutilation of "Hamlet," 280.
Barry, Mrs. Ann, 277, 293, 339, 344, 346, 348;
as Widow Brady, 279, 344;
as Lady Randolph, 279;
her versatility, 279, 344, 349;
as Lady Townly, 279;
Garrick's high opinion of, 344;
as Desdemona, 344;
account of her career, 347-352;
at the head of her profession, 348;
her marriage with Crawford, 349;
eclipsed by Mrs. Siddons, 351;
her death, 351;
her original characters, 351.
Barry, Mrs. Elizabeth, 4.
Barry, Spranger, 92, 98, 107, 118, 121;
as Altamout, 93;
as Othello, 106, 109, 342, 344;
and Garrick, 108, 112, 113, 336, 337;
his first appearance in London, 109;
as Sir Charles Raymond, 114;
as Romeo, 115, 122;
in "The Earl of Essex," 164;
as Jaffier, 164;
as Pyrocles, 184;
in love with Miss Nossiter, 184;
as Constantine, 184;
leaves for Dublin, 184;
as King Lear, 187;
his return to London, 187;
as Norval, 189;
in Dublin, 249;
opens Crow Street in opposition to Sheridan, 249, 338;
retires from Dublin ruined, 250;
his reappearance in London, 277;
joins the Covent Garden Company, 278;
as Lord Townly, 279;
as Evander, 280;
as Aubrey in "Fashionable Lover," 280;
as Melville in "Duel," 280;
as Tancred, 294;
in Cumberland's "Timon," 294;
his physical decay, 303, 340;
his last appearance, 303;
his death, 303, 341;
account of his private life, 336;
portraits of Barry, 339;
his characteristics, 341;
his excellence in Orestes and Alexander, 342;
his pathos, 342;
and Henry Pelham, 345.
Barton, Fanny (Mrs. Abington), 186, 242.
Beard, John, proprietor of Covent Garden, 261.
"Beggar's Opera," 89.
Bellamy, Mrs., 161;
as Constance, 93, 94;
her dispute with Garrick, 94;
_début_ as Monimia, 95;
carried off by Mr. Metham, 115;
as Juliet, 122;
as Statira, 187;
and Mrs. Woffington, 187;
as Cleone, 243.
Bickerstaffe, Isaac, 296.
Boheme, 22.
Bond, died on the stage, 57.
Booth, Barton, 40, 41, 47.
Bowen, Quin's duel with, 53, 166.
Bowman, his death, 67.
Bracegirdle, Mrs., 7.
Brent, Miss, singer, 247.
Bridgwater, actor, 111.
Brooke, Henry, dramatist, 65, 245.
Browne, Dr., 185, 186.
Bullock, 67.
Burgoyne, General, dramatist, 301.
Cashel, actor, 103;
his death, 103, 104.
Catley, Ann, 295.
Charke, Charlotte (daughter of Colley Cibber), 50, 59, 96;
as Captain Plume, 88;
her wretched life, 236-38;
wears male attire, 237;
as a valet to an Irish lord, and as a waiter, 237;
her "Autobiography," 238;
her death, 238.
Chesterfield, Lord, opposes the Licensing Act of 1737, 62, 64.
Chetwynd, licenser of plays, 64.
"Chinese Festival," cause of a riot, 186.
Cibber, Colley, 5, 6, 22, 40, 41, 55, 69, 90, 131;
as Burnaby Brittle, 7;
his "Love's Riddle," 144;
asserts the dignity of his profession, 145;
account of his career, 213-239;
his early life, 214;
a juvenile laureate, 215;
as the Chaplain, 217;
his marriage, 217;
as Lord Touchwood, 217;
improving prospects, 218;
as Fondlewife, in imitation of Dogget, 218;
his triumphant success, 219;
as an author, 220;
his "Love's Last Shift," 220-22;
an attempt at greater purity, 220;
as Sir Novelty Fashion, 221;
his "Careless Husband," 222, 225;
his "Apology," worthy of immortality, 222;
Pope and Cibber, 223, 232;
his great part of Lord Foppington, 224;
his care as an actor, 225;
essentially a comic actor, 226;
a perfect critic, 227;
his candour and modesty, 227-28;
his "Richard III.," 228;
Cibber and his critics, 230;
his person, 231;
his Justice Shallow, 232;
election to White's Club, 233;
his death, 235;
his children, 236;
summary of his character, 239.
