The noon-tide sun, call’d forth the mutinous winds, etc.’
CHAPTER VI
Mr Holcroft arrived in London, just at the time that Mr Sheridan came into the management of Drury-Lane. He endeavoured to procure an engagement at this, and at the other house; but in vain. As a last desperate resource, when his money was nearly exhausted, he sat down and wrote a farce, called The Crisis, or Love and Famine which Mrs. Sheridan was prevailed on to read; and this, with his musical knowledge (as he was able to sing in all choruses), procured him an engagement at twenty shillings a week. On his being engaged, Mr Holcroft was desired by Mr Sheridan to give in his cast of parts to Mr Hopkins, the prompter; and they were as follow:
| Don Manuel, | Kind Impostor. |
| Hardcastle, | She Stoops to Conquer. |
| Justice Woodcock, | Love in a Village. |
| Hodge, | Ditto. |
| Giles, | Maid of the Mill. |
| Ralph, | Ditto. |
| Sir Harry Sycamore, | Ditto. |
| Scrub, | Beaux’ Stratagem. |
| Sir Anthony Absolute, | Rivals. |
| General Savage, | School for Wives. |
| Colin Macleod, | Faithless Lover. |
| Mortimer, | Ditto. |
| Sir Benjamin Dove, | Brothers. |
| Major O’Flaherty, | West-Indian. |
| Fulmer, | Ditto. |
| Varland, | Ditto. |
| Colonel Oldboy, | Lionel and Clarissa. |
It was in this last part that Mr Holcroft particularly wished to have made his first appearance. The manner in which he procured a recommendation to Mrs. Sheridan, was through his cousin, Mrs. Greville. In consequence of this connexion, he also obtained introductions to Mrs. Crewe, and several other persons of fashion, who interested themselves in his behalf; and an epistolary intercourse commenced between him and Mr Greville on subjects of taste and the theatre, which continued for some years.
His farce of the Crisis was, I believe, played but once, for the benefit of Hopkins, the prompter, when it was favourably received. This Mr Hopkins, who had the regulation of the inferior parts in the theatre, entertained a very low opinion of Mr Holcroft’s powers as an actor; and he remained unnoticed, till Mr Sheridan by chance saw him in the part of Mungo, with which he was so much pleased as to order his weekly salary to be raised to five and twenty shillings. Both his salary and his reputation in the theatre seem now to have remained stationary during this and the following season, though he constantly attended the theatre to perform the most menial parts. The following extract from a letter addressed to Mr Sheridan, will sufficiently explain both his situation and feelings at this time:—
‘Depressed, dejected, chained by Misfortune to the rock of Despair, while the vultures Poverty and Disappointment are feasting with increase of appetite upon me, I have no chance of deliverance but from you. You, Sir, I hope, will be my Alcides! Mr Evans says, he must increase the deductions he already makes from my salary (9s. per week), unless I can obtain your order to the contrary. It is scarcely possible I should maintain my family, which will shortly be increased, upon my present income. Were I not under deductions at the office, my receipts would very little exceed sixty pounds a year; and this I enjoy more through your favour than any consequence I am of to the theatre, though continually employed. But then it is either to sit in a senate or at a card-table, or to walk in a procession, or to sing in a chorus, which is all that the prompter, who has the direction of this kind of business, thinks me capable of. Nay, in so little esteem am I held by Mr Hopkins, that he took the part of a dumb steward in Love for Love from another person, and made me do it; and when by your permission I played Mawworm, he said, had he been well and up, it should not have been so. I do not mention this as a subject of accusation against Mr Hopkins, but merely to shew that if I am consigned to his penetration, I am doomed to everlasting oblivion.
‘Unhappily for me, when I performed Mawworm, you were not at the theatre. Interest rather than vanity makes me say, I was more successful than I had any reason to expect. The audience were in a continual laugh. I played Jerry Sneak for my own benefit last year, and with the same success; and if I could only be introduced to the town in old men and burletta singing, I know from former experience how soon I should be held in a very different estimation from what I am at present. You do not know, Sir, how useful I could be upon a thousand emergencies in the theatre, if I were but thought of; but this I shall never be till your express mandate is issued for that purpose.
‘You have frequently been pleased to express a partiality towards me, as well as a favourable opinion of my abilities. But, sir, if you do not immediately interest yourself in my behalf, I may grow grey, while I enjoy your favour without a possibility of confirming or increasing it. “Who’s the Dupe” prevented the Crisis from being played last year: now you tell me you will talk to me after Christmas; in the meantime “the Flitch of Bacon” and a new pantomime are preparing. I told those to whom I am indebted, I should have a chance of paying them soon, for that the Crisis would come out before the holidays. When I said so, I believed that it would; but they will think I meant to deceive them.’
The concluding sentence of this letter is remarkable, when we recollect the character of the celebrated man to whom it is addressed.