Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/105

 stein) eighty successive nights at the Porte-Saint-Martin. In 1827 he was at Edinburgh, where he was frequently seen by Christopher North, who more than once alludes to him in the ‘Noctes Ambrosianæ,’ speaking of him as ‘the best sailor out of all sight and hearing that ever trod the stage,’ praise in which all authorities have concurred. In 1828–9 he was again at the Adelphi. His most conspicuous success was obtained at the Surrey, on 6 June 1829, as William in Douglas Jerrold's ‘Black-eyed Susan.’ After playing it over a hundred nights he was engaged to appear in it at Covent Garden, where he remained until 1834, when Bunn, who managed both theatres, transferred him to Drury Lane. Two years later he returned to Covent Garden, to act under Osbaldistone. In October 1857 he played as a star at the Standard. For the Jerrold Remembrance Night (29 July 1857) he appeared at the Adelphi as William. His last appearance was at Covent Garden, for the benefit of the Dramatic College, on 29 Oct. 1860, when he once more played William in a selection from ‘Black-eyed Susan.’ He died on 10 April 1864, at 37 Thurloe Square, the house of his son-in-law. After the death of his wife, a few months before his own, he had given up his own houses in Woburn Square and at Ryde. He was buried in Brompton cemetery. By his will he left 2,000l. to the master, deputy master, and wardens of the Dramatic College, the interest of which, scarcely adequate to the occasion, was to be paid for a prize nautical drama. In compliance with the terms of the grant, ‘True to the Core,’ a drama by Mr. Slous, was played on 8 Jan. 1866. Since that time no more has been heard of the bequest. In addition to the characters mentioned, Cooke was seen to advantage as Aubrey in the ‘Dog of Montargis,’ as Roderick Dhu, as Philip in ‘Luke the Labourer,’ as Poor Jack, and the Red Rover.



COOKE, THOMAS SIMPSON (1782–1848), musical composer, was born in Dublin in 1782, and received his first musical instruction from his father. Subsequently he became a pupil of Giordani, and in 1797 was engaged as leader of the band in the Crow Street Theatre. After some years he ventured to appear in a new capacity, as a dramatic singer, choosing for his first appearance the part of the Seraskier in Storace's ‘Siege of Belgrade.’ His success was such as to warrant his representing the same part in London at the Lyceum Theatre on 13 July 1813. On 14 Sept. 1815 he began his long connection with Drury Lane Theatre, appearing in Linley's ‘Duenna.’ For many years he held the post of principal tenor, and from about 1821 the direction of the music was placed in his hands. For some time he appeared alternately as a singer and as orchestral leader. He was a member of the Philharmonic Society, and occasionally appeared as leader of the band at its concerts. He belonged also to the Royal Academy of Music, though he was not one of the original members. From 1828 to 1830 he was one of the musical managers of Vauxhall Gardens. For many years he sang in the choir of the Bavarian Chapel, Warwick Street, Regent Street. These various engagements were of course quite subsidiary to his work as musical director of Drury Lane. The arrangement of all the musical compositions produced there during some twenty years was entrusted to him, and in days when the composers' intentions were entirely subordinated to popular effect, such arrangements entailed not a little trouble upon the director. The adaptation of prominently successful foreign operas to the English stage was held to involve as a matter of course the composition of more or less suitable numbers to be inserted according to the exigencies of public taste. Among the mass of operas and plays with incidental music which were produced during his directorship it is extremely hard to disentangle his original compositions from those which he borrowed, with a merely general acknowledgment, from all kinds of sources. The following list, taken with some alterations from Grove's ‘Dictionary of Music,’ contains the names of the more important productions in which he had a larger or smaller share:—‘Frederick the Great,’ an operatic anecdote, 1814; ‘The King's Proxy,’ 1815, both written by S. J. Arnold [q. v.]; ‘The Count of Anjou,’ 1816; ‘A Tale of other Times’ (in collaboration with Bochsa), December 1822; ‘Abu Hassan,’ adapted from Weber's opera of the same name, April 1825; ‘The Wager, or The Midnight Hour,’ a pasticcio adapted from Mrs. Inchbald's ‘Midnight Hour,’ November 1825; ‘Oberon, or the Charmed Horn,’ another adaptation from Weber, 1826; ‘Malvina,’ February 1826; ‘The White Lady,’ adapted from Boieldieu, with several interpolated songs, &c., October 1826, i.e. two months before the opera was produced in a more complete form at Covent Garden; ‘The Boy of Santillane,’ 1827; ‘Isidore de Merida, from Storace, 1828 (an overture and two songs by Cooke); ‘The Brigand,’ and three songs in ‘Peter the