Cibber, Colley, quoted--on Mrs. Oldfield, 5, 6;
on Mrs. Oldfield and Wilks, 8;
on plays at Court, 134;
on critics, 143.
Cibber, Jane, as Juliet, 96.
Cibber, Mrs. Susanna Maria, 26, 59, 97, 118, 121, 181, 236, 288, 341;
her first appearance as an actress, 56;
as Hermione, 57;
as Indiana, 58, 121, 271;
as the Lady in "Comus," 67;
and her husband, 68;
as Sigismunda, 91;
and Garrick, 91;
as Juliet, 115, 122;
as Alicia, 125, 272;
as Isabella, 236;
account of her career, 268-76;
her death, 268;
marriage to Theophilus Cibber, 269;
as Zara, taught by Colley Cibber, 270;
success of her Zara, 271;
her perfection as Ophelia, 271;
not successful in sprightly comedy, 272;
her characteristics, 272;
her scoundrelly husband, 273;
plays Coelia in the "School for Lovers," 273;
her last appearance, 274;
her death, 274;
in a fracas at Bath, 275;
as Polly Peachum, 357.
Cibber, Theophilus, 26, 96, 236;
as George Barnwell, 24;
heads the secession from Highmore, 49;
his treatment of his wife, 68, 273;
his dispute with T. Sheridan, 105;
duel with Quin, 167;
his death, 238, 243.
Clairon, the French actress, 15, 317.
Clarke, actor, 295.
Clive, Kitty, 50, 55, 59, 291, 354;
as Euphrosyne, 67;
as Lettice, 139;
her marriage, 355;
as Bizarre, 357;
as a mimic, 357;
her power over her audiences, 357;
as Lucy, 357;
her original characters, 357, 362;
her farewell to the stage, 358;
in her retirement, 359;
and Horace Walpole, 360;
her death, 362.
Colman, the elder, 245;
his "Jealous Wife," 246;
part author of the "Clandestine Marriage," 246;
and Garrick, 324.
Cooke, Thomas, dramatist, 60, 89.
Cooper, Mrs., dramatist, 58.
Covent Garden, opening of, 30, 31;
sold for £60,000, 261.
Cradock, dramatist, 294.
Crawford, an Irish barrister, marries Mrs. Barry, 349;
becomes an actor, 349;
his bad conduct, 349, 350;
his shabbiness, 350.
Crawford, Mrs. (see Mrs. Barry), overshadowed by Mrs. Siddons, 351;
her last appearance, 351.
Crisp, Henry, his "Virginia," 183.
Critics, 143.
Cumberland, Richard, his "Timon," 294;
his numerous plays, 296, 297;
his "Wheel of Fortune," 297;
his "Choleric Man," 301;
his account of Garrick and Quin's first appearance in the same
play, 313.
Dance (stage name, Love), 291.
Dancer, Mrs. (afterwards Mrs. Barry and Mrs. Crawford), 277, 339,
344, 348.
Davies, Thomas, quoted--on Garrick, 71, 73;
on Mrs. Porter, 84;
on Garrick and Mrs. Cibber, 91;
on Quin, 168;
on Cibber's election to White's Club, 233;
on Garrick and Quin in the "Fair Penitent," 311.
Delane, actor, 27, 103;
his death, 119;
as King John, 61.
Delaney, Mrs., on Garrick, 77, 330;
on Barry, 338.
Dexter, actor, 321.
Digges, West, 196, 397;
as Norval, 189.
Dodsley, dramatist, 60;
his "Cleone," 243.
"Douglas," 189, 195, 196.
Dow, dramatist, 292.
Dramatists "in state," 157.
Dublin stage, the, 99, 248-52.
Dyer, actor, 118.
Edinburgh, the theatre in, 190.
Edwin, 397.
Elliston, 111.
Elmey, Mrs., 182.
Elrington, Thomas, a Dublin favourite, 101, 102;
his death, 103.
Farquhar and Mrs. Oldfield, 2.
