entertainment excited the jealousy of the great theatres; complaints were made as if he had really immorally violated the law; constables were employed to dismiss his audience, and for a time his career was arrested. But as Mathews holds his at Homes,' Foote invited the public to Tea,' and his invitation was accepted with avidity. The conception of this entertainment did credit to his eccentric taste and talent. While the audience were sitting wondering what it would be, the manager came forward, and after making his bow, acquainted them That as he was training some young performers for the stage, he would, with their permission, whilst tea was getting ready, proceed with his instructions before them;' and he then commenced a series of ludicrous imitations of the players, who, one and all, became exceedingly exasperated against him, but their anger only served to make him more visited. Few amusements were ever so popular."

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The ensuing season he produced another piece of the same kind, which he called The Auction of Pictures.' This piece also had a very great run. His Knights,' the produce of the ensuing season, was a performance of somewhat more dramatic regularity; but still, although his plot and characters seemed less immediately personal, it was apparent that he kept some real characters strongly in his eye in the performance; and the town took upon themselves to fix them where the resemblance appeared to be the most striking.

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The

Foote's dramatic pieces, exclusive of the interlude called ' Piety in Pattens,' are as follow: Taste,' The Knights,' 'The Author,' Englishman in Paris,' The Englishman returned from Paris,'The Mayor of Garrat,' 'The Liar,' 'The Patron,' 'The Minor,'The Orators,' The Commissary,' The Devil upon Two Sticks,' The Lame Lover,' The Maid of Bath,' 'The Nabob,' The Cozeners,''The Capuchin,' 'The Bankrupt,' and an unfinished comedy called The Slanderer. All these works are only to be ranked among the petite pieces of the theatre. In their execution they are loose, negligent, and unfinished; the plots are often irregular, and the catastrophes not always conclusive; but, with all these deficiencies, they contain more character, more strokes of keen satire, and more touches of temporary humour, than are to be found in the writings of any modern dramatist, with the exception of Sheridan.

Foote, finding his health decline, entered into an agreement with Colman for his patent of the Haymarket theatre, according to which he was to receive from Colman £1600 per annum, besides a stipulated sum whenever he chose to perform. After this he made his appearance two or three times in some of the most admired characters; but being suddenly affected with a paralytic stroke one night whilst upon the stage, he was compelled to retire. He was advised to bathe; and accordingly repaired to Brighton, where he apparently recovered his former health and spirits, and was what is called 'the fiddle of the company' who resort to that agreeable place of amusement. A few weeks before his death he returned to London; but, by the advice of his physicians, set out with the intention to spend the winter at Paris and in the south of France. He got no farther than Dover, when he was suddenly attacked by another stroke of the palsy which in a few hours terminated his existence. He died on the 21st of October, 1777, in the 56th year of

his age; and was privately interred in the cloisters of Westminster abbey.

Johnson said of Foote: "He is not a good mimic; but he has art, a fertility and variety of images, and is not deficient in reading. He has knowledge enough to fill up his part: then he has great range for his wit; he never lets truth stand between him and a jest: and he is sometimes mighty coarse." It being observed to him that Foote had a singular talent of exhibiting character, the doctor replied: "No, Sir; it is not a talent, it is a vice: it is what others abstain from." At another time, Dr Johnson, in speaking of his abilities, said, "I don't think Foote a good mimic. His imitations are not like: he gives you something different from himself, without going into other people. He cannot take off any person, except he is strongly marked. He is like a painter who can draw the portrait of a man who has a wen upon his face, and who, therefore, is easily known. If a man hops upon one leg, Foote can hop upon one leg; but he has not a nice discrimination of character. He is, however, upon the whole, very entertaining, with a par ticular species of conversation, between art and buffoonery. I am afraid, however, Foote has no principle. He is at times neither governed by good manners nor discretion, and very little by affection. But for a broad laugh—and here the doctor would himself gruffly smile at the recollection of it-I must confess the scoundrel has no fellow." "The first time," said the doctor on another occasion, "I ever was in company with Foote, I was resolved not to be pleased-and it is very difficult to please a man against his will. I went on eating my dinner pretty sullenly, affecting for a long time not to mind him; but the dog was so very comical that I was obliged to lay down my knife and fork, throw myself back on my chair, and fairly laugh it out with the rest. there was no avoiding it—the fellow was irresistible."

Thomas Arne.

BORN A. D. 1710.-DIED A. D. 1778.

