Edward Dutton Cook

“ Time had something numbed their sense of loss when they sat down to exchange poetical criticism, though habit is overpowering; and it would have taken a good deal, at any time, to have disturbed Johnson from his wonted pose of reviewer; just as the dying sculptor in the story, receiving extreme unction from his priest, found time to complain of the mal-execution of the crucifix held to his lips. “Pictured morals,” he wrote, “is a beautiful expression, but learn and mourn cannot stand for rhymes. Art and Nature have been seen together too often. ”

“ Abbot has taken it in his head that noise is tragedy, and a tremendous noise he accordingly makes. It is Stentor with a trumpet. . . . We hear he is a pleasant person everywhere but on the stage, and such a man may be reasonably at a disadvantage with his neighbours somewhere.’ Abbot was the author of two melodramas, the ‘Youthful Days of Frederick the Great’ and ‘Swedish Patriotism, or the Signal Fire,’ produced at Covent Garden in 1817 and 1819 respectively, and both founded upon French originals. Abbot left England to try his fortune in America, meeting there with small success. ”

“ One only of the “Marriage a la Mode” pictures, for all that is really valuable in art, might be safely backed against all that was ever done by both Fuseli and Runciman put together. Yet they looked upon him as rather a bygone sort of creature—a barbarian blind to poetic art. Well, even a greater William, the playwriter, born at Stratford-on-Avon, was considerably underrated a century ago. Could William Hogarth have seen Fuseli’s works, I warrant he would have had something to say about them! ”

“ At nineteen he renounced further tutelage, and started on his own account as a landscape painter. He commenced to exhibit his works. Every one praised, but unfortunately no one purchased. The market seemed to be only for the show, not the sale of goods. The notion of the many seemed to be that Art was an absurd luxury, which only the very few could indulge in. A middle-class man would have been considered very eccentric and extravagant who in those days bought a picture, unless it happened to be his own portrait. ”

“ At the private theatre attached to Brandenburg House the margravine produced in 1794 a comedy called the 'Yorkshire Ghost;' in 1799 a pantomime called 'Puss in Boots;' in 1805 a comedy called 'Love in a Convent,' and other works. For these plays the margravine composed the music. As she writes in her Memoirs, published in 1826: 'My taste for music and poetry and my style of imagination in writing, chastened by experience, were great sources of delight to me ... Our expenses were enormous.' The margravine often took part in the performances at Brandenburg House. ”

“ Poor Widow Hogarth! Yet she would not sell her William’s pictures left in his house!
Much of the untamed, unmanageable, heterodox nature of Runciman’s art pertained to his life generally. Gay, free-thinking, prankish—with a tendency to late-houred habits that must have often scandalised his landlady—and a talent for conversation rare amongst artists, who, as a rule, express their thoughts better by their brushes than their speech ”

“ She is very pretty, has parts, and is good-natured to the greatest degree; has not a grain of malice or mischief, almost always the associates, in women, of tender hearts, and never has been an enemy but to herself.' Her first comedy, the 'Somnambule,' an adaptation from the French, was printed at Walpole's private press at Strawberry Hill in 1778, and acted for a charitable purpose at Newmarket. ”

“ James Aickin, who had particularly offended the rioters, left Edinburgh, and, accepting an engagement at Drury Lane, made his first appearance there in December 1767 as Colonel Camply in Kenrick's comedy of the ‘Widowed Wife.’ He continued a member of the Drury Lane company, with occasional appearances at the Haymarket Theatre during the summer months, until his retirement in 1800. He was for some years one of the deputy managers of Drury Lane, and was reputed to be a useful and pleasing actor, easy, graceful, and natural of manner. ”

“ Is there not a living ballet master, not very young now, who owes his baptismal name to parental success in the grand ballet of “Oscar and Malvina, or the Cave of Fingal?” But this must have been years after Runciman. The poems had merit, and that floated them for a long time, but the leak of falsehood made its way—they sunk at last. And Macpherson? Well, if a poet will be a forger, he must prepare to be remembered by posterity rather for his fraud than his poetry. ”

“ His son, ‘Young Astley,’ also an admired equestrian performer, to whom he had bequeathed the interest arising from his somewhat encumbered property, survived seven years only. He also died in Paris, and was interred beside his father in Père-la-Chaise. Philip Astley was the best horse-tamer of his time. He usually bought his horses in Smithfield, caring, as he said, ‘little for shape, make, or colour: temper was the only consideration.’ He rarely gave more than five pounds for a horse. ”