Farren, Elizabeth, 397.
Farren, William, allusion to, 246.
"Fatal Curiosity," 59.
Fielding, 26, 59, 65, 156.
Fitzgerald, Percy, his opinion of Garrick, 333 _n._
Fleetwood, 86, 87.
Foote, Samuel, 88, 116, 174, 371;
as Othello, 88;
as Shylock, 242;
as Matthew Mug, 246;
account of his career, 371-97;
his early life, 372;
his first appearance on the stage, 373;
his abilities, 373;
his "Entertainment," 374;
as author and actor, 374, 375;
his personal satires, 189, 374, 382-84;
his "Minor," 376;
a disgrace to the stage, 377;
his seasons at the Haymarket, 378;
his serious accident, 379, 392;
his ingenuity, 381;
Dr. Johnson on Foote, 385, 386, 387;
his lack of courage, 386;
his quarrel with the Duchess of Kingston, 387;
his wit, 388, 389, 393;
a plagiarist, 390;
his lack of feeling, 391;
his vanity, 392;
obtains a license to open the Haymarket, 392;
imitated by Wilkinson, 394;
admirable in impromptu, 396;
killed by the enemies he had provoked, 396;
his farewell to the stage, 397;
his death, 397.
Foote's description of Quin, 179.
Footmen at theatres, 30, 157;
riot by, 138.
Francis, Dr., dramatist, 124, 184.
French and English audiences compared, 147.
French Theatre, Haymarket, 269.
Furnival, Mrs., 94.
Galleries, brutality of, 152.
Garrick, David, 49, 93;
as Richard III., 70, 71;
description of his first appearance, 72, 73;
as Sharp, 74;
as Jack Smatter, 74;
as Chamont, 74;
as Bayes, 74;
as Pierre, 74;
as the Ghost in "Hamlet," 74;
as Lear, 74;
as Witwoud, 74;
as Captain Brazen, 74;
as Duretete, 74;
as Lord Foppington, 74;
as Master Johnny, 74;
as Costar Pearmain, 74;
as Clodio, 74;
as Aboan, 74, 81;
as Fondlewife, 74;
as Lothario, 74, 93;
his imitation of contemporary actors, 75;
empties the patent theatres, 76;
at Drury Lane, 76;
causes a fever in Dublin, 76;
Walpole's and Gray's opinions of him, 77;
his family and origin, 78;
at Ipswich, 81;
Macklin's riot, 87;
as Macbeth, 87;
as King John, 90;
as Tancred, 91;
and Mrs. Cibber, 91;
in Dublin, 92, 104;
as Orestes, 93;
as Faulconbridge, 93;
and Mrs. Bellamy, 94;
his re-appearance in London, 98;
as Archer, 204;
the "Garrick" fever in Dublin, 104;
and Barry, 108;
and Quin, 110;
as Fribble, 110;
as Ranger, 110;
manager of Drury Lane, 112;
as Young Belmont, 114;
as Hamlet, 114;
as Benedick, 115;
his marriage, 115;
as Horatius, 186;
as Romeo, 122;
as Gil Blas, 124;
as Alfred, 124;
as Kitely, 125;
quarrel with Macklin, 151;
as Virginius, 183;
his emendations of Shakspeare, 186;
the "Chinese Festival," 186;
in "King Lear," 187;
as Don Felix, 188, 301;
and Mrs. Woffington, 200;
as Pamphlet, 241;
as Antony, 242;
as Zamti, 242;
as Heartly, 242;
part author of the "Clandestine Marriage," 246;
as Mr. Oakley, 246;
as Sir Anthony Branville, 247;
his mutilation of "Hamlet," 280;
his dress as Macbeth, 286;
his farewell, 301;
account of his career, 304-335;
his commencement as an actor, 304;
his unparalleled success, 305;
Walpole's opinion of, 305, 308;
said to write the criticisms on himself, 306;
charges of meanness, &c., 306, 307;
attacks on him, 307;
Johnson attacks his self-esteem, 309;
"Asper" and "Prospero" (Johnson and Garrick), 309;
description of the first appearance of Garrick and Quin in the same
play, 311-313;
Garrick and Quin, 314;
his careful study, 316;
an excellent dancer, 316, 317;
his power of representing different emotions, 317;
his practical jokes, 317, 318;
honoured in Parliament, 318;
Grimm's opinion of, 318, 319;
picture of him by Carmontelle, 319;
invited to Russia, 320;
his noble-mindedness, 320, 321, 323;
and Mrs. Siddons, 321;
his keen sense of criticism, 326;
his repertory, 327;
his original characters, 328;
his death, 332;
his farewell to tragedy, 334;
compared with Barry, 342, 343;
and Grimm, 258;
and Miss Younge, 334.
