JOHNSON.--That this conduct of Garrick’s might be interpreted by the gross minds of Foote and his friends as if he was afraid to encounter him, I can easily imagine. Of the natural superiority of Garrick over Foote, this conduct is an instance; he disdained entering into competition with such a fellow, and made him the buffoon of the company, or, as you may say, brought him out, and what was at last brought out but coarse jests and vulgar merriment, indecency, and impiety, a relation of events which, upon the face of them, could never have happened, characters grossly conceived and as coarsely represented. Foote was even no mimick; he went out of himself, it is true, but without going into another man; he was excelled by Garrick even in this, which is considered as Foote’s greatest excellence. Garrick, besides his exact imitation of the voice and gestures of his original, to a degree of refinement of which Foote had no conception, exhibited the mind and mode of thinking of the person imitated. Besides, Garrick confined his powers within the limits of decency: he had a character to preserve, Foote had none. By Foote’s buffoonery and broadfaced merriment, private friendship, public decency, and everything estimable amongst men, were trod under foot. We all know the difference of their reception in the world. No man, however high in rank or literature, but was proud to know Garrick, and was glad to have him at his table; no man ever considered or treated Garrick as a player; he may be said to have stepped out of his own rank into an higher, and by raising himself he raised the rank of his profession. At a convivial table his exhilarating powers were unrivalled; he was lively, entertaining, quick in discerning the ridicule of life, and as ready in representing it, and on graver subjects there were few topics on which he could not bear a part. It is injurious to the character of Garrick to be named in the same breath with Foote. That Foote was admitted sometimes into good company (to do the man what credit I can) I will allow, but then it was merely to play tricks; Foote’s merriment was that of a buffoon, and Garrick’s that of a gentleman. G.--I have been told, on the contrary, that Garrick in company had not the easy manners of a gentleman. J.--Sir, I do not know what you may have been told, or what your ideas may be of the manners of gentlemen. Garrick had no vulgarity in his manners; it is true, he had not the airiness of a fop, nor did he assume an affected indifference to what was passing; he did not lounge from the table to the window, and from thence to the fire, or whilst you were addressing your discourse to him, turn from you, and talk to his next neighbour, or give any indication that he was tired of your company. If such manners form your ideas of a fine gentleman, Garrick certainly had them not.