Mrs. Woffington to appear in Roxana. It was not in the least soiled, and looked very beautiful by daylight, but, being a straw colour, it seemed to be a dirty white by candlelightespecially when my splendid yellow was by it. To this yellow dress I had added a purple robe; * and a mixture so happy made it appear, if possible, to greater advantage. Thus accoutred in all my magnificence, I made my entrée into the green-room as the Persian Princess. But how shall I describe the feelings of my inveterate rival! As soon as she saw me, almost bursting with rage, she drew herself up, and thus, with a haughty air, addressed me: "I desire, madam, you will never more, upon any account, wear those clothes in the piece we perform to-night." I replied: "I know not, madam, by what right you take upon you to dictate to me what I shall wear. And I assure you, madam, you must ask it in a very different manner before you obtain my compliance." She now found it necessary to solicit in a softer strain; and I readily gave my assent. The piece consequently went through without any more murmuring on her part, whatever might be her sensations.

However, the next night I sported my other suit, which was much more splendid than the former. This rekindled Mrs. Woffington's rage, so that it nearly bordered on madness. When-oh! dire to tell!—she drove me off the carpet, and gave me the coup de grâce almost behind the scenes, the audience, who, I believe, preferred hearing my last dying speech to seeing her beauty and fine attitude, could not avoid perceiving her violence, and testified their displeasure at it.

Though I despise revenge, I do not dislike retaliation. I therefore put on my yellow and purple once more. As soon as I appeared in the green-room, her fury could not be kept within bounds, notwithstanding one of the corps diplomatique was then paying homage to her beauty, and for the moment made her imagine she had the power of control equal to a real queen. She imperiously questioned me, how I dared to dress again in the manner she had so strictly prohibited. The only return I made to this insolent interrogation was by a smile of contempt. Upon which, she immediately sent for

* A rich effect certainly; but we may wonder how the six or eight chandeliers over the stage could light up the colours.

VOL. II.

P

Mr. Rich, but that gentleman prudently declined attending her summons.

Being now ready to burst with the contending passions which agitated her bosom, she told me it was well for me that I had a minister to supply my extravagance with jewels and such paraphernalia. Finding I had got myself into a disagreeable predicament, I made as quick an exit as possible, notwithstanding I wore the regalia of a queen.* It may be supposed that after so public a rupture we never spoke.

A strange sequel now occurred behind the scenes, which caused some talk. Miss Bellamy had been much "followed" by a man of fashion, Mr. Metham, who, like other men of fashion, seemed to have been admitted behind the scenes. One night she was performing Lady Fanciful, when they had some difference.

At the beginning of the fifth act (she tells us), as I was crossing the back of the scenes, in order to go on the stage from the opposite side, Mr. Metham met me, and conjured me to let him speak one word with me in the hall. As the prompter never rings the bell for the music to cease till he sees all those who are to begin the act ready to go on, I complied for a moment with his request. But I was no sooner got without the door, than he caught me up in his arms, and, hurrying through the passage, placed me in a coach that his valet had ready to receive me. The audience at the theatre, as I afterwards learnt, being out of all patience at so unusual a continuation of the music, made the noise they generally do upon such occasions. This called Mr. Quin from his dressing-room, which lay contiguous to the stage, to inquire the reason of it. Lady Fanciful was repeatedly called, but no Lady Fanciful answered. It was now found that a real rape (if a running away with, where there is no resistance, might be so termed) had interrupted the progress of the play. Nothing remained to be done but to acquaint the house with what

* The next season Mr. Foote produced a little piece, which he entitled, "The Green-room Squabble; or, A Battle Royal between the Queen of Babylon and the Daughter of Darius."

had unexpectedly happened. Mr. Quin, accordingly, in the character of Sir John Brute, which he was performing, made an apology to the audience by informing them that he was come to beg their excuse for the fantastical girl of quality, whose company they would unfortunately be disappointed of at the conclusion of the piece, as she had left heart-free, upon finding an admirer that was made on purpose for her.

This further illustrates what has been so often insisted the intimate relation between the

upon

in these pages manners of the time and the stage.

CHAPTER IV.

FOOTE AND THE MIMICS.

THE first year of Garrick's management was remarkable as bringing seriously forward the late celebrated Samuel Foote, who, after failing as a regular actor, now appeared at the Haymarket in quite an original form of entertainment, depending on his own powers of mimicry and vivacity, being the earliest of those clever delineators who later followed. Foote, however, differed from these in employing inferior characters to help him, and a sort of drama was given; but it could not be called an "entertainment of the stage."

It will be seen how easily the law was evaded by the advertisement of his predecessor in the place:

At Cibber's Academy in the Haymarket will be a Concert, after which will be exhibited (gratis) a rehearsal, in the form of a play, called "Romeo and Juliet."

The following advertisement also adds a picture of the shifts theatrical adventurers had recourse to to baffle the magistrates. In 1756, Theo Cibber appeared at the Richmond Theatre, and issued the following:

Cibber and Co., snuff merchants, sell at their warehouse at Richmond Hill most excellent cephalic snuff, which, taken in moderate quantities, in the evening especially, will not fail

to raise the spirits, clear the brain, throw off all ill humours, dispel the spleen, enliven the imagination, exhilarate the mind, give joy to the heart, and greatly invigorate and improve the understanding. Mr. Cibber has also opened at the aforesaid warehouse, late called the Theatre, on the hill, an histrionic academy for the instruction of young persons of genius in the art of acting, and proposes, for the better improvement of such pupils, and frequently with his assistance, to give public rehearsals without hire, gain, or reward.

Foote called his show "Diversions of the Morning," and as there were dialogues with characters, the Drury Lane patentee interposed and attempted to put him down. He then adopted the fiction of inviting people to tea-"Mr. Foote will give tea;" then he had "an auction of pictures," and his personalities, and the lifelike way in which he introduced wellknown characters, made him most acceptable. The late Mr. Forster, an admirable specimen of the literary man, and one of the last of the really sound and cultured critics, looked on Foote with extraordinary favour. But this was scarcely warranted. There is not a parallel in literary history of a man for many years making a livelihood by bringing successively on the stage any person known for a little oddity, or even for physical infirmity. A long list could be made out of the persons he thus tortured.

life:

Among Mr. Murphy's papers was found a sketch of Foote's

Samuel Foote was born (I believe, but that may easily be ascertained by the register) about the year 1721, at Truro, in Cornwall; his father, who was an attorney, and some time member for Tiverton in Devonshire, had considerable places under Government; his mother was of the ancient family of the Dineleys, of Charlton in Worcestershire, who married with the Gooderes, of Burghope in Herefordshire; both of these families were of an eccentric turn of mind, which Mr. Foote appears to have inherited and preserved to the last. In 1739,