Garrick, Mrs. Eva Maria, 328, 333.
Gay, John, 31.
George I., his fondness for Shakspeare's "Henry VIII.," 131.
George II., his love of immoral plays, 136.
"George Barnwell," 24, 156.
Giffard, 26, 57, 62, 81.
Giffard, Mrs., as Lady Macbeth, 87.
Gildon's "Comparison Between the Two Stages," 6.
Glover, Richard, his "Boadicea," 182.
Goldsmith, his "Good-natured Man," 278, 292;
his "She Stoops to Conquer," 297.
Goodman's Fields, 26.
Griffin, Benjamin, 67.
Grimaldi, a Pantaloon, 67.
Grimm's opinion of Garrick, 318.
"Gustavus Vasa," 65.
Hale, actor, 75.
Hallam, killed by Macklin, 56.
Hallam, Mrs., 67.
Harper, 67;
prosecuted as a "rogue and vagabond," 50.
Hartley, Mrs., as "Elfrida," 295;
as Rosamond, 295;
her intrigue with "Gentleman" Smith, 295.
Havard, 61, 89;
his "Charles I," 61;
his death, 290.
Haymarket Theatre, Foote's tenancy of, 378, 392.
Henderson, John, 397.
"High Life Below Stairs," 246.
Highmore, Patentee of Drury Lane, 22, 49.
Hill, Aaron, 58, 117.
Hill, Dr. John, 242, 326.
Hippisley, 173.
Hoadley, Dr., his "Suspicious Husband," 110.
Holland, 188;
his death, 291.
Home, John, 395;
his "Douglas," 189;
his "Agis," 240;
his "Siege of Aquileia," 245;
his "Fatal Discovery," 292;
his "Alonzo," 293.
Hoole, dramatist, 292.
Horton, Miss Priscilla, allusion to, 294.
Horton, Mrs., 50, 55;
her retirement, 119;
her one original character, 120;
as Aquilia, 137.
Hughes, John, dramatist, 152.
Hulett, actor, his death, 57.
Indian kings at the play, 139.
"Irene," 116.
Irish stage, condition of, 92.
Jeffreys, dramatist, 23.
Jephson, dramatist, 301.
Johnson, Benjamin, a famous actor, 67.
Johnson, Charles, dramatist, 23, 25.
Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 159;
and Garrick, 79, 80;
his "Irene," 115, 116;
supports "She Stoops to Conquer," 297;
his unfeeling attack of Garrick in the _Rambler_, 309.
Johnson, Miss (Theophilus Cibber's first wife), 355.
Kean, Moses, 302.
Kelly, Hugh, founder of the school of "Sentimental Comedy," 278, 294;
and Goldsmith, 291.
King, Thomas, as Allworth, 115;
the first Lord Ogleby, 246.
Lacy, James, patentee of Drury Lane, 96;
partner with Garrick at Drury Lane, 112.
Lecouvreur, 16.
Lekain, 314-16.
Lewes, Lee, 298.
Lewis, William, 291.
License of the stage, restriction of, 62.
Licensed plays and players hissed, 65, 66, 149.
Licensing Act of 1737, 62, 63, 149.
Lillo, George, 24, 66;
his "George Barnwell," 24, 156.
Lincoln's Inn Fields, its last season, 28, 83.
Love, 291.
Macklin, Charles, 27, 28, 50, 55, 97;
as Brazencourt, 27;
kills Hallam, 56;
as Roxana, 68;
as Shylock, 68;
his quarrel with Garrick, and the consequent riot, 87;
as Faddle, 114;
as Mercutio, 122;
as Macbeth, 299;
the first to dress Macbeth in Highland costume, 299;
driven from the stage, 300;
his action against the rioters, 300;
his generous conduct to them, 300;
at Barry's funeral, 346.
