The monument, erected by Edmund Kean, consists of a pedestal, surmounted by an urn, with this inscription:--"Erected to the memory of George Frederick Cooke, by Edmund Kean, of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, 1821;" and, beneath, this not very choice, nor very accurate distich:-- "Three kingdoms claim his birth. Both hemispheres pronounce his worth!" And below this superscription lies all that has not been stolen of what was mortal of one among the greatest and the least of British actors. During his career, flourished and passed into private life a boy, who still survives, rich with the fortune rapidly acquired in those old playgoing days,--Master Betty.[78] [Illustration: Mr. Moody as Simon.] FOOTNOTES: [74] His appearance as Lucia was after his becoming bound to a printer, and his crying is apocryphal. [75] Should be 31st October 1800. [76] Should be fourteen times. See note in vol. ii. page 82. [77] Cooke was playing at Providence, with the Boston company. Dunlap does not say, or imply, that he was taken ill specially on that night, which finished his engagement at Providence. [78] Died 24th August 1874, aged eighty-two. [Illustration: MASTER BETTY.] CHAPTER X. MASTER BETTY. William Henry West Betty was born at Shrewsbury, in 1791,--a Shropshire boy, but of Irish descent. His father, a man of independent means, taught him fencing and elocution, and was unreasonably surprised to find that a histrionic affection came of this double instruction. "I shall certainly die, if I do not become an actor!" said the boy, when residing near Belfast, and after seeing Mrs. Siddons in the ungrateful part of Elvira, in "Pizarro." Ho was then ten years old; was a boy with a will and decision of character; and, in his twelfth year, he made his first appearance at Belfast, on the 11th of August 1803, as Osmyn, in "Zara." The judgment of the Irish manager, Atkins, was that he was an "Infant Garrick." Master Betty also played Douglas, Rolla, and Romeo; and he went up to Dublin, in November, with the testimony of the Belfast ladies that he was "a darling." In the Irish capital, he acted Douglas, Frederick, Prince Arthur, Romeo, Tancred, and Hamlet. As he is said to have learned and played the last part within three days, I have small respect for his precocious cleverness and do not wonder that the Dublin wits showered epigrams upon him. "The public are respectfully informed that no person coming from the theatre will be stopt till after eleven o'clock." Such was the curious announcement on the Irish playbill which invited the public to go and see Master Betty, and advised them to get home early, if they would not be taken for traitors. Those days were the days of United Irishmen, when Ireland was divided into factions, and Dublin not quite at unity as to Master Betty's merits.