Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/378

Foote Office' of Joseph Reed, a piece from which he was accused by Reed of having stolen the character of Mrs. Cole in the 'Minor.' In partnership with Murphy, Foote leased Drury Lane for a summer season. On 15 June 1761 the management produced Murphy's 'All in the Wrong,' a version of Moliere's 'Cocu Imaginaire.' Foote wrote and spoke the prologue. The 'Citizen,' also by Murphy, was played 2 July 1769, Foote appearing as Young Philpot. The 'Old Maid' of Murphy was given for the first time the same night. 'Wishes, or Harlequin's Mouth Opened,' a comedy by Thomas Bentley, with a speaking harlequin, closed the season with a failure. Foote, who played in this Distress a poet, took over 300l. for his share of the entire venture, though he had broken his contract and supplied no novelty. In 1762, at the Haymarket, Foote produced the 'Orators,' 8vo, 1762, ridiculing, in Peter Paragraph, George Faulkner, the Dublin printer, who had lost a leg, and who brought an action against him. At Covent Garden, 12 Jan. 1762, he played Young Wilding in the 'Lyar,' 8vo, 1764, his adaptation of 'Le Menteur' of Corneille. From this period the original characters of Foote, with the exception of Ailwould in Bickerstaffe's 'Dr. Last in his Chariot,' Haymarket, 31 Aug. 1769, and Francisco in the 'Tailors,' Haymarket, 2 July 1767, were confined to the Haymarket and to his own comedies. Many of these were played in the afternoon. Their order is as follows : Major Sturgeon and Matthew Mug in the 'Mayor of Garratt,' two acts, 1763, 8vo, 1764 ; Sir Thomas Lofty and Sir Peter Pepperpot in the 'Patron,' three acts, 1764, 8vo, 1764 ; Zachary Fungus in the 'Commissary,' three acts, 1765, 8vo, 1765 ; Foote in 'An Occasional Prelude,' one act, printed in the 'Monthly Mirror,' vol. xvii. ; the Devil in the 'Devil upon Two Sticks,' three acts, 30 May 1768, 8vo, 1778 (by this piece Foote reaped between 3,000l. and 4,000l. ; on his way to Ireland he lost 1,700l. at Bath to cardsharpers, and had to borrow 100l. to proceed on his journey) ; Sir Luke Limp in the 'Lame Lover,' 8vo, 1770, three acts, 27 Aug. 1770 ; Flint in the 'Maid of Bath,' three acts, 26 June 1771, 8vo, 1778; Sir Matthew Mite in the 'Nabob,' three acts, 29 June 1772, 8vo, 1778 ; Sir Robert Riscounter in the 'Bankrupt,' three acts, 21 July 1773, 8vo, 1776 (this season Foote gave an entertainment with puppets known as 'The Primitive Puppet Show,' and produced an unprinted entertainment entitled 'The Handsome Housemaid, or Piety in Pattens') ; Aircastle in the 'Cozeners,' 1774, 8vo, 1778, and O'Donnovan in the 'Capuchin,' three acts, 17 Aug. 1776, 8vo, 1778. This piece was an alteration of the famous 'Trip to Calais,' the performance of which was stopped by the censor. In 1766 Foote was visiting at Lord Mexborough's, where he met an aristocratic party, including the Duke of York. Playing on his vanity they mounted him on a high-mettled horse, which threw him and fractured his leg in two places. He accepted the accident with philosophy, and asked for the removal of the leg, which was accomplished. As a compensation for this loss the Duke of York obtained for Foote a patent to erect a theatre in the city and liberties of Westminster, with the privilege of exhibiting dramatic pieces there from 14 May to 14 Sept. during his natural life. This was a fortune. Foote purchased his old premises in the Haymarket, and erected a new theatre on the site, which he opened in May 1767 with the 'Prelude,' in which he referred to the loss of limb and to the gift of his patron, &c. In 1767 he engaged Spranger Barry [q. v.] and Mrs. Ann Dancer, subsequently Mrs. Spranger Barry [q. v.], and produced tragedy, announcing as the cause of such a proceeding that they were dangerous neighbours. Upon his visit to Dublin in 1768 Foote found his 'Devil upon Two Sticks' once more a source of fortune. In 1770 he rented the Edinburgh Theatre for the winter season, and took over his company. The result was unsatisfactory, and he resigned his lease to West Digges [q. v.] The year previously Foote, whose treatment of Garrick consisted in alternately sponging upon him and ridiculing him, intended to caricature the famous procession in the jubilee, but by influence from without was induced to abandon the idea. A notion previously entertained of caricaturing Dr. Johnson was given up in consequence of Johnson sending word to Foote that, in case the threat was carried out, 'he would go from the boxes on the stage and correct him before the audience' (Monthly Review, lxxvi. 374). Few of Foote's plays had been produced without an acknowledged purpose of caricaturing some known individual. For a long time this practice succeeded. Foote was wise enough to withdraw when, as in the case of Johnson, he found his man too strong for him. When, after the production of the 'Nabob,' two members of the East India Company called upon him with the intention of castigating him, he had tact enough to keep them talking until he had disarmed their resentment and induced them to stay to dinner. The most he ordinarily had to fear was an interference of the censor, and a consequent diminution of profits. Those who winced most under his attacks held it prudent to