Macklin, Mrs., 243.
Macklin, Miss, 125, 188.
Mallet, David, dramatist, 23, 66.
Mason, William, his "Elfrida," 295;
his "Caractacus," 302.
Middleton, James, supposed to be a successor to Spranger Barry, 346;
his wretched end, 347.
Miller, Rev. James, dramatist, 60, 65, 89, 151.
Miller, Josias, actor, 67.
Miller, Miss, 295.
Mills, 51;
attempts Hamlet when sixty years old, 27;
his death, 60.
Milward, actor, 57, 271.
Molière, 16, 63.
Moore, Edward, his "Foundling," 113, 114.
Morgan, M., dramatist, 184.
Mossop, Henry, 125;
as Zanga, 125;
as Richard, 125;
as Horatio, 125;
as Theseus, 125;
as Macbeth, 125;
as Othello, 125;
as Wolsey, 125;
as Orestes, 125;
goes into management at Dublin, 250;
and Barry compared, 344;
account of his career, 352;
his death, 353.
Mottley, dramatist, honoured by Queen Caroline, 140.
Murphy, Arthur, 241, 294;
his increasing reputation, 245.
Norris, 22;
as Barnaby Brittle, 7.
Norsa, Miss, 120;
her _début_, 31.
Nossiter, Miss, and Barry, 181;
her brief career, 181, 182;
as Philoclea, 184.
O'Brien, William, 241;
as Captain Brazen, 241;
plays Harlequin, 259;
his marriage with Lady Susan Strangways, 261;
his retirement, 262;
as Sir Andrew Aguecheek, 263;
provided for at the public expense, 264;
his ancestry, 265;
a dramatic author, 266.
Odell, deputy licenser of plays, 64.
Oldfield, Mrs. Anne, 1, 42;
her first appearance, 4;
as Alinda, 4;
as Lenora, 5, 9;
as Lady Betty Modish, 6, 9, 11;
as Mrs. Brittle, 7;
as Lady Townley, 8, 10, 11;
as Estifania, 8;
as Mrs. Sullen, 9;
the original representative of sixty-five characters, 9;
her dislike of tragedy, 10;
as Marcia in "Cato," 10;
as Cleopatra, 11;
as Calista, 11;
as Semandra, 11;
in high society, 13;
her death, 14, 20;
her body lying in state, 15;
her funeral, 16;
her descendants, 17;
her last words on the stage, 19;
and Wilks, 40;
and Mrs. Rogers, 40.
Opera, making way, 247.
Oxford and London, 141.
Palmer, John (the first), 288.
Palmer, Mrs. (Miss Pritchard), as Juliet, 188;
her last season, 288.
"Pasquin," 59.
Paterson, William, dramatist, 65.
Pelham, Henry, and Barry, 345.
Pinkethman as Antonio, 137.
Pit, the, 145.
Pope, Alexander, 158.
Pope, Miss, 356, 360.
Porter, Mrs., 21, 57;
her retirement, 83;
a great actress, 83;
as Hermione, 84;
as Belvidera, 84;
her lameness, 84.
Powell, George, challenges Wilks, 43.
Powell, William, his successful _début_, 244;
trained by Garrick, 245.
Pritchard, Mrs., 21, 55, 288;
as Nell, 50;
as Beatrice, 115, 283;
as Mrs. Beverley, 161;
account of her career, 280-287;
her retirement, 280;
her early struggles, 281;
her versatility, 281;
her Queen Katherine, 282;
as the Queen in Hamlet, 282;
as Lady Macbeth, 282;
her characteristics, 282, 283;
her perfect articulation, 283;
Horace Walpole's high opinion of, 284;
Johnson and Churchill's criticism of, 284, 285;
her final appearance, 286;
compared with Mrs. Siddons, 287;
her retirement to Bath, 287.
Pritchard, Miss, as Juliet, 188, 286;
_vide_ Palmer, Mrs.
"Quality," the, behind the scenes, 146, 153.
Quick, 298.