“ William dead and buried, the window shutters reopened, and heaven’s glad light once more permitted to stream into the house, the red eyes of the household a little cooled and staunched, came the widow’s dreadful task of examining the property of the deceased, of picking up the fragment’s that remained. How to live? Survivors have often to make that painful inquiry. There was little money in the house. The painter’s life had been hard-working enough ”

“ In 1783 he was committed to prison for performing illegally, but he was released upon the intervention of Lord Chancellor Thurlow, whose daughters had been taught to ride by Astley. Presently the magistrates granted him a license; he now called his theatre the Royal Grove, having painted the interior to resemble foliage, and added a stage to his circus, to vie with the attractions of a rival establishment of like kind opened on the site of the present Surrey Theatre. He carried his performers to Dublin and Paris, and established equestrian theatres in both those cities. ”

“ His servants all had been years and years in his service, he had painted their portraits and hung them up in his house; there is homage to both master and servants in the fact. After all, a man may, if he chooses, be a hero even to his valet de chambre. ”

“ The margrave died and was buried at Benham in 1806. Walpole, who always expressed his admiration of Lady Craven, and even addressed impromptu stanzas to her, furnished the Rev. William Mason with a lively account of the production of her comedy, the 'Miniature Picture,' at Drury Lane, in May 1780: 'She went to it herself the second night in form, sat in the middle of the front row of the state-box, much dressed with a profusion of white bugles and plumes, to receive the public homage due to her sex and loveliness ... It was amazing to see so young a woman entirely possess herself ”

“ Upon the destruction of Drury Lane by fire in the same year, the company moved to the English Opera House, and remained there three seasons. The license had been originally granted in the belief that the house would be open only for four months in the summer, and would become a nursery of singers for the winter theatres. 'Up all Night, or the Smuggler's Cave,' ' Britain's Jubilee,' the 'Maniac, or Swiss Banditti,' 'Plots, or the North Tower,' are the titles of musical plays by Arnold presented by the Drury Lane company during their occupancy of the English Opera House. ”

“ Sir James Clerk consented to the embellishment of his hall at Pennyciuck with a series of pictures from Ossian, by the hand of Runciman.
Ossian was the rage—quotations from the blind bard of Morven were in every one’s mouth. True, Dr. Samuel Johnson, who loved to thrust his brave fist through a sham (though he was tricked in the Cock Lane business) , had denounced the whole thing as an imposition “as gross as ever the world was troubled with.” Dr. Blair wrote in defence, “Could any man, of modern age, have written such poems?” ”

“ In 1786 Atkinson produced in Dublin ‘A Match for a Widow, or the Frolics of Fancy,’ an opera in three acts, the music by Dibdin, founded upon a French comedy which Mrs. Inchbald had previously converted into the English play of the ‘Widow's Vow,’ and of which Miss Sheridan had availed herself in writing her farce of the ‘Ambiguous Lover.’ In 1800 Captain Atkinson produced at the Cork Street Theatre a comic opera called ‘Love in a Blaze,’ borrowed from a French play, which had done duty in an English form as ‘Gallic Gratitude’ at Covent Garden in 1779. ”

“ The eight prints of the “Rake’s Progress” could be purchased at Mrs. Hogarth’s house, in Leicester Fields, for one guinea; “Lord Lovat,” “Beer Street,” and “Gin Lane” for a shilling each only, and all the others could be obtained upon like easy terms. It cannot be told when the bill first appeared in Widow Hogarth’s window—“Lodgings to Let.” But eight years after William’s death there was certainly a lodger in the house in Leicester Fields—a lodger who could exclaim, “I also am a painter!”
Alexander Runciman was born in Edinburgh, in 1736. ”

“ ABINGTON, FRANCES (1737–1815) , actress, was of obscure origin. Her maiden name was Frances or Fanny Barton. Of her mother she knew nothing; her father, having served as a private soldier in the King's Guards, kept a cobbler's stall in Vinegar Yard; her brother was an ostler in Hanway Yard. After she had risen to fame and prosperity, her descent was traced to a certain Christopher Barton, Esq., of Norton, Derbyshire, who at the accession of William III left four sons, a colonel, a ranger of one of the royal parks, a prebendary of Westminster, and the grandfather of Frances Barton. ”

