And though the return of the
children, none the worse for their little adventure, brought the
colour back into his face, it could not restore him to his part. I
remember finding him seated on the stairs in some rare moment of
quiet during the subsequent performances. 'Hullo, Jenkin,' said I,
'you look down in the mouth.' - 'My dear boy,' said he, 'haven't
you heard me? I have not one decent intonation from beginning to
end.'
But indeed he never supposed himself an actor; took a part, when he
took any, merely for convenience, as one takes a hand at whist; and
found his true service and pleasure in the more congenial business
of the manager. Augier, Racine, Shakespeare, Aristophanes in
Hookham Frere's translation, Sophocles and AEschylus in Lewis
Campbell's, such were some of the authors whom he introduced to his
public. In putting these upon the stage, he found a thousand
exercises for his ingenuity and taste, a thousand problems arising
which he delighted to study, a thousand opportunities to make these
infinitesimal improvements which are so much in art and for the
artist.
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