Quin, James, 27, 31, 51, 121;
his family, 51;
his first appearance, 52;
as Bajazet, 52;
his progress, 52;
duel with Bowen, 53, 166;
at Drury Lane, 55;
eminent in Shakspearian characters, 59;
shaken by Garrick, 74;
plays against Garrick, 82, 110;
and Mrs. Bellamy, 95;
and Garrick, 110, 111;
and John Rich, 113;
as Sir John Brute, 115;
his retirement, 164;
account of his career, 165-80;
his first character and his last, 165;
his progress, 165, 166;
Williams, duel with, 166;
his great character, Falstaff, 166;
Theophilus Cibber, duel with, 167;
his successes and failures, 168;
his characteristics, 168, 179;
as a humourist, 169;
his character, 169, 170;
an epicure, 172;
his powers of retort, 173;
his benevolence, 174-76;
his friendship with Garrick, 177;
his death, 178;
his epitaph written by Garrick, 178;
his will, 180;
his reported ignorance of "Macbeth," 285;
his first appearance in the same play as Garrick (the "Fair
Penitent"), 311-13;
and Garrick, 314;
pummels Aaron Hill for adversely criticising him, 326.
Raftor, Catherine (Mrs. Clive), 144, 354;
as Ismenes, 355.
Ramsay, Allan, 193.
Rich, John, 28;
and Quin, 113;
his death, 256;
the extraordinary excellence of his Harlequin, 256;
his oddities, 257, 258;
his humour, 260;
the excellence of his pantomimes, 261;
and the Earl, 154.
Riots, theatrical, 150, 154.
Robinson, Miss, 23.
Rogers, Mrs., 39;
and Mrs. Oldfield, 39.
"Romeo and Juliet" season, 120.
Rope dancers at the theatre, 145.
Ross, David, 125;
as Castalio, 125.
Ryan, Lacy, 31;
shot by a ruffian, 56;
Quin's kindness to, 175, 256;
his death, 253;
account of his career, 253-56;
his _début_, 254;
kills a ruffian in self-defence, 254;
wounded by a footpad, 255.
Saunders, Mrs., 14.
Scotland, the stage in, 189.
Shadwell, Charles, dramatist, 102.
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, his "Rivals," 302;
his "Duenna," 302.
Sheridan, Thomas, 87, 93, 106, 184, 380;
his _début_, 105;
as Hamlet, 88;
as Horatio, 93;
his dispute with Theophilus Cibber, 105;
ill-treated by ruffians in Dublin, 248;
his managerial troubles, 248;
his unfortunate meddling with politics, 249.
Sheridan, Barry, and Garrick, 93.
"She Stoops to Conquer," 297.
Shirley, William, dramatist, 66, 118, 149.
Shuter, Edward, 303, 368;
his first appearance, 96;
account of his career, 368-70;
lowness of his origin, 368;
his original characters, 368;
his facial powers, 368;
his religious mania, 369.
Siddons, Mrs., 4, 288, 289;
compared with Mrs. Pritchard, 287;
and Garrick, 321;
and Mrs. Crawford, 351.
Sloper, Mr., 273, 275.
Smith, "Gentleman," as Plume, 204;
as Ethelwold, 295;
as Henry II., 295;
his intrigue with Mrs. Hartley, 295.
Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, 99, 103;
accident at, 100.
Smollett as a dramatist, 189.
Soldiers at theatres, origin of their attendance, 155.
Sparks, Luke, as Dr. Wolf, 97.
Steele, Sir Richard, 127, 157.
Stephens an imitator of Booth, 55.
Stirling, Rev. John, dramatist, 58, 102.
Talma, 192.
Theobald, Lewis, 31.
Thomson, James, 65, 158;
his "Coriolanus," 117.
Thurmond, Mrs., actress, 60.
Townley, Rev. Mr., dramatist, 245.
Tracy, dramatist, 24.
Trefusis, Joseph, admirable as a clown, 102.
Vanbrugh, 4.
Vaughan, Miss. _See_ Pritchard, Mrs.
Verbruggen, Mrs., 5, 6.
Violante, Madame, 198.
Violetti, Eva Maria (Mrs. Garrick), account of, 328, 329;
her death, 333.
