to his 'Scanderbeg,' affirms, on the contrary, that he was buried in a decent manner in the cloyster of Westminster Abbey.' Gildon (Life of Betterton) also says 'he was buried with great decency at Westminster Abbey.' If special honours had been paid the actor, it is fair to suppose they would have been chronicled by Steele or some contemporary writer.

The character of Betterton stands almost unassailed, a noteworthy circumstance in the case of a man who, during very many years, occupied a position that besides being prominent brought him into collision with all sorts and conditions of men. Scarcely a discordant note is there in the chorus of praise. That he was once, 1698, fined for using indecent and profane expressions, as was also at the same time Mrs. Bracegirdle, may be set down, as may the indelicacy of some scenes in his plays, to the manners of the age. The selection of Betterton for prosecution means probably that in the fit of virtue caused by the publication of Collier's famous 'Short View' representative actors were chosen for attack rather than the greatest offenders. The one regrettable action of Betterton that is on record is the share he took in securing the signature of the iniquitous agreement which preceded the fusion of the two companies. Against this stands out a life distinguished not only by integrity, respectability, and prudence, but by that last of virtues to be expected in an actor, modesty. Out of a salary which in his best days never exceeded four pounds a week-an extra pound was after a certain period paid him as a pension to his wife-he saved money. His financial troubies were attributable to the loss of his capital in the speculation with Sir Francis Watson and to the difficulties of management. He enjoyed the friendship of two if not three kings. For the performance of Alvaro in 'Love and Honour' Charles II lent his coronation suit. The chief writers of the day accorded him their friendship, and Pope at the outset of his career was admitted by him into close intimacy. A likeness in oil of the actor, by Pope, is now (1885) in the collection of Lord Mansfield at Caen Wood, Highgate. Dryden and Rowe bear testimony to the services rendered them by Betterton. In the preface to Don Sebastian' the former says that 'above twelve hundred lines were judiciously lopp'd by Mr. Betterton, to whose care and excellent action I am equally obliged that the connection of this story was not lost' (Dramatic Works, vi. 15, ed. 1772). Rowe meanwhile, in the Life of Shakespeare,' owns a particular obligation' to Betterton 'for the most considerable part of the pas

sages' relating to the life. Praise for extending pecuniary assistance to embarrassed writers is said to be accorded Betterton in the 'State Poems.' The only reference of interest to the actor that a search through the four volumes of that unsavoury receptacle has furnished occurs in 'A Satyr on the Modern Translators,' by Mr. Pr, the third and fourth lines of which are

Since Betterton of late so thrifty's grown,
Revives old plays, or wisely acts his own.
Vol. i. pt. i. p. 194.

6

Betterton's acting has been depicted with a vivacity and a closeness of observation that enables us to form a correct estimate of its value. Men of tastes so different as Pepys and Pope have left on record their sense of his merits. Speaking of Betterton at a period when he could not have been long on the stage, 4 Nov. 1661, Pepys says: But for Betterton, he is called by us both (himself and wife) the best actor in the world.' Again, 28 May 1663, he says: 'And so to the Duke's house, and there saw "Hamlett " done, giving us fresh reason never to think enough of Betterton.' Pope, in a letter to H. Cromwell, 17 May 1710, suggests as an epitaph suiting Betterton, as well in his moral as his theatrical capacity,' the line of Cicero, 'Vitæ bene actæ jucundissima est recordatio.' In the opening number of the 'Tatler' Steele gives an account of Betterton's benefit. Speaking of his funeral (Tatler, No. 167), he says: have hardly a notion that any performer of antiquity could surpass the action of Mr. Betterton in any of the occasions on which he has appeared on our stage. The wonderful agony which he appeared in when he examined the circumstance of the handkerchief in Othello; the mixture of love that intruded upon his mind, upon the innocent answers Desdemona makes, betrayed in his gesture such a variety and vicissitude of passions as would admonish a man to be afraid of his own heart, and perfectly convince him that it is to stab it, to admit that worst of daggers, jealousy. Whoever reads in his closet this admirable scene will find that he cannot, except he has as warm an imagination as Shakespeare himself, find any but dry, incoherent, and broken sentences; but a reader that has seen Betterton act it observes there could not be a word added, that longer speeches had been unnatural, nay impossible, in Othello's circumstances.' In another 'Tatler,' No. 71, Steele dwells upon Betterton's Hamlet, praising the noble ardour after seeing his father's ghost,' and the generous distress for the death of Ophelia.'

Cibber's analysis of Betterton's acting is too well known for quotation. Betterton,'

he says, was an actor as Shakespeare was an author, but without competitors.'

