Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/124

 Whitehead,’ William Shakespeare Dibbs in Boucicault's ‘Curiosities of Literature,’ Nonpareil in Peake's ‘Sheriff of the County,’ Cymon Foxhall in R. Sulivan's ‘Beggar on Horseback,’ Nathan Thompson in Westland Marston's ‘Borough Politics,’ Napoleon in the ‘Pretty Girls of Stilberg,’ and Mark Meddle in ‘London Assurance.’

Webster's own farce, ‘My Young Wife and Old Umbrella’ (‘Ma Femme et mon Parapluie,’ by Laurencin), was given at the Haymarket on 23 June 1837, with Webster as Augustus Tomkins; his ‘Swiss Swain,’ in which he played Swig, on 6 Oct. 1837; the ‘Village Doctor,’ with himself as Baron de la Fadaise, on 24 July 1839. He was Hobbs in his own ‘Hobbs, Dobbs, and Stubbs, or the Three Grocers,’ 31 March 1840; the Marquis d'Arblay in his ‘Caught in his own Trap,’ 25 Nov. 1843; and Ally Croaker in his ‘Miseries of Human Life,’ 27 Nov. 1845. He also translated for the Haymarket in 1846 ‘Le Part du Diable’ (the ‘Black Domino’), 10 June 1846, but did not appear in it. He played Verges, Moses, Bob Acres, Sir Hugh Evans, Scrub, Trappanti, Tony Lumpkin, Don Vincentio in ‘A Bold Stroke for a Husband,’ and First Witch in ‘Macbeth.’ At Covent Garden in the meantime he had been seen as Sparrow in Dance's ‘Country Squire,’ Tassel in Fitzball's ‘Walter Tyrrel,’ and Marquis de Montespan in Bulwer's ‘Duchesse de la Vallière.’ His first appearance at the Adelphi was made in a piece called ‘Yellow Kids.’

After 1844 he divided his time between the Adelphi, of which he became manager, and the Haymarket. Among the pieces he had produced at the Haymarket were Bulwer's ‘Sea Captain,’ Talfourd's ‘Glencoe,’ and the ‘Bridal,’ an adaptation of the ‘Maid's Tragedy.’ To the Adelphi, in conjunction with Dion ‘Bourçicault’ (sic), he gave ‘Fox and Goose,’ 2 Oct. 1844, in which he did not play; and ‘Cæsar de Bazan,’ 14 Oct. 1844, in which he was Don Cæsar. He had previously, June 1843, played at the Haymarket for the first time with his constant associate, Madame Celeste [q. v.], in an adaptation entitled ‘Louison,’ and on 1 Nov. was Victor to her Hortense in a vaudeville called ‘Victor and Hortense.’ This year (1843) he offered a prize of 500l. for the best English comedy. This was awarded by the judges (including Charles Young, Charles Kemble, G. P. R. James, and Alexander Dyce) to ‘Quid pro Quo, or the Day of Dupes,’ by Mrs. Gore, which was produced at the Haymarket on 18 June 1844, and was received with uproar and ridicule. ‘Old Heads and Young Hearts,’ by Boucicault, was given on 16 Nov. 1844, with Webster as Tom Coke, a good-hearted country gentleman, a part in which he showed much pathos. Webster next produced Jerrold's ‘Time works Wonders,’ in which, after the death of Strickland, the original exponent, he played Professor Truffles. On the secession of Charles Mathews, Webster played Sir Charles Coldstream in ‘Used Up.’ On 6 Jan. 1846 he made a great hit as John Peerybingle in his own adaptation of the ‘Cricket on the Hearth.’ Still at the Haymarket, he was Clown in ‘Twelfth Night;’ played the Laird of Killiecrankie, a duellist, in ‘Queen Mary's Bower,’ Planché's adaptation of ‘Les Mousquetaires de la Reine;’ Jack Spriggs in Lovell's ‘Look before You Leap;’ and Reuben Gwynne in the ‘Round of Wrong.’ In 1847 he was the first Job Sykes, M.P., in Boucicault's ‘School for Scheming,’ and Hope Emerson in Robert Bell's ‘Temper.’ On 15 Nov. he played Stanislas de Fonblanche in his own ‘Roused Lion’ (‘Le Réveil du Lion’). In performances at Covent Garden for the purchase of Shakespeare's house, he was Petruchio. He played Jabez Sneed in a revival of the ‘Wife's Secret;’ was, 6 April 1848, Michael Bradshaw in Morton's ‘Old Honesty,’ and Lavater in ‘Lavater the Physiognomist.’ In his address at the close of the season of 1848 he declared that in eighteen months at the Haymarket he had lost 8,000l. During the next two years he was the first Giles Fairland in the ‘Queensberry Fête,’ played Malvolio, Modus, Gratiano, Bullfrog in Jerrold's ‘Rent Day,’ and produced his own ‘Bird of Passage,’ a rendering of Bayard's ‘Oiseau de Passage.’ In Morris Barnett's ‘Serious Family’ (‘Le Mari à la Campagne’) he was the original Charles Torrens, was the first Coolcard in Jerrold's ‘Catspaw,’ and Captain Gunn in Jerrold's ‘Retired from Business.’ In a version of ‘Tartuffe’ by Oxenford he played Tartuffe, and gave at the Adelphi his own ‘Belphegor’ (‘Paillasse’) January 1851. In April 1852 was the first Verdun in Mark Lemon's ‘Mind your own Business.’ On 20 Nov. he was seen for the first time in what was perhaps his greatest part, Triplet in ‘Masks and Faces,’ by Taylor and Reade; and in a revival of Bulwer's ‘Not so bad as we seem,’ was Sir Geoffrey Thornside. On 14 March 1853, with a performance of the ‘Roused Lion,’ ‘A Novel Expedient,’ and the ‘Pretty Girls of Stilberg,’ his management of the Haymarket closed. He had kept the house open sixteen years, paid 60,000l. for rent, 30,000l. to actors, and had employed the best actors of his time, the Keans, the Mathewses, the Keeleys, Mrs. Warren, Mrs. Glover, Mrs.