Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/361

Rh of Liston in the part are repeated to the present day. Engaged by Madame Vestris for the Olympic, he remained at that theatre until his retirement in 1837. His last appearance was for the benefit of George Herbert Bonaparte Rodwell [q. v.], composer, who married his daughter Emma. At this period Liston was living at Penn, near Windsor. Subsequently he removed to London to a house facing Hyde Park Corner, whence, crutch in hand, in his later years he watched the omnibuses pass, exhibiting signs of distress if any happened to be late. Something like softening of the brain appears to have set in; he fell into a state of lethargy, and died on 22 March 1846. He was buried at Kensal Green. He left 40,000l. His son, Captain John Terry Liston, was residuary legatee.

Though one of the most comic of actors, a man unjustly charged with a mere power of grimace, he was of a nervous temperament, and subject to fits of depression. When acting he is said to have not seldom fortified himself with brandy, and to have at times taken a bottle. He was a special favourite with George IV. He obtained the largest salary ever in his time paid to a comedian, and was provident. Forty pounds a week was paid him at Drury Lane when he first joined it, 10l. a night was given him at the Haymarket, and 60l., or, according to another account, 100l. a week when he joined the Olympic. When acting on sharing terms he is said to have made from 250l. to 350l. a week. Liston was five feet eleven in height, and shapely in proportions. The gravity of his face added to the effect of his comedy. Hazlitt describes him as Sir Peter Pigwiggin in ‘Pigeons and Crows.’ ‘His jaws seem to ache with laughter, his eyes look out of his head with wonder, his face is unctuous all over, and bathed with jests.’ He adds that Liston ‘does not play so well to any one else as he does to himself.’ Lamb says: ‘There is one face of Farley, one face of Knight, one—but what a face it is!—of Liston.’ Mrs. Mathews speaks of him as ‘the exquisite Liston.’ Colman, comparing him with Edwin, says that he cannot conceive a ‘greater comic treat than the performance of either when in his element.’ Boaden writes: ‘Other actors labour to be comic. I see nothing like labour or system about Liston. In his person he is stately, and even grave in his expression, nervous, and rather remote from popular habits’ (Life of Mrs. Jordan, ii. 198). Leigh Hunt praises Liston as natural, says that his happiest performances are his ignorant rustics, his most inaccurate his old men. A comparison between Emery and Liston follows, in which it is said that ‘the former is more skilled in the habits and cunning of rusticity, and the latter in its simplicity and ignorance.’ His performances of Jacob Gawky in the ‘Chapter of Accidents’ and Humphrey Grizzle in ‘Three and Deuce’ are specially commended. He was fond of punning, and acquired from intimates such as Mathews and Hook a tendency to indulge in practical jokes.

Pictures of him by De Wilde as Gaby Grim in ‘We fly by Night,’ as Diggory in ‘All the World's a Stage,’ as Solomon in the ‘Quaker,’ and as Caper in ‘Who Wins?’ are in the Garrick Club, a chief ornament of which is the picture by Clint of a scene from ‘Love, Law, and Physic,’ with Liston as Lubin Log, and Mathews and Emery in other characters. A picture of Mrs. Liston as Queen Dollalolla in ‘Tom Thumb,’ by De Wilde, is in the same collection. A picture of Liston by Clint as Paul Pry, with Madame Vestris and others, was in the National Portrait Exhibition of 1868, and now belongs to the Science and Art Department, South Kensington. A portrait of him by Harlow in ‘No Song, no Supper,’ with Emery, Fawcett, and others, is on a panel in the Beef-steak Club room, Lyceum Theatre. Portraits and caricatures of Liston abound. Upon the death, in 1854, of his only son, Liston's effects were sold. These included his favourite portrait, showing him with a horse and dog, and six plates of him in various characters. His library contained many volumes of biblical criticism.

Mrs. Liston, whose stature was diminutive, was a delightful singer in ballad operas and a matchless performer in burlesque. She was a pupil of Kelly and Mrs. Crouch, and is first heard of as Miss Tyrer in Dublin, playing at the concerts at the Rotunda. She is said, probably in error, to have made in 1800, as Josephine in ‘Children in the Wood,’ her first appearance at the Haymarket. Her name is first recorded in connection with the theatre on 21 Aug. 1801, as Winifred in Morton's ‘Zorinski.’ On 21 May 1801, at Drury Lane, as Fidelia in the ‘Pirates,’ a comic opera by James Cobb [q. v.], she is announced to make her first appearance on this, and second on any stage. Her name also appears to Madge in ‘Love in a Village’ on 2 June 1801, to Mysis in ‘Midas’ on 25 Oct. 1802, and a few other parts. Her famous character of Queen Dollalolla in ‘Tom Thumb,’ a burletta extracted from Fielding by Kane O'Hara, was given (third time) at the Haymarket on 27 July 1805. On 18 Sept. 1805, as Lucy in the ‘Review,’ she made her first appearance at Covent Garden, where on 15 Nov. 1806 she was the original Minna in Dimond's ‘Adrian and Orilla,’ and on 11 Dec. 1806,