The writer of 'A Lick at the Laureate,' 1730, says: 'I have lately been told by a gentleman who has frequently seen Betterton perform Hamlet, that he observed his countenance, which was naturally ruddy and sanguine, in the scene of the third act, when his father's ghost appears, through the violent and sudden emotion of amazement and horror, turn instantly, on the sight of his father's spirit, as pale as his neckcloth, when his whole body seemed to be affected with a tremor inexpressible; so that had his father's ghost actually risen before him, he could not have been seized with more real agonies. And this was felt so strongly by the audience, that the blood seemed to shudder in their veins likewise, and they, in some measure, partook of the astonishment and horror with which they saw this excellent actor affected.' Stories are told of the effect produced by Betterton upon those with whom he played. There is, as a rule, little point in the anecdotes concerning Betterton which still survive. One, however, relating to Colley Cibber presents Betterton in a very agreeable light. For some breach of discipline Colley Cibber was condemned by Betterton to be fined. Against this order it was advanced that the youth had no salary. Put him down ten shillings,' said Betterton, and forfeit him five.' Tony Aston, who in a tract of singular rarity, A Brief Supplement to Colley Cibber, Esq., the Lives of the late famous Actors and Actresses, by Anthony, vulgò Tony, Aston,' undertakes to supply the omissions of his predecessor, expresses a wish that Betterton in his later years would have resigned the part of Hamlet to some young actor who might have personated though not have acted it better, pp. 4-5. He owns, however, that no one else could have pleased the town. Of the appearance of Betterton he does not give a very flattering picture. His words are: Mr. Betterton, although a superlative good actor, labour'd under ill figure, being clumsily made, having a great head, a short thick neck, stoop'd in the shoulders, and had fat short arms, which he rarely lifted higher than his stomach-his left hand frequently lodg'd in his breast, between his coat and waistcoat while with his right he prepar'd his speech; his actions were few, but just. He had little eyes and a broad face, a little pock-fretten, a corpulent body, and thick legs, with large feet. He was better to meet than to follow, for his aspect was serious, venerable, and majestic, in his later time a little paralytic. His voice was low and grumbling, yet he could tune it

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by an artful climax which enforc'd universal attention even from the fops and orange girls. He was incapable of dancing even in a country dance,' pp. 3-4. Dibdin, in his 'History of the Stage,' iv. 232, gives the opinion of Steed, for many years prompter at Covent Garden, with whom, when a boy, he had been glad to converse on the relative merits of Betterton and Garrick. Steed, who lived to be eighty, said that while he admitted the various merits of Betterton, he was not, taking everything into consideration,' the equal of Garrick. A contrary opinion, however, generally obtains. Betterton's dramas are adaptations. The list assigned him is as follows: 1. 'The Roman Virgin, or the Unjust Judge, a tragedy, 4to, 1679, performed at Lincoln's Inn Fields 1670, an alteration of Webster's' Appius and Virginia.' 2. The Prophetess, or the History of Diocletian,' 4to, 1690, acted at the Theatre Royal 1690 according to Genest, at the Queen's Theatre according to Langbaine and the 'Biographia Dramatica;' this is an opera founded on the 'Prophetess' of Beaumont and Fletcher, and supplied with music by Purcell. It was acted so late as 1784. Langbaine assigns it to Dryden. 3. 'King Henry IV, with the Humours of Sir John Falstaff,' a tragi-comedy, 4to, 1700; acted at Lincoln's Inn Fields 1700, with Betterton as Falstaff, in which character he had a great success. It is a mere alteration of Shakespeare, more judicious than such ordinarily were at the epoch, as no interpolation is attempted, and the departure from text consists only in omission. 4. The Amorous Widow, or the Wanton Wife,' comedy, 4to, 1706, played at Lincoln's Inn Fields, circa 1670. This is a not very delicate adaptation of Georges Dandin. It is printed at the close of the biography of Betterton, assigned to Gildon. 5. ' Sequel of Henry IV, with the Humours of Sir John Falstaffe and Justice Shallow,' 8vo, no date (? 1719), an alteration from Shakespeare, acted at Drury Lane. 6. 'The Bondman, or Love and Liberty,' a tragi-comedy, 8vo, 1719, altered from Massinger and acted at Drury Lane 1719. From a paragraph in the 'Roscius Anglicanus' it may be assumed that the piece was played by Betterton twenty to thirty years earlier, probably at Lincoln's Inn Fields. 7. The Woman made a Justice,' a comedy never printed, but acted at Lincoln's Inn Fields. In addition to these works the 'Biographia Dramatica' and after it Mr. HalliwellPhillips assign to Betterton 'The Revenge, or a Match in Newgate,' a comedy, 4to, 1680, acted at Dorset Garden (Mr. HalliwellPhillips calls it the Duke's Theatre) 1680. This is an alteration of Marston's 'The Malcontent,' assigned by Langbaine to Mrs. Behn.

