Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/443

 to his 'Scanderbeg,' affirms, on the contrary, that 'he was buried in a decent manner in the cloyster of Westminster Abbey.' Gildon (Life of Betterton) also says 'he was buried with great decency at Westminster Abbey.' If special honours had been paid the actor, it is fair to suppose they would have been chronicled by Steele or some contemporary writer.

The character of Betterton stands almost unassailed, a noteworthy circumstance in the case of a man who, during very many years, occupied a position that besides being prominent brought him into collision with all sorts and conditions of men. Scarcely a discordant note is there in the chorus of praise. That he was once, 1698, fined for using indecent and profane expressions, as was also at the same time Mrs. Bracegirdle, may be set down, as may the indelicacy of some scenes in his plays, to the manners of the age. The selection of Betterton for prosecution means probably that in the fit of virtue caused by the publication of Collier's famous 'Short View' representative actors were chosen for attack rather than the greatest offenders. The one regrettable action of Betterton that is on record is the share he took in securing the signature of the iniquitous agreement which preceded the fusion of the two companies. Against this stands out a life distinguished not only by integrity, respectability, and prudence, but by that last of virtues to be expected in an actor, modesty. Out of a salary which in his best days never exceeded four pounds a week—an extra pound was after a certain period paid him as a pension to his wife—he saved money. His financial troubles were attributable to the loss of his capital in the speculation with Sir Francis Watson and to the difficulties of management. He enjoyed the friendship of two if not three kings. For the performance of Alvaro in 'Love and Honour' Charles II lent his coronation suit. The chief writers of the day accorded him their friendship, and Pope at the outset of his career was admitted by him into close intimacy. A likeness in oil of the actor, by Pope, is now (1886) in the collection of Lord Mansfield at Caen Wood, Highgate. Dryden and Rowe bear testimony to the services rendered them by Betterton. In the preface to *Don Sebastian' the former says that 'above twelve hundred lines were judiciously lopp'd by Mr. Betterton, to whose care and excellent action I am equally obliged that the connection of this story was not lost' (Dramatic Works, vi. 15, ed. 1772). Rowe meanwhile, in the 'Life of Shakespeare,' owns 'a particular obligation' to Betterton 'for the moat considerable part of the passages' relating to the life. Praise for extending pecuniary assistance to embarrassed writers is said to be accorded Betterton in the 'State Poems.' The only reference of interest to the actor that a search through the four volumes of that unsavoury receptacle has furnished occurs in 'A Satyr on the Modern Translators,' by Mr. Pr, the third and fourth lines of which are—

Betterton's acting has been depicted with a vivacity and a closeness of observation that enables us to form a correct estimate of its value. Men of tastes so different as Pepys and Pope have left on record their sense of his merits. Speaking of Betterton at a period when he could not have been long on the stage, 4 Nov. 1061, Pepys says: 'But for Betterton, he is called by us both (himself and wife) the best actor in the world.' Again, 28 May 1(303, he says : 'And so to the Duke's house, and there saw "Hamlett" done, giving us fresh reason never to think enough of Betterton.' Pope, in a letter to H. Cromwell, 17 May 1710, suggests as an epitaph suiting Betterton, 'as well in his moral as his theatrical capacity,' the line of Cicero, 'Vitæ bene actæ jucundissima est recordatio.' In the opening number of the 'Tatler' Steele gives an account of Betterton's benefit. Speaking of his funeral (Tatler, No. 167), he says: 'I have hardly a notion that any performer of antiquity could surpass the action of Mr. Betterton in any of the occasions on which he has appeared on our stage. The wonderful agony which he appeared in when he examined the circumstance of the handkerchief in Othello; the mixture of love that intruded upon his mind, upon the innocent answers Desdemona makes, betrayed in his gesture such a variety and vicissitude of passions as would admonish a man to be afraid of his own heart, and perfectly convince him that it is to stab it, to admit that worst of daggers, jealousy. Whoever reads in his closet this admirable scene will find that he cannot, except he has as warm an imagination as Shakespeare himself, find any but dry, incoherent, and broken sentences ; but a reader that has seen Betterton act it observes there could, not be a word added, that longer speeches had been unnatural, nay impossible, in Othello's circumstances.' In another 'Tatler,' No. 71, Steele dwells upon Betterton's Hamlet, praising 'the noble ardour after seeing his father's ghost,' and the 'generous distress for the death of Ophelia.'

Cibber's analysis of Betterton's acting is too well known for quotation. 'Betterton,' 