Doran John
Their Majesties' Servants. Annals of the English Stage (Volume 2 of 3)
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.
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 Cœur 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 Cœur 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'Œillet, 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.
