Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/264

 This work was finished in 1811. It came out in two large volumes, and was sold at five guineas. About the same time he received the degree of D.D. from an American college. His object was to bring out clearly and powerfully from every chapter of Scripture such views as were best adapted to promote a devotional spirit, and each part of his exposition was followed by a paragraph of ‘aspirations,’ intended to guide the feelings of readers. Fawcett, whose health had long been feeble, died 25 July 1817, in his seventy-seventh year.

[An Account of the Life, Ministry, and Writings of the late Rev. John Fawcett, D.D., by his son.] 

FAWCETT, JOHN (1768–1837), actor and dramatist, born 29 Aug. 1768, was the son of an actor, also John Fawcett, who came from High Wycombe; was a pupil of Dr. Arne; appeared at Drury Lane 23 Sept. 1760 as Filch in the ‘Beggar's Opera;’ subsequently played minor parts at that theatre, at Covent Garden, and in Dublin; and died in October 1793. When eight years old young Fawcett attracted the attention of Garrick, then on the point of quitting the stage, and conceived a hope of becoming an actor. To check this idea his father bound the boy, who had entered St. Paul's School 6 Feb. 1776, apprentice to a linendraper in the city. When eighteen years of age Fawcett ran away to Margate, and under the name of Foote appeared as Courtall in the ‘Belle's Stratagem.’ Thence he went under his own name to Tunbridge. Recommended by Cumberland he joined Tate Wilkinson's company, appearing at York as Young Norval 24 May 1787. For some time he played Romeo, Oroonoko, and similar parts. Tate Wilkinson, however, perceiving that tragedy was not his forte, with some difficulty induced him to essay Jemmy Jumps in O'Keeffe's musical farce ‘The Farmer.’ Fawcett's success in this was so great that he elected thenceforward to play low comedy. After the death of Mills, the comedian, in 1788, Fawcett married Mrs. Mills, formerly a Miss Moore, an indifferent actress, who, under the name of Mrs. Mills, had played Imogen at Drury Lane 18 Feb. 1783, and who died in August 1797. Fawcett, who had risen in Yorkshire to the pinnacle of reputation, was engaged for Covent Garden, where he appeared 21 Sept. 1791, playing Caleb in ‘He would be a Soldier.’ Ruttekin in ‘Robin Hood,’ Jerry Sneak in Foote's ‘Mayor of Garratt,’ and other characters followed. On 8 July 1794, as Young Pranks in the ‘London Hermit’ of O'Keeffe, he made his first appearance at the Haymarket, where he played, 12 Aug., with success Edwin's great part of Lingo. He then renewed his engagement at Covent Garden. In conjunction with Holman, Pope, and Incledon, he gave at the Freemasons' Hall on the Wednesdays and Fridays of Lent 1795 an entertainment of reading and music. On 14 March 1796, in the ‘Merry Wives of Windsor,’ he played, for Pope's benefit, Falstaff, in which he was held to eclipse all his contemporaries except Cooke. As Sir Pertinax Macsycophant he made a decided failure 16 May 1797. Playing at Covent Garden during the regular season he went until 1802 in the summer to the Haymarket, of which house Colman, in 1799, appointed him stage-manager. About this period Colman, with a special view to Fawcett, began to write the pieces in which the actor's reputation was firmly established. The first of these was the ‘Heir-at-Law,’ Haymarket, 15 July 1797, in which, as Dr. Pangloss, Fawcett carried away the town. Subsequently came the ‘Poor Gentleman,’ Covent Garden, 11 Feb. 1801, in which he was Ollapod; ‘John Bull,’ Covent Garden, 5 March 1803, in which he was Job Thornberry; and ‘Who wants a Guinea?’ Covent Garden, 18 April 1805, in which he was Solomon Gundy. He was also, at the Haymarket, 6 July 1798, the original Caleb Quotem in ‘Throw Physic to the Dogs,’ and repeated the character in the ‘Review, or the Wags of Windsor,’ Haymarket, 2 Sept. 1800, into which Colman introduced it. In 1800 Fawcett took part with John Johnstone, Holman, Pope, Incledon, Munden, Thomas Knight, and H. E. Johnston, in publishing a statement of the differences subsisting between the proprietors and performers of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. This consists of the correspondence with regard to alterations made by Harris in the privileges allowed the actors. The case was referred to the lord chamberlain, who decided against the actors. In 1806 Fawcett, who had quitted the Haymarket in 1802, reappeared during the summer in that theatre, which he permanently quitted in 1808. His connection with Covent Garden lasted from his first appearance in 1791 to his retirement from the stage in 1830. That comparatively few of the characters which he ‘created’ are now remembered is the fault of the dramatists of the day. In more than one case, however, Fawcett saved a piece which was given up for lost. This was specially true with regard to ‘Five Miles Off,’ by Dibdin, Haymarket, 9 July 1806, in which his representation of Kalendar, a character who only appears in the second act, resuscitated a piece apparently dead. Among his later ‘creations’ the part of Rolamo in Howard Payne's ‘Clari,