of the great pleasure he had in playing for her benefits; and added, "Wherever I was, either in Ireland or Scotland, I always made it in my agreement, that I should be in London about that period. I will do her the justice to say, she was grateful for these kindnesses, and we lived together in the most reciprocal acts of friendship." -Then, after some pause-" But it is some consolation to me, that she has left no young family behind her, who might want a guardian or protector; for, alas! where would they find one? As for me-if I live a little longer, I shall want one myself, to shelter my overgrown age from the exposures of dotage and fatuity."

The above observation he delivered with a firmness of tone, and gravity of deportment, which still leave their impression.

After supper he got into a little better spiritsbut still possessed of the same subject, he exclaimed, "O Lord, Sir, I remember so many changes in human affairs, that in some families, and those too pretty numerous, I have almost lost the power of tracing them by descent. An odd circumstance happened a few years ago upon this subject. A party of Irish Gentlemen, who had come over here in the parliamentary vacation, asked me to sup with them. I did so, Sir, and we all got very jolly together; insomuch, that

one

one of them was so drunk, that I made a point of taking him on my back, and carrying him down stairs, in order to be put into his chair. The next day the Gentleman waited on me; and expressing his civilities, said, he was sorry I should take so much unnecessary trouble. Here, Sir, I stopped him short, by telling him, one reason I had for carrying him on my back was, that I carried either his father, or his grandfather, the same way, fifty years ago, when he was a student of the Middle Temple." Very true, Sir," said the other; I remember my father often telling it as a family story-but you are mistaken a little in point of genealogy-it was my great grandfather that you did that kindness for."

66

To return from this digression, Macklin, after a successful run of his Comedy of "The Man of the World,” accepted an engagement, about the year 1784, to perform that winter in Dublin. He was then, at the lowest computation, eightyfive, (by strong probability ninety-five;) yet at this extraordinary age, taking it at either computation, did he engage to visit another kingdom, and perform at least twice a week, two of the longest and most difficult parts in his profession, viz. the Jew and Sir Pertinax Mac Sycophant. It appeared, however, that he was equal to this undertaking; as he not only went through it with health and spirits, but took Liverpool and Man

1

chester

chester on his return, at both of which places he performed a few of his principal characters.

The winter that Macklin happened to be in Dublin, politics ran high; and as his Comedy of "The Man of the World" has some general reflections on Courts and mal-administration, Opposition took him up as favourable to their cause. The Courtiers, on the other side, whose business it is not to think themselves implicated in the general censure, not only attended, and applauded his Comedy, but had him frequently at their tables; so that between the two parties, Macklin was in fashionable requisition: he lived almost every day in public, and exhibited a degree of health and spirits equal to the occasion.

He had likewise other qualifications to ingratiate himself with the people of Ireland; he was their countryman, and had acquired a long celebrity from his professional talents, and even from his longevity; he was, beside this, what he used jocularly to call himself a College man, (being originally a badge-man to the College,) and from this situation could remember the ancestors of most of the people of distinction in and about Dublin.

In these agreeable parties did a man of eightyhis leisure hours; which, though penance

five

pass

to

to the generality of men of that age, from their usual infirmities, to him, who was capable of reflecting on the past, and enjoying the present with pleasure, they had all the seasoning of youth and festivity. He had an early and a natural turn for anecdote and badinage, and it continued with him almost to the last; hence he was not only fond of contributing to this turn himself, but drawing it out from others on every opportunity.

Seeing him at these parties in such vigorous health and spirits, sometimes laughing loud, sometimes singing an Irish song, sometimes telling the stories of his youth, and at all times equal to his bottle of claret, his juniors in age were constantly questioning him how he managed to preserve his health in that manner. But as Macklin was never regular, according to the general acceptation of that word, though, perhaps, conformable to the particulars of his own constitution; when he told them of the excesses of his youth, his love of wine, women, late hours, long walks, and athletic exercise, they wondered how it was done, without daring to follow the prescription. "In short, Gentlemen," he used to conclude, "my general rule of life was this, and which I practise to this present moment; to eat when I am hungry-drink when I am dry, and sometimes (holding up his glass) a little more-go to bed when I am weary concluding with an attention to

-and

his health very proper to be observed, but too coarse to be repeated.

The Ladies too were not only inquisitive upon the head of longevity, but were likewise very curious to know how he preserved his teeth so well; for though they were not either so polished or so white as others, they seemed remarkably strong and even. Macklin carried on this joke for some time, as if they were real, and talked of various processes for their preservation; but being one day pressed by an antiquated beauty, whose teeth were fast decaying, he told her the secret, which was, that he bought them in Holborn, a few days before he left London, in order "to come as smug upon the Irish mart" as possible; and then taking the whole set out of his mouth, laid them on the table, and told her Ladyship, she might purchase just such another set

for the sum of seven guineas,"

"And so, Sir, (added the veteran in telling. this anecdote,) we had a hearty laugh; and it passed off, and I thought no more of it; but a few days before I left Dublin, I received a note from the same Lady, (inclosing me a full bill of directions,) requesting I would buy her such another set of teeth, and send them packed up in a box directed to an obscure house on Usher's Quay, where she would receive them.

Macklin