[129] It may be well to note that there was another Samuel Foote,
perhaps a family connexion of our hero's, who held the Plymouth Theatre
from 1780 to 1784.
[130] According to Taylor, the author of 'Monsieur Tonson,' the grave
Murphy intended to write Foote's life; it was afterwards written by
Cooke.
[131] Mr. Vivian was Mayor of Truro in 1741 and again in 1754.
[132] There was a John Foote, an eminent attorney, who lived at
Lambesso, was town-clerk of Truro in 1676, and Mayor in 1678 and 1696.
[133] A case, with pedigree and opinion, signed Henry Brooke, Oxon,
Jan. 21, 1737, states that Mr. Foote was a 'cognatus and consanguineus'
of the founder of Worcester College, Sir Thomas Cooke of Bentley,
Worcestershire, and was therefore entitled to a fellowship.--MSS.
Worcester College.
[134] Garrick and Foote did not get on well together--they were 'two
of a trade,' with the usual result; and, whenever they met, our hero,
who, as Davies says, 'ran a-tilt at everybody, and was at the same time
caressed and feared, admired and hated by all,' never failed to launch
the shafts of his satire against Garrick, who was obliged to sit dumb
in his presence. It has been said that while the wit of the one shone
like a star, that of the other blazed like a meteor: yet the two often
dined with each other.
[135] Foote was such a dandy, when a young man, that he was often
mistaken for a foreigner.
[136] Cooke, with what, I suppose, he intended as a witticism,
introduced Foote to his club at Covent Garden as 'Mr. Foote, the nephew
of the gentleman who was lately hung in chains for murdering his
brother.'
[137] He played Shylock, in 1758 (with Kitty Clive as Portia!), for his
benefit at Drury Lane. On another occasion he was advertised to play
Polonius, but seems to have thought better of it.
[138] Foote is said to have realized £500 in five nights by his
caricatures of Macklin in his burlesque lectures.
[139] Afterwards enlarged and produced, unsuccessfully, as 'Taste,'
a comedy, at Drury Lane, in 1752. Foote _presented_ this comedy to
Garrick, as the profits were to be given to a poor actor, named
Worsdale.
[140] And this reminds us of the frequent squabbles, almost immediately
forgotten by both parties, which used to take place between Foote and
Macklin. Thus, on one occasion, in order to test Macklin's boast as to
his retentive memory, Foote ran off the well-known nonsense story: 'So
she went into the garden to cut a cabbage-leaf to make an apple-pie,'
etc. Macklin broke down in his attempt to remember them, but the lines
themselves have since formed, on more than one occasion, the test of
a scholar's power in turning them into Latin or Greek verse; witness
the following attempt, which I have found in _Notes and Queries_, 5th
series, vol. ix. p. 11:
'Protenus illa foras sese projecit in hortum
Pluribus e caulis foliis resecaret ut unum,
Dulcia conficeret coctis quo crustula pomis;
Quum subito attonitam vadens impune per urbem,
Monstrum horrendum ursæ visum est per claustra tabernæ.
Inseruisse caput patulisq: adstare fenestris--
"Usque adeo ne omnis saponis copia defit?"'
and so on.
[141] It must be remembered that Whitefield said of him, 'However much
you all admire Mr. Foote, the devil will one day make a _foot_-ball of
him.'
[142] This play was so successful that Foote launched out into all
sorts of extravagances, including the purchase of a magnificent service
of plate, at a cost of £1,200.
[143] It is noteworthy that the same miscreant attempted, likewise in
vain, to set up a similar charge against Garrick.
[144] I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Wright, the Clerk of the
Works at Westminster Abbey, for the information that Foote's grave must
be somewhere near the middle, perhaps a little north of the middle, of
this cloister, though its exact site cannot now be ascertained.
[145] The treasurer of Foote's theatre.
_THE GODOLPHINS OF GODOLPHIN_,