[The Life of Mr. Thomas Betterton, 1710; Roscius Anglicanus, with additions by the late Mr. Thomas Davies, 1789; Colley Cibber's Apology, 1740; Ib. by Bellingham, 1822; Aston's Continuation (1740?); Genest's Account of the English Stage, 1832; A Comparison between the Two Stages, in Dialogue, 1702; Biographia Dramatica, 1812; History of the English Stage, by Betterton, 1741; Langbaine's Dramatick Poets, 1691; The Tatler, vols. i., ii., and iv.; Dibdin's History of the Stage, no date (1795); Biographia Britannica, vol. ii., ed. 1777-93; Halliwell's Dictionary of Old English Plays, 1860; Davies's Dramatic Miscellanies, 1784; Stanley's Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey, 1868; Lives of the Poets by T. Cibber, 1753; Pepys's Diary, by Lord Braybrooke; Malone's Supplement to Shakespeare's Plays, 1780.]

J. K.

BETTES, JOHN (d. 1570?), miniature painter, is commonly stated to have been a pupil of Nicholas Hilliard. This opinion is based upon the statement of Vertue and a quotation from Richard Haydock's translation of 'Lomazzo on Painting,' which, however, will hardly bear the construction which has been put upon it:-Limnings, much used in former times in church books, as also in drawing by the life in small models, of late years by some of our countrymen, as Shoote, Betts, &c. But brought to the rare perfection which we now see by the most ingenious, painful, and skilful master, Nicholas Hilliard, and his well-profiting scholar, whose farther commendations I refer to the curiositie of his works. The pupil here referred to is most probably Isaac Oliver [Oliver and Rowland Lockey are elsewhere mentioned by Haydock as the scholars of Hilliard]. The italicised words' which we now see in the quoted extract certainly seem to refer Bettes to an earlier date than Hilliard. In the exhibition of 'Old Masters' at the Academy 1875 was a picture attributed to Bettes with the date 1545. Hilliard was born 1547. Bettes painted a miniature in oils of Queen Elizabeth, which is said to have been highly successful. He is mentioned by Foxe in his 'Ecclesiastical History' as having engraved a pedigree and some vignettes for Hall's 'Chronicle.' He is also said to have painted the portrait of Sir John Godsalve. Foxe speaks of Bettes as already dead in 1576. His brother Thomas was also a miniature painter.

[Anecdotes of Painting; Walpole, 1849; Lomazzo on Painting, Englished by R[ichard] Haydock], 1598; Meres's Wit's Commonwealth, 1598; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists, 1878.]

É. R.

BETTESWORTH, GEORGE EDMUND BYRON (1780-1808), naval cap

tain, was the second son of John Bettesworth of Carhayes, Cornwall, who married Frances Elinor, daughter of Francis Tomkyns of Pembrokeshire. At an early age he was sent to sea as midshipman under Captain Robert Barlow, commanding the frigate Phoebe. In this ship he remained for several years, but in January 1804 he was lieutenant of the Centaur, and took part in the action with the Curieux, when the latter vessel was taken from the French. Bettesworth received a slight wound in this engagement, but his commanding officer suffered so severely that he died, and his lieutenant succeeded to the command of the Curieux. Whilst in this position he engaged in an action with the Dame Ernouf about twenty leagues from the Barbadoes. After a sharp fight the French vessel surrendered, but Bettesworth was again wounded. In the same year (1805) he brought home from Antigua the despatches of Nelson, apprising the government of Villeneuve's homeward flight from the West Indies, and at once received from Lord Barham a post-captain's commission. Lord Byron, in October 1807, wrote: 'Next January

. I am going to sea for four or five months with my cousin, Captain Bettesworth, who commands the Tartar, the finest frigate in the navy. . . . We are going probably to the Mediterranean or to the West Indies, or to the devil; and if there is a possibility of taking me to the latter, Bettesworth will do it, for he has received four-and-twenty wounds in different places, and at this moment possesses a letter from the late Lord Nelson stating that Bettesworth is the only officer in the navy who had more wounds than himself.' The promised voyage never took place. In May 1808, Bettesworth was engaged in watching some vessels off Bergen, when it was deemed possible to cut some of them off from the protecting gunboats. In this attempt the Tartar became becalmed amid the rocks, and was attacked by a schooner and five gunboats, when its brave captain was killed by the first shot, 16 May 1808. The body was buried at Howick, Northumberland, in the vault of the Grey family, on 27 May. Major Trevanion, a brother of Captain Bettesworth,' was a chief mourner Byron's grandmother was a Miss Trevanion Bettesworth had married at St. George's Hanover Square, 24 Sept. 1807, Hannah Althea, second daughter of the first Earl Grey. His widow married, in October 1809, Mr. Edward Ellice, a well-known whig politician. Captain Bettesworth was only twenty-eight years old at the time of his death, and was the beau idéal of an English officer.

