Among the actors of the time he was looked up to as a king. Downes[446] says: 'I must not Omit Praises due to Mr. Betterton. The first and now only remains of the old Stock, of the Company of Sir _William Davenant_ in _Lincolns_ Inn Fields; he like an old Stately Spreading Oak now stands Fixt, Environ'd round with brave Young Growing Flourishing Plants.... Mr. _Dryden_ a little before his Death in a Prologue, rendring him this Praise:-- [Footnote 446: _Roscius Anglicanus_, 1708.] He like the Setting Sun, still shows a Glimmery Ray Like Antient ROME Majestick in decay.' He was buried in Westminster Abbey on May 2, 1710, and Steele[447] wrote a long panegyric upon him, saying he 'ought to be recorded with the same respect as Roscius among the Romans.' [Footnote 447: _Tatler_, 167.] He died, not in want, but in comparatively poor circumstances, and he must have been a man of some culture, as the following advertisement, soon after his death, shows:[448] 'This Day will be Continued the Sale by Auction of the _Prints_, and _Books of Prints and Drawings_, of Mr. _Tho. Betterton_, deceased, &c.' [Footnote 448: _Harl. MSS._ 5996, 100.] Verbruggen, although he died in 1708, played in Queen Anne's reign. But little is known of him, except that he was a tragedian, and was the original Oronooko. A contemporary character of him is 'A fellow with a crackt voice, he clangs his words, as if he spoke out of a broken drum.'[449] Downes says, 'his Person being tall, well built and clean, only he was a little In Kneed, which gave him a shambling Gate;' and he adds, '_Verbruggen_ was Nature without Extravagance--Freedom without Licentiousness--and vociferous without bellowing.' [Footnote 449: _Comparison between the two Stages._] Cave Underhill was another veteran, of whom Steele writes[450] when making an appeal to the public to support him: 'he has been a comic for three generations; my father admired him extremely when he was a boy.' He took a benefit at Drury Lane on June 3, 1709, when 'Hamlet' was played, and he took his favourite part of the gravedigger. [Footnote 450: _Tatter_, 22.] Leigh was another old actor who died in this reign.