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 favorites, 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 a 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. 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 any thing in it! But the wit's testimony to character is never to be taken without reserve. 66 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 any thing 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, 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 Rockinghan 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 him coarsely joking on Foote appear thus, than when we find Lord Kelly's nose, while that lord was hospitably entertaining him; or sneering at Garrick for showing respect to Shakspeare, by a "jubilec." 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. He diu 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 £1,600, of which Foote lived but to receive one half-year's dividend. After 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, 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 part of my volume. SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER XI. LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL DRAMATIC PIECES PRODUCED AT THE PATENT THEATRES, FROM THE RETIREMENT OF GARRICK TO THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: 1776-1777.-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. 1776-1777.-Covent Garden. "Caractacus" (Mason). Caractacus, Clarke; Evelina, Mrs. Hartley. "Know Your Own Mind" (Murphy). Millamour, Lewis; Lady Bell, Mrs. Mattocks. 1777-8.-Drury Lane. "Battle of Hastings" (Cumberland). Edgar Atheling, Henderson; Elvina, Mrs. Yates. 1777-8.-Covent Garden. "Percy" (Hannah More). Percy, Lewis; Douglas, Wroughten; Edwina, Mrs. Barry. "Alfred" (Home). Alfred, Lewis; Ethelswida, Mrs. Barry. "Poor Vulcan" (Dibdin). Vulcan, Quick; Venus, Miss Brown. 1778-9.-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 Younge. "Who's the Dupe" (Mrs. Cowley). Gradus, King; Doyley, Parsons; Elizabeth, Mrs. Brereton. 1778-9.-Covent Garden. "Berthred" (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; Dolabella, 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. 1781-2.-Drury Lane. "Fair Circassian" (Pratt,-Courtney Melmoth). Omar, Bensley; Hamet, Smith; Fair Circassian, Miss Farren. 1781-2.-Covent Garden. "Duplicity" (Holcroft). Sir Harry Portland, Lewis; Melissa, Mrs. Inch bald. "Count of Narbonne" (Jephson). Count, Wroughten; 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. 1782-3.-Drury Lane. “Fatal Interview" (Hull). Montague, Smith; Mrs. Montague, Mrs. Siddons. "School for Vanity" (Pratt). Onslow, Brereton; Ophelia Wyndham, Miss Farren. 1782-3.-Covent Garden. "Castle of Andalusia" (O'Keefe). Spado, Quick; Lorenzo, Signora Sestini. "Philodamus" (T. Bentley). Philodamus, Henderson. "Rosina" (Mrs. Brooke). Belville, Bannister; Rosina, Miss Harper. 66 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. 1783-4.-Drury Lane. "Reparation" (Andrews). Lord Hectic, Dodd; Lady Betty Wormwood, Miss Pope. "Lord Russell" (Rev. Dr. Stratford). 1783-4.-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. 1784-5.-Drury Lane. "The Carmelite" (Cumberland). Montgomerie, Kemble; St. Valori, Smith; Matilda, Mrs. Siddons. "Natural Son" (Cumberland). Blushenly, Palmer; Lady Paragon, Misa Farren. |