THOMAS AUGUSTINE ARNE, a celebrated musical composer, was born on the 28th of May, 1710. He was the son of Thomas Arne, upholsterer, Covent Garden, the person supposed to be depicted by Addison, in his well-known character of the Politician, in Nos. 155 and 160 of the Tatler. He was educated at Eton, and originally designed for a legal profession; but his passionate love of music ultimately induced his father to consent to his following it professionally.

Under the tuition of Festing, an eminent violin performer, he soon rivalled the skill of his master, and recommended himself to the notice and favour of Farinelli, Senesino, Geminiani, and the other great Italian musicians of the day. His first regular engagement as a public performer was that of leader of the band at Drury Lane, and his first public essay as a composer was the opera of Rosamond,' which was brought out in March 1733, and met with considerable success. In 1738 he produced music for Milton's masque of 'Comus.' "In this masque," says Dr Burney, "he introduced a light, airy, original, and pleasing

melody, wholly different from Purcell and Handel, whom all English composers had hitherto pillaged or imitated. Indeed the melody of Arne at this time, and of his Vauxhall songs afterwards, forms an era in English music; it was so easy, natural, and agreeable to the whole kingdom, that it had an effect upon our national taste." Somewhat before this period he married Miss Cecilia Young, a favourite singer and pupil of Geminiani. In 1740 he set Mallet's masque of Alfred,' which was presented on the 1st of August, 1740, in Clifden Gardens, before the prince and princess of Wales. It was in this piece that the well-known song 'Rule Britannia,' still one of the most popular of all our political lyrics, was first introduced. To these pieces succeeded the operas of Eliza' and 'Artaxerxes,'-the masque of Britannia,'the oratorios of the 'Death of Abel,' 'Judith,' and 'Beauty and Virtue,'——the musical entertainments of . Thomas and Sally,' the‘Prince of the Fairies, the songs in ، As You Like It,' ، The Merchant of Venice,' 'The Arcadian Nuptials,' 'King Arthur,' 'The Guardian Outwitted,' and The Rose;' besides a set of harpsichord concertos, innumerable cantatas, songs, catches, and glees, and the two great productions with which he closed his ingenious labours, Caractacus' and' Elfrida.'

The degree of doctor of music was conferred on Arne by the university of Oxford, on the 6th of July, 1759. He died on the 5th of March, 1778, in the 68th year of his age.

His musical character is thus summed up by Dr Burney: "Upon the whole, though this composer had formed a new style of his own, there did not appear that fertility of ideas, original grandeur of thought, or those resources upon all occasions which are discoverable in the works of his predecessor Purcell, both for the church and the stage; yet, in secular music, he must be allowed to have surpassed him in ease, grace, and variety; which is no inconsiderable praise, when it is remembered, that, from the death of Purcell to that of Arne-a period of more than fourscore years-no candidate for musical fame among our countrymen had appeared who was equally admired by the nation at large." Arne professed the Roman Catholic faith, but led a dissipated life, which often betrayed itself in the vulgar personages which occur in his operas.

William Boyce.

BORN A. D. 1710.-DIED A. D. 1779.

THIS eminent musician, chapel-master and organist to George II. and George III., was born in London in 1710. He was distinguished for early musical abilities. In 1734 he was elected organist of Oxford chapel. Among his earliest acknowledged pieces are ، David's Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan,' and his serenata of Solomon.' His twelve sonatas, or trios, for two violins and a bass, were reckoned almost equal to those of Corelli. In 1749 he set Mason's ode, composed for the installation of the duke of Newcastle at Cambridge. The university on this occasion conferred on him the degree of doctor in music. His musical drama of the Chaplet' was his next piece, and proved very successful. Some of his occasional songs for the Vauxhall

and Ranelagh entertainments were also very popular. On the decease of Greene, in 1757, Boyce was appointed master of the king's band; and, in 1758, on the death of Travers, organist of the chapel-royal. With the assistance of Hayes, he published the compositions in score for the English service by the several English masters of the preceding two centuries, in three vols. folio. His taste and skill in ecclesiastical music were acknowledged by all his contemporaries. His style is simple, powerful, and original. Dr Boyce died in February, 1779, and was interred in St Paul's.

John Langhorne.

BORN A. d. 1735.—died a. d. 1779.

THIS pleasing and amiable writer was born at Kirkby-Steven, in Westmoreland. His father was a beneficed clergyman, but died when his son was only four years of age, leaving the superintendence of his education to his mother, who fulfilled her task in a manner which drew the warmest acknowledgments of gratitude from her son in his maturer years.

