[ [97] See memoir of Cardell Goodman at end of second volume.
[ [98] Of Clark very little is known. The earliest play in which his name is given by Downes is "The Plain-Dealer," which was produced at the Theatre Royal in 1674, Clark playing Novel, a part of secondary importance. His name appears to Massina in "Sophonisba," Hephestion in "Alexander the Great," Dolabella in "All for Love," Aquitius in "Mythridates," and (his last recorded part) the Earl of Essex, the principal character in "The Unhappy Favourite," Theatre Royal, 1682. After the Union of the Companies in 1682 his name does not occur. Bellchambers has several trifling errors in the memoir he gives of this actor.
[ [99] Curll ("History of the English Stage," p. 9) says: "The Feuds and Animosities of the King's Company were so well improved, as to produce an Union betwixt the two Patents."
[ [100] Cibber gives the year as 1684, but this is so obviously a slip that I venture to correct the text.
[ [101] Genest (ii. 62) remarks: "The theatre in Dorset Garden had been built by subscription—the subscribers were called Adventurers—of this Cibber seems totally ignorant—that there were any new Adventurers, added to the original number, rests solely on his authority, and in all probability he is not correct."
[ [102] Cibber afterwards relates the connection of Owen Swiney, William Collier, M.P., and Sir Richard Steele, with himself and his actor-partners.
[ [103] The only one of Cibber's contemporaries of any note who was alive when the "Apology" was published, was Benjamin Johnson. This admirable comedian died in August, 1742, in his seventy-seventh year, having played as late as the end of May of that year.
[ [104] The actor pointed at is, no doubt, Wilks. In the last chapter of this work Cibber, in giving the theatrical character of Wilks, says of his Hamlet: "I own the Half of what he spoke was as painful to my Ear, as every Line that came from Betterton was charming."
[ [105] Barton Booth, who was probably as great in the part of the Ghost as Betterton was in Hamlet, said, "When I acted the Ghost with Betterton, instead of my awing him, he terrified me. But divinity hung round that man!"—"Dram. Misc.," iii. 32.
[ [106] "The Laureat" repeats the eulogium of a gentleman who had seen Betterton play Hamlet, and adds: "And yet, the same Gentleman assured me, he has seen Mr. Betterton, more than once, play this Character to an Audience of twenty Pounds, or under" (p. 32).