Cornish Characters and Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Cornish Characters and Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Cornwall (England : County) -- Biography; Cornwall (England : County) -- History; Legends -- England -- Cornwall (County)
"DEAR MOTHER,
"So am I; which prevents his duty being paid to his loving mother
by her affectionate son,
"SAM. FOOTE."
When bringing out his comedy of _The Minor_ considerable objections were
started to its being licensed, and among other objectors was Secker,
Archbishop of Canterbury. Foote offered to submit the play to him for
revision, with permission to strike out whatever he deemed
objectionable. But the prelate was not to be trapped thus. He knew well
that had he done this, Foote would have advertised its performance "as
altered and amended by his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury."
Having made a trip to Ireland, he was asked on his return what
impression was made on him by the Irish peasantry, and replied that
they gave him great satisfaction, as they settled a question that had
long agitated his mind, and that was, what became of the cast clothes
of English beggars.
One evening at the coffee-house he was asked if he had attended the
funeral of a very intimate friend, the son of a baker. "Oh yes,
certainly," said he; "just seen him shoved into the family oven."
Although he had on more than one occasion applied to Garrick for loans
of a few hundred pounds, this did not deter him from mimicking
Garrick, and when the Shakespeare Jubilee took place at
Stratford-on-Avon, under the superintendence of this latter, Foote was
so jealous and envious of its success, that he schemed bringing out a
mock procession in imitation of it, with a man dressed to resemble
Garrick in the character of the Steward of the Jubilee, with his wand,
white-topped gloves, and Shakespeare medal; whilst some ragamuffin was
to address him in the lines of the Jubilee poet-laureate--
A nation's taste depends on you,
Perhaps a nation's virtue too;
to which the mimic Garrick was to reply by clapping his arms, like the
wings of a cock, and crowing--
Cock-a-doodle-doo!
It was with difficulty that Foote could be deterred from carrying his
scheme into effect.
But, indeed, he spared no one. He had been separated practically, though
not legally, from his wife, whom to his friends and acquaintances he
spoke of as "the Washerwoman." She was a quiet, inoffensive, worthy
woman; and his friends induced him after a while to allow her to return
to his house. As it chanced, her conveyance was upset on the way, and
she was thrown out and much cut and bruised in her face and person.
Instead of sympathizing with her, he turned the matter into joke with
his boon companions, and said, "If you want to see a map of the world,
go and look at my wife's face. There is the Black Sea in her eye, the
Red Sea in her gashes, and the Yellow Sea in all her bruises."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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