“ Hammond, in 1839, and in 1845 was appearing at Covent Garden Theatre, then under the management of M. Laurent, as the blind seer in the tragedy of 'Antigone.' He was the author of many successful dramas, adaptations from the French, including the 'Black Doctor,' the 'Little Devil,' produced at the minor theatres, and of one original play of historical interest, entitled 'Blood Royal, or the Crown Jewels.' Of this production he was accustomed to represent the hero, Colonel Blood. ”

“ He affected the society of actors and authors, and was elected a member of the Beefsteak, the Keep-the-Line, and other convivial clubs. He enjoyed a reputation for wit and good humour, for kindliness and hospitality, while his temper was said to be extremely irritable, and he was nervous, credulous, and superstitious. He was the author of the following plays: the ‘Conjuror,’ a farce, produced at Drury Lane in 1774; the ‘Election,’ a musical interlude, produced at the same theatre in the same year; ‘Belphegor, or the Wishes,’ a comic opera, produced at Drury Lane in 1778 ”

“ ADDISON, LAURA (d. 1852) , actress, made her first appearance upon the stage in November 1843, at the Worcester Theatre, as Lady Townley in the ‘Provoked Husband.’ Her family had opposed her desire to become an actress; she had no introduction, teacher, or patron, but was altogether self-instructed. She was very favourably received by the public. She fulfilled an engagement at Glasgow, and, playing Desdemona to the Othello of Macready, secured the good opinion and the friendship of that tragedian. ”

“ In 1792 the margrave sold his principality to the King of Prussia, and settled in England, having purchased Brandenburg House, Hammersmith, and the house and estate of Benham, in Berkshire, which had long been possessed by the Craven family. ”

“ Afterwards Armin was able to display his own abilities as an actor at the Globe Theatre on the Bankside. Tarlton died in 1588. If his pupil Armin was then seventeen or so, he was born about 1570, and must have been an actor of some position when, in 1603, James I. granted his patent to the players, wherein the name of Armin comes last but one. ”

“ On the first performance Captain Ayscough's brother officers attended in great force and secured the success of ‘Semiramis.’ In the ‘Biographia Dramatica’ Ayscough is described as ‘a fool of fashion,’ ‘a parasite of Lord Lyttelton;’ and his tragedy is condemned as contemptible. He left England on account of his failing health, and afterwards published some account of his travels in Italy. He was the editor of the Miscellaneous Works of his uncle, Lord Lyttelton, published in 1774. ”

“ The inside of the building was demolished, the furniture ransacked, and the fixtures destroyed. It was not until troops from the castle had come to the relief of the city guard that the rioters were dispersed, and the theatre saved from further injury. ”

“ AICKIN, or AIKIN, FRANCIS (d. 1805) , actor, was born in Dublin and brought up to the trade of his father, a weaver in that city; but, following the example of his younger brother, James [q. v.] , he became a strolling player. Having appeared as George Barnwell and sustained other characters in various country towns, he joined the manager of the Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin. ”

“ He was brought up to the profession of the law, but is chiefly known as a successful and prolific dramatist. His afterpiece, ‘Fortune's Frolic,’ first produced at Covent Garden in 1799, long enjoyed great popularity, the leading character, Robin Roughhead, having been represented by very many admired comedians. ”

“ Her taste in dress was admitted to be supreme by the many ladies of quality whose friendship she enjoyed. Garrick wrote of her, on the back of one of her letters, that she was ‘the worst of bad women.’ Of his merits as an actor she spoke enthusiastically ”

“ Abington begged Dr. Johnson to attend her benefit, he was ‘perhaps a little vain of the solicitations of this elegant and accomplished actress,’ and that he mentioned the fact because ‘he loved to bring forward his having been in the gay circles of life.’ He sat in the boxes, and at such a distance from the stage that he could neither see nor hear. ‘Why then, did you go?’ asked Boswell. ‘Because, sir, Mrs. Abington is a favourite of the public; and when the public cares a thousandth part for you that it does for her, I will go to your benefit too.’ He supped with Mrs. ”

“ He was a man of violent temper, peremptory of speech and rude of manner, but of great energy and notable integrity; and he was regarded with affection by the members of his company. He constructed in all nineteen amphitheatres for equestrian exhibitions. ”

“ Abington's benefit. Her salary at Drury Lane was 12l. per week, ‘with a benefit and 60l. for clothes.’ She was rarely called upon to play more than three nights a week. Mrs. Abington had conquered for herself a distinguished position in society. ”