Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/156

 in 1791–2 accompanied the company to the Haymarket Opera-house, where during two seasons he played many insignificant original parts, besides appearing as Sancho in ‘Love makes a Man,’ Tipkin in the ‘Tender Husband,’ Thrifty in the ‘Cheats of Scapin,’ Old Gobbo, Foresight in ‘Love for Love,’ Sir Felix Friendly in the ‘Agreeable Surprise,’ and Label (an original part) in Hoare's ‘Prize’ on 11 March 1793. On 29 June he made, as the original Whimmy in O'Keeffe's ‘London Hermit,’ his first traceable appearance at the little house in the Haymarket. A winter season at the same house under Colman followed, and Suett, besides playing Obediah Prim and Bullock, was on 1 Oct. 1793 the first Apathy in Morton's ‘Children in the Wood,’ and on 16 Dec. the first Dicky Gossip, a barber, in Hoare's ‘My Grandmother.’ On the reopening of Drury Lane in the spring of 1794 Suett played a Witch in ‘Macbeth,’ and was on 8 May 1794 the original Jabal, a part in which he scored highly, in Cumberland's ‘Jew.’ In Kemble's ‘Lodoiska,’ on 9 June, he was the first Varbel.

Suett remained at Drury Lane until his death, although he appeared each summer down to 1803 at the Haymarket. His parts were mainly confined to Shakespearean clowns and other characters principally belonging to low comedy. Some few might perhaps be put in another category. The Shakespearean parts assigned him included Clown in ‘Measure for Measure,’ Polonius, Peter in ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ Dogberry, Trinculo, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and Shallow in the ‘Merry Wives of Windsor.’ Other rôles of interest were Don Pedro in the ‘Wonder,’ Don Jerome in the ‘Duenna,’ Crabtree, Antonio in ‘Follies of a Day,’ Silky in the ‘Road to Ruin,’ Don Manuel in ‘She would and she would not,’ and Sir Robert Bramble in the ‘Poor Gentleman.’ Out of many original parts taken between 1794 and 1805 the following deserve record: Robin Gray in Arnold's ‘Auld Robin Gray,’ Haymarket, 29 July 1794; Weazel in Cumberland's ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ Drury Lane, 28 Feb. 1795; Fustian in the younger Colman's ‘New Hay at the Old Market,’ Haymarket, 9 June 1795. In the famous production at Drury Lane of Colman's ‘Iron Chest,’ 12 March 1796, Suett was Samson. In the ‘Will’ by Reynolds, 19 April 1797, he was Realize. His great original part of Daniel Dowlas, alias Lord Duberly, was played at the Haymarket on 15 July 1797. On 24 May 1799 at Drury Lane he played Diego, a short comic part, on the first appearance of Sheridan's Pizarro, and nearly damned the piece; the part was promptly cancelled. On 1 Feb. 1800 Suett was, at Drury Lane, the first Baron Piffleberg in ‘Of Age to-morrow,’ adapted from Kotzebue by T. Dibdin; on 15 July, at the Haymarket, the first Steinberg in C. Kemble's ‘Point of Honour;’ and on 2 Sept. the first Deputy Bull in the ‘Review’ of Arthur Griffenhoof (George Colman the younger). On 24 Feb. 1801, at Drury Lane, he was the original Dominique in Holcroft's adaptation ‘Deaf and Dumb.’ On 10 June 1805 he played at Drury Lane Lampedo in the ‘Honeymoon,’ the last part in which his name can be traced. He died on 6 July at a small public-house in Denzell Street, Clare Market, and was buried in St. Paul's churchyard, on the north side. A son, Theophilus Suett, was a good musician, and was cast for Samson in ‘The Iron Chest’ at Covent Garden on 23 April 1799. The part, however, was taken by his father, who appears to have made on that occasion his only appearance at that house.

Suett followed in the wake of William Parsons (1736–1795) [q. v.] A story is told that Parsons, being unwell, could not play his part of Alderman Uniform in Miles Peter Andrews's ‘Dissipation,’ which had been commanded by the king. On being told of this fact, George III said that Suett would be able to play it. This Suett did with so much success that he became the ‘understudy’ of Parsons, whose delicate health furnished him with many opportunities. Suett was not accepted as the equal of Parsons. In a like fashion Charles Mathews, who succeeded Suett, was held his inferior. Suett, however, was not difficult to imitate, and Mathews frequently caught his tone. Among Suett's best parts were Moll Flagon, Tipple, Apathy, Dicky Gossip, the drunken Porter in ‘Feudal Times,’ and Weazel in Cumberland's ‘Wheel of Fortune.’ The last was much admired by Kemble, who, discussing Suett's death, said to Kelly: ‘Penruddock has lost a powerful ally in Suett; I have acted the part with many Weazels, and good ones too, but none of them could work up my passions to the pitch Suett did; he had a comical, impertinent way of thrusting his head into my face, which called forth all my irritable sensations’ (, vii. 654). Suett depended a good deal upon make-up, at which he was an adept. He was given to distorting his features, and saying more than was allotted him. Hazlitt calls him ‘the delightful old croaker, the everlasting Dicky Gossip of the stage.’ O'Keeffe declared that he was ‘the most natural actor of his time,’ and Leigh Hunt speaks of him as ‘the very personification of weak whimsicality, with a laugh like a peal of giggles.’ It is, how-