to this he was urged by garrick; and the execution was appropriate, and full of merit. but though the music, from its simplicity and the sweetness of its melody, was peculiarly fitted to refine the public taste amongst the middle classes; while it could not fail to give passing pleasure even to the highest; the drama was too denuded of intricacy or variety for the amusement of john bull; and the appearance of only three interlocuters caused a gaping expectation of some followers, that made every new scene begin by inflicting disappointment.

mr. garrick, and his accomplished, high-bred,

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and engaging wife, la violetta, had been amongst the earliest of the pristine connexions of mr. burney, who had sought him, with compassionate kindness, as soon after his heart-breaking loss as he could admit any friends to his sight. the ensuing paragraph on his warm sentiments of this talented and bewitching pair, is copied from one of his manuscript memorandums.

“my acquaintance, at this time, with mrs. as well as mr. garrick, was improved into a real friendship; and frequently, on the saturday night, when mr. garrick did not act, he carried me to his villa at hampton, whence he brought me to my home early on monday morning. i seldom was more happy than in these visits. his wit, humour, and constant gaiety at home; and mrs. garrick’s good sense, good breeding, and obliging desire to please, rendered their hampton villa, on these occasions, a terrestrial paradise.

“mrs. garrick had every faculty of social judgment, good taste, and steadiness of character, which he wanted. she was an excellent appreciator of the fine arts; and attended all the last rehearsals of new or of revived plays, to give her opinion of effects, dresses, scenery, and machinery. she seemed to be his real other half; and he, by his intelligence and accomplishments, seemed to complete the hydroggynus.”

this eminent couple paid their court to mr. burney in the manner that was most sure to be successful, namely, by their endearing and good natured

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attentions to his young family; frequently giving them, with some chaperon of their father’s appointing, the lightsome pleasure of possessing mrs. garrick’s private box at drury lane theatre; and that, from time to time, even when the incomparable roscius acted himself; which so enchanted their gratitude, that they nearly—as mr. burney laughingly quoted to garrick from hudibras—

“did,—as was their duty,

worship the shadow of his shoe-tie.”

garrick, who was passionately fond of children, never withheld his visits from poland-street on account of the absence of the master of the house; for though it was the master he came to seek, he was too susceptible to his own lively gift of bestowing pleasure, to resist witnessing the ecstacy he was sure to excite, when he burst in unexpectedly upon the younger branches: for so playfully he individualised his attentions, by an endless variety of comic badinage,—now exhibited in lofty bombast; now in ludicrous obsequiousness; now by a sarcasm skilfully implying a compliment; now by a compliment archly conveying a sarcasm; that every happy day that gave them but a glimpse of this idol of their

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juvenile fancy, was exhilarated to its close by reciprocating anecdotes of the look, the smile, the bow, the shrug, the start, that, after his departure, each enraptured admirer could describe.

a circumstance of no small weight at that time, contributed to allure mr. garrick to granting these joyous scenes to the young burney tribe. when he made the tour of italy, for the recovery of his health, and the refreshment of his popularity, he committed to the care of mr. burney and his young family his own and mrs. garrick’s favourite little dog, phill, a beautiful black and white spaniel, of king charles’s breed, luxuriant in tail and mane, with the whitest breast, and spotted with perfect symmetry.

the fondness of mr. garrick for this little spaniel was so great, that one of his first visits on his return from the continent was to see, caress, and reclaim him. phill was necessarily resigned, though with the most dismal reluctance, by his new friends: but if parting with the favoured little quadruped was a disaster, how was that annoyance overpaid, when, two or three days afterwards, phill re-appeared! and when the pleasure of his welcome to the young folks was increased by a message, that

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the little animal had seemed so moping, so unsettled, and so forlorn, that mr. and mrs. garrick had not the heart to break his new engagements, and requested his entire acceptance and adoption in poland-street.

during the life of this favourite, all the juvenile group were sought and visited together, by the gay-hearted roscius; and with as much glee as he himself was received by these happy young creatures, whether two-footed or four.

on the first coming-out of the “cunning man,” mr. garrick, who undoubtedly owed his unequalled varieties in delineating every species of comic character, to an inquisitive observance of nature in all her workings, amused himself in watching from the orchestra, where he frequently sat on the first night of new pieces, the young auditory in mrs. garrick’s box; and he imitatingly described to mr. burney the innocent confidence of success with which they all openly bent forward, to look exultingly at the audience, when a loud clapping followed the overture: and their smiles, or nods: or chuckling and laughter, according to their more or less advanced years, during the unmingled approbation that was bestowed upon about half the piece—contrasted

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with, first the amazement; next, the indignation; and, lastly, the affright and disappointment, that were brought forth by the beginning buzz of hissing, and followed by the shrill horrors of the catcall: and then the return—joyous, but no longer dauntless!—of hope, when again the applause prevailed.

in these various changes, mr. garrick altered the expression of his features, and almost his features themselves, by apparent transformations—which, however less poetical, were at least more natural than those of ovid.

mr. garrick possessed not only every possible inflexion of voice, save for singing, but also of countenance; varying his looks into young, old, sick, vigorous, downcast, or frolicsome, at his personal volition; as if his face, and even his form, had been put into his own hands to be worked upon like man a machine.

mr. garrick, about this time, warmly urged the subject of these memoirs to set to music an english opera called orpheus; but while, for that purpose, mr. burney was examining the drama, he was informed that it had been put into the hands of mr. barthelemon, who was preparing it for the stage.

astonished, and very much hurt, mr. burney

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hastily returned the copy with which he had been entrusted, to mr. johnstone, the prompter; dryly, and without letter or comment, directing him to deliver it to mr. garrick.

mr. garrick, with the utmost animation, instantly wrote to johnstone an apology rather than a justification; desiring that the opera should be withdrawn from mr. barthelemon, and consigned wholly to the subject of these memoirs; for whom mr. garrick declared himself to entertain a friendship that nothing should dissolve.[27]

but mr. burney, conceiving that barthelemon, who had offended no one, and who bore a most amiable character, might justly resent so abrupt a discharge, declined setting the opera: and never afterwards composed for the theatres.

this trait, however trifling, cannot but be considered as biographical, at least for mr. garrick; as it so strongly authenticates the veracity of the two principal lines of the epitaph designed for roscius, many years afterwards, by that acute observer of every character—save his own!—dr. goldsmith.

“he cast off his friends as a huntsman his pack,

for he knew, when he would, he could whistle them back.”

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whether negligence, mistake, or caprice, had occasioned this double nomination to the same office, is not clear; but garrick, who loved mr. burney with real affection, lost no time, and spared no blandishment, to re-instate himself in the confidence which this untoward accident had somewhat shaken. and he had full success, to the great satisfaction of mr. burney, and joy of his family; who all rapturously delighted in the talents and society of the immortal roscius.