Young Langhorne's first employment was that of private tutor. subsequently took orders, and obtained the curacy and lectureship of St John's, Clerkenwell, London. His first publication was a poetical piece, entitled Studley Park,' which he appears to have thought unworthy of his genius in after years, for it is omitted in the editions of his poems published under his own superintendence. His 'Letters on Religious Retirement' appeared in 1761; and, in 1763, he published the 'Letters of Theodosius and Constantia,' the idea of which was suggested to him by a well-known tale in the Spectator. Bishop Warburton approved of these attempts to invest religion with the garb of fiction, and seems to have patronized our author. Bishop Hurd also procured him the appointment of assistant-preacher at Lincoln's-inn. His poem, entitled 'Genius and Valour,' was written as a set-off against Churchill's attack on the Scottish character, in his Prophecy of Famine.' It was wellreceived, especially in Scotland, and procured for its author the diploma of D.D. from the university of Edinburgh.

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In 1770, the subject of this article, in conjunction with his brother William, minister of Folkstone, in Kent, published a well-executed translation of Plutarch's Lives. In 1776, he translated Milton's Italian Sonnets. He died on the 1st of April, 1779. Besides the works we have mentioned, Langhorne was the author of several minor pieces both in prose and poetry. He was also a contributor to one or two of the He is an elegant, but rather feeble writer.

periodicals of the day.

David Garrick.

BORN A. D. 1716.-DIED A. D. 1779.

THIS unrivalled actor was of French extraction, his family having fled from that country to England on the revocation of the edict of

Nantes, in 1685. Peter Garrick, the father of our subject, held a captain's commission in the British army, and was on a recruiting party at Hereford, when his son David was born in the Angel inn of that town. At ten years of age, young Garrick entered the grammar-school in Lichfield, and soon after he began to manifest that genius for dramatical representations which afterwards raised him to the first rank in the histrionic corps. When little more than eleven years of age, he persuaded some of his young companions to join him in acting, before a select audience, 'The Recruiting Officer.' He prevailed on one of his sisters to play the part of the chambermaid; Sergeant Kite, a character of busy intrigue and bold humour, he chose for himself. The ease, vivacity, and humour of the infant Kite, were long remembered at Lichfield. This first attempt of our English Roscius was in 1727.

Not long after this he was invited to Lisbon by an uncle, a considerable wine-merchant in that city; but his stay there was very short, for he returned to Lichfield the year following. Probably the gay disposition of the young man was not altogether suitable to the old man's temper: however, during his short stay at Lisbon, Garrick made himself agreeable to all who knew him, particularly to the English merchants who resided there, and with whom he often dined. After dinner they frequently diverted themselves by placing him upon the table, and calling upon him to repeat verses and speeches from plays, which he did with great readiness, and much to the gratification of his hearers.

"It happened," says Galt, "that in the year 1735 the celebrated Dr Samuel Johnson, a native also of Lichfield, formed a design to open an academy for classical education, and Garrick, at that time turned of eighteen, was consigned to his charge, along with seven or eight other lads, to complete his education. Garrick is said to have commenced his pupilage with earnestness, and to have applied to the classics with a promise of good success: but Johnson grew tired of his undertaking, the employment ill accorded with his reflective genius, and the servile task of inculcating the arid rules of grammar sickened him to disgust. Having struggled with his circumstances for about a year, he resolved to abandon the profession. Garrick, whose activity was becoming adventurous, grew weary of the listlessness of a country town. He longed for a brighter and a busier scene; and having communicated his longings and aspirations to Johnson, he found him animated with congenial sentiments, and they resolved together on an expedition to the metropolis." In March, 1736-7, the two came up to town in company. Soon after his arrival in London, Garrick entered himself of Lincoln'sinn, and also put himself under the tuition of Mr Colson, an eminent mathematician at Rochester; but nothing could divert his thoughts from those pursuits to which his genius so powerfully prompted him. He had a small sum left him by his uncle at Lisbon, and engaged for a short time in the wine trade, in partnership with his brother, Peter Garrick; but the union between the brothers was of brief continuance. Peter was calm, sedate, and methodical; David was gay, volatile, impetuous. To prevent fruitless and daily altercation, by the interposition of friends the partnership was amicably dissolved.

Garrick now prepared himself in earnest for that employment which he so ardently loved, and in which nature designed he should eminently excel. He spent much time in the company of the most eminent actors;