[135] Foote was such a dandy, when a young man, that he was often mistaken for a foreigner.
[136] Cooke, with what, I suppose, he intended as a witticism, introduced Foote to his club at Covent Garden as 'Mr. Foote, the nephew of the gentleman who was lately hung in chains for murdering his brother.'
[137] He played Shylock, in 1758 (with Kitty Clive as Portia!), for his benefit at Drury Lane. On another occasion he was advertised to play Polonius, but seems to have thought better of it.
[138] Foote is said to have realized £500 in five nights by his caricatures of Macklin in his burlesque lectures.
[139] Afterwards enlarged and produced, unsuccessfully, as 'Taste,' a comedy, at Drury Lane, in 1752. Foote presented this comedy to Garrick, as the profits were to be given to a poor actor, named Worsdale.
[140] And this reminds us of the frequent squabbles, almost immediately forgotten by both parties, which used to take place between Foote and Macklin. Thus, on one occasion, in order to test Macklin's boast as to his retentive memory, Foote ran off the well-known nonsense story: 'So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage-leaf to make an apple-pie,' etc. Macklin broke down in his attempt to remember them, but the lines themselves have since formed, on more than one occasion, the test of a scholar's power in turning them into Latin or Greek verse; witness the following attempt, which I have found in Notes and Queries, 5th series, vol. ix. p. 11:
'Protenus illa foras sese projecit in hortum
Pluribus e caulis foliis resecaret ut unum,
Dulcia conficeret coctis quo crustula pomis;
Quum subito attonitam vadens impune per urbem,
Monstrum horrendum ursæ visum est per claustra tabernæ.
Inseruisse caput patulisq: adstare fenestris—
"Usque adeo ne omnis saponis copia defit?"'
and so on.
[141] It must be remembered that Whitefield said of him, 'However much you all admire Mr. Foote, the devil will one day make a foot-ball of him.'
[142] This play was so successful that Foote launched out into all sorts of extravagances, including the purchase of a magnificent service of plate, at a cost of £1,200.