HART AND MOHUN.
(Vol. v., p. 466.)
In Downes' Roscius Anglicanus, edit. 1789, mention is made of these two actors, thus:
"Hart was apprentice to Robinson, an actor who lived before the Civil Wars; he afterwards had a captain's commission, and fought for Charles I. He acted women's parts when a boy.
"Mohun was brought up under Robinson, as Hart and others were: in his youth he acted Bellamente, in Love's Cruelty, which part he retained after the Restoration."—Page 10.
It appears to have been the practice of the old actors—the "master actors," as they were called—to take youths as apprentices, and to initiate them in female characters, as a preparatory step towards something weightier. Richard Robinson, above-mentioned, circa 1616, usually performed female characters himself.[[4]] In 1647 his name occurs, with several others, prefixed to the dedication of the first folio edition of Fletcher's Plays. He served in the king's army in the civil wars, and was killed in an engagement by Harrison, who refused him quarter, and who was afterwards hanged at Charing Cross.
The patent of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, of which Mr. Hart and Major Mohun formed part of the company, having descended from Thomas to Charles Killigrew—
"In 1682 he joined it to Dr. Davenant's patent, whose company acted then in Dorset Garden, which, upon the union, were created the King's Company: after which Mr. Hart acted no more, having a pension to the day of his death from the United Company. I must not omit to mention the parts in several plays of some of the actors, wherein they excelled in the performance of them. First, Mr. Hart, in the part of Arbaces, in King and no King; Amintor, in the Maid's Tagedy; Othello; Rollo; Brutus, in Julius Cæsar; Alexander. Towards the latter end of his acting, if he acted in any one of these but once in a fortnight, the house was filled as at a new play, especially Alexander; he acting that with such grandeur and agreeable majesty, that one of the Court was pleased to honour him with this commendation; that Hart might teach any king on earth how to comport himself."[[5]]
In Rymer's Dissertation on Tragedy he is thus noticed:
"The eyes of the audience are prepossessed and charmed by his action, before aught of the poet can approach their ears; and to the most wretched of characters Hart gives a lustre which dazzles the sight, that the deformities of the poet cannot be perceived."
"He was no less inferior in Comedy; as Mosca, in the Fox; Don John, in the Chances; Wildblood, in the Mock Astrologer; with sundry other parts. In all the Comedies and Tragedies he was concerned, he perform'd with that exactness and perfection that not any of his successors have equall'd him."[[6]]
It would seem that through Hart's "excellent action" alone Ben Jonson's Catiline (his own favourite play), which had been condemned on its first representation, was kept on the stage during the reign of Charles II. With Hart this play died.
Previous to Nell Gwyn's elevation to royal favour, it is said, upon the authority of Sir George Etherge, in Lives of the most celebrated Beauties, &c., 1715, she was "protected" by Lacy, and afterwards by Hart. Whether this be true or not, it is certain that she received instructions in the Thespian art from both of these gentlemen.
The cause of Hart retiring from the stage was in consequence of his being dreadfully afflicted with the stone and gravel, "of which he died sometime after, having a salary of forty shillings a week to the day of his death."
Hart's Christian name was Charles. He is believed by Malone to have been Shakspeare's great nephew.[[7]]
Major Mohun remained in the "United Company" after Hart's retirement.
"He was eminent for Volpone; Face, in the Alchemist; Melantius, in the Maid's Tragedy; Mardonius, in King and no King; Cassius, in Julius Cæsar; Clytus, in Alexander; Mithridates, &c. An eminent poet[[8]] seeing him act this last, vented suddenly this saying: 'Oh, Mohun, Mohun! thou little man of mettle, if I should write 100 plays, I'd write a part for thy mouth.' In short, in all his parts, he was most accurate and correct."[[9]]
Rymer remarks:
"We may remember (however we find this scene of Melanthius and Amintor written in the book) that at the Theater we have a good scene acted; there is work cut out, and both our Æsopus and Roscius are on the stage together. Whatever defect may be in Amintor and Melanthius, Mr. Hart and Mr. Mohun are wanting in nothing. To these we owe what is pleasing in the scene; and to this scene we may impute the success of the 'Maid's Tragedy.'"
Major Mohun's Christian name was Michael.
W. H. Ln.
Berwick-on-Tweed.
Footnote 4:[(return)]
See The Devil is an Ass, Act II. Sc. 8.
Roscius Anglicanus, p. 23.
Ibid., p. 24.
See Historical Account of the English Stage, in Malone's edition of Shakspeare, vol. i. part ii. p. 278. Lond. 1790.
Thought by Thomas Davies to have been Lee.
Roscius Anglicanus.