Voltaire, 315.
Waldron, F. G., 298.
Walker, Thomas, as Faulconbridge, 61;
as Hotspur, 61.
Walpole, Horace, quoted--on "genteel" writing and acting, 11, 12;
on Garrick, 77, 305, 306, 308, 330, 331;
on stage intrigues, 120;
on George II. at the play, 139;
on Glover's "Boadicea," 182;
on Whitehead's "Creusa," 183;
on Browne's "Barbarossa," 185;
on Garrick's "Fairies," 185;
on Mrs. Woffington, 200;
on William Powell, 244;
on O'Brien's marriage, 263;
on Mrs. Pritchard, 283, 284;
on Home's "Alonzo," 293;
on Mason's "Elfrida," 295;
on Mrs. Clive, 360, 362.
Warburton, Bishop, and Quin, 170.
Ward, Mrs., 195;
as Lady Randolph, 189.
Weston, Thomas, as Jerry Sneak, 246.
Whitehead, William, 183.
Wilkinson, Tate, 242;
Peg Woffington's treatment of, 209;
could not mimic Mrs. Cibber, 272;
as Bajazet, tutored by Garrick, 323;
imitates Foote, 394.
Wilks, Robert, 10, 22, 32, 41, 102;
as the Copper Captain, 8;
as Lord Townley, 11;
as Othello, 33;
engaged at Drury Lane, 34;
Betterton and Rich, 34, 35;
a favourite in Dublin, 35;
his first original character, 36;
as Sir Harry Wildair, 36;
his ancestry, 38;
his zeal and industry, 42;
and Powell, 43;
his greatest successes, 44;
as Dumont, 44;
his second marriage, 45;
his nephew, 44, 45;
his generosity, 46;
his death, 46;
and royalty, 48.
Williams as Decius, 166;
duel with Quin, 167.
Winston, Dick, 174.
Woffington, Margaret, 102, 115, 121, 174;
her first appearance, 69;
her first appearance in Dublin, 104;
as Roxana, 187;
her dispute with Mrs. Bellamy, 187;
as Lady Randolph, 189, 208;
account of her life, 198-212;
her youth, 198;
as Sir Harry Wildair, 200, 205;
and Garrick, 200;
her charity, 202, 211;
as Sylvia, 204;
as Jocasta, 204;
her best characters, 205;
in "breeches" parts, 205;
her independence, 205;
her quarrels with Mrs. Clive, 206;
in Dublin, 206;
her religious eccentricities, 207;
as Lothario, 208;
and Tate Wilkinson, 209;
her last appearance, 209;
her death, 210.
Woffington, Mary, 199, 203.
Woodward, Henry, as Mercutio, 122, 366;
as Harlequin, 121, 259;
as Captain Bobadil, 126, 367;
becomes Barry's partner in Dublin, 249;
ruined by the speculation, 251, 367;
his death, 303;
account of his career, 363-68;
his original characters, 363;
his first appearance, 365;
as Fitzfrolick, 366;
a judicious actor, 366.
Worsdale, actor, 124, 376.
Yates, Mrs., 183, 311;
as Cleopatra, 242;
as Mandane, 242.
Young, Dr. Edward, his "Brothers," 161, 163;
offended by Garrick's epilogue to the "Brothers," 163.
Younge, Miss, and Garrick, 334.
END OF VOL. II.
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,
coffee house, coffee-house; evildoers, evil-doers; midday, mid-day;
re-married, remarried.
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. vi 'Rarry' replaced by 'Barry'.
p. viii '9. Woodward as Bobadil' replaced by
'9. Woodward in "Every Man in his Humour"'.
p. viii '16. Drury Lane Theatre' replaced by
'16. Theatre Royal, Drury Lane'.
p. 77 'transcendant' replaced by 'transcendent'.
p. 81 'himself himself Lyddell' replaced by 'himself Lyddell'.
p. 107 'professionial' replaced by 'professional'.
p. 125, 201 'debût' replaced by 'début'.
p. 129, 163 'dénoûment' replaced by 'dénouement'.
p. 256 'intellegibly' replaced by 'intelligibly'.
p. 422 'epelogue' replaced by 'epilogue'.