Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 46.djvu/248

 In 1695, at the close of a dispute with the patentees, his salary was raised from 2l. to 4l. a week, and he played Philaster in an adaptation from Beaumont and Fletcher by Settle. These parts and all which follow, unless the contrary is mentioned, were original. In the third part of ‘Don Quixote,’ in 1696, he was the Don. He was also Aboan in Southern's ‘Oroonoko,’ the Prince in Mrs. Trotter's ‘Agnes de Castro,’ Caratach in ‘Bonduca,’ altered from Beaumont and Fletcher, Antonio in Gould's ‘Rival Sisters,’ Amurath in Mrs. Pix's ‘Ibrahim, thirteenth Emperor of the Turks,’ Sir Amorous Courtall in Mrs. Manley's ‘Lost Lover,’ Argilius in ‘Pausanias,’ Wilmot in Scott's ‘Mock Marriage,’ George Marteen in Mrs. Behn's ‘Younger Brother,’ King of Parthia in ‘Neglected Virtue,’ and Sharper in the ‘Cornish Comedy.’ The play last named and the wretched adaptation of ‘Bonduca’ mentioned above were both brought on the stage by Powell, who said that they were given him by friends. The ‘Cornish Comedy’ was dedicated in somewhat servile terms to Rich, whose right-hand man Powell appears at this time to have been.

In 1697 Powell played Worthy in the ‘Relapse.’ The habits of intoxication to which he had given way influenced him so much on this occasion that Mrs. Rogers, as Amanda, incurred, according to Vanbrugh, some real danger from the vivacity of his attack. Powell had, Vanbrugh affirms, been ‘drinking his mistress's health in Nantz brandy from six in the morning to the time he waddled in upon the stage in the evening.’ In a scene in ‘Female Wits, or the Triumvirate of Poets at Rehearsal,’ written by W. M. for the purpose of ridiculing Mrs. Manley, Mrs. Pix, and Mrs. Trotter, Powell played Fastin. One scene is supposed to pass on the stage at Drury Lane, and an inquiry is made by Mrs. Cross where Powell is. Johnson, the prompter, says, ‘At the tavern,’ and asks her if she does not know that ‘honest George regards neither times nor seasons in drinking.’ From this piece we learn that Powell was tall. Among other parts he played Young Rakish in Cibber's ‘Woman's Wit.’ In his own ‘Imposture Defeated, or a Trick to Cheat the Devil,’ 4to, 1698, he played in 1698 Hernando. This piece he claims to have written in a week in order to serve the company, who were in a fix. Genest declares it pretty good. This year saw him also as Petruchio in Lacy's ‘Sauny the Scot, or the Taming of the Shrew,’ Phaeton in Gildon's ‘Phaeton,’ and Caligula in Crowne's ‘Caligula.’ In Farquhar's ‘Constant Couple,’ played in 1699, he was Colonel Standard. The same year he was Achilles in Boyer's ‘Achilles, or Iphigenia in Aulis,’ and in 1700 he was Roderigo in Vanbrugh's alteration of the ‘Pilgrim.’ In 1702 Powell was at Lincoln's Inn Fields playing Moneses in Rowe's ‘Tamerlane,’ Antiochus in ‘Antiochus the Great,’ King of Sicily in Lord Orrery's ‘Altemira,’ Flash in the ‘Gentleman Cully,’ and Toper in the ‘Beau's Duel’ and Palante in the ‘Stolen Heiress,’ both by Mrs. Carroll (Centlivre). Here he remained two years longer, playing, among other original characters, Lothario in the ‘Fair Penitent,’ Drances in Burnaby's ‘Love Betrayed,’ and Solyman in Trapp's ‘Abra-Mulé.’ He also took a few transmitted characters, among which are Sir Courtly Nice, Sir Positive Atall in ‘Sullen Lovers,’ and Ford. About June 1704 he reappeared at Drury Lane, playing Volpone and other established parts. Powell's secession from Lincoln's Inn Fields led to his arrest and confinement in the porter's lodge for two days by order of the lord chamberlain. On 7 Dec. 1704 he was at Drury Lane the original Lord Morelove in Cibber's ‘Careless Husband.’ In 1705 he was at the Haymarket. Returning to Drury Lane, he to some extent abandoned original parts. He was seen during the next few years, among many other parts, as Captain Plume, Peregrine in ‘Sir Solomon,’ Œdipus, Don John (Don Juan) in Shadwell's ‘Libertine,’ Macbeth, Timon of Athens, Leon in ‘Rule a Wife and have a Wife,’ Prospero, Springlove in Brome's ‘Jovial Crew,’ Lear, Torrismond in the ‘Spanish Fryar,’ Laertes, Mithridates, Alexander the Great, Macduff, Aurenge-Zebe, Cortez, King in ‘Mourning Bride,’ Surrey in ‘Henry VIII,’ Hector in ‘Troilus and Cressida,’ Face in the ‘Alchemist,’ the Humorous Lieutenant, Cassius, Valentinia, Falstaff in ‘King Henry IV,’ Cassio, Castalio, and Cutter in the ‘Cutter of Coleman Street.’

He put upon the stage at Dorset Gardens, for his own benefit and that of Verbruggen, ‘Brutus of Alba,’ an opera given them, as he said, by an unknown author (cf., i. 245–6). He acted at Greenwich during the summer of 1710, and was at Drury Lane, on 17 March 1712, the original Orestes in Ambrose Philips's ‘Distrest Mother.’ On 29 Jan. 1713 he was the first Wilmot in Charles Shadwell's ‘Humours of the Army,’ and on 19 Feb. Augustus in ‘Cinna's Conspiracy,’ translated from Corneille, and ascribed to Cibber, and on 14 April he was the original Portius in Addison's ‘Cato.’ Soon after this his name disappears from the bills. Powell died on 14 Dec. 1714, and was buried on the 18th in St. Clement Dane's, his funeral being at-