To us, much of his charm has evaporated, for it lay in these very personalities which held well-known people up to ridicule with a precision which made it impossible for the originals to escape recognition. Even irascible Dr. Johnson, who wished to disapprove of him, admitted that there was no one like "that fellow Foote." So this "Aristophanes of the English stage" was mourned when he died at the age of fifty-seven, and a company of his friends and fellow-actors buried him one evening by the dim light of torches in a cloister of Westminster Abbey.
There is often a boisterous unreserve in the plays of Foote, as in other eighteenth-century drama, which revolts modern taste. As they consist of character study rather than incident, mere extracts are apt to appear incomplete and meaningless. Therefore it seems fairer to represent the famous wit not alone by formal citation, but also by some of his _bons mots_ extracted from the collection of William Cooke in his 'Memoirs of Samuel Foote' (2 vols. 1806).
_Serjeant_--So, Jack, anybody at chambers to-day?
_Jack_--Fieri Facias from Fetter Lane, about the bill to be filed by Kit Crape against Will Vizard this term.
_Serjeant_--Praying for an equal partition of plunder?
_Serjeant_--Strange world we live in, that even highwaymen can't be true to each other! [_Half aside to himself._] But we shall make Vizard refund; we'll show him what long hands the law has.
_Jack_--Facias says that in all the books he can't hit a precedent.
_Serjeant_--Then I'll make one myself; _Aut inveniam, aut faciam_, has been always my motto. The charge must be made for partnership profit, by bartering lead and gunpowder against money, watches, and rings, on Epping Forest, Hounslow Heath, and other parts of the kingdom.
_Jack_--He says if the court should get scent of the scheme, the parties would all stand committed.
_Serjeant_--Cowardly rascal! but however, the caution mayn't prove amiss. [_Aside._] I'll not put my own name to the bill.
_Jack_--The declaration, too, is delivered in the cause of Roger Rapp'em against Sir Solomon Simple.
_Serjeant_--What, the affair of the note?
_Serjeant_--Why, he is clear that his client never gave such a note.
_Jack_--Defendant never saw plaintiff since the hour he was born; but notwithstanding, they have three witnesses to prove a consideration and signing the note.