I met with him once in a house situated on the very confines of _Beef
and Law_; on the line of demarcation between the theatres and Lincoln's
Inn; a sort of _debateable_ ground between the spouters and ranters of
the stage, and the eaters of commons, by either of which party it was
frequented. Around a large table in the parlour sat a motley group.
There were ragged wits, well-dressed students, new-fledged actors, a
hackney writer or so, an Irish barrister named Shuter, a Scotch
reporter, and a hodge-podge of most discordant materials congregated
under the amalgamating power of Suett, who seemed, by the incongruity of
his dress and diversified manner, to have studied the various tastes of
those he swayed, and to be the comprehensive representative of each of
the strange beings he looked upon, with all of whom he would
occasionally identify himself with so much ease, that it were hard to
say whether it was the result of labour or of tact, of calculation, or
the mere impulse of mother-wit. The _ropes of his face_, when drawn
_taught_, peculiarly commanded the attention of the Caledonian, while
the sly and humorous glance of his half-shut eye was acknowledged by the
Hibernian to whom it was addressed; the _snow drift_ of powder which lay
in patches on his long, straight hair, agreed with the taste of his
dramatic nursling; the far-extended cambric of white frill imposed upon
the students, while the unseemly rents in his coat at once compensated
to the wits for what there might be of gaudy or gay in his outward man.
We were received with equal courtesy and ceremony by the president; and
were just seated, when a ballet-dancer of Drury-lane entered. As he was
a Frenchman, it became a question of _national_ politeness: and Dicky
_chestered_ him to his dexter! and, as was befitting, condescended to
address him. "I am proud, sir," said Suett, with the formality of _Black
Rod_ himself, "to do the honours of my _country_ to the _representative_
of a nation which held my _master_ Garrick in peculiar respect. He was a
great actor, sir; a wonderful man! Your Lekain, or any other _Cain_,
could not come up to him, for he was _Able_, Pardon the pun. Oh,
la!--but he was vain, sir; vain as a peacock; it could not be of his
person. Had he been, as Richard has it, _'a marvellous proper man'_ like
myself, one might have said something. He used to say, I was too _lean_
for _Suett_. Oh, dear. _A votre santé, Monsieur,_ happy to see you on
this side the Channel. Never been to France yet, although in the
_Straits_ great part of my life, and not unfrequently _half seas
over_.--Well, sir, to return to Garrick. There was that man 'frae the
north,' who wrote the History of England and Roderick Random,--the
latter a true story, they say;--he who challenged Campbell the
barrister, for calling him _names_, _To bias_ the cause. Well, sir, Davy
refused one of his farces; but the wily Caledonian _pocketed_ the
affront, in coolly observing, 'that he had nearly completed another
volume of his history, and hoped he might be permitted to name _the
British Roscius_, the pride of his country, and all that sort of thing.'
It was a palpable hit, sir--the thing was settled--the _manager
managed_; and _Smelfungus_ retired, _without_ his manuscript, half sorry
he had not added _another_ scene to his farce. Well, sir, the story got
wind, and some days after Davy dined with a lawyer who had interested
himself vainly for a friend's comedy with him, when, in the course of
conversation, the barrister observed to Davy, before a large company,
that he had nearly compiled another volume of The Statutes _at large_
(would they were all _at large_), and hoped he might be permitted to
name _the British Roscius, the pride of his country._ There was a roar
at the expense of Garrick. 'The galled jade' winced terribly:--he was
touchy as tinder, sir:--never was _Digest_ so ill-_digested_.'"
It was when the meteor-like popularity of little Betty was at its height
that poor Suett fell ill, at what he termed his _town_ residence (a
second-floor in a low street), and the pigmy Roscius, having eaten too
much fruit, kept all London in intense agony for his fate at the same
moment. Bulletins were exhibited in Southampton-row several times
a-day, signed by numerous physicians. Had he died, how posterity would
have been befooled! Suett was then _actually_ dying, yet would he have
his joke, and his last moments were cheered by the horse-laugh of the
rabble assembled to _spell_ the bulletin suspended to "the second-floor
bell," attested by the _mark_ of the old woman who attended him. "You
shall be buried in Saint Paul's," said a friend. "Oh, la!" was the dying
ejaculation of the comedian.
_New Monthly Magazine._
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