Jeremiah Markland. BORN A. D. 1693.—died a. D. 1776. THIS learned and acute critic was son of Ralph Markland, vicar of Childwall, in Lancashire. He was admitted of Christ's hospital, London, in 1704, whence, in 1710, he was sent to the university of Cambridge. In 1717 he was chosen a fellow of St Peter's. The first publication which introduced him to the notice of the learned world was his Epistola critica ad eruditissimum virum F. Hare, in quâ Horatii loca aliquot et aliorum veterum emendantur,' Cantab. 1723, 8vo. In 1728 he edited an edition of the Sylvæ' of Statius, in which he greatly restored the integrity of the text, and exhibited uncommon felicity of judgment and conjecture. In 1745 he published Remarks on the Epistles of Cicero and Brutus,' in which he attempted to prove that these remains were not genuine; he likewise extended his scepticism to some of the orations ascribed to Cicero, which he characterized as "silly and barbarous stuff." Markland was, in this discussion, aided by Tunstall; and opposed by Middleton, and Ross afterwards bishop of Exeter. About the year 1752 Markland retired into private life, selecting for his retreat the hamlet of Milton, near Dorking in Surrey. In this retirement he edited, by piecemeal, the plays of Euripides, but it was not without much difficulty that his friends prevailed on him to lay his valuable annotations before the public. He died in 1776. Markland was a truly profound scholar; but his timid and shrinking disposition deprived the world of much of the fruits of his unwearied industry, fine taste, and extensive acquaintance with the stores of classical antiquity. He was a man of high moral integrity and independence of character. Samuel Foote. BORN A. D. 1720.-DIED A. D. 1777. SAMUEL FOOTE, the modern Aristophanes, was born at Truro in Cornwall. He was descended from a very ancient family. His father was member of parliament for Tiverton in Devonshire, and enjoyed the post of commissioner of the prize-office. His mother was heiress of the Dinely and Goodhere families. He was educated at Worcester college, Oxford. "The church belonging to the college fronted the side of a lane, into which cattle were sometimes turned during the night, and from the steeple hung the bell-rope very low in the middle of the outside porch. Foote, one night, slily tied a wisp of hay to the rope as a bait for the cows, and one of them, after smelling the hay, instantly seized on it, and tugging, made the bell ring, to the astonishment of the whole parish. This trick was several times repeated. Such a phenomenon must be investigated for the honour of Oxford and philosophy, and accordingly the provost with the sexton agreed to sit up one night, and on the first alarm to run out and drag the culprit to punishment. They waited in the church shuddering for the signal: at last the bell began to toll-forth they sallied in the dark. The sexton was the first in the attack: he cried out It is a gentleman commoner, for I have him by the gown.' The doctor, who at the same moment caught the cow by the horn, replied,No, no, you blockhead, 'tis the postman, and here I have hold of him by his horn.' Lights, however, being brought, the true character of the offender was discovered, and the laugh of the town was turned upon Doctor Gower. When Foote was enjoined to learn certain tasks in consequence of his idleness, he used to come with a large folio dictionary under his arm, and repeat his lessons, and then the doctor would give him several wholesome lectures on the dangers of idleness. In this lecture he usually made use of many hard words and quaint phrases, at which the other would immediately interrupt him, and after begging pardon with great formality, would take the dictionary from under his arm, and affect to search up the word, would then pretend he had found it, and say, 'Very well, Sir; now please to go on.' On leaving the university he commenced student of law in the Temple; but as the dryness of this study did not suit the liveliness of his genius, he soon relinquished it. In 1741 he married a young lady of good family and some fortune; but their tempers not agreeing, harmony did not long subsist between them. He now launched into all the fashionable foibles of the age, gaming not excepted, and in a few years spent his whole fortune. His necessities at last drove him on the stage, and he made his first appearance at the Haymarket, on the 6th of February, 1744, in the character of Othello. He attempted Lord Foppington likewise, but prudently gave it up. The fact is, Foote never was a good actor in the plays of others. In 1747 he opened a little theatre in the Haymarket, and appeared in a dramatic piece of his own composing, called The Diversions of the Morning.' This piece consisted of nothing more than the exhibition of several characters well-known in real life, whose style of conversation and expressions Foote very happily hit off in the diction of his drama, and still more happily represented on the stage. This performance at first met with some opposition from the magistrates of Westminster, under the sanction of the act of parliament for limiting the number of playhouses, as well as from the jealousy of the managers of Drury Lane playhouse; but the author being patronized by many of the principal nobility, and other persons of distinction, this opposition was overruled. Having altered the title of his performance, Foote proceeded without further molestation to give Tea in a Morning' to his friends, and represented it through a run of forty mornings to crowded and splendid audiences. "This entertainment," says Galt, "resembled in many respects the kind of monologues which have been so much the delight of our own age by the admirable tact and humour of Mathews. Foote at the time and during his whole life had the peculiar zest of personal mimicry, but Mathews has gone a step farther, by performing alone different imaginary characters in the same manner that Foote imitated the peculiarities of well-known persons. The success of Foote in this novel species of 1 Galt's Lives of the Players.' entertainment excited the jealousy of the great theatres; complaints were made as if he had really immorally violated the law; constables were employed to dismiss his audience, and for a time his career was arrested. But as Mathews holds his at Homes,' Foote invited the public to Tea,' and his invitation was accepted with avidity. The conception of this entertainment did credit to his eccentric taste and talent. While the audience were sitting wondering what it would be, the manager came forward, and after making his bow, acquainted them That as he was training some young performers for the stage, he would, with their permission, whilst tea was getting ready, proceed with his instructions before them;' and he then commenced a series of ludicrous imitations of the players, who, one and all, became exceedingly exasperated against him, but their anger only served to make him more visited. Few amusements were ever so popular." The ensuing season he produced another piece of the same kind, which he called 'The Auction of Pictures.' This piece also had a very great run. His 'Knights,' the produce of the ensuing season, was a performance of somewhat more dramatic regularity; but still, although his plot and characters seemed less immediately personal, it was apparent that he kept some real characters strongly in his eye in the performance; and the town took upon themselves to fix them where the resemblance appeared to be the most striking. 6 Foote's dramatic pieces, exclusive of the interlude called 'Piety in Pattens,' are as follow: 'Taste,' The Knights,' The Author,' 'The Englishman in Paris,' The Englishman returned from Paris,'The Mayor of Garrat,'The Liar,' 'The Patron,' The Minor,' 'The Orators,' The Commissary,' The Devil upon Two Sticks,'' The Lame Lover,' The Maid of Bath,'The Nabob,' 'The Cozeners,' 'The Capuchin,' 'The Bankrupt,' and an unfinished comedy called 'The Slanderer.' All these works are only to be ranked among the petite pieces of the theatre. In their execution they are loose, negligent, and unfinished; the plots are often irregular, and the catastrophes not always conclusive; but, with all these deficiencies, they contain more character, more strokes of keen satire, and more touches of temporary humour, than are to be found in the writings of any modern dramatist, with the exception of Sheridan. Foote, finding his health decline, entered into an agreement with Colman for his patent of the Haymarket theatre, according to which he was to receive from Colman £1600 per annum, besides a stipulated sum whenever he chose to perform. After this he made his appearance two or three times in some of the most admired characters; but being sud denly affected with a paralytic stroke one night whilst upon the stage, he was compelled to retire. He was advised to bathe; and accordingly repaired to Brighton, where he apparently recovered his former health and spirits, and was what is called the fiddle of the company' who resort to that agreeable place of amusement. A few weeks before his death he returned to London; but, by the advice of his physicians, set out with the intention to spend the winter at Paris and in the south of France. He got no farther than Dover, when he was suddenly attacked by another stroke of the palsy which in a few hours terminated his existence. He died on the 21st of October, 1777, in the 56th year of his age; and was privately interred in the cloisters of Westminster abbey. Johnson said of Foote: "He is not a good mimic; but he has art, a fertility and variety of images, and is not deficient in reading. He has knowledge enough to fill up his part: then he has great range for his wit; he never lets truth stand between him and a jest: and he is sometimes mighty coarse." It being observed to him that Foote had a singular talent of exhibiting character, the doctor replied: "No, Sir; it is not a talent, it is a vice: it is what others abstain from." At another time, Dr Johnson, in speaking of his abilities, said, "I don't think Foote a good mimic. His imitations are not like: he gives you something different from himself, without going into other people. He cannot take off any person, except he is strongly marked. He is like a painter who can draw the portrait of a man who has a wen upon his face, and who, therefore, is easily known. If a man hops upon one leg, Foote can hop upon one leg; but he has not a nice discrimination of char acter. He is, however, upon the whole, very entertaining, with a par ticular species of conversation, between art and buffoonery. I am afraid, however, Foote has no principle. He is at times neither governed by good manners nor discretion, and very little by affection. But for a broad laugh-and here the doctor would himself gruffly smile at the recollection of it-I must confess the scoundrel has no fellow." "The first time," said the doctor on another occasion, "I ever was in company with Foote, I was resolved not to be pleased—and it is very difficult to please a man against his will. I went on eating my dinner pretty sullenly, affecting for a long time not to mind him; but the dog was so very comical that I was obliged to lay down my knife and fork, throw myself back on my chair, and fairly laugh it out with the rest. there was no avoiding it—the fellow was irresistible." Thomas Arne. BORN A. D. 1710.-DIED A. D. 1778. THOMAS AUGUSTINE ARNE, a celebrated musical composer, was born on the 28th of May, 1710. He was the son of Thomas Arne, upholsterer, Covent Garden, the person supposed to be depicted by Addison, in his well-known character of the Politician, in Nos. 155 and 160 of the Tatler. He was educated at Eton, and originally designed for a legal profession; but his passionate love of music ultimately induced his father to consent to his following it professionally. Under the tuition of Festing, an eminent violin performer, he soon rivalled the skill of his master, and recommended himself to the notice and favour of Farinelli, Senesino, Geminiani, and the other great Italian musicians of the day. His first regular engagement as a public performer was that of leader of the band at Drury Lane, and his first public essay as a composer was the opera of 'Rosamond,' which was brought out in March 1733, and met with considerable success. In 1738 he produced music for Milton's masque of Comus.' "In this masque," says Dr Burney, "he introduced a light, airy, original, and pleasing melody, wholly different from Purcell and Handel, whom all English composers had hitherto pillaged or imitated. Indeed the melody of Arne at this time, and of his Vauxhall songs afterwards, forms an era in English music; it was so easy, natural, and agreeable to the whole kingdom, that it had an effect upon our national taste." Somewhat before this period he married Miss Cecilia Young, a favourite singer and pupil of Geminiani. In 1740 he set Mallet's masque of Alfred,' which was presented on the 1st of August, 1740, in Clifden Gardens, before the prince and princess of Wales. It was in this piece that the well-known song 'Rule Britannia,' still one of the most popular of all our political lyrics, was first introduced. To these pieces succeeded the operas of Eliza' and 'Artaxerxes,'-the masque of Britannia,'— the oratorios of the Death of Abel,' 'Judith,' and 'Beauty and Virtue,' the musical entertainments of Thomas and Sally,' the 'Prince of the Fairies,'-the songs in As You Like It,' The Merchant of Venice,' 'The Arcadian Nuptials,' 'King Arthur,' 'The Guardian Outwitted,' and The Rose;' besides a set of harpsichord concertos, innumerable cantatas, songs, catches, and glees, and the two great productions with which he closed his ingenious labours, Caractacus' and Elfrida.' The degree of doctor of music was conferred on Arne by the university of Oxford, on the 6th of July, 1759. He died on the 5th of March, 1778, in the 68th year of his age. His musical character is thus summed up by Dr Burney: "Upon the whole, though this composer had formed a new style of his own, there did not appear that fertility of ideas, original grandeur of thought, or those resources upon all occasions which are discoverable in the works of his predecessor Purcell, both for the church and the stage; yet, in secular music, he must be allowed to have surpassed him in ease, grace, and variety; which is no inconsiderable praise, when it is remembered, that, from the death of Purcell to that of Arne-a period of more than fourscore years-no candidate for musical fame among our countrymen had appeared who was equally admired by the nation at large." Arne professed the Roman Catholic faith, but led a dissipated life, which often betrayed itself in the vulgar personages which occur in his operas. William Boyce. BORN A. D. 1710.-DIED A. D. 1779. 6 THIS eminent musician, chapel-master and organist to George II. and George III., was born in London in 1710. He was distinguished for early musical abilities. In 1734 he was elected organist of Oxford chapel. Among his earliest acknowledged pieces are David's Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan,' and his serenata of Solomon.' His twelve sonatas, or trios, for two violins and a bass, were reckoned almost equal to those of Corelli. In 1749 he set Mason's ode, composed for the installation of the duke of Newcastle at Cambridge. The university on this occasion conferred on him the degree of doctor in music. His musical drama of the Chaplet' was his next piece, and proved very successful. Some of his occasional songs for the Vauxhall |