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criticisms with tears in his eyes, then suddenly checking an unnatural laugh, to stare aghast at his tormentors. He was born in 1736, and educated at St. Paul's School. His father was a builder, and it was intended he should succeed to the business, but the footlights had more attraction for him. He made his first appearance at Drury Lane in 1762. There is a little romance connected with his life. His second wife was the daughter of the Honourable James Stewart, the brother of the Earl of Galloway. Escaping from a convent abroad, in which she had been placed against her will, she came over to London quite destitute of friends; she met Parsons by accident; interested by her forlorn position, he made her acquaintance and married her. He retired in 1795, and went to live in the neighbourhood of Blackheath; he is buried in the churchyard of that parish.

Boaden describes DODD as "the prince of pink heels and the soul of empty eminence. As he tottered rather than walked down the stage, in all the protuberance of endless muslin and lace in his cravats and frills, he reminded you of the jutting motion of the pigeon. He took his snuff, or his bergamot, with a delight so beyond all grosser enjoyments that he left you no doubt whatever of the superior happiness of a coxcomb." He was the last of the fops whose reign began with Cibber. How exquisitely Charles Lamb describes his acting in

Sir Andrew Aguecheek. "In expressing slowness of apprehension this actor surpassed all others. You could see the first dawn of an idea stealing slowly over his countenance, climbing up by little and little, with a painful process, till it cleared up at last to the fullness of a twilight conception-its highest meridian. He seemed to keep back his intellect as some have had the power to retard their pulsation. The balloon takes less time in filling, than it took to cover the expansion of his broad moony face over all its quarters with expression. A glimmer of understanding would appear in the corner of his eye, and for lack of fuel go out again. A part of his forehead would catch a little intelligence, and be a long time in communicating it to the remainder." He was the original Sir Benjamin Backbite. He made his first appearance at Drury Lane, after a hard novitiate in the provinces, in 1765. He retired in 1796. He was a man of cultivated taste, and left behind him a very valuable library, which was sold by auction after his death; the King, the Duke of Roxburgh, and John Kemble bought the principal part of it.

The name of FARREN stands against Careless in the original cast of Sheridan's comedy. This was the father of the future great Sir Peter. AICKIN, a useful actor, was the Rowley; LAMASH and PACKER, upon whom we need not pause, the Trip and Snake. The ladies will appear in a future chapter.

CHAPTER VII.

SAMUEL FOOTE.

His Birth and Family-At the Bedford-First Literary Production-History of the Haymarket Theatre-Foote's First Appearance upon the Stage-" Diversions of the Morning"-" A Dish of Tea"-A Cat Concert-" Iterum, Iterum, Iterumque"-He sets up as a Fortune Teller-His Satire upon the Whitfieldites "One Legged George Faulkner"-Loses a Limb-The Tailors' Riot "The Christian Club"-A Good Story-The Duchess of Kingston-Nemesis-His Death-His CharacterHis Mots-Johnson's Opinion of him-His Comedies.

FOOTE, perhaps, belongs rather to the dramatic

authors than to the actors, but no theatrical history would be complete without an account of that famous mimic and humourist, who certainly one of the most conspicuous characters of the age in which he lived.

His father was a Cornish gentleman, and an M.P.; his mother was the daughter of Sir Edmund Goodere, and claimed cousinship with the Rutlands. Samuel was born at Truro, in the year 1720. When quite a boy, his powers of mimicry were the delight of his parents' friends; while at school he equally

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delighted his schoolfellows by imitating the peculiarities of every visitor to his father's house. He received his education at the Worcester Grammar School, and thence removed to Worcester College, Oxford, which he quitted with no inconsiderable classical attainments. He afterwards entered the Temple as a student for the Bar, but loved better to frequent the coffee-houses and taverns of Fleet Street and the Strand than to pore over musty volumes. No young fellow spent his money more freely, nor beau dressed more gaily than he. The Bedford Coffee House, was his favourite haunt. A contemporary thus sketches his first appearance there:

"He came into the room, dressed out in a frock-suit of green and silver lace, bag-wig, sword, bouquet, and point ruffles, and immediately joined the critical circle at the upper end of the room. Nobody knew him. He, however, soon boldly entered into conversation, and by the brilliancy of his wit, the justness of his remarks, and the unembarrassed freedom of his manners, attracted the general notice. The buzz of the room went round, 'Who is he?' which nobody could answer; until a handsome carriage stopping at the door to take him to the assembly of a lady of fashion, they learned from the servants that his name was Foote, that he was a young gentleman of family and fortune, and a student of the Inner Temple."

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The fortune, however, was soon run through, and the young gentleman reduced to great straits. Making but little progress in his profession, he was under the necessity of trying other means of making money. His first effort was literary, and somewhat curious. His mother had two brothers, Sir John and Captain Goodere. The baronet had been recently strangled by the Captain on board his own ship, and the murderer since hanged in chains. It was a pamphlet, describing the particulars of the crime, the trial and execution, which was the first offspring of Foote's pen. His biographers have been at a loss to understand the meaning of this strange production, but to me there is something highly characteristic of the man's cynical nature in the choice of such a subject. There was a kind of ghastly humour in thus making the crimes and disgrace of his family minister to his necessities. And very pressing were those necessities at the time; the once exquisite petit-maître was actually reduced to wear boots without stockings. One of the first investments he made out of the ten pounds paid him by the Old Bailey publisher for his effusion, was in the purchase of two pairs of those necessary articles. While returning home, he fell in with two old college friends, with whom he dined at a Fleet Street tavern; as they were drinking their wine, one of them remarked the deficiency in his attire. "I never wear any at this time of year" (it was