Poor Palmer! One cannot help having a kindly feeling for "Plausible Jack." Can you not see him coming up to Sheridan, when reconciliation had followed quarrel, with his head bent blandly forward, his eyes turned up, his hand on his heart, and a phrase after the manner, if not of the very matter, of Joseph Surface, of which he was the original representative? "If you could but see my heart, Mr. Sheridan!" and Sheridan's pleasantly remonstrating remark, "Why, Jack, you forget I wrote it!" And then he was so modest. "Plausible, am I?" he once asked; "you really rate me too highly. The utmost I ever did in that way was, on once being arrested by a bailiff; when I persuaded the fellow to bail me!" After many of these actors had commenced their career, and long before some of them concluded it, a great player came, charmed, and departed, leaving a name and a reputation which render him worthy of a chapter to himself. I allude to Henderson. [Illustration: Mr. Dunstall as Hodge.] FOOTNOTES: [30] Should be 5th of May. [31] He commenced with Essex--"Earl of Essex"--3d October 1757. He played Hamlet on the 8th. [32] Ross left Covent Garden at the end of 1766-67. He appeared at the Edinburgh Theatre, in the Canongate, on 9th December 1767. [33] The money was partly subscribed by shareholders, and Ross seems to have owed most of the balance. [34] Ross died suddenly in 1790 (2d edition). [35] 1783. [36] 1788 (2d edition). [37] Not King's _farewell_ benefit. [38] Should be Haymarket. [39] Johnstone's first appearance in England took place on 2d October 1783. [40] This is more than doubtful. The immoderate length of this part contributed largely to the condemnation of the play. [41] Her first appearance as an actress was made 23d April 1765. [42] According to Thomas Bellamy's Life of Parsons, he was a Londoner. [43] Bellamy gives Sir Fretful Plagiary as his last part--19th January 1795. [44] Bellamy mentions that there was such a story as this current, but characterises it as false. [45] First appearance on any stage, 20th May 1762. [Illustration: MR. HENDERSON AS ROLLA.] CHAPTER VI. JOHN HENDERSON. In the bill of the Bath Theatre for October the 6th, 1772, the part of Hamlet is announced to be performed "by a young gentleman." On the 21st of the month,[46] we read, "Richard III., by Mr. Courtney, the young gentleman who acted Hamlet." Mr. Courtney repeated those characters, and subsequently played Benedick, Macbeth, Bobadil, Bayes, Don Felix, and Essex; and on the 26th of December, having thus felt his way and become satisfied of his safety, we have "Henry IV.," with "Hotspur by Mr. Henderson." After being anonymous and pseudonymous, he added, under his last and proper designation, the following characters to those he had previously acted: Fribble, Lear, and Hastings, Alonzo and Alzuma; and Mr. Henderson was an established Bath favourite.