because a capricious individual has taken it into her head that I have pinned her ruffles awry, that I should be punished by a poignard stuck deep in my heart: your Lordship has too much candour and justice to be the instrument of so violent and ill-directed a blow.
"Your Lordship's determination is not only of the greatest importance to me now, but must inevitably decide my fate for the future, as, after this defeat, it will be impossible for me to muster up courage enough to face Folly again: between the Muse and the Magistrate there is a natural confederacy; what the last cannot punish, the first often corrects; but when she finds herself not only deserted by her antient ally, but sees him armed in the defence of her foe, she has nothing left but a speedy retreat: adieu, then, my Lord, to the Stage. Valeat res ludicra; to which, I hope, I may with justice add Plaudite; as, during my continuance in the service of the publick, I never profited by flattering their passions, or falling in with their humours; as, upon all occasions, I have exerted my little powers (as, indeed, I thought it my duty), in exposing follies, how much soever the favourites of the day; and pernicious prejudices, however protected and popular. This, my Lord, has been done, if those may be believed who have the best right to know, sometimes with success; let me add too, that in doing this I never lost my
credit with the publick, because they knew that I proceeded upon principle, that I disdained being either the echo or the instrument of any man, however exalted his station, and that I never received reward or protection from any other hands than their own.
"I have the honour to be, &c.
"Samuel Foote."
Mr. Garrick, whose unrivalled powers as an actor have ever been the theme of applause and admiration, retired from the Stage in June 1776, when in full possession of his extraordinary faculties, after disposing of his share and patent of Drury-lane Theatre to Messrs. Ford, Ewart, Sheridan, and Linley, for 35,000l.
The property of the Theatre in the Haymarket was transferred from Mr. Foote to Mr. Colman in the following year, and has remained in that gentleman's and his son's possession till very lately. It will be sufficient to observe of this place of amusement, that it is too confined for a Summer Theatre, and to accommodate the crowds which attend it, attracted by the best old plays, many excellent new ones, and good performers selected from the Winter and Provincial Theatres.
The reader who recollects my previous notices of the enlargement of Drury-lane Theatre will perceive, from those and the subsequent, how rapidly population and the admiration of theatrical amusements have increased. Mr. Harris,
proprietor of Covent-garden Playhouse, found it necessary in 1782 to raise the roof eight feet, and make other alterations, to benefit himself, and accommodate the publick. It was then that the Theatre was adorned with those genuine ornaments in the Grecian style, which have lately given place to I know not what strange substitutes of painted deal boards.
Mr. Kemble, the present Roscius of the British Stage, made his first appearance in 1784; but his accomplished and unrivalled sister had astonished and delighted the publick in the previous year. The two Thalias, Farren and Jordan, were contemporaries with the celebrated tragedians; but the former is now a Countess, and the latter I had almost said a Princess, though still the object of rapturous approbation on the Stage.