one Scotch critic declared emphatically that the young Roscius, as the boy phenomenon was by that time universally called, completely eclipsed John Kemble. One rash dissentient had to leave Edinburgh. Home declared that his impersonation of Douglas for the first time adequately realised his own imagining. Mr. Macready, the father of the famous tragedian, engaged him at Birmingham, where he appeared 13 Aug. 1804. Soon after this he was engaged for twelve performances at Covent Garden Theatre, at the rate of fifty guineas a night and a clear benefit. On 1 Dec. 1804, when he appeared as Selim in 'Barbarossa,' the military had to be called out to preserve order. Many were seriously injured in the crush to obtain admittance. His success was triumphant. His life as the celebrated and wonderful young Roscius,' with a portrait of him as a theatrical star of the first magnitude,' was published on 7 Dec. p. 36, and helped to spread his repute by passing at once into wide circulation. On 10 Dec. he appeared at Drury Lane in Douglas. There on the boards of Drury the twentyeight nights of his first season produced the gross sum of 17,2107. 118., the nightly average being 6147. 138. During the following season he appeared for twenty-four nights alternately at each of the two great patent theatres, his terms then being more than fifty guineas a performance. He was presented to the queen and the princesses by the king himself. Upon one occasion Mr. Pitt adjourned the House of Commons in order that members might be in time to witness his representation

of Hamlet. He was selected by Charles Fox to listen to his reading of Zanga.' Opie, the historical painter, idealised him as having drawn inspiration from the tomb of Shakespeare. Between his first two seasons in London he acted at Liverpool and at Birmingham, where he received for thirteen nights nearly 1,0007., obtaining 8007. for a less number of nights at Stourbridge, Worcester, and Wolverhampton. At the end of 1805 he again appeared on alternate nights at Covent Garden and Drury Lane, adding to his Shakespearian parts Richard III and Macbeth, and taking Zanga in the Revenge,' and Dorilas in 'Merope.' Gradually, however, in the metropolis, the enthusiasm abated, though it survived so long afterwards in the provinces that for three years more Master Betty added considerably to the large fortune he had already accumulated. His final appearance as a boy actor was on 26 March 1808 at Bath. After being placed for a time there under the tuition of the Rev. Mr. Wollaston, formerly one of the masters of the Charterhouse, he was entered in the July of 1801 as a fellow commoner of

Christ's College, Cambridge. His father's death nearly three years afterwards, at Pym's Farm, near Wem, in Shropshire, in the June of 1811, led to his premature withdrawal from the university. In the following year he reappeared, 15 Feb. 1812, at Bath, as the Earl of Essex, and in London, 3 Nov. 1812, at Covent Garden, as Achmet, otherwise Selim, in 'Barbarossa.' Mrs. Inchbald observes (Brit. Theatre, xv. 5), 'that though a great majority of the audience thought young Betty a complete tragedian,' yet he failed in power over their hearts,' and that bursts of laughter were excited from the audience in parts of this tragedy on his first appearance. At intervals during the next twelve years he drew large audiences together in various parts of the country; but he found it expedient to withdraw altogether from the stage before the completion of his thirty-third year, his farewell benefit taking place on 9 Aug. 1824 at Southampton. He lived for fifty years afterwards in the quiet enjoyment of the large fortune he had so early amassed, and he frankly acknowledged that the enthusiastic admirers of his boyhood had been mistaken. He died 24 Aug. 1874, in his eighty-third year, at his residence in Ampthill Square, London.

[Life of the celebrated and wonderful Young Roscius, 12mo, p. 36, 1804; Genest, vii. 643; Athenæum, 15 Aug. 1874, p 200, and 29 Sept. p. 291; Era, 30 Aug. 1874, p. 9; Times, 27 Aug. 1874, p. 5, and 2 Sept. p. 8; Illust. Lond. News, 12 Sept. 1874, p. 257; Annual Register, 1874, P. 160; Murdoch's Stage, 1880, 338-41.]

C. K.

BEULAN, a priest, described as the master of Nennius.' In the manuscript of the 'Historia Britonum' in the public library at Cambridge (quoted as A in Mon. Hist. Brit., and as Lined. Stevenson, Eng. Hist. Soc.), which, though not the most ancient manuscript, and though containing evident interpolations, has been used by Gale (Historia Britannica, &c. Scriptores XV.) and Petrie (Mon. Hist. Brit.) as the foundation of their texts, it is stated that the writer was the disciple of a priest of this name, to whom he dedicated his work, and that he left out the genealogies of the Saxons and of other races because they seemed to be of no use to his master. In this manuscript are given certain 'Versus Nennini' addressed by the writer to Samuel the son of Beulan, for whom he worked. Whoever the author of the 'Historia Britonum' may have been, it is certain that the writer of these verses and of the other references to Beulan lived after his time, and even after 858, the year assigned in the prologue to the work of

Nennius,' and that he was a scribe who