Memoirs of Samuel Foote, Esq: With a Collection of His Genuine Bon-mots, Anecdotes, Opinions, &c. Mostly Original. And Three of His Dramatic Pieces, Not Published in His Works ...R. Phillips, 1805 |
Other editions - View all
Memoirs of Samuel Foote, Esq: With a Collection of His Genuine Bon-Mots ... No preview available - 2020 |
Common terms and phrases
acquaintance actor admirable Crichton afterwards anecdote apothecary Atalantis Bayes Bedford Bedford coffee-house bon-mot Burke called character Churchill Cibber coffee-house Colley Cibber comedy comic conversation Crichton dear Delaval died dining dinner Doctor dramatic writer dress Drury-lane Dryden Duke excellent exclaimed father follies Foote's fortune Francis Blake Delaval Garrick gave gentleman green-room happened Haymarket Theatre heard honour Hugh Kelly Johnson lady latter laugh literary lived Lord Lord Bute Lord Chatham Lordship Madam manner Mantua morning Murphy nature never night observed occasion once original Othello parties performer perhaps person pieces play players poet pounds praise pray racter reciter Rehearsal replied respect rick ridicule SAMUEL FOOTE satire Sir Francis Sir Francis Blake soon stage talents taste Theophilus Cibber thing thought tion told took wit and humour write young
Popular passages
Page 193 - Graced as thou art with all the power of words, So known, so honour'd, at the house of lords...
Page 155 - The first time I was in company with Foote was at Fitzherbert's. Having no good opinion of the fellow, 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 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 upon my chair, and fairly laugh it out. No, Sir, he was irresistible.* He upon one occasion experienced, in an extraordinary degree,...
Page 134 - Mantua testified their esteem by a public mourning, the contemporary wits were profuse of their encomiums, and the palaces of Italy were adorned with pictures, representing him on horseback with a lance in one hand and a book in the other.
Page 172 - We talked of Mr. Burke. Dr. Johnson said he had great variety of knowledge, store of imagery, copiousness of language. ROBERTSON. "He has wit too." JOHNSON. "No, sir, he never succeeds there. "Tis low; 'tis conceit. I used to say Burke never once made a good joke.
Page 160 - Sir, it is not a talent ; it is a vice ; it is what others abstain from. It is not comedy, which exhibits the character of a species, as that of a miser gathered from many misers ; it is farce which exhibits individuals.
Page 158 - ... reading ; he has knowledge enough to fill up his part. One species of wit he has in an eminent degree, that of escape. You drive him into a corner with both hands ; but he's gone, Sir, when you think you have got him — like an animal that jumps over your head. Then he has a great range for wit ; he never lets truth stand between him and a jest, and he is sometimes mighty coarse. Garrick is under many restraints from which Foote is free.
Page 192 - ... such a flowing happiness of diction, which (from care, perhaps, at first) is become so habitual to him, that even his most familiar conversations, if taken down in writing, would bear the press, without the least correction either as to method or style.
Page 135 - His person was of the middle size, about five feet seven inches high, inclinable to fatness. He had a thoughtful speaking eye, and that was all. He gave himself up early to drinking ; and, like the unhappy wits of that age, passed his days between rioting and fasting, ranting' jollity and abject penitence, carousing one week with Lord Plymouth, and then starving a month in low company at an alehouse on Tower-hill.
Page 126 - Hebrew, and all the languages which we call learned, but also all the different jargons or modern dialects; he accented and pronounced them so naturally, and so perfectly imitated the gestures and manners both of the several nations of Europe, and the particular provinces of France, that he might have been taken for a native of all or any of these countries; and this quality he applied to counterfeit all sorts of persons, wherein he succeeded wonderfully; he was, moreover, the best comedian and...
Page 2 - Dear Mother, — So am I, which prevents his duty being paid to his loving mother by her affectionate son